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"Da Boom"

"Da Boom" is the third episode of the second season of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the tenth episode of the series. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on December 26, 1999. The episode features the Griffin family after a nuclear holocaust occurs, due to Y2K on New Year's Eve. The family then travels in search of food, and eventually decide to establish a town around a Twinkie factory. Peter then takes over the town, establishing himself as mayor, but eventually becomes power hungry, and is overthrown.

The episode was written by Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan and directed by Bob Jaques. The episode featured guest performances by Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal, Jack Perkins, Will Sasso, and Joey Slotnick along with several recurring voice actors for the series. This is the first episode that aired to feature Mila Kunis as the voice of Meg Griffin.

Plot

On December 31, 1999, Quahog prepares for New Year's Day (which is the last New Year's Day of the millennium), and the family has been invited to Joe's millennium party. At a store, a man in a chicken suit asks Peter if he wants a coupon, but Peter refuses, recalling the time he got a bad coupon from Ernie the Giant Chicken and started a massive fistfight. The man warns Peter that the world will end because of the Y2K problem, so Peter locks himself and the family in their basement in hazmat suits. Just after midnight a nuclear holocaust occurs, destroying much of the world and mutating, injuring, and killing many people. The Griffins remain unharmed, and as they look for survivors, they discover that Joe has been melted into his driveway, his son Kevin has been vaporized, and Quagmire and Cleveland have fused together and are now called "Clevemire" (or "Quagland"), and Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons have eaten Tricia Takanawa. Starving, Peter immediately eats all the dehydrated meals, without adding water. Peter recalls that the snackfood Twinkies are the only food that can survive a nuclear holocaust, so the family travels to Natick, Massachusetts in hopes that the Twinkie factory has survived. On the way, Stewie is exposed to nuclear waste and mutates into an octopus-like creature. Upon their arrival at Natick, they discover the factory is still standing and in perfect condition. Expecting to be able to live off of the snackfood, they establish the town of New Quahog around the factory. Peter proclaims himself mayor, and Joe and Clevemire join him to form a ruling council. One year later, New Quahog has become a fresh new community, complete with houses and wells. Peter has successfully reigned as mayor despite many mistakes, such as giving people jobs picked out of a hat rather than based on the person's skills. However, when Brian points out how New Quahog is a peaceful place with no violence, Peter realises that they are completely defenseless and uses the pipes from the city's water irrigation system to make guns and other weapons, outraging the citizens. Meanwhile, Stewie, who has continued to transform into an octopus, suddenly lays hundreds of eggs in the basement of their house.

Despite Peter's insistence that he is fit to continue to be the leader of the new community, the townspeople run him out of New Quahog, and his family follows him. The citizens proceed to burn the guns Peter had made with the pipes in the middle of the town square. As they throw the last gun onto the pile, hundreds of newly spawned Octopus-Stewies hatch and begin to destroy the city, with the townspeople unable to protect themselves from the mutants. As the family walks away, oblivious to the town's destruction, they decide to continue to a Carvel factory in Framingham, Massachusetts.

The episode ends with a live-action parody of Dallas, in which Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal) wakes up and tells her husband Bobby (Patrick Duffy) about a dream she had of a strange episode of Family Guy. Bobby comforts her, but pauses and then asks "What's Family Guy?", and the two turn and look with confusion into the camera.[1]

Production

A woman with her hair tied back, poses while wearing a white dress that slightly exposes her breasts.
This is the first episode to include the voice of Mila Kunis as Meg.

"Da Boom" was the third episode of the second season of Family Guy, and the first for director Bob Jaques. The episode was written by writing team Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, who had written episodes for the show in the first season including "Mind Over Murder".[2][3]

This was the first episode to have Mila Kunis providing the voice of Meg.[4] Lacey Chabert, the original voice of Meg, left the series due to time constraints with her acting role in Party of Five, as well as schoolwork.[5] Kunis won the role after auditions and a slight rewrite of the character, in part due to her performance on That '70s Show.[6] Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, called Kunis back after her first audition, instructing her to speak slower, and then told her to come back another time and enunciate more. Once she claimed that she had it under control, MacFarlane hired her.[6]

Ernie the Giant Chicken was introduced in this episode. He is an anthropomorphic chicken who serves as a rival to Peter. He has a long, unexpected fight with Peter, which interrupts the main storyline.[7] This has become a running gag, having reappeared in episodes such as "Blind Ambition", "Internal Affairs",[8] "No Chris Left Behind"[9] and "Meet the Quagmires".[10][11] He is voiced by regular show writer Danny Smith.[10]

In addition to the regular cast, actress Victoria Principal, comedian and actor Will Sasso, reporter, commentator, war correspondent, anchorman Jack Perkins, voice actor Joey Slotnick, and character actor Patrick Duffy guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actress Lori Alan, writer Danny Smith, and actor Patrick Warburton also made minor appearances.[2] It first aired on December 12, 1999.[2]

Cultural references

The live-action sequence in the episode is a reference to the episode of the CBS soap opera Dallas that erased the death of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), which turns out to be a dream of Pamela Ewing (Victoria Principal).[2][12] Randy Newman appears singing everything he sees in a musical moment.[12] The plot includes references to the Y2K bug.[12] Peter takes away Trix from the Rabbit, which is a reference to commercials for Trix cereal. Chris tells E.T. to run when he thinks Peter is the government coming for him. When travelling to find food they are stopped and there's a reference to Family Feud.[12] Stewie's line, "Game over man! Game over!" is a nod to the science fiction film Aliens. Arriving at the Twinkie factory, Peter uses the same words to describe what he sees that Dr. Ellie Arroway used in Contact when witnessing a celestial event in a foreign galaxy.

Reception

The episode received positive reviews. Ahsan Haque of IGN rated the episode a 10/10, saying "Overall, this episode easily ranks as one of the best episodes in the series. Almost every joke succeeds, and the far-fetched alternate reality storyline thoroughly entertains. Despite the fact that all of the events in the episode are revealed to be a dream, it doesn't take away from the high degree of amusement provided."[12]

References

  1. ^ Plot synopsis information for the episode "Da Boom" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 2003.
  2. ^ a b c d "Family Guy: Da Boom". Film.com. RealNetworks, Inc. Retrieved 2010-05-10. [dead link]
  3. ^ "Family Guy – Mind Over Murder Cast and crew". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  4. ^ "Family Guy Cast and Details". TV Guide. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
  5. ^ "Sonic the Horndog". Gamespy. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
  6. ^ a b "Family Guy – Casting Mila Kunis". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved May 15, 2010.
  7. ^ Callaghan, Steve (2005). "The Giant Chicken". Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. Harper Paperbacks. New York: HarperCollins. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-06-083305-3.
  8. ^ Wong, Kevin (June 13, 2005). "Family Guy". Popmatters.com. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  9. ^ Haque, Ahsan (2007-05-07). "Family Guy: "No Chris Left Behind" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
  10. ^ a b "Danny Smith:Credits". TV Guide. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
  11. ^ Love, Brett (2007-05-21). "Family Guy: Meet The Quagmires". TV Squad. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
  12. ^ a b c d e Haque, Ashan (2008). "Family Guy Flashback: "Da Boom" Review". IGN. News Corp. Retrieved 2009-09-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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