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"Family Guy" Creator Reveals Star Wars Cred

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September 21, 2007

Endless Star Wars Gags

By Bonnie Burton

As the creator and lead voice actor of the hilariously dysfunctional family -- the Griffins -- in the hit animated show "Family Guy," Seth MacFarlane has a keen eye when it comes to mashing up pop culture references for the ultimate joke. Case in point, MacFarlane and crew are focusing their talents for an hour-long tribute to Star Wars in their special "Family Guy: Blue Harvest," airing on FOX on Sept. 23 as the season opener for the series.

"There are so many fans in the writers' room that it's easy to come up with Star Wars jokes," MacFarlane says. "The great thing about Lucasfilm is that they allow people like us to embrace that fandom and have some fun. The only reason we were able to do 'Family Guy: Blue Harvest' is because we have so many writers who know the films so well they can recite it from start to finish. It's something that never really leaves people's heads. There's always a few Star Wars pitches in the room each day."

Long before "Family Guy: Blue Harvest" was given the thumbs up, "Family Guy" already had a myriad of Star Wars jokes air throughout the series. "There's one where Peter is conducting the Sand People choir and he's trying to get them all in harmony and they're all just screaming," MacFarlane says. Ironically, "Family Guy"/Star Wars fans took the skit a step further and entered the Sand People Choir costume in the talent contest at this year's Comic-Con.

"Another one of my favorites is when Luke insults one of the Rebel pilots and he gets pulled to the side to get yelled at for being a jerk," MacFarlane laughs.

The "Family Guy" writers continued with a series of uproarious gags from Darth Vader as a meter maid, Peter as a tauntaun cut in half on Hoth, disastrous lightsaber eye surgery, Jawas stealing a car, and the rancor vs. a lawyer, just to name a few.

"We had done so many Star Wars gags and I called the Lucasfilm offices one day to float the idea of doing one big Star Wars episode of the 'Family Guy' characters playing the parts," MacFarlane reveals. "And they thought it sounded like fun. It was supposed to be half hour, but then we found that all our writers were laughing at all the things we were coming up with. So we decided to make it an hour and it was a true joy everyone from the writers to the artists to work on it. The 'Blue Harvest' writer Alec Sulkin writer Alec Sulkin told me he could retire now because it would never get better than this. This was a big Valentine to Star Wars from us."

MacFarlane's appreciation for Star Wars started at an early age. "I think I was about 5 years old when A New Hope first came out, so my recollections of seeing it in the theater are limited to a few scattered shots," MacFarlane says. "I remember Empire Strikes Back a little better, but when I really was old enough to actually know that I was being taken to a movie was during Return of the Jedi."

"I've always been partial to A New Hope -- the simplicity of it and some of my favorite music is in the film," MacFarlane continues. "You sit back and watch it and think, 'Where did all of this come from?' It's a whole bunch of brand new ideas all mixed together to make this movie. It's interesting to read reviews and accounts from when it first came out and how astonished people were because no one had seen anything like it. I think I've seen A New Hope 60 or 70 times at this point."

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Keywords: Family Guy, Television

Filed under: Fans, Star Wars Rocks
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