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“Blue Harvest”
Family Guy episode
"The poster for Blue Harvest."
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 1
Written by	Alec Sulkin
Directed by	Dominic Polcino
Guest stars	Luke Adams H. Jon Benjamin Kirker Butler Steve Callaghan Chevy Chase Beverly D'Angelo Mick Hucknall Rush Limbaugh Helen Reddy Alex Thomas Don Tai
Production no.	5ACX16/5ACX22
Original airdate	September 23, 2007
Season 6 episodes
Family Guy - Season 6 September 23, 2007 – Spring, 2008
Blue Harvest Movin' Out (Brian's Song) Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air Stewie Kills Lois (1) Lois Kills Stewie (2) Padre de Familia Peter's Daughter McStroke* Unscheduled episodes "Play It Again, Brian"* "Back to the Woods"* "Love Blactually"* "The Former Life of Brian"* "I Dream of Jesus"* "Long John Peter"* "Baby Not On Board"* "Road to Germany"* "The Man With Two Brians"* "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing"* "Ocean's Three and a Half"* "Family Gay"* "The Juice Is Loose!"* "Anchorwoman: The Legend of Lois Griffin"* "Three Kings"* "Episode 420"* "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven"* * Not yet aired, ordered by production number.
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List of Family Guy episodes

"Blue Harvest" was the season premiere of the Sixth season of the FOX series Family Guy, which originally aired on September 23, 2007.

The episode was a retelling of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, recasting the show's characters into Star Wars roles.^[1] For this purpose, and for the first time in the history of Family Guy, this episode was an hour long (with commercials). It was also made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise.

This episode drew 10.7 million viewers, and earned the highest Nielsen rating of any Family Guy episode since the show returned to air in 2005, making it the second most-watched episode in the series behind "North by North Quahog" which garned 11.9 million.^[2][3]

The plot summary in this article or section is too long compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

While the Griffins are watching a golf tournament with Phil Mickelson playing, the power goes out. To entertain the family, Peter decides to tell the story of Star Wars, beginning with Part IV. The rest of the episode is then cut to the Star Wars universe, where the characters from the Family Guy universe are reenacted into Star Wars characters.

The opening crawl rolls, before showing the Tantive IV being chased by the Star Destroyer over Tatooine, exactly imitating the sequence in the original film (the only difference being a "Bush/Cheney" bumper sticker on the Star Destroyer). On the rebel ship, Leia (Lois) tries to send a holographic message, along with the plans to the Death Star, to Obi-Wan Kenobi through R2-D2 (Cleveland). With the encountering complications in trying to do so, R2 decides to bring the message to Obi-Wan himself. Leia is captured by Imperial Stormtroopers and taken to Darth Vader (Stewie), while R2 and C-3PO (Quagmire) escape to Tatooine by escape pod. They are, as in the film, captured by Jawas (one of them being Mort) and then sold to Owen & Beru Lars (Carter & Barbara Pewterschmidt).

Luke (Chris), Owen & Beru's nephew, desires to join the rebellion to fight the empire (and listening to John Williams' Star Wars music). While fixing up R2, Luke stumbles upon Leia's message. The next day, R2-D2 escapes, causing Luke and C-3PO to go out after him. Along the way, they are attacked by a Tusken Raider (Opie), but are rescued by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert). Obi-Wan takes them back to his hut, where Luke shows him the holographic message (within the message is a hint to Herbert's pedophilia; continual hints of this are dropped throughout the episode). Obi-Wan gives Luke his father's lightsaber. Fearing that the Empire would be searching for this message, Luke returns home to find his township having been destroyed by Imperial Stormtroopers, and his aunt & uncle dead (as well as John Williams, who is to be replaced by Danny Elfman, whom Luke decapitates with his lightsaber).

On the Death Star, Vader learns that the station has one vulnerability: the exhaust port (added by the architect for aesthetic purposes). After a lengthy debate, Vader orders that the hole be boarded up (after getting cost estimates). Later, Grand Moff Tarkin (Adam West) decides to test the Death Star's "planet blower-upper gun" on Leia's home planet of Alderaan.

At the Mos Eisley spaceport, Obi-Wan, Luke and the droids meet Han Solo (Peter) and Chewbacca (Brian), who agree to transport them to Alderaan on their spaceship, the Millennium Falcon, in order to get the Death Star plans to Leia's father. They jump to light speed and travel through hyperspace (shown as the first Fourth Doctor title sequence of Doctor Who). The crew soon arrive to Alderaan, only to find it destroyed (having been destroyed by the Death Star into a meteor video game). They are captured by the Death Star's tractor beam, and lured in. Using compartments to surprise Imperial stormtroopers and donning their armor as disguises, Han, Luke and the others escape to a command room to wait while Obi-Wan attempts to disable the tractor beam (after singing "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" as a farewell to Luke in a production number backed by several stormtroopers). Luke, Han and Chewbacca find Leia, and the four escape the Stormtroopers though a garbage chute into a garbage compactor. After a dianoga (Meg) appears briefly, the walls of the compactor begins to close in on them. They are inadvertently saved when a stoned 3PO leans against the shutoff switch in the control room (Before getting out, Han and Chewbacca insist on taking with them a sofa they found inside the compactor).

Obi-Wan is confronted by Vader (who comments on a restraining order against Obi-Wan). Obi-Wan's light saber falls limp until he sees Luke. At this point, Obi-Wan is beheaded by Vader as the other characters escape (with the tractor beam off). They successfully fight off attacking "Thai" fighters, with encouragement from Leslie Nielsen (a parody of the same scene from Airplane!),and escape to the rebel base on Yavin IV.

The rebels assemble to attack the Death Star (using starfighters) after watching a rather ironic video on "How To Destroy The Death Star featuring Magic Johnson". The battle unfolds just as it does in the film. Obi-Wan's voice tells Luke to use the force in his attempt to destroy the station as Vader threatens to stop him. However, Han and Chewie arrive in the Falcon (they replaced the front seats with the new sofa) and save Luke at the last minute, sending Vader flying aimlessly into space during their attempt. Luke fires a torpedo into the exhaust port, and the Death Star explodes.

Back in the Family Guy universe, just after Peter wraps up the story, the power comes back on. Everyone thanks Peter for keeping them entertained, though Chris points out that the Star Wars episode of Robot Chicken beat him to it, a discussion in which Peter denigrates that show. Chris, insulted, calls Peter a "jerk", and leaves frustrated. Peter starts humming the theme to Star Wars and the episode ends.

• Chris Griffin as Luke Skywalker
• Peter Griffin as Han Solo
• Lois Griffin as Princess Leia
• Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader
• Brian Griffin as Chewbacca
• Glenn Quagmire as C-3PO
• Cleveland Brown as R2-D2
• Herbert as Obi-Wan Kenobi

In addition to the main characters, other characters make cameo appearances in much smaller roles. They include, in order of appearance:

• Carter Pewterschmidt as Owen Lars
• Barbara Pewterschmidt as Beru Lars
• Jake Tucker as a Repair Droid
• Mort Goldman as a Jawa
• Mayor West as Grand Moff Tarkin
• Opie as the Tusken Raider
• Bruce the Performance Artist as Greedo
• Ollie Williams as a Mouse Droid
• Fouad as an Imperial officer
• Meg Griffin as the Dianoga

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 was a special guest,^[4] and again at Comic-Con International 2007^[5] The episode was officially endorsed by Lucasfilm, who, MacFarlane said, were extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works.^[6]

Rush Limbaugh makes a cameo^[7] 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 addition to parodying the film itself, "Blue Harvest" references similar concepts; for example, the comparison between the original jump to lightspeed (top) and the first Doctor Who opening sequence for the Fourth Doctor (bottom).

"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.

A notable reference to Star Wars is the actual soundtrack 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 (who are, after their deaths in the Stormtrooper attack, replaced with Danny Elfman's orchestra--to the dismay of Luke, who beheads Elfman with his lightsaber). Han hums along with the soundtrack while in battle with the TIE fighters. Also, a muzak version of "The Imperial March" is heard in the elevator. A similar scene with a live orchestra in the shot occurred in the Mel Brooks movie "Blazing Saddles".

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".

The episode occasionally problematizes the events of A New Hope. Most notably, Luke questions whether Han is correct in using parsecs as a measure of time rather than distance, a common source of debate among fans, and Han's minimal maneuvers when escaping Tatooine. When Luke exclaims "I got him!" during the TIE Fighter attack upon the Millennium Falcon, Han responds with "Great kid, don't get penisy!", in reference to Han's response in the original movie, "Don't get cocky!" Han shoots Greedo first as well, but without provocation.

Some other scenes call attention to seemingly obvious details the characters miss. Luke wonders if the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Leia's message could be the same as the "Old Obi-Wan Kenobi" he is aware of. 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."

Han also remarks that he is the only actor whose career wasn't 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 and Carrie Fisher's next major role would not come until When Harry Met Sally... in 1989.

"Blue Harvest" also directly parodies Star Wars with aspects of popular culture - when the Millennium Falcon makes the jump to hyperspace, Han comments that hyperspace "always looks freaky", before cutting to the view from the cockpit, which is of the first Fourth Doctor opening sequence of Doctor Who complete with audio. The film also adds members to the Red Squadron in the Battle of Yavin, in order: Red Buttons, Redd Foxx, Big Red, Red October, Helen Reddy, and Simply Red.

Another, lesser-known parody happens when the Rogue Squadron attacks the Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. As one of the ships hits the Death Star, it cuts to the inside of the ship where various Storm Troopers are injured. As this happens, the Wilhelm scream is briefly heard. This scream is found in all of the Star Wars films and is almost a "trademark" sound used by the sound editor, Ben Burtt.

There are some references to other films in the series. Limbaugh as the radio talk show host refers to both Hoth and Lando Calrissian, both of which are not introduced until The Empire Strikes Back, and Watto from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace runs into the lightsaber being used as a bug zapper (Chris also asks "what the Phantom Menace is that guy's problem," referring to R2.) Within the narrative, Beru foreshadows her own death when she tells Luke he'll 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, and Vader's relation to Luke is repeated by Beru to Luke later in the episode.

While making the attack run in the trench of the Death Star, Vader mentions "I have you now, young Skywalker." This revelation about Red 5 being a Skywalker was never made in the original 'A New Hope' by Vader.

The episode's title comes from the code name used during the production of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

The episode also makes references to the show itself, the obvious being the Family Guy characters reposed into Star Wars characters (while retaining their own character traits). The Evil Monkey, Bender the Robot, Coach McGuirk, Roger are seen in the cantina. Coach McGuirk is from the television show Home Movies; he is voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, who sometimes lends his voice to a convenience store clerk in Family Guy. Roger is from American Dad!, also created and produced by Seth MacFarlane. 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 use of the cutaway in the episode is a brief segment where Obi-Wan introduces Luke to the lightsaber and says that "everyone in the neighborhood has one," with a cutaway to a cameo scene with Watto from The Phantom Menace.

Intertextual references include background appearances by characters from other animated series (for example, in the cantina, Bender from Futurama, Jon McGuirk from Home Movies, and Roger from American Dad!). Prominent among the films referenced 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". Later, when the Death Star is under attack, C-3PO jiggles Leia's belly and says "And Leia's getting l-a-a-arger!" after the line "The Death Star is getting closer", which references the lines "The fog's getting thicker!/And Leon's getting l-a-a-arger!". Besides 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. Television shows alluded to besides Deal or No Deal include Sanford and Son (Foxx dies saying "I'm comin', Elizabeth!" after he is shot down, as he often did when playing Fred Sanford). 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. When Leia explains to Luke how Obi Wan might go to hell, she references a controversy among Christian groups about not seeing the Force well. 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.

Special Edition DVD release.

The episode garnered an overall Nielsen rating of 10.7 viewers.^[2] It scored a 5.5 among the 18-49 demographic, a 17% increase from the previous year's season premiere, and a 13 percent audience share.^[2] Viewership increased in the second half hour, and it was the highest-rated non-sports broadcast on its air night,^[3] beating out a Desperate Housewives clip show and the season premiere of Cold Case, which attracted more viewers but had a lower share.^[2]

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".^[8] 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.^[9] 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."^[10]

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^[11] Fox Television will release a special DVD of "Blue Harvest" on January 15, 2008 in both regular and special editions. Extras will 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, and a sneak preview to "Something, Something, Something Dark Side." In addition, the special edition release will come exclusively with collectable packaging, 3-D fight scenes and glasses, a themed T-shirt, trading cards, and brochure.^[11] In an interview by IGN, Seth MacFarlane says they are already done writing the sequel; Seth Green wrote one line of dialogue.

• "Blue Harvest" at TV.com
• Blue Harvest at the Internet Movie Database
• Blue Harvest (Family Guy) at Family Guy Wiki.