Comic Con: Family Guy Panel Knows The Bird Is The Word

The problem with trying to cover Comic Con with three writers and one photographer is that you can’t see everything or anything close to everything. Sometimes choices have to be made, things have to be sacrificed, men have to be killed… whoops, did I write that or just think it? Whenever a conflict arose, Head Honcho Josh Tyler would make the tough call and I would skeddaddle over to the panel or interview or empty room where something was supposed to happen but got moved without telling me. Such was the case with the Family Guy panel and Josh’s edict “Ed, do NOT miss this panel.”

It turned out there is a reason Josh is the boss-man. Not only did I get to see 10 minutes of an upcoming Family Guy episode, but I got to see an introduction (by Peter Griffin and Cleveland) of the spin-off The Cleveland Show, and I got to watch Seth Green pretend (I hope) to fellate Seth MacFarlane. MacFarlane returned the favor by pimping Green’s fake movie Without a Paddle 2: Back in the Habit. All in all, a pretty funny 45 minutes.

In addition to MacFarlane and Green, the panel included producer David Goodman (who cracked “I know what some of you are thinking, I didn’t know the guy from the Subway commercials worked at Family Guy”), writer/actor Mike Henry, writer/actor John Viener, writer/producer Chris Sheridan, producer Kara Vallow, and director Greg Colten. Colten got off one of the best lines of the day when asked if he had anything to talk about, he said, “I’ll wait for Q&A, cause I know everyone has lots of questions for me.” He was literally not heard from again. Sheridan said they will be doing a sequel to Family Guy’s Star Wars parody, “The Blue Harvest.” The show, based on Empire Strikes Back, will be called “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side.” Sheridan then read a few comments from Fox censors after they read the script. One comment read, “please substitute for Obi-Wan’s line to Chris ‘pull your pants down;’ this plays as aggressively predatorial towards young Chris who is lying face down.” You think?

They also talked about some upcoming shows including the family getting a new dog that’s insanely happy and Brian leaving (but then coming back, unlike, as MacFarlane notes, Cleveland.) There will also be a show based on the sci-fi television series Sliders, with Stewie and Brian visiting parallel universes. As MacFarlane described it, “great premise, sh***y f***in’ show.” There will also be a time travel show back to 1939 Poland, accidentally dragging along Mort Goldman. Goodman worried, “I’m going to get kicked out of my Temple.”

They then brought out Act 1 of a Brain Scully written episode called “I Dream of Jesus.” It follows Peter’s obsession with a recording of the Trashmen’s 1963 hit, “Surfin’ Bird.” In addition to (over)playing the song in question to great effect, there is also the most incredible Office Space homage I’ve ever seen. With Stewie and Brian doing to a record of “Surfin’ Bird” what the guys did to the fax machine. Brilliant. Jesus even shows up at the end, forced by Peter’s attempt to pee on Amy Grant CD’s to reveal his true identity.

The rest of the panel involved taking questions by fans and pushing The Cleveland Show. MacFarlane will appear on the show as the patriarch of a bear family that lives near Cleveland in his hometown of Stoolbin, Virginia. Other neighbors of Cleveland and his new wife and kids (what Henry calls a “black Brady Bunch”) are unrefined hillbillies (think Cletus from The Simpsons.) The introductory snippet looked funny and the panel members really have high hopes for the show.

Thanks to Josh for making sure I didn’t duck out of this panel and go see “The Ins and Outs of Investing in Comics” or something. I can’t wait to see the second half of “I Dream of Jesus” or the Sliders parody. The Cleveland Show doesn’t rock my world, but time will tell. Wow, that’s deep.