Family Guy - Blue Harvest

The Star Wars-inspired "Blue Harvest" waseasily the most anticipated Family Guy episode of all time. The hour-long special tribute episode is something both fans and non-fans have been eagerly waiting for ever since it was announced. With this kind of hype, it's hard for any single episode of a television program to live up to expectations, and "Blue Harvest" ultimately does fall victim to its own hype. It's good, but it's not nearly as good as it could have been.
The biggest problems with using Star Wars as your reference for an extended flashback is that we've already seen hundreds of segments of Star Wars-inspired humor over the last 30 years. We know what scenes are easy targets for jokes, and thankfully the writer, Alec Sulkin, does manage to make the most of the ripe targets and even show some comic brilliance on several occasions. Unfortunately, these moments are too few for an hour-long show, and a large portion of this episode ends up feeling like a scene-for-scene animated retelling of A New Hope, as opposed to a unique Family Guy take. Also, the choice of using the creepy old child-molesting Herbert as Obi-Wan never really feels right. Sure, it's part of the offensive style of humor we come to expect from the show, but even after multiple viewings, Herbert's creepy mannerisms never seem to inject any actual humor other than the uneasiness of watching him onscreen.

7/10, Good but not Fantastic.