Da Boom

Plot

On December 31, 1999, Quahog prepares for New Year's Day (which is the last New Year's Day of the millennium), and the family has been invited to Joe's millennium party. At a store, a man in a chicken suit asks Peter if he wants a coupon, but Peter refuses, recalling the time he got a bad coupon from Ernie the Giant Chicken and started a massive fistfight. The man warns Peter that the world will end because of the Y2K problem, so Peter locks himself and the family in their basement in hazmat suits. Just after midnight a nuclear holocaust occurs, destroying much of the world and mutating, injuring, and killing many people. The Griffins remain unharmed, and as they look for survivors, they discover that Joe has been melted into his driveway, his son Kevin has been vaporized, and Quagmire and Cleveland have been stitched together and are now called "Clevemire" (or "Quagland"), and Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons have eaten Tricia Takanawa. Starving, Peter immediately eats all the dehydrated meals, without adding water.

Peter recalls that the snackfood Twinkies are the only food that can survive a nuclear holocaust, so the family travels to Natick, Massachusetts in hopes that the Twinkie factory has survived. On the way, Stewie is exposed to nuclear waste and mutates into an octopus-like creature. Upon their arrival at Natick, they discover the factory is still standing and in perfect condition. Expecting to be able to live off of the snackfood, they establish the town of New Quahog around the factory. Peter proclaims himself mayor, and Joe and Clevemire join him to form a ruling council. One year later, New Quahog has become a fresh new community, complete with houses and wells. Peter has successfully reigned as mayor despite many mistakes, such as giving people jobs picked out of a hat rather than based on the person's skills. However, when Brian points out how New Quahog is a peaceful place with no violence, Peter realises that they are completely defenseless and uses the pipes from the city's water irrigation system to make guns and other weapons, outraging the citizens. Meanwhile, Stewie, who has continued to transform into an octopus, suddenly lays hundreds of eggs in the basement of their house.

Despite Peter's insistence that he is fit to continue to be the leader of the new community, the townspeople run him out of New Quahog, and his family follows him. The citizens proceed to burn the guns Peter had made with the pipes in the middle of the town square, but as the final gun in thrown onto the pile, hundreds of newly spawned Octopus-Stewies hatch and begin to destroy the city, with the townspeople unable to protect themselves from the mutants. As the family walks away, oblivious to the town's destruction, they decide to continue to a Carvel factory in Framingham.

The episode ends with a live-action parody of Dallas, in which Pam Ewing (Victoria Principal) wakes up and tells her husband Bobby (Patrick Duffy) about a dream she had of a strange episode of Family Guy. Bobby comforts her, but pauses and then asks "What's Family Guy?", and the two turn and look with confusion into the camera.

Production

"Da Boom" was the third episode of the second season of Family Guy, and the first for director Bob Jaques. It first aired on December 26, 1999. The episode was written by writing team Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, who had written episodes for the show in the first season including "Mind Over Murder".

This was the first episode to have Mila Kunis providing the voice of Meg. Lacey Chabert, the original voice of Meg, left the series due to time constraints with her acting role in Party of Five, as well as schoolwork. Kunis won the role after auditions and a slight rewrite of the character, in part due to her performance on That '70s Show. Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, called Kunis back after her first audition, instructing her to speak slower, and then told her to come back another time and enunciate more. Once she claimed that she had it under control, MacFarlane hired her.

Ernie the Giant Chicken was introduced in this episode. He is an anthropomorphic chicken who serves as a rival to Peter. He has a long, unexpected fight with Peter, which interrupts the main storyline. This has become a running gag, having reappeared in episodes such as "Blind Ambition", "Internal Affairs", "No Chris Left Behind" and "Meet the Quagmires". He is voiced by regular show writer Danny Smith.

In addition to the regular cast, actress Victoria Principal, comedian and actor Will Sasso, reporter, commentator, war correspondent, anchorman Jack Perkins, voice actor Joey Slotnick, and character actor Patrick Duffy guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actress Lori Alan, writer Danny Smith, and actor Patrick Warburton also made minor appearances.

Reception

The episode received positive reviews. Ahsan Haque of IGN rated the episode a 10/10, saying "Overall, this episode easily ranks as one of the best episodes in the series. Almost every joke succeeds, and the far-fetched alternate reality storyline thoroughly entertains. Despite the fact that all of the events in the episode are revealed to be a dream, it doesn't take away from the high degree of amusement provided."