Blue Harvest

"Blue Harvest"

"Blue Harvest" is the Emmy-nominated hour-long premiere to the sixth season of the FOX series Family Guy. It originally aired on September 23, 2007.

The episode is a retelling and spoof of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, recasting the show's characters into Star Wars roles. For this purpose, and for the first time in the history of Family Guy, this episode runs an hour long with commercials (48 minutes for the DVD version). It was also made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. The name "Blue Harvest" is a reference to the title of the film ruse used to ensure secrecy and disguise the actual 1983 production of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

This episode drew 10.7 million viewers on its first showing, and earned the highest Nielsen rating of any Family Guy episode since the show returned to air in 2005; this made it the second most-watched episode in the series behind "North by North Quahog", which was watched by 11.9 million.

Plot

While the Griffins are watching Phil Mickelson play in a golf tournament on TV, the power goes out and they are left with no other form of entertainment. After everyone has a good laugh at Brian's suggestion of lighting some candles and reading, Meg suggests telling everyone about the night she was born. Peter does a quick and uncaring run-through of the night and decides to tell the story of Star Wars (starting with part four), where the characters from Family Guy are re-imagined as Star Wars characters.

An extremely expository opening crawl rolls, mainly talking about how Darth Vader is Luke's father and that Leia is his sister. It then references Angelina Jolie and her movie Gia, before showing a small Rebel Blockade Runner being hunted by a Star Destroyer (with a Star Destroyer-sized Bush/Cheney bumper sticker). On the Rebel ship, which is being boarded by Stormtroopers, Princess Leia (Lois) tries to send a holographic message, along with the plans to the Death Star, to Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert) through R2-D2 (Cleveland). When she encounters complications while trying to do so, R2 decides to bring the message to Obi-Wan himself. Leia is captured by the Stormtroopers and taken to Darth Vader (Stewie), while R2 and his counterpart, C-3PO (Quagmire) escape to Tatooine by escape pod. There they are captured by Jawas (one of them being Mort) and then sold to Owen & Beru Lars (Carter & Barbara Pewterschmidt, respectively). Meanwhile, during a meeting on the Death Star, Vader learns that the station has one vulnerability: the exhaust port (added by the architect for aesthetic purposes). After a lengthy debate, Vader orders that the hole be boarded up but delays the actual work in order to "get estimates" from the contractors.

Luke Skywalker (Chris), Owen and Beru's nephew, deeply wishes to abandon his dull life in favor of joining the Rebellion with his friends and fighting the Empire, all the while listening to John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra perform the music in the background. While fixing up R2, Luke stumbles upon Leia's message. By the next day, R2 escapes, so Luke and 3-PO go out after him. Along the way, they are attacked by a Tusken Raider (Opie), but are rescued by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert). At Obi-Wan's hut, Luke shows him the holographic message, which explains that the Death Star plans must be taken to her father on Alderaan (and provides hints at a pedophilia-related incident Obi-Wan must make up for). Obi-Wan tells Luke that he must come with him and gives him his very own lightsaber. Fearfully realizing that the Empire would be searching for the droids for the information they possess, Luke returns home to find that his township has been destroyed by Stormtroopers, and his aunt and uncle are dead, along with John Williams and most of the London Symphony Orchestra; this forces the rest of the movie to be scored by Danny Elfman, whom Luke decapitates with his lightsaber after listening to only a few seconds of his music (nevertheless, the original Star Wars film score continues to play for the rest of the episode).

Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids head to Mos Eisley Spaceport in search of a ship and captain to take them to Alderaan. After entering the local cantina and hiding the droids, Obi-Wan and Luke meet and enlist the smugglers Han Solo (Peter), "the only actor whose career wasn't destroyed by this movie," and Chewbacca (Brian), promising to pay a hefty reward in the end. The smugglers agree to transport them to Alderaan on their spaceship, the Millennium Falcon. Han disposes of the bounty hunter Greedo (Performance Artist), who had come to collect the bounty placed on his head by Jabba the Hutt, before preparing the ship for takeoff. However, they are spotted by Stormtroopers just before they can launch. They outwit the pursuing Imperial forces by simply listing lazily to the left, and the Falcon blasts into hyperspace and escapes. Meanwhile, back on the Death Star, Grand Moff Tarkin (Mayor West) decides to test the Death Star's "planet blower-upper gun" on Leia's home planet of Alderaan, forcing Leia to witness the sickening ordeal (though he hints that he had some doubts about doing it after Leia's objections).

The Falcon crew soon arrive at Alderaan, only to find it destroyed (the Death Star having turned it into an Asteroids game). They are caught in the Death Star's tractor beam and pulled in. After subduing a pair of Stormtroopers and donning their armor as disguises, Han, Luke and the others escape to a command room to wait. There, Luke, Han and Chewie go to rescue Princess Leia while Obi-Wan leaves to disable the tractor beam (after singing "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" as a farewell to Luke in a production number backed by several Stormtroopers).

After killing one of the guards (Fouad) to evade detection, Han distracts Imperial forces with talk radio as Luke finds Leia's cell and rescues her. The four find themselves spotted by the Stormtroopers and make their escape though a nearby garbage chute into the garbage compactor (where a dianoga (Meg) lurks and appears briefly). The walls of the compactor suddenly begin to close in on them. C-3PO begins to panic as he hears their screams of terror over his comlink, but is left with nothing to do but smoke some weed with R2. While stoned, 3PO leans against the shutoff switch in the control room, saving the others; before getting out, Han and Chewie insist on taking with them a couch they found inside the compactor (a DVD-exclusive scene reveals the couch once belonged to Tarkin).

Obi-Wan manages to shut off the tractor beam while avoiding the Stormtroopers (one of them being RJ), but is confronted by Vader. The two engage in a brief lighsaber duel; Obi-Wan's lightsaber falls limp until he sees Luke, upon when it becomes erect. At this point, Vader strikes him down and he disappears into thin air. Luke's scream in horror attracts the Stormtroopers' attention, but he manages to escape with the others and with Han Solo and Chewbacca smuggling the couch into the Millennium Falcon under heavy fire. Left with little time to grieve Obi-Wan's death, Luke and Han successfully fight off attacking "Thai" fighters sent after them, with encouragement from Leslie Nielsen (a nod to Airplane!), and escape to the Rebel base on Yavin IV. Unbeknownst to them, Vader and Tarkin had placed a homing beacon on the ship to lead them to the base.

The Rebels assemble to attack the Death Star (using X-wing starfighters) after watching an instructional video on how to destroy the Death Star, featuring Magic Johnson. While preparing for the assault, Luke (in a DVD-exclusive scene) meets up with his old friend Biggs Darklighter (Joe), who was paralyzed waist-down after a Y-wing accident, and witnesses, to his dismay, Han and Chewie setting up to leave after obtaining their promised reward for saving Leia (a gift basket with rather meager prizes). Luke joins a squadron of other Rebel pilots as they take off towards the nearby Death Star.

The Battle of Yavin unfolds, costing the lives of several Rebel pilots (including Redd Foxx). While nearing the exhaust port and taking aim, Luke hears Obi-Wan's voice telling him to use the Force in his attempt as Vader threatens to stop him. Fortunately, Han and Chewie arrive in the Falcon (sitting comfortably in their new couch) and save Luke at the last minute, shooting down Vader's wingmen and sending Vader himself flying aimlessly into space. Luke fires a torpedo into the exhaust port, and the remaining squadron escapes as the Death Star explodes. Luke proceeds to return to the Rebel base (also in a DVD-exclusive scene) where he, his friends and all the other Rebels celebrate their victory over the Empire and, on this note, the story ends.

Back in the Family Guy universe, just after Peter wraps up the story, the power comes back on in their house. Everyone thanks Peter for keeping them entertained, though Chris points out that Robot Chicken already did the same thing three months before (Chris is voiced by Seth Green, who created Robot Chicken). A discussion follows, in which Peter denigrates that show as Chris defends it. Chris leaves frustrated as Peter indifferently hums part of the Star Wars end credits music.

Cast

Several characters from the film have been re-imagined by Peter, appearing and/or behaving like Family Guy characters. Aside from a typical change of garments, some characters take on specific physical attributes that are distinct to the roles they play.

Family Guy character	Star Wars character
Chris Griffin	Luke Skywalker
Peter Griffin	Han Solo
Lois Griffin	Princess Leia
Stewie Griffin	Darth Vader
Brian Griffin	Chewbacca
Glenn Quagmire	C-3PO
Cleveland Brown	R2-D2
Herbert	Obi-Wan Kenobi
Mayor Adam West	Grand Moff Tarkin
Carter Pewterschmidt	Owen Lars
Barbara Pewterschmidt	Beru Lars
Jake Tucker	Repair Droid
Mort Goldman	Jawa
Al Harrington	Darth Harrington(refactored from 1)
The Evil Monkey	Himself
Opie	Tusken Raider
Bruce the Performance Artist	Greedo
Tom Tucker	Imperial newscaster(refactored from 1) (refactored from 2)
Diane Simmons	Imperial newscaster(refactored from 1) (refactored from 2)
Ollie Williams	Imperial meteorologist(refactored from 1) (refactored from 2)
Screaming Black Dolphins	Mouse Droid
Fouad	Imperial officer
Meg Griffin	Dianoga
RJ	Stormtrooper
Joe Swanson	Biggs Darklighter(refactored from 2)

Notes:

Template:Ent This is an original character that does not parody any particular Star Wars character. Template:Ent This character only appears in the extended DVD cut.

Extended cut

Several scenes were cut from all televised airings of the episode mainly due to time constraints, but they are available on the uncut DVD version of the episode.

• When the golf tournament announcers are hitting on Phil Mickelson's wife, one announcer tells the other "You'd pork her for a week and then get tired of her," with the word "pork", a sexual innuendo, censored on the FOX version of the episode.
• After one of the Rebels asks the others, "What if they come in a different door?" ("they" referring to Stormtroopers), a small, catty argument breaks out among the Rebels, mainly concerned with on-board Rebel politics, e.g. "Mark, why are you always way nicer to me when the other Rebels aren't around?"
• When Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids first arrive in Mos Eisley, they are forced to wait in line before entering the cantina. They are able to enter when Obi-Wan uses a Jedi mind trick on the bouncer (a Stormtrooper in a sleeveless shirt), saying he's a friend of Dave Navarro's. Oddly, this scene does not utilize the effect of shading on any of the characters as all the other scenes do. Also, the music that is used briefly in the background is original music composed by Walter Murphy rather than part of John Williams' Star Wars score.
• Before Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han, C-3PO and R2-D2 hide themselves from Stormtroopers, who try to lure them out of hiding by claiming they have a giant check from Publishers Clearing House.
• In the scene where Vader admits he made a "Darth Doodie," he goes on to say a few more Star Wars poop jokes (such as "I 'Sithed' my pants," and "My diaper's gone over to the Dark Side").
• After Alderaan is destroyed, the Channel 5 news crew appear as Death Star newscasters broadcasting the news of the planet's destruction, with them reporting that the Empire had reason to blow it up, stating that Alderaan was suspected of hiding weapons of mass destruction (another crack at George W. Bush).
• After Chewbacca scares away a mouse droid, the droid encounters another mouse droid and tries to tell it what it'd just seen, only to forget about it when the other droid brings up Tyra Banks. The droid also exclaims "Holy shit!", with the word "shit" changed to "smoke" on the televised episode. The droids are a possible counterpart to the Screaming Black Dolphins from the episode I Take Thee Quagmire.
• While disguised as Stormtroopers, Luke, Han and Chewbacca accidentally arrive on the floor of the Death Star that contains the Stormtrooper church, witnessing part of a Stormtrooper wedding procession. Also, the time they spend in the elevator is longer.
• After R2 tells 3PO he doesn't have to stay in the room they are in while they're smoking pot, 3PO says, "Thank Christ." On the televised version, he says "Thank God."
• After the Millennium Falcon escapes from the Death Star, Vader and Tarkin discuss the tracking device that they placed on the ship and how the couch that Han recovered from the trash compactor in fact belonged to Tarkin.
• After watching the training video with Magic Johnson, John Bender appears to heckle Jan Dodonna, asking, "Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?", a reference to John Hughes' The Breakfast Club.
• Before taking part on the attack of the Death Star, Luke meets up with his friend Biggs Darklighter (played by Joe Swanson) and discovers that, due to an accident while repairing a Y-Wing, he is now paralyzed waist-down (an obvious reference to the fact that Joe is paralyzed) and is unable to participate in the attack; he also tells Luke that he'll be making sandwiches and promises to make one for him when he gets back. (On the DVD commentary, the Family Guy production staff notes the irony that this particular scene was cut, as it was based on a scene that was similarly cut from the original theatrical release of A New Hope, but was later restored for the film's 1997 "Special Edition" release.)
• When Vader fires a shot and hits R2, he exclaims "Ow! Fuck you! You son of a bitch! What am I? R2-Pac?!", a reference to rapper Tupac and his death.
• After the attack on the Death Star, Luke returns to the Yavin base, and is greeted enthusiastically by Han, Leia, Chewie, Biggs, the droids, and a cheering crowd of other Rebels. Biggs offers him the sandwich he promised and, upon Luke accepting it, happily proclaims that he is part of things too. This scene is also the true ending of Peter's story.

Production

At the 2007 Comic Con International convention, a series of clips was shown at a panel for Family Guy from the season premiere episode, showing the Family Guy characters as Star Wars characters. The episode aired on September 23, 2007 with some slight changes from the clips shown at Comic Con. Parts of this episode were shown at Star Wars Celebration IV, at which Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, a Star Wars fan since childhood, was a special guest, and again at Comic-Con International 2007 The episode was officially endorsed by Lucasfilm, especially George Lucas, who revealed in his conversation with MacFarlane that he has TiVoed every single episode of Family Guy without having to buy the DVDs. MacFarlane had said they were extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works.

Rush Limbaugh makes a cameo as the Tatooine radio pundit and the voice of one of the X-wing fighters. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprise their roles from National Lampoon's Vacation as Clark and Ellen Griswold. Mick Hucknall of Simply Red and Helen Reddy also provide their own voices. In the DVD release, Judd Nelson reprises his role from The Breakfast Club as John Bender during the Rebels briefing. Originally it cointained a scene which said that the Jawas were called jewas.

Cultural references

"Blue Harvest", like many other Family Guy, episodes, makes frequent use of cultural references for humor. The Star Wars universe is the source of many of these, but there are many other films and television shows as well.

Games

"Blue Harvest" briefly shows a clip from the free online game Dolphin Olympics.

Star Wars films

The episode's title comes from the code name used during the production of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The production staff notes on the DVD commentary that, if they had known that the episode would lead to more Star Wars parodies, they would have saved the title "Blue Harvest" for a parody of Return of the Jedi.

In place of the traditional starting words of the Star Wars movies, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away", the beginning words of the parody are, "A long time ago, but somehow in the future".

A notable reference to Star Wars is the actual soundtrack that plays in the background. Besides that, there are several references of the film's score throughout the episode: Luke acknowledges John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. A similar scene with a live orchestra in the shot occurred in the Mel Brooks movie "Blazing Saddles". Han hums along with the soundtrack while in battle with the TIE fighters. Also, the Death Star's elevator music is a muzak version of, appropriately, "The Imperial March".

Another reference to Star Wars is the scene in Luke's house which mimics the scene in the movie where Luke discovers the message from Princess Leia in R2-D2 while cleaning him and C-3PO takes an oil bath. As Luke/Chris is leaving the room, he discusses "bullseyeing some womp rats in [his] T-16", which C3P0/Quagmire likens to an activity that is "the first indication of a serial killer" as he is killing for fun. However, it should be noted that Quagmire's emphasis of this activity is killing "small animals for fun." In Star Wars, Luke states that womprats "aren't much bigger than 2 meters", making womprats over 6.5 feet long, and thus not a small animal.

In the Death Star, Solo says that he is taking Chewbacca to cell number "1138", closely mimicking the line from the original movie, both of which were nods towards George Lucas' first film, THX 1138.

Another, lesser-known parody happens when the Rogue Squadron attacks the Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. As one of the ships hits the Death Star, it cuts to the inside of the ship where various Stormtroopers are injured. As this happens, the Wilhelm scream is briefly heard. This scream is found in all of the Star Wars films and is a "trademark" sound used by the original film's sound editor, Ben Burtt.

There are some references to other films in the series. Tatooine's radio talk show host, voiced by Rush Limbaugh, mentions both the planet Hoth and the character Lando Calrissian, neither of which are introduced until the subsequent film, The Empire Strikes Back. Watto from The Phantom Menace runs into a lightsaber being used as a bug zapper. Luke also asks, in reference to R2, "what the 'Phantom Menace' is that guy's problem." Beru foreshadows her own death when she tells Luke he will join the rebellion "over [her] burnt carcass."

Consanguinities between the Skywalkers that are not established until the following films are mentioned in this episode. In the opening crawl, both Vader's relation to Luke as father (revealed in The Empire Strikes Back) and Leia as sister (revealed in Return of the Jedi) are both mentioned. Luke's aunt, Beru, instructs Luke to remind his uncle not to tell him (Luke) about his relationship to Vader.

The episode occasionally calls attention to problems with the plot of A New Hope. When the 'droids depart Leia's ship in an escape pod, the commanding officer of the imperial ship gives the order to not fire on the pod because "no life signs are detected" on board, just as in the movie; the episode adds dialog to this scene, beginning with a junior officer asking "Are we paying by the laser now?" The other officer replies "You don't pay the budget Terry! I do!" In the cantina, Luke questions whether Han is correct in using parsecs as a measure of time rather than distance, a common source of debate among fans. Han shoots Greedo first as well, but without provocation. Han's minimal maneuvers when escaping Tatooine are also mocked; Han explains he knows "a few maneuvers" but the resulting scene shows the Millennium Falcon "listing lazily to the left," as in the original. En route to Alderaan, Solo mocks Luke for defending his belief in the Force, which he just found about "three hours ago." During the TIE Fighter attack upon the Millennium Falcon, Luke exclaims "I got him!" and prompting Han to respond with "Great kid, don't get penisy!", in reference to Han's response in the original movie, "Don't get cocky!"

Some other scenes call attention to seemingly obvious details the characters miss. For example, as the Falcon approaches the Death Star, Luke says "Maybe we should head for that small moon that's clearly a small moon and not anything else." Another example mocks how Obi-Wan never bothers to adopt a different last name despite being in hiding from the Empire. Luke ponders if "Obi-Wan Kenobi" is related to "old Obi-Wan Kenobi".

Han also remarks that he is the only actor whose career was not destroyed by the movie when first meeting Luke. While Harrison Ford (who portrayed Han in the films) would later star in the successful Indiana Jones franchise, Mark Hamill turned to voice acting after Episode VI (mainly villainous roles such as the Hobgoblin and the Joker) and Carrie Fisher's next major role would not come until When Harry Met Sally... in 1989. It was stated in the commentary of this episode that Hamill took offense to this statement.

Family Guy references

The episode also makes references to the show itself, the most obvious being the Family Guy characters reposed into Star Wars characters, gaining some specific physical traits while retaining their own character traits.

When Peter and Chris are discussing Robot Chicken, Peter says that in order for a show to be legitimate it has to be on "ABC, NBC, CBS...one of the real networks." He fails to mention FOX, the station that broadcasts Family Guy.

This episode is the second Family Guy episode that does not feature the usual frequent cutaway gags, the first being "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1". The only uses of the cutaway in the episode are a shot of a lightsaber being used as a bug zapper, and an instructional video of Magic Johnson telling the rebels how to destroy the Death Star. In the animatic, however, the bug zapper scene was originally designed to be panned to as part of Obi Wan's scene, instead of cut to.

When Luke is trying to receive more on Leia's message, there is a clip advertising "Intergalactic Proton Powered Electrical Tentacled Advertising Droids," which is is a parody of the cutaway scene in the episode "Bango Was His Name Oh!" where they are called "Wacky Wavy Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men." The business from the original episode, "Al Harrington's W.W.I.A.F.T.M. Emporium and Warehouse," is renamed "Darth Harrington's I.P.P.E.T.A.D. Emporium and Moonbase" (with its proprietor Al Harrington obviously renamed "Darth Harrington"). Also, the cause of overstock was changed from a shipping error ("Bango") to a garbled subspace transmission ("Harvest").

As stated in the episode commentary, the scene in which two mouse droids talk to each other is a reference to the Screaming Black Dolphins in the episode "I Take Thee Quagmire".

When one of the Stormtroopers claims that a sound that Obi-Wan presumably made was probably just another drill, his voice is the same as the character RJ from the episode "Boys Do Cry" who claimed he saw Bigfoot; he even says how he was once "about to finally bone [his] girlfriend" before hearing that there was a drill, and how his girlfriend told him "there was no way," similar to the character's experience with Bigfoot.

Quahog news personality (also seen on the Death Star news) Tom Tucker's son Jake (with the upside down face) can be seen as a Treadwell droid in the shot where C-3PO thanks the early 90's printer for the sex.

Other intertextual cultural references

File:Doctor Who Star Wars.jpg

In addition to parodying the film itself, "Blue Harvest" refers to similar concepts; for example, the comparison between the original jump to lightspeed (top) and the first Doctor Who opening sequence for the Fourth Doctor (bottom).

Bender (Futurama), Coach McGuirk (Home Movies), the Evil Monkey, and Roger (American Dad!) can be seen in the Cantina.

After Leia (Lois) completes the making of her "Help Me Obi-Wan" holograph, she attempts to convert it into a mpeg using Real Player; but due to her difficulty with the technical complexity, R2-D2 offers to deliver it himself.

The Stormtroopers not only kill Luke's aunt and uncle (as in the original movie), but also John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. These musicians are revealed to have been replaced with Danny Elfman's orchestra, who play the Desperate Housewives theme tune until a revolted Luke beheads Elfman with his lightsaber.

When Han Solo (Peter Griffin) makes the jump to lightspeed to escape the Imperial cruisers, he remarks that "hyperspace always looks so freaky." The view from the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit is part of the title sequence for the Fourth Doctor serials of Doctor Who (complete with audio). During the commentary, Seth MacFarlane admitted he could not get into Doctor Who at all.

Prominent among the films referred to besides the other Star Wars episodes is Airplane!, the source of two gags. First, during the TIE fighter attack, the episode uses a soundbite from the film — Dr. Rumack (voiced by Leslie Nielsen) enters Han's pod and says "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you". The producers considered using Nielsen, but they deemed him too expensive. Later, as the rebel fleet launches its attack on the Death Star, it is said "The Death Star is getting closer," prompting C-3PO to jiggle Leia's belly while saying "And Leia's getting l-a-a-arger!" This mirrors the lines spoken by Stephen Stucker's character, "The fog's getting thicker!/And Leon's getting l-a-a-arger!"

In the scene preparing for the rebel attack on the Death Star, the character who quips "Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?" is a reference to Judd Nelson's character in The Breakfast Club, and the next few lines are taken directly from the movie.

In the battle itself, members of the Red Squadron include: Red Buttons, Redd Foxx, Big Red, the Red October, Helen Reddy, and the 1985 lineup of Simply Red. As Redd Foxx is shot down, he yells "I'm comin', Elizabeth!" as he often did in the television sitcom Sanford and Son.

In addition to the Dirty Dancing-inspired musical number, the other 1980s films prominently alluded to are the National Lampoon's Vacation series, when the Griswold family drives by the final battle (with Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprising their roles), and The Blues Brothers, when they sneak out of Millennium Falcon to the rhythm of Minnie the Moocher. Also, R2's line "So, you think the empire's gonna fall, man?" may be a reference to "History of the World Part 1."

R2-D2 refers to contemporary music twice in the episode: once when requesting C-3PO to "put on some Tatooine, Wind and Fire", and again when asking "what am I? R-2Pac?" after being shot in a fly-by shooting. The song Han plays during the talk radio sequence is "It Might Be You" by Stephen Bishop.

In another part in the death star, the gang goes down to "Stormtrooper Church" where a couple named Judith and Alan are getting married. This may be a direct statement to Two and a Half Men, where Alan's ex-wife is named Judith.

The argument between Peter and Chris about Robot Chicken's earlier Star Wars parody features two regular cast members of Robot Chicken — Seth Green, co-creator of the show, and Seth MacFarlane, who voiced Palpatine in the Robot Chicken special. Also, Adult Swim viewership of Family Guy was a contributor to the return of the show after the series' second cancellation. This same argument also slams Fox: In dissing Robot Chicken, Peter asserts that its not of a "real network", citing examples NBC, ABC, CBS, and obliquely omitting Fox.

The shot where C-3PO thanks the early 90's (Dot matrix) printer for the sex is a nod to Mel Brooks' Star Wars parody, Spaceballs, which featured a female version of C-3PO called Dot Matrix.

Han Solo introduces himself as the captain of the Millennium Falcon and the only actor whose career was not ruined by this movie. This is a reference to how much more successful Harrison Ford was than the rest of the Star Wars cast, especially with his other memorable role as Indiana Jones.

Reception

File:Blue Harvest DVD.jpg

Special Edition DVD release.

Reviews of this episode were generally positive. Critically, the Associated Press's Frazier Moore called it "a dead-on homage that hilariously picks apart Star Wars, along with much of real life". Newsday's Diane Werts rendered a more mixed verdict, saying the episode "veer[s] wildly from bull's-eye satire to gotta-fill-time-now exposition", and was not as enjoyable for non-Star Wars fans. Jon Caraminica of the Los Angeles Times felt it worked by playing to the show's strength, its cutaway gags, by being "almost entirely an aside". He wondered if the Robot Chicken conversation at the end was "a note of self-doubt, maybe, masking as self-awareness." The Parents Television Council, a group that has frequently criticized Family Guy, criticized the episode for sexual dialogue that it perceived to be frequent in the episode, enough for the episode to have an "S" content descriptor for sexual content; the episode was rated TV-14-DLV on Fox.

This episode was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More). It also won a Saturn Award for Best Presentation on Television.

Sequel and DVD release

With the episode's ratings success, a sequel episode entitled "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" is in production and is expected to parody The Empire Strikes Back. Fox Television has released a special DVD of "Blue Harvest" on January 15, 2008 in both regular and special editions. Extras include about four minutes of exclusive DVD material, an uncensored audio track, animatics and commentary by the Family Guy staff, interviews with Seth MacFarlane and George Lucas, a sneak preview to "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and a table read of dialogue from the episode. In addition, the special edition release will come exclusively with collectible packaging, a 3-D battle scene and glasses, a themed T-shirt, Size XL, trading cards, and brochure which will contain a letter from the show's creator Seth McFarlane, script excerpts, pictures and so on. An official website for the DVD has been made with DVD info, games, clips, behind the scenes and more. [1] In an interview with IGN, Seth MacFarlane says they are already done writing the sequel; Seth Green wrote one line of dialogue. Also, most copies of the DVD, excluding UK Versions, includes an iTunes digital version, which can be transferred to an iPod, iPhone, or AppleTV but not to other devices because of DRM. As of January 16th, a day after the DVD's release, both Apple and Fox have received multiple complaints that the 'Fox Digital Copy' of "Blue Harvest" fails to transfer properly to iTunes. Apple seems to have resolved the issue. FOX has confirmed that, since it already has its own DVD release, this episode will not appear on the Volume 6 DVD box set.

There are two easter eggs on the main disc. Under the "Options" menu on the reactor there is the footage of the cast going over the script for the sequel "Dark Side." Under the "Features" menu, around where the dianoga's/Meg's head pops up there is the teaser trailer for "Dark Side."

External links

• Template:Tv.com episode
• Blue Harvest at IMDb
• DVD Review at www.sci-fi-online.com
• Official Website for Blue Harvest
• Official UK Website for Blue Harvest
• Blue Harvest (Family Guy episode) on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki