While everyone has some kind of opinion about last night's season premiere of Family Guy and its official and fully authorized Star Wars parody, I would like to remind everyone that Muppet Babies did this first...and more than once...over 20 years ago.
First, in 1984, on the episode entitled Gonzo's Video Show.
And this was 1984, merely one year after Return of the Jedi hit theaters, when some of us who loved Star Wars AND watched cartoons were still actually children!
You remember Muppet Babies, right?
Here's the recap of what was (obviously) my favorite episode of the series :
Nanny has rented a video camcorder so she can study her tennis swing, but she has some time left before she has to return it to the store so she lets the muppet babies play with it for a while. The muppets argue about what kind of movie to make with the camcorder and eventually decide to re-enact "Star Wars" since there are enough parts in that movie so everyone can participate: Kermit is Kermit Skyhopper, Animal is Animal Vader, Piggy is Princess Piggy, Gonzo is Gon Zolo, Fozzie is Fozzwokka, Rowlf is Obi Rowlf Kenobi, Skeeter is Skeeter3PO, and Skooter is SkooterD2. When they are done filming they invite Nanny to the nursery to see the completed film. Everyone pulls up a pretend car and pretends that the nursery is a drive-in movie theatre. The film plays and everyone loves it! The muppets decide that they are going to go to Hollywood to pursue careers in showbiz, but Nanny reminds them that they are still way too young and that there is plenty of time for all of their dreams to come true!
A few years later, they revisited Star Wars in an episode where Rowlf has to take a bath and the Muppet Babies hop through various, sci-fi related parodies, from The Jetsons to Star Trek to, naturally, Star Wars.
Here are some YouTube clips:
So there ya go, kids. Family Guy: Boldly going where the Muppet Babies have gone before!
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