Family Guy something something Star Wars

     Fox's Family Guy ended their eighth season with the television premiere of a DVD they released late last year.  The episode was called "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", and it was a spoof of the movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  It was a follow up to their previous effort based on the first Star Wars movie, and there will surely by a third to complete the trilogy soon.

     Was it really a true Family Guy episode?  No.  I enjoy their Star Wars parodies, though I wish they would do the far superior Star Trek films instead.  Yes, I am definitely on the Star Trek side of the age-old debate, but I'm not a Star Wars hater, and did enjoy the movies, especially the original three.  Anyway, Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the show, does Star Wars pretty well.  There was enough of the original story to follow along, but it was much shorter, as was appropriate for a goof like this.  It was funny, and none of the jokes ran too long.  Fans of both franchises could enjoy the episode.

     Family Guy does three types of jokes particularly well: sight gags, racism, and references.  The best of the first category in this episode was probably Peter's (voiced by MacFarlane) nemesis, the Giant Chicken (Danny Smith) as Boba Fett.  It's always fun to see those to go after each other, and with Peter filling in for Han Solo, it made a good pairing.  The best racism gag was when Peter / Han commented that Lando was probably the only black guy in the universe, and Brian / Chewbacca (MacFarlane) said that he hoped so.  All of the other characters were appropriate offended, lest you think the series out to put down any minorities, which it doesn't do more than it puts down everyone else.  The last category was the best, though, as Peter and Chris (voiced by Seth Green) argued over whether Robot Chicken, a Cartoon Network series created by Seth Green, was still relevant.  Robot Chicken has also done Star Wars parodies lately, although theirs are short bits, rather than an entire plot.  Both series have been funny about it, but with two different approaches.

   So, the episode wasn't really an end to this past season of Family Guy.  If anything, that happened last week, although the show doesn't traditionally do big season-enders.  But it was a pleasant diversion for an hour.