Family Guy - Blue Harvest
By Pete West
"Family Guy" is one of the most popular prime time sitcoms. It’s now in its sixth season and going strong.
On September 23, 2007 the sixth season premiered with the hour-long episode, "Blue Harvest", a spoof of the original "Star Wars" movie. (Yeah, the real 1977 original, even though it’s now called "Star Wars IV" in in the chronology). In January 2008 the "Family Guy" episode was released as a single DVD.
The original "Star Wars" movie came out in 1977 and was a major box office success. More importantly, it jumpstarted blockbuster summer action movies, and created a major marketing phenomena with thousands of licensed products. Two sequels followed in the next few years, and after a three decade hiatus, a prequel trilogy.
"Blue Harvest" is a bit of a misnomer though; it’s actually the inside code name for "Return of the Jedi," the third movie in the original trilogy. By the time that movie was filmed, "Star Wars" had an army of fanatical fans wanting to find out anything they could about the new movie. Costume designer Aggie Rodgers recalled, "We had fans going through our dumpsters to try to find discarded copies of the script." To try to keep the concepts secret, scripts were distributed only to critical people. Rogers noted that instead of receiving a script she would meet with George Lucas and he’d describe what he wanted.
To try to keep the movie secret while filming on location the fake title "Blue Harvest - Horror Beyond Imagination" was conceived. Crew caps, shirts, jackets, and signs were made with the code name. Producer Howard Kazanjian said, "When shooting (Jedi) in the United States we called the film Blue Harvest. Camera slates, invoices, hotel reservations, call sheets, production reports, and crew hats and T-shirts all read Blue Harvest. So when a visitor would ask, 'What are you shooting?' and we said 'Blue Harvest,' they went on their way. Can you imagine what would have happened if we had said, 'We're shooting the next film in the Star Wars trilogy'?" The original Blue Harvest crew shirts and jackets made for the production staff are pretty rare collector items.
The "Family Guy" spoof is a pretty faithful retelling of the movie, compressed into 45 minutes. It brings up classic arguments which fans have been discussing since "Star Wars" first came out - for example, why did Han say he completed a run in parsecs when parsecs are a unit of distance, not of time? It also has inside references to other movies including "National Lampoon’s Vacation" series and "Airplane." There are several cameo voices by celebrities including Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo recreating their roles from the "Vacation" movies and singer Helen Reddy. If you aren’t a "Star Wars" fan (accepting that there is a possibility that there are "Family Guy" fans who aren’t "Star Wars" fans) you won’t find it too interesting. If you’re a "Star Wars" fan but not a "Family Guy" fan you should still find this enjoyable.
The "Family Guy" character Peter plays Han Solo, Lois is Princess Leia, Stewie becomes Darth Vader, Brian plays Chewbacca, and Chris is Luke Skywalker. Cleveland and Quagmire become R2-D2 and C-3PO, while Herbert is the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The DVD version includes four minutes of additional material, and an uncensored soundtrack. There’s a making of featurette and a feature where "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane interviews George Lucas. According to the marketing materials there’s supposed to be a feature called, "Something, Something, Something Dark Side" on the plans for a sequel based on "Empire Strikes Back" but I couldn’t find it on the DVD.
Seth MacFarlane has certainly learned one important marketing trick from George Lucas: releasing the same product in different versions to get more money. A "Special Edition" is available which adds a 3-D fight scene, 3-D glasses, a T-shirt, trading cards, and a brochure.
It’s important to remember that the episode will be on the normal "Family Guy" DVDs when the sixth season makes it to home video formats so if you purchase this disk now you will end up paying twice for the same episode.
The DVD includes a new feature, iTunes Digital Copy. It permits you to transfer the movie to one iTunes library where it can be played on video-compatible iPods.
Many "Family Guy" and "Star Wars" fans recorded their own copies when the episode first aired. The commercial DVD has the advantage of better quality, no on-screen ads, and the additional footage.
The DVD retails for $22.98. The special edition is available for $34.99.
Links
Official site for the DVD
Order the regular version from Amazon.com.
Order the collectible version from Amazon.com.
About the author
Pete West is a long time animation enthusiast.
© 2008 neatinformation.com. All Rights Reserved.
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