TVSquad

Due to the complicated and apparently outdated Emmy Awards nomination rules, prime-time animated shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad, South Park and others have had to choose which Emmy category they want to compete in, animated or comedy series. Then, that decision impacts eligibility for writers and animators on those shows in other categories. Well, Family Guy is in a unique position this year, as their "Blue Harvest" Star Wars parody was classified as a special. And as the animated category looks at single episodes, Family Guy can submit "Blue Harvest" to the animated category, and the show itself, to comedy series.

I'd say it's a tremendous long shot that an animated show can be nominated over the live-action comedy series it will be facing. But there's always a first time for everything; when Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast picked up an Oscar nod for "Best Picture" it was groundbreaking in the same way. It's a tough debate. These shows compete with prime-time comedies every week and yet get put up against the likes of Spongebob Squarepants come awards time. How do you compare The Venture Brothers and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends?

Being the award for Excellence in Animation, this was easily the widest ranging category, and you all really came through in your nomination suggestions (sorry The Venture Brothers doesn't qualify). With animation owning several channels all to itself and still appearing everywhere else, you've got kid's shows, very much adult only series (did I mention The Venture Brothers can't get nominated?), gag cartoons, sci-fi cartoons and even gothic horror.

With your help from my Adam Finley Award call for nominations post last week where you tried to trick me into nominating The Venture Brothers, even though I can't, we've managed to narrow down the field of contenders to what we feel were the five strongest entries into the wide world of television animation in the past season. Don't forget to check out the Reader's Choice at the bottom where you can vote for which of the five you think are deserving to win. Next week, we'll be revealing both your winner and ours.

For many longtime TV Squad readers the name Adam Finley could only be associated with one thing: the wide world of animation. Adam was passionate about animation, covering many shows for us here as well as reporting on anything and everything happening in the industry. So it's only right that the award for Excellence in Animation be named after him.

There's all kinds of possibilities for contenders here. I'd give a nod to both Star Wars tributes -- Family Guy and Robot Chicken -- and South Park definitely stretched their animation style with 'Major Boobage,' but I didn't think the episode was all that good. Aqua Teen Hunger Force had some good episodes this season (personal favorites include the VeggieTales parody and that crazy trilogy that opened the season).

But I've by no means watched all the best in animation this year, so I call out to you, dear readers. Which episodes or shows do you think set the bar or even raised it in this past year? Are The Simpsons out of their prime and not worthy of TVS recognition? How about King of the Hill or American Dad? The new The Mr. Men Show is retro-tastic, simple, but still cleverly awesome! Too many to handle! Help me TVS Readers, you're my only hope!

This time we've got five copies of Family Guy - Blue Harvest on DVD for five lucky, random commenters. The set is available in stores tomorrow.

To enter, simply leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, January 18, simply telling us what your favorite episode of Family Guy is. As always, we'll randomly choose five winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
Click here for complete Official Rules.

(S04E12) "Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see." - Yoda

I can't be the only one that had the clone wars running through their noggin through half of this episode. I'm not even a big Star Wars fan, but as soon as Todd started in explaining how the base worked, and how they used it in the war with the Ancients, it was all I could think about. I'll be hearing Yoda in my head all weekend now. That's not to say it was a bad episode. The idea is certainly familiar, but it brought with it some interesting backstory, and that's more than a fair trade.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Will you watch Star Wars, the TV Show? How about if it doesn't have any of your favorite characters in it?
  
• Guiding Light is about to get a major makeover.
  
• The strike is coming! The strike is coming! Maybe. What you can expect, if it does .
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

According to James Hibberd at TV Week, the team behind the Family Guy Star Wars episode may take a crack at parodying The Empire Strikes Back next year, possibly even having it be an annual event like The Simpsons Halloween specials.

One good thing about parodying Empire is that they can touch on the Han/Leia romance since the roles are played by Peter and Lois Griffin, respectively, who are married on the show. The producers weren't allowed to touch the Luke/Leia kiss because they wanted to play on the incest angle (which would have worked doubly so since Luke was played by Lois' son Chris). This logic may also explain why Princess Leia is played by Lois rather than Meg.

(S06E01) A long time ago, but somehow in the future . . .

Who would've thunk it? When Family Guy premiered back in 1999(!) many people tossed it away as a pale imitation of The Simpsons and kind of ignored it. Who knew that eight years later, at the start of the show's 6th season, Seth MacFarlane and his crew would be able to get the approval of George Lucas himself to air a spoof of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It shows how far Family Guy has come since it returned to the prime-time airwaves.

Hey, all you Griffinites out there! I just wanted to remind you that the Family Guy tribute to Star Wars, in reality the sixth season premiere, airs tonight at 9 pm. Yes, I'm just as surprised as you that this show, as well as The Simpsons and King of the Hill, are actually airing during the official fall premiere week. Due to previous seasons chocked with baseball, football and American Idol's Tribute to Randy Johnson's Toenails, we usually didn't get to see the season premieres of these shows until election time. Maybe someone over at FOX finally has their head screwed on correctly.

I had a chance to review the episode ahead of time (you'll see my 'very special' post on it this evening) and all I have to say is this: if you like movie spoofs like Airplane and Spaceballs you'll like this Family Guy episode. While it actually sticks to the plot of Star Wars quite well, there are enough silly jokes in there to make the show quite enjoyable. Plus, it's interesting to see how each of the members of the Family Griffin are cast into Star Wars roles.

Those crazy kids over at CollegeHumor.com have posted a great mash-up of The Simpsons and Star Wars.

I realize that Simpson/Star Wars parodies have been done to death, but this latest one goes into such detail that it stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Pay special attention to how each Simpson plays a specific Star Wars character and the depiction of specific scenes from different films. I am particulalry fond of Ned Solo and Barney "Chewie" Gumble.

I'm sitting here watching Robot Chicken Star Wars online with video commentary from creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, and in the opening sequence Green explains how the animators actual animated a real AT-AT toy to duplicate the Imperial Walker scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Green mistakenly refers to it as a Hasbro toy, but as all Star Wars fans know, it was Kenner that made the toys, not Hasbro.

Of course, the fact that I would even know that makes me exactly the sort of Star Wars geek the folks at Robot Chicken were aiming for. I hate to admit I wasn't as floored by the special as I was hoping, and somewhat disappointed to see sequences reused from past episodes, but it was clear, based on the special; the interludes with Green, Senreich and Breckin Meyer; and the aforementioned commentary, that these guys really love Star Wars, and that alone made it worthwhile.

[via Pop Candy]

Boy, howdy! If you don't have the TiVo or DVR (or, for the non-believers, VCR) cleared out by Sunday night you are going to miss a ton of Robot Chicken. In addition to the show's tribute to everything Star Wars premiering on Father's Day evening, the entire Adult Swim schedule will be dedicated to everything Robot Chicken from the beginning of their broadcast schedule till the break of dawn.

It will begin with the 30-minute Star Wars special at 10 pm. The special will then air at the top of each hour until Adult Swim's broadcast day ends at 6 a.m. Monday morning to make room for parent Cartoon Network. At the bottom of each hour Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich will air their favorite episodes.

USA Today has a nice article about Green, Senreich, and the special they created. In it they talk about what they had to go through to get Star Wars creator George Lucas' blessing to create such a special, and to get Lucas to provide his voice in one of the scenes. I wonder if that blessing also extended to another show that Seth is involved with -- Family Guy. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the FOX animated comedy is doing it's own spoof of Star Wars for next season.

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has been given the greenlight from George Lucas to do his own take on Star Wars, using the characters from Family Guy. The Star Wars "spoof" will open next season, but MacFarlane previewed some of the episode for the Star Wars fans at last month's convention.

The clip is a whopping ten minutes long (the episode will be one hour) and the very beginning of it either borrows a joke from or gives a nod to Spaceballs, with a bumper sticker on the back of Darth Vader's ship. Unfortunately, it's a little hard to hear all of the jokes over the audience, but what you can hear is pretty funny. It looks well thought-out, like something MacFarlane has been thinking about doing for a long time.

Video is after the jump:

It hasn't even been a week since Family Guy wrapped for the season, but already there's buzz about next season's premiere. The cartoon has received George Lucas' blessing to spoof Star Wars. The episode will be an hour-long and use the Family Guy characters to recreate Star Wars. So, Peter Griffin will be Han Solo, Lois will be Leia, Stewie will be Darth Vader, Brian will be Chewbacca, Chris will be Luke. Etc, etc.

This is interesting because we're already going to see a Star Wars spoof from Robot Chicken next month, which not only has Lucas' blessing but also his cooperation. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane often voices characters on Robot Chicken and Seth Green produces Robot Chicken but also voices 'Chris' on Family Guy. Not sure if this all came together by coincidence or what.

MacFarlane will premiere some of the Family Guy/Star Wars spoof at this weekend's Star Wars convention in LA.

(S05E12) Looking back on this one, as an admitted Stewie fan, I'm surprised that I liked it as much as I did. For the most part, my favorite Family Guy episodes are those where Stewie gets his own feature plot. He was relegated to Meg or Chris background status here, but the episode was still one of the best of the season.

Chalk a lot of that up to giving Quagmire a chance to shine. He's a great character, so it's nice to get to see him used a little more on occasion. If the experiment with Stewie and Brian's talk show, Up Late, goes well, I wouldn't mind seeing Quagmire get his own show. Maybe something along the lines of Midnight Q from "PTV." He did have the line of the night with his "...contents of your panties may have shifted..." bit after missing the flight.