Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy

• 1. Introduction

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  Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy takes its name from a line Han Solo speaks to Chewbacca in The Empire Strikes Back, delivered in a moment of mild irritation aboard the Millennium Falcon. That a beloved galaxy-spanning saga would one day be retold through Peter Griffin, Stewie, and the rest of Quahog's finest is, by any measure, a strange thing. Yet here is the result: three full episodes of Family Guy, each one a parody retelling of one chapter in the Star Wars original trilogy.

  The first episode, "Blue Harvest", arrived in 2007 to mark Star Wars' 30th anniversary. Its success prompted two direct-to-video sequels, "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and "It's a Trap!", completing the retelling of all three original films. The whole package was collected on Blu-ray and DVD in the United States on the 21st of December 2010.

  What made this possible was not just ambition. George Lucas himself endorsed the project, and the relationship between Lucasfilm and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane turned out to be warmer than almost anyone expected. How that relationship formed, and how three seasons of parody came together across years of writing and production, is a story worth telling in full.

• 2. A Fan With a TiVo

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  Seth MacFarlane had been a Star Wars fan since childhood, and that personal investment shaped how the trilogy came together. The project did not proceed in a legal grey area or over anyone's objection. Lucasfilm officially endorsed "Blue Harvest", and the endorsement came with a striking personal detail: George Lucas himself told MacFarlane that he had TiVoed every episode of Family Guy without purchasing the DVDs. Lucas also said that, alongside Jackass, it was the only show he watched.

  MacFarlane described Lucasfilm as extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works. That goodwill gave the production room to operate. Clips from "Blue Harvest" were shown at Star Wars Celebration IV, where MacFarlane appeared as a special guest. The episode also screened at San Diego Comic-Con in 2007, where the first footage had been previewed at a Family Guy panel for the season premiere.

  The episode itself aired on the 23rd of September 2007, with some slight changes from what had been shown at Comic-Con. That proximity between preview and broadcast suggests the production was well advanced before the public got its first look.

• 3. Casting the Galaxy

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  Peter Griffin plays Han Solo, and Brian Griffin plays Chewbacca. Both are voiced by Seth MacFarlane, which means one actor carries the franchise's central friendship. Stewie Griffin voices Darth Vader, a choice that plays on Stewie's existing menace; Chris Griffin takes on Luke Skywalker, voiced by Seth Green.

  The extended cast fills out the Star Wars universe with figures drawn from across the MacFarlane animated universe. Cleveland Brown, voiced by Mike Henry, plays R2-D2. Herbert, also voiced by Henry, takes the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Joe Swanson, voiced by Patrick Warburton, spans multiple roles across the trilogy: Biggs Darklighter, the probe droid, and Jabba the Hutt.

  Meg Griffin, voiced by Mila Kunis, draws the short straw repeatedly. She plays the Dianoga, the Exogorth, and the Sarlacc across the three films. Mort Goldman, voiced by Johnny Brennan, appears as both a Jawa and Lando Calrissian. Carl, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, plays Yoda. Dee Bradley Baker, not a regular Family Guy cast member, appears as Klaus Heissler voicing Admiral Ackbar.

  Guest casting adds further texture. Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the original films, appears in the trilogy as Angela, cast as Mon Mothma. Adam West plays Grand Moff Tarkin. Patrick Stewart appears in "It's a Trap!" as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Michael Dorn joins him as Lieutenant Worf.

• 4. Writing Under Pressure

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  "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" was written by Kirker Butler, a series regular, before the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Butler also departed the series during this period to become co-executive producer of The Cleveland Show, the Family Guy spinoff. He wrote the first draft in four weeks, working under MacFarlane's guidance.

  The episode was directed by Dominic Polcino, who had also directed "Blue Harvest". That continuity of director across two installments gave the trilogy a degree of visual consistency. "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" also marked a transition point in the production's technical approach: it was the last episode in the series to use hand-drawn animatics before the shift to computer-designed animatics.

  "It's a Trap!" came with a different kind of production story. The cast read through an early draft of the script in March 2009 under the working title "Episode VI: The Great Muppet Caper". A second working title, "We Have a Bad Feeling About This", referenced the recurring Star Wars catchphrase. The final title settled on a different famous line from the same film.

• 5. Where the Story Ends

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  When the question of spoofing the prequel and sequel trilogies was raised, writer Alec Sulkin was candid about why it would not happen easily. He said that by the end of the third episode, the team was, in his words, "about ready to kill ourselves". The difficulty of spoofing The Empire Strikes Back was cited as one primary reason further parodies were unlikely.

  The 2012 Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm changed the landscape. Sulkin noted that the new arrangement was harder to navigate than the previous direct relationship with Lucasfilm, where MacFarlane had a personal connection. MacFarlane himself posted on Twitter that Disney keeps a tighter hold, making further parodies unlikely. Sulkin did note this could change following Disney's later acquisition of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, which brought both companies under closer alignment.

  A spoof of the Indiana Jones series was also considered during this period, but as of the source's writing, no updates on its production had appeared. The three-film Family Guy retelling of the original Star Wars trilogy stands as the complete record of what the collaboration produced.