Something, Something, Something, Dark Side

Plot

As the Griffin family is watching television, the power suddenly goes out, leading Peter to retell the story of The Empire Strikes Back.

After the "opening crawl" an Imperial Star Destroyer deploys a series of probe droids in search of the Rebel Alliance. One of the probe droids (Joe) lands on the ice planet Hoth, where the Rebels have set up a base. Rebel commander Luke Skywalker (Chris) is patrolling when he is attacked by a large wampa (Cookie Monster) and taken back to its lair. At the base, Han Solo (Peter) announces his intention to leave the Rebellion to Princess Leia (Lois) and Carlist Rieekan (Dr. Hartman), with Leia objecting to his decision, however she denies it when confronted, saying she would rather kiss George Takei. When he finds out that Luke has not yet returned, Han sets out on his "Dondon" to find him. Luke escapes the wampa lair and has a vision of his late mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), who tells him to go to the Dagobah system to learn the ways of the Force from Jedi Master Yoda, after offering him a bowl of Zima soup. Han quickly locates Luke, and the two are rescued soon after.

Soon after, the Empire discovers the Rebel base, and Darth Vader (Stewie) orders an attack. The Imperial fleet exits hyperspace too early, giving the Rebels time to evacuate the base while Luke leads his squadron of snowspeeders to hold off the Empire's battalion of Imperial Walkers. Imperial stormtroopers break into the base, forcing Han to escape in the Millennium Falcon with Leia, C-3PO (Quagmire) and Chewbacca (Brian), while Luke escapes in his X-wing with R2-D2 (Cleveland), stopping to see R2's niece's violin recital. The Millennium Falcon enters an asteroid field and Han decides to dock inside a cave to repair the ship. They flee when they discover they have actually landed in the belly of a space slug (Meg). Meanwhile, Luke crash-lands in the swamps of Dagobah and finds Yoda (Carl) amid the foggy landscape. Yoda trains Luke, guiding him through a series of training exercises, including watching "sweet-ass DVD releases", and a training montage that parodies Rocky IV.

Darth Vader is ordered by the Emperor (Carter) to capture Luke and turn him to the dark side of the Force. Vader recruits bounty hunters to track down and capture Luke's friends, intending to use them as bait to trap Luke, including Raggedy Andy, whom he orders to leave. With the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive broken, Han and company escape by hiding amongst a field of disposed trash, but are tracked by Boba Fett (Ernie the Giant Chicken), after hitting a "space bum" collecting some of the garbage. Luke has a premonition that his friends are in danger and leaves Dagobah to save them, although he has not finished his Jedi training. Yoda initially doesn't want him to go, but encourages it after Luke suggests Yoda fight Vader himself.

Han and the others go to Cloud City on the planet Bespin to obtain help from Han's friend Lando Calrissian (Mort), "the only black guy in the galaxy", only to be turned over to Darth Vader. Han willingly reveals the location of Luke and the Rebel base but is tortured by being forced to listen to Paula Cole's "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?", as punishment for clogging a toilet on the 16th floor of Cloud City, which forced Vader to use the "little pig people's" bathroom. Han is used to test a carbon freezing chamber Vader intends to use on Luke to take him to the Emperor. Leia professes her love to Han, but Han tells her to "fuck off" and is then frozen in carbonite for posterity. Lando later double-crosses the Empire, freeing Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO, motivating the guards with a pizza party. Despite R2-D2 having sex with the combination lock, and subsequently being discovered by her husband, to get the door open, they are too late to stop Boba Fett from flying off with Han. Luke arrives at Cloud City and, after being briefly interrupted by Ryan Seacrest on American Idol, engages Vader in a lightsaber duel. Vader cuts off Luke's right hand. With Luke cornered and defenseless, Vader goads Luke to join the dark side, revealing that he is his father. Luke casts himself into an air shaft and, after discovering that a worker has shoved his severed hand down his pants, ends up hanging on an antenna beneath the city, calling out to Ben, Leia, and Tom Selleck. Leia senses Luke's call from within the Millennium Falcon and has him rescued. On board a Nebulon-B frigate, Luke is fitted with an artificial hand, but told to practice masturbating with a hot dog first. Lando, dressed in Han's clothes, sets off with Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon to rescue Han. Luke angrily protests the story's ambiguous ending, but then he receives a letter from Doc Brown, a reference to the ending of Back to the Future Part II.

In the Griffins' home, the power returns as Peter finishes his story, only to get into another argument with Chris over Robot Chicken. Chris vows to not let Peter get his goat this time, but eventually storms off when Peter brings up Without a Paddle.

Production and development

The episode was written by series regular Kirker Butler, before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, and before his leave from the series in order to become co-executive producer of the Family Guy spinoff series The Cleveland Show. Butler wrote the first draft of the episode in four weeks, under the guidance of series creator Seth MacFarlane. The episode was directed by Dominic Polcino, who had previously directed "Blue Harvest". This was the last episode in the series to use hand-drawn animatics, before transitioning to computer-designed animatics.

In addition to the regular cast, voice actor Jon Benjamin reprised his role as Carl, who portrays Yoda, and Sheriff John Bunnell made his second appearance in the series, the first being in the eighth season episode "Quagmire's Baby". Actor James Woods, in his third appearance in the series, as an exaggerated version of himself, guest starred. Actors James Caan, Jackson Douglas and Joe Flaherty, along with voice actors James Greene, Phil LaMarr, Kevin Michael Richardson and George Rogan made appearances. Recurring guest voice actors Johnny Brennan, Chris Cox, Ralph Garman, Wally Wingert, writers Kirker Butler, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, John Viener, writer and showrunner Mark Hentemann, and producer Chris Sheridan also made minor appearances in the episode. Live-action clips of actor Dolph Lundgren, actress Brigitte Nielsen and actor Michael Pataki from the film Rocky IV, and actor Tom Selleck from the film Her Alibi were also used in multiple sequences throughout the episode.

The DVD release of "Blue Harvest" on January 15, 2008, contained an easter egg of a brief read through of bits from "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", as well as a teaser trailer for the episode as another easter egg.

The title of this episode is a reference to a specific line from the season five episode "Barely Legal", which was used in a cutaway relating to Star Wars. The line is an inside joke relating to the Emperor "figuring out the formula for great dialogue" for Star Wars. While the Emperor talks to a kneeling Darth Vader, he says "Something, something, something, dark side. Something, something, something, complete". "Barely Legal" was written by Kirker Butler, who also wrote this episode.

Reception

In a significant decrease from the previous episode, "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" was viewed in 6.13 million homes in its first half-hour, and 6.39 in its second (previous episode was viewed in 7.59 million homes). It aired simultaneously with the season finale of The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC, the series finale of Lost on ABC, and Brooks & Dunn – The Last Rodeo on CBS. The episode acquired a 3.0 and 3.2 rating, in the first and second half-hours respectively, in the 18–49 demographic. The episode beat the season finales of The Simpsons and The Cleveland Show in both the 18–49 demographic and in total viewership.

Reviews of the television broadcast were highly positive, praising its close attention to detail in parodying the original film. Jason Hughes of TV Squad found the episode to be "incredibly [impressive]," going on to note, "As much as we fans love the films, we know they're not perfect, and that they're downright ridiculous in places. Family Guy managed to point out virtually all of those moments in this parody." Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club found the episode to have "a lot of solid laughs", and admired the show for "throwing itself into these outsized movie parody things". Critics of the DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases gave the episode high praise for its ability to accurately reflect the original film. Cindy White of IGN gave the episode an 8 out of 10, noting that it "lives up to its predecessor and, like the film it spoofs, arguably exceeds it in some ways". John Scott Lewinski of Wired praised the faithfulness to the original film, saying that it "becomes clear that MacFarlane and his writers are legit Star Wars fans". Adam Rosenberg of MTV Movies Blog called the episode "hilarious" and Paul Semel of Metromix praised the episode for featuring "some very ribald humor", and "[skewering] the original movie with some rather insightful moments". In a subsequent review of Family Guy's eighth season, Ramsey Isler of IGN listed "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" as being a "pretty entertaining parody, and a safe way to wrap things up." Tom Eames of entertainment website Digital Spy placed the episode at number six on his listing of the best Family Guy episodes in order of "yukyukyuks" and described the episode as "almost as good as the first [Star Wars parody], but much better than the third [Star Wars parody]." He added that the episode is "a bit bizarre on paper, but it works", and noted that you need to be a fan of the Star Wars franchise to understand the jokes.

Home release

On December 22, 2009, before the episode first aired, it was released on DVD in Region 1, and — in a first for the series — the episode was available on Blu-ray Disc. It was released on December 26, 2009 in Region 2, and on December 23, 2009 in Region 4. As with "Blue Harvest", a limited edition version is available in the region 2 version, and comes with collectible items, including a T-shirt of The Giant Chicken as Boba Fett. The Blu-ray Disc release features a second disc containing a "digital copy" of the episode.

Sequel

With the success of "Blue Harvest" and "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", a sequel episode, entitled "It's a Trap!" and parodying the film Return of the Jedi, aired during the ninth season of Family Guy. The episode was written by David A. Goodman and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, and directed by Peter Shin, in his first episode since the fourth season.