"Family Guy" and TOS

[Hambone]

Seth McFarlane's fondness for Star Trek, and TOS in particular, is well known. On the episode broadcast 03/06/11, two scenes from TOS were recreated; one from "The Enemy Within" and one from "Whom Gods Destroy" (or perhaps it was from "Star Trek VI:The Undiscovered Country"...same scene, different day).

Check it out: the scenes can be found at 3:30 and 20:27.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/218179/family-guy-the-hand-that-rocks-the-wheelchair

Does anyone else have a favorite Family Guy/Trek moment?

 

[BlobVanDam]

I haven't seen much TOS at all, but I easily spotted the evil Stewie scene as being a parody of the Trek scene. Was it the original music? It didn't sound like their usual music.

As for the other scene, hasn't that been done in a million different shows? Or was Trek the first? It's been so done to death it's hard to tell
(I assume we're talking about the choosing which one to shoot scene. I can't watch Hulu from here).

 

[DoBa]

I haven't watched Family Guy in a while. But from what I remember TNG had more of a spotlight. Family Guy got too low-brow for my tastes.

I preferred Trek being in Futurama and Futurama for that matter.

 

[Chris3123]

Was it the original music? It didn't sound like their usual music.

It definitely sounded like the music that played in the similar scene in "The Enemy Within".

The part that was parodied there can be found in this video, beginning around 3:13. Notice how FG made similar use of facial expressions and shadows.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMvHItiLi9I[/yt]

As for the other scene, hasn't that been done in a million different shows? Or was Trek the first? It's been so done to death it's hard to tell

Yeah, that gimmick has been done to death, so I say it's more just making use of the old cliche rather than being a reference to anything in particular.

 

[Ssosmcin]

The very first episode of Family Guy I saw was way back when it first came on. "I Never Met the Dead Man", where Peter crashes into the town's satellite dish and has Meg take the blame. There are to incredibly funny reenactments of Trek, the first illustrating the real captain's log and the second nailing the (admittedly easy target) redshirt thing.

Kirk: "We'll be beaming down and it's likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Ensign Ricky."
Ricky: "Ah crap."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJn9Wqm2Ryk

"William Shatner" them comes on the show and Meg runs him over, killing him (last words: "Beam me up…God."). Ensign Ricky is off to the side: "I didn’t see that comin'."

Well, they're funnier if you actually see them. There's a great line early on that I use on my wife (jokingly of course): "Of course I love you, but I also love Star Trek and in all fairness, Star Trek was here first."

 

[Brannigan]

They've parodied Star Trek II a couple times as well. Stewie loses his bear Rupert and remarks to Brian that he can't go through another funeral. It then cuts to a scene perfect recreation of Spock's Funeral.
In another episode Brian is dating Lauren Conrad and she shows him what she has been working on. After walking through a tunnel, the Genesis cave is revealed and Conrad remarks "Can I cook, or can I cook?"

 

[JiNX-01]

Does anyone else have a favorite Family Guy/Trek moment?

Stewie shoots Denise Crosby.
Ensign Ricky.

ETA: Rupert's funeral.

 

[heavylids]

I haven't watched Family Guy in a while. But from what I remember TNG had more of a spotlight. Family Guy got too low-brow for my tastes.

I preferred Trek being in Futurama and Futurama for that matter.

Agree with this 100%. I really hate Family Guy, but references in Futurama were awesome.

 

[ToddPence]

The creators of "South Park", Trey Parker and Matt Stone, used to put tons of Star Trek references into that show, including an entire episode which was a takeoff on "Dagger of the Mind."

 

[Too Much Fun]

I love those early "Family Guy" Star Trek parodies. The aforementioned episode in which Peter hangs out with Shatner is very fun. There were just two gags I didn't like.

In one, Shatner turns his head in one direction to talk with someone and his toupee remains in the air before settling back on his head perfectly when he turns it back.

In the other, after he's struck by lightning and killed, his huge stomach busts out of his shirt while he's lying on the ground. I thought those were both pretty mean-spirited and unfunny jokes, but the rest of the episode was funny. The Shatner voice impression was amusing and I liked all of his exaggerated 'dramatic' physical motions.

Despite being killed in the episode, Shatner appears in the audience during Peter's play in the season 2 episode "The King is Dead". There's also a parody of Kirk's famous Khan scream as Shatner is seen acting in a theatre production of "Fiddler on the Roof" in a cutaway from season 3's "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein".

"Family Guy" sucks now, and by default, so do all of its Star Trek parodies (what a HUGE wasted opportunity their TNG cast reunion was, aside from the droll gag of Stewie killing Denise Crosby right away), but they did some great stuff back in their early days. One of the coolest things about "Futurama" Star Trek references is that they not only parodied the original series (brilliantly), they also casually destroyed the DS9 space station!

The creators of "South Park", Trey Parker and Matt Stone, used to put tons of Star Trek references into that show, including an entire episode which was a takeoff on "Dagger of the Mind."

I heard they did an episode heavily influenced by the plot of "Star Trek: First Contact". I also saw a clip of one kid's father getting really mad at him and Picard's "NOOOOoooo!!!" from the same movie being dubbed in place of the father's own bellow.

 

[donners22]

The creators of "South Park", Trey Parker and Matt Stone, used to put tons of Star Trek references into that show, including an entire episode which was a takeoff on "Dagger of the Mind."

Indeed, and there was another early episode which strongly referenced The Galileo Seven, IIRC.

 

[BlobVanDam]

"Family Guy" sucks now, and by default, so do all of its Star Trek parodies (what a HUGE wasted opportunity their TNG cast reunion was, aside from the droll gag of Stewie killing Denise Crosby right away), but they did some great stuff back in their early days. One of the coolest things about "Futurama" Star Trek references is that they not only parodied the original series (brilliantly), they also casually destroyed the DS9 space station!

The first season or so of Family Guy was quite bad imo (didn't even remember they'd done that Shatner thing), but FG has been very inconsistent over the years. I still like FG, but it's gone through many seasons of flip-flopping between pretty good and downright awful.
Unfortunately that TNG reunion was during an especially terrible patch, and was a huge waste of potential. Why reunite the entire cast of TNG and not even make it the main story? Instead I have to fast forward through a dreadful story about Meg and Brian to see the good parts of the episode.
Killing Denise Crosby was a funny and unexpected reference, and the Will Wheaton / Patrick Stewart thing was amusing, but aside from that, we just got one or two random lines from each actor about bowling and gardening. The only one who got many lines was Patrick Stewart, who we hear regularly on American Dad, so we got nothing extra from that. There were hardly any references to Trek at all aside from the Trek convention at the beginning of the episode, and the transporter.

I really need to rewatch Futurama. I have them all on DVD, and I've seen every episode several times, but I haven't watched them at all since getting into Trek, aside from Where No Fan Has Gone Before, which is still partially wasted on me for lack of seeing most of TOS. Time for some holoshed action!

 

[Ssosmcin]

Not TOS, but I like any animated episode where Jonathan Frakes participates.

Family Guy:
Captain Picard: Number One, if I were to whisper in your ear that Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny, would you join me in a laugh?

Commander Riker: Yeah, I could get in on that.

Futurama:
Frakes Head: Yes! Front row!

 

[BlobVanDam]

Futurama:
Frakes Head: Yes! Front row!

I watched all of TNG for the first time only a couple of years ago with my friend, and I continually referred to Riker as "Front Row" Riker because of that Futurama episode. And whenever he'd succeed at something (such as getting a girl), I'd always do my best Riker impersonation (which is pretty terrible) and say "YES! Front row".

I'm easily amused.

 

[digger]

I swear I just saw Gary Graham in the ad before the Family Guy episode. I know not everyone gets the same add, but if someone notices him, please post back! It was a commercials about some guy answering a trivia question while a woman is getting her hair combed. The guy I think is Gary Graham is playing the MC dude.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Futurama:
Frakes Head: Yes! Front row!

I watched all of TNG for the first time only a couple of years ago with my friend, and I continually referred to Riker as "Front Row" Riker because of that Futurama episode.

I love the reading and the gag itself, but to me the funniest thing about that bit is the fact that Jonathan Frakes came in just to do the three words. Another regular "Futurama" cast member could have easily done it, but Frakes just had to. If you ever need proof of how much Frakes loves being part of Star Trek and that he'd jump at any opportunity to be part of it again, you've got it right there.

 

[DonIago]

Rupert's Funeral is probably my favorite Family Guy Trek reference, though the Genesis Cave one was hilarious at the time.

For the folks who consider the TNG cast appearance on FG a huge waste of time...the word you're looking for is Iiiiiiiiiiiiirony!

 

[Gary7]

It's not just Seth McFarlane. Executive Producer David Goodman is also a trekkie. He was a consulting producer on Enterprise. And as a kid, I know first hand he was seriously into Star Trek (we went to high school together).

 

[BlobVanDam]

Futurama:
Frakes Head: Yes! Front row!

I watched all of TNG for the first time only a couple of years ago with my friend, and I continually referred to Riker as "Front Row" Riker because of that Futurama episode.

I love the reading and the gag itself, but to me the funniest thing about that bit is the fact that Jonathan Frakes came in just to do the three words. Another regular "Futurama" cast member could have easily done it, but Frakes just had to. If you ever need proof of how much Frakes loves being part of Star Trek and that he'd jump at any opportunity to be part of it again, you've got it right there.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found that amusing Imagine him coming into the recording studio, giving one line, and then leaving. For the sake of 3 words, you can't even tell for sure that it's him. I wonder how much he got paid for that?

 

[Gary7]

Very funny spoof FG did (just watched the segments). I like how they blended Lost In Space SFX with Star Trek ones.