Blue Harvest (Family Guy)

Infobox Television episode
Title =Blue Harvest
Series =Family Guy


Caption =The poster for "Blue Harvest".
Season =6
Episode =1
Airdate =September 23, 2007
Production =5ACX16
5ACX22
Writer =Alec Sulkin
Director =Dominic Polcino
Guests =Luke Adams H. Jon Benjamin Kirker Butler Steve Callaghan Chevy Chase Beverly D'Angelo Mick Hucknall Rush Limbaugh Helen Reddy Alex Thomas Don Tai Judd Nelson
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox_Family_Guy_Season_6
Prev =Meet the Quagmires
Next =Movin' Out (Brian's Song)
Preseded by =Something, Something, Something, Dark Side

"Blue Harvest" is the Emmy-nominatedcite web
url = http://cdn.emmys.tv/awards/2008pte/60thpte_noms.php
title = The 60th Primetime Emmy® Awards and Creative Arts Emmy® Awards Nominees are...
accessdate = 2008-07-18
work = The Internet Movie Database
publisher = Academy of Television Arts & Sciences] hour-long premiere to the of the FOX series "Family Guy". It originally aired on September 23, 2007.

The episode is a retelling and spoof of ', recasting the show's characters into "Star Wars" roles. [cite news|first=Josef|last=Adalian|title='Family Guy' meets 'Star Wars'|url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117965865.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2565|publisher="Variety"|date=May 29, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-24] 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 '.

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.cite news|first=Paul|last=Gough|title=Cowboys, Bears beat Sunday's premieres|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i4c6cbfc544ec16da352e5444f7a0f207|publisher="The Hollywood Reporter"|date=September 24, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-25] cite news |first=Toni |last=Fitzgerald |title=Star power: Fox's 'Family Guy' roars|url=http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Overnights_50/Star_power_Fox_s_Family_Guy_roars_in.asp|publisher="Media Life" |date=September 24, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-25]

Plot Summary

While the Griffins are watching television one night, the power goes out and they are left sitting in the dark with no other form of entertainment. While they wait for the power to return, Peter decides to tell the story of "Star Wars" (starting with ), where the characters from "Family Guy" are re-imagined as "Star Wars" characters.

An extremely expository opening crawl reveals several plot spoilers such as Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker's father and Princess Leia being his sister before trailing off to talk about Angelina Jolie and her movie "Gia". Finally, a small Rebel ship is seen being captured by a Star Destroyer. On the ship are the droids C-3PO (Quagmire) and R2-D2 (Cleveland), the latter of the two giving 3PO a bag of weed to hold onto. While the ship is boarded by stormtroopers, Princess Leia (Lois) tries to send an MPEG to Obi-Wan Kenobi through R2, but encounters so many complications that R2 offers to deliver the message himself. Leia is captured by Darth Vader (Stewie) while R2 and 3PO flee to Tatooine in an escape pod, where they are captured by Jawa traders.

The droids are sold to a family of moisture farmers and their nephew, Luke Skywalker (Chris), who wishes to join the Rebellion and fight the evil Empire, all the while enjoying John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra performing in the background. While cleaning the droids that night, Luke stumbles upon Leia's message inside R2, who escapes by the next morning. While Luke and 3PO go out after him and meet Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), who takes the three to his hut. Leia's message explains that R2 contains the plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, which must be sent to her father on her homeplanet of Alderaan. Obi-Wan tells Luke that he must learn the ways of the Force and accompany him to Alderaan, and gives him his own lightsaber. Realizing that the Empire would be looking for the droids, Luke returns home to discover that his home has been destroyed and his aunt, uncle, John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra killed by Imperial stormtroopers, though Luke is only concerned with Williams' death, since the film must now be scored by Danny Elfman, whom Luke beheads after hearing a few seconds of his music (regardless, the original score plays throughout the rest of the episode).

Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids travel to Mos Eisley in search of a ship and pilot to take them to Alderaan. At a local cantina, they meet and hire smuggler Han Solo (Peter), "the only actor whose career wasn't destroyed by this movie", and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Brian), who agree to take them on their ship, the "Millennium Falcon". The group is spotted by stormtroopers and flees into space, evading pursuing Star Destroyers with some flashy maneuvers (i.e., moving slightly to the left) before jumping into hyperspace. Meanwhile, Leia is being held captive on the Death Star, where commanding officer Grand Moff Tarkin (Mayor West) has Alderaan destroyed to test the space station's "planet blower-upper gun."

The "Millennium Falcon" exits hyperspace into the middle of an "Asteroids" game where Alderaan once was. The ship is then captured by the nearby Death Star's tractor beam and brought into its hangar bay, assisted by valets. Disguising themselves as stormtroopers, Han and Luke set off to rescue the captive Princess while Obi-Wan leaves to shut off the tractor beam, but not before performing "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" with stormtroopers as a farewell to Luke. Han, Luke, and Chewie head deeper into the Death Star and rescue Leia, and the four dive into a nearby garbage chute to escape from the stormtroopers. Ending up in the garbage compactor (the only place where we see Meg appear as the dianoga sulking in the murky water), they are nearly crushed when 3PO gets high off of the weed R2 gave him earlier and leans against the off switch; before they escape, Han and Chewie insist on taking a couch they found in the garbage with them. Obi-Wan manages to turn off the tractor beam before he is confronted by Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel; in it, Obi-Wan's blade falls limp until he sees Luke, and it becomes erect. Vader strikes Obi-Wan down as the others board the "Falcon" and escape, taking their new couch with them.

Warding off a group of "Thai Fighters" sent to stop them, the "Falcon" journeys to the Rebel base at Yavin IV where the Death Star plans are analyzed by the Rebels and a weakness is found. The attack will require a pilot to skim along a trench in a one-man starfighter to attack a vulnerable exhaust port added for aesthetics (Vader had ordered it to be boarded up earlier, but delayed the process to "get estimates"); in addition, they watch an instructional video featuring Magic Johnson that explains the strategy. Luke joins the assault team while Han collects his reward for the rescue (a gift basket with rather meager prizes) and leaves, much to Luke's dismay. The attack proceeds as it does in the film; the Rebel fighters suffer heavy losses (including Redd Foxx), though Luke remains piloting one of the few remaining ships. During his run, Luke hears Obi-Wan's voice telling him to use the Force, and he turns off his targeting computer. Darth Vader appears with his own group of fighters and is about to fire at Luke's ship, when Han arrives in the "Millennium Falcon" (sitting comfortably in his new couch) and attacks Vader and his wingmen, sending Vader careening off into space. Guided by the Force, Luke fires a successful shot into the port which destroys the Death Star, and he returns to the Rebel base with his friends to celebrate their victory.

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 (voiced by Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy) denigrates that show as Chris defends it. Chris finally leaves the room in frustration 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.;Notes:ent|1|1 This is an original character that does not parody any particular "Star Wars" character.ent|2|2 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 joke about 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,cite news|first=Stax|title=The Force is With Family Guy|url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/792/792604p1.html|publisher="IGN"|date=May 30, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-24] and again at Comic-Con International 2007cite web|url=http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci07_prog_sat.php|title=Programming for Saturday July 28|publisher=Comic-Con|accessdate=2007-10-02] 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. [cite news|first=Bonnie|last=Burton|title="Family Guy" Creator Reveals Star Wars Cred|url=http://www.starwars.com/community/news/rocks/f20070921/index.html|publisher="Starwars.com"|date=September 21, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-21]

Rush Limbaugh makes a cameocite web|title=RushLimbaugh.com, Friday, September 21, 2007|url=http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_092107/home.guest.html|accessdate=2007-09-24] 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 contained 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.

"Star Wars" films

The episode's title comes from the code name used during the production of "". 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".

The poster used to promote this episode is based heavily on the design of an actual poster used for the original film. The cover art for the DVD release does the same for another poster.

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 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 is leaving the room, he discusses "bullseyeing some womp rats in [his] T-16", which C-3PO 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".

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 "" 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. 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 network 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

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.

While Luke and C-3PO are looking for R2-D2, C-3PO turns on the radio and listens to The Rush Limbaugh Show.

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 Chewie (Brian) leaves the bar he says,"Wocka Wocka". This is the catch phrase of Fozzie Bear in the Muppets, who also played Chewie in Muppet Babies when they acted out Star Wars.

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. Peter did not credit Cartoon Network as a channel that can have a legitimate show mocking the channel Family Guy airs on. 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 90s (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

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".cite news|first=Frazier|last=Moore|authorlink=Frazier Moore|title=TV Lookout: Highlights for Sept. 23-29|url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOFZL0bOGvE5nDcRB5eGLUbrYClQ|publisher=Associated Press|date=September 23, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-25] "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.cite news|first=Diane|last=Werts|title=Fox's 'Family Guy' takes on 'Star Wars'|url=http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettell5382396sep21,0,5416623.story|publisher="Newsday"|date=September 21, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-25] 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."cite news|first=Jon|last=Caraminica|title=Fox marks the return of 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad!'|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-ca-monitor23sep23,1,4552170.story?coll=la-entnews-tv&ctrack=2&cset=true| publisher="Los Angeles Times"|date=September 21, 2007|accessdate=2007-09-25] 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. [cite web|last=Schulenberg|first=Caroline|title="Family Guy" on Fox|url=http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/Ratings/2008/0411.asp|work=So You Think You Can Rate a TV Show?|publisher=Parents Television Council|date=2008-04-11|accessdate=2008-04-11]

This episode has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More), but it lost to rival "South Park"'s "Imaginationland". cite web| url= http://cdn.emmys.tv/awards/2008pte/CTA08_wrap.php| title= 60th Primetime Emmy Awards | accessdate= 2008-09-14| publisher= Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ]

It won a Saturn Award for Best Presentation on Television. [cite web

url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182576/awards
accessdate = 2008-07-24
publisher = The Internet Movie Database]

equel 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".cite news|title=The Griffin Clan Spoofs the First Star Wars Movie - There are two 'easter eggs' on the main disc: Under the 'Features' menu where the dianoga's/Meg's head pops up there is the teaser trailer for 'Something, Something, Something, Darkside'. Under the 'Options' menu on the reactor there is the footage of the cast going over the script for the sequel (Empire) to Blue Harvest. Family Guy Presents: "Blue Harvest"|url=http://www.forbes.com/businesswire/feeds/businesswire/2007/11/05/businesswire20071105005451r1.html|publisher="Forbes"|date=November 5, 2007|accessdate=2007-11-08] 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. [http://www.familyguyblueharvestdvd.com] 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 16, 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.cite web | title=CanMag.Com| work=Blue Harvest Blows It | url=http://www.canmag.com/nw/10175-family-guy-blue-harvest-fox-digital-copy-review | accessdate=January 16 | accessyear=2008] FOX has confirmed that, since it already has its own DVD release, this episode will not appear on the Volume 6 DVD box set.

The Episode also saw release on UMD Format for the Sony PSP in the UK with a 15 rating by the BBFC

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."

References

External links

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* [http://www.familyguyblueharvestdvd.com Official Website for Blue Harvest]
* [http://www.familyguyblueharvest.co.uk/ Official UK Website for Blue Harvest]
*sww|Blue Harvest (Family Guy episode)