"Family Guy" Creator Reveals Star Wars Cred

Working with a franchise like "Family Guy" which has its own brand of viewers, MacFarlane can relate to the idea of passionate fandom. "With sci-fi fans and animation fans, there's a possessive feel about the things they like," MacFarlane says. "Fans are vehemently passionate about what goes on in the franchise for both in 'Family Guy' and in Star Wars. We look at our message boards and there's people complaining about this and that every single week, and we read that as passion rather than meanness."

This passion could also account for the number of Star Wars references in films, books, comics, games and TV shows today. "Anyone who's in the film industry is going to be a Star Wars fan," MacFarlane says. "But I also think it's because Lucasfilm allows people to make references, unlike most franchises. We did a skit where Stewie replaces Gene Kelly in a film and it was like pulling teeth with Warner Bros. to get it approved. It wasn't the case with Lucasilm. Plus people are always talking about Star Wars because it's universally known. I bet throughout the world more people know who Darth Vader is than Dick Cheney."

Watching "Family Guy: Blue Harvest" it's obvious how much MacFarlane and his crew love Star Wars. "When you're watching a great piece of science fiction like Star Wars it's filmmaking at its most impressive," MacFarlane explains. "It gets your heart pumping like no other franchise can. You never know what you're going to see. Playing with viewers' expectations is one of the loftiest goals to achieve. There's an excitement to that medium and it inspires you to throw yourself into it. I've always thought it would be fun to do a pilot or something myself."

"I'm proud to call myself a Star Wars fan because I'm a member of the human race," MacFarlane adds. "I honestly don't know how you couldn't be a fan."

Stay tuned to starwars.com for more "Family Guy: Blue Harvest" coverage.