‘Family Guy’ reunites ‘Trek’ crew
Science fiction and animated parody seem to go together like, uh, Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher.
OK, clumsy analogy. But seriously, what is it about sci-fi that makes it so ripe for mockery by animated comedies such as Family Guy?
“I think it’s easy to mock things that take themselves too seriously,” said David Goodman, the show-runner and co-executive producer of Family Guy. “Star Trek is both wonderful and pompous at the same time.”
Great point. And Goodman, by the way, is a self-confessed “hardcore Trekkie,” as is Family Guy creator and voiceover star Seth MacFarlane.
Anyway, in a new Family Guy episode titled Not All Dogs Go to Heaven, which airs Sunday on Global and Fox, the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation reunites in animated form.
“They all were very game,” Goodman said. “Many of them already had done the show (individually). Patrick Stewart (who played Captain Picard) is sort of in the family, because he has a recurring role on American Dad and he has done Family Guy more than once.
“It was not hard at all (to convince them). They were fans of the show. They couldn’t have been nicer or more game to spoof themselves. As a group, they could not have had a better sense of humour, which you don’t always find with actors. A lot of actors don’t like to play themselves, don’t like to spoof themselves, but this group is just the opposite.”
Star Trek: The Next Generation ran for seven seasons — longer than any other Star Trek series — from 1987 to 1994. But that’s quite a long time ago.
So, Goodman was asked, why parody TNG now?
“You could ask, why did we do a Back to the Future reference last week, when the movie is (24) years old?” replied Goodman, whose show has another Star Wars parody and a Tootsie spoof in the works, too.
“Seth and I are huge fans of Star Trek and we realized that although there had been plenty of episodes in episodic television that brought back the cast of the original series — in fact, I wrote one of them for Futurama — nobody had reunited The Next Generation cast. And The Next Generation was a hugely popular show in its day. I think they got like 10 or 12 million viewers a week, and I think we only get like eight million.
“We aren’t necessarily going to reference the most current show, although we do that (sometimes). Our stock in trade is our own memories of shows we watched when we were younger.”
In Not All Dogs Go to Heaven, Stewie (voiced by MacFarlane) builds a transporter and beams the cast of The Next Generation to his bedroom so they can spend a fun-filled day together in Quahog. The guest voices from TNG belong to Stewart, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes.
“They’re all playing themselves (as opposed to their TNG characters), so we had fun playing with who they really are, and Stewie discovers what it’s like to hang out with them,” Goodman said. “It’s the Family Guy twist on your expectations, so I’m very pleased with the surprises in the episode.”
Goodman was asked what the funniest line of dialogue in the episode is. “To me the best line is what Stewie says to the (TNG) cast at the end of the episode,” Goodman said.
“I’m not going to give it away. But (Stewie) didn’t get to ask his question at the Star Trek convention, so he kidnaps all of them and has a little bit of a journey with them.
“His final words to them, I think, are very funny.” Can’t wait.
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