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When Stewie can’t get his questions answered at at Star Trek: TNG reunion con, he takes matters into his own hands. Like any smart toddler, he builds a transporter and beams the entire cast into his bedroom for his own one-on-one Q&A.
It happens tonight on the Family Guy episode “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven.”
Executive Producer David Goodman sat down with reporters this week to talk the episode and how it came about.
Let’s start with the why:
Goodman: Actually, you could ask last week why did we do a Back to the Future reference when the movie is 30 years old. I think we’re fans, especially Seth and I are huge fans of Star Trek and we realize that although there had been plenty of episodic television that brought back the cast of the original series, there, in fact, had not been, in fact, I wrote one of them for Futurama, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” where we reunited the original cast.
But Seth and I realized that nobody had really reunited the Next Generation cast and many of them had already appeared on our show. Next Generation was a hugely popular show in its day, I think they got 10 million or 12 million a week, I think we only get like 8 million, so it was a popular show. We make references to—we’re not necessarily going to reference the most current, although we do that. Our stock and trade is our own memories of shows we watched when we were younger.
How hard was it, gathering the cast together to do this episode?
Goodman: They were wonderful. Many of them had already done the show. I think we had, Patrick Stewart is in the family in a way, he does a recurring role on American Dad, and he’s been on Family Guy more than one once. We had Marina Sirtis, and Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn had already done the show. And the rest, Denise Cosby and Gates McFadden and Wil Wheaton were very game. They were fans of the show. Wil, when he came and did his voice, stayed for hours talking to the artists. It was not hard at all and they couldn’t have been nicer or more game to spoof themselves and have fun with this episode. We had a great time working with them. They were terrific.
Are there any “in” jokes, strictly for the fans?
Goodman: Well, there is a Tasha Yar joke in the episode. It’s pretty obvious from the minute she opens her mouth. And Denise was very game about it and anybody who is familiar with the series will get it right away. Anybody who’s not, it just plays as a joke on its own. And then for me, in fact, the scene that I’m in, it was the second scene that my character is in, I am pontificating about a piece of Star Trek, I’m having an argument with another Star Trek fan about a piece of what they call Star Trek cannon. And the argument is actually a real argument that Star Trek fans have, so I was very pleased with that.
Any concerns about mocking a show with such a devoted following?
Goodman: I think it’s easy to mock things that take themselves too seriously. I think again, Star Trek, it’s both wonderful and pompous at the same time. I really am a die-hard Trekkie, but there are moments in Star Trek where it takes itself very seriously. And in fact, any kind of science fiction show where you have somebody in makeup playing an alien, that’s going to be easy to make fun of, even if it’s done perfectly.
Watch Family Guy tonight, March 29 at 9:00 on Fox with guest voices include Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes.
©2009 FOX BROADCASTING. CR: FOX
