TNG Family Guy Episode

Television, Movies Games and Books Star Trek
#1

Alright, I’ll admit it - I’m annoyed. After watching the Family guy episode last night in full expectation of seeing awesomeness of the TNG crew’s exploits with Stewie I found that I had seen 95 percent of them in the trailer already.

ACK!

I know, I know, I shouldn’t have expected the blue harvest equivalent in TNG form but still… I was hoping for a little more bang. I’m also not trying to be negative here. What I did see last night was good and it would have been super funny had the trailer not given me everything already.

So let me ask this, did anyone not see the trailer for it and see the episode? I have the feeling you were better off than I was and I’d like the other view point because I get the feeling I may be a victim of my own enthusiasm here.

Of course Peter did tell us it was a “Meg” Episode and he wouldn’t blame us for changing the channel…

#2

I normally don’t watch Family Guy and DVRed it based on hearing you mention it on the podcast. I thought it was amusing and laughed when Denise Crosby was killed indiscriminately right at the beginning. Other gags were somewhat amusing, particularly Patrick Stewart’s deadpan delivery. Anyway, I agree this wasn’t the episode to turn me into a Family Guy convert…

#3

Yeah, it was asomething of a letdown. You got all of these people to be in your episode and you basically do nothing with everyone save Patrick Stewart, who’s already in a Seth MacFarlane show anyway?

Except for the Hwil Hweaton jokes, it was pretty disappointing. Whether or not Peter called it a “Meg”, it was still advertised as a Star Trek episode, and it was hardly that at all.

This is from someone who’s been won over by Fmaily Guy since its resurrection, where it actually got FUNNIER than the quickly-tiring original concept of the show (namely, Stewie being “evil”).

#4

Wil Wheaton said on Twitter that he recorded much more dialog than that. Looks like it got trimmed way down. He’s hoping it’ll show up on the DVD, but he’s not even sure if they animated it.

#5

No, you weren’t. I hadn’t seen the trailer, and I still felt let down. I love Family Guy, but this was frankly a pretty weak episode in general. For the most interesting part of it to be relegated to a B-storyline seems like a poor choice. Why bother assembling this group if they’re each only going to get one or two lines? (Denise Crosby’s early demise was brilliant, I’ll give them that.)

Having seen Fox’s past heavy-handed treatment of sci-fi (e.g., Futurama, Firefly, Dollhouse), not to mention Hwil Hweaton’s comments, I’m almost wondering if there wasn’t some network pressure to put out a somewhat more “mainstream” episode…?

#6

Dude–right there with ya…tehre were maybe an additional two seconds of stuff that I hadn’t seen…beyond that…UGH!:mad:

#7

I would normally agree with you, but having the main story be about being born-again…not sure that would be defined as, “mainstream”. If the main story was a wacky Peter gets lost in a brewery I would be totally behind you.

As I told my wife last night, “it had some funny bits, but I was sold a different bill of goods than what I expected.” I howled with laughter at all of their sequences (especially the fast food ordering) but beyond that I expected a full on A story starring the cast. Why go to all the effort and then only have 5% of the episode be TNG focused? Strange.

#8

sorry to be lazy with no link but last nights ep had the cast in cameos!

#9

I scratched my head after this episode.

I wondered if there was some kinda message about Star Trek, atheism, and the universe. But eventually just threw my arms in the air. The TNG bits were fun but the episode felt like an unsatisfying meal. I wondered if that was on purpose since it was a “Meg” episode and I was supposed to be repulsed or angered. Then I thot, “I’m over-thinking this.”

#10

Actually, you might be on to something. They might have come up with the Meg angle, then thought “Hey, let’s see if we can get the TNG guys onboard.” So, they had already painted everything but the corner.

#11

OK, maybe not “mainstream”, per se, but far less sci-fi. It was almost as if they wanted to keep the geek content to an absolute minimum.

As I told my wife last night, “it had some funny bits, but I was sold a different bill of goods than what I expected.” I howled with laughter at all of their sequences (especially the fast food ordering) but beyond that I expected a full on A story starring the cast. Why go to all the effort and then only have 5% of the episode be TNG focused? Strange.

Exactly. It reminded me of Futurama’s TOS cast reunion show, except that one was done right. :mad:

#12

That was what I was hoping for. I thot for sure they were gonna do a Stewie showtune with the cast of TNG. Something like, “Springtime for Stewie and T-N-G” Alas, for not.

#13

The only other Family Guy episode I’ve watched was their Blue Harvest show. Last night’s show isn’t likely to get me to sit down and watch the show again any time soon. The very few TNG bits were fun and witty…but not enough of them. :frowning:

#14

Actually, the Hwhole Meg story line seemed set up for the dog to give his speech at the end so they could pull back from Earth recreating the opening of ST:TNG. That was pretty cool too, but other than that not much to write home about…

#15

Say nuclear wessel!

#16

It felt like they put together two episodes. Both ideas the Star Trek part and Meg’s born again part could be separate episodes. I do feel South Park deals with religon on a more deeper level than Family Guy did. Family Guy works better with small jabs at ideas instead of a full deconstruction of a idea.

#17

That’s a really good point, and one I hadn’t thought through before. You’re exacTly right, SP can do pretty hugely sweeping ideas, and FG does a much better job a picking a particular nit, over and over again. Until it isn’t funny. And then a bit more until it’s funny again.