Family Guy X The Simpsons crossover

Who voices Ned Flanders? If it's Harry Shearer, he was the only regular Simpsons cast member not to be available for this crossover.

There's that, but also, think they should have made nods to both Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire and Screwed The pooch, given the fact Brian slept with a racing greyhound from the latter, while Santa's Little Helper was a racing greyhound himself, as seen from the former?

You're correct, and from what I read, he was a no-show.

edited 30th Sep '14 7:31:48 AM by HallowHawk

"I don't like Family Guy. I dislike most of the Simpsons family. I'm watching this because I like crossovers. I've actually managed to find a few good jokes. Mission successful."

Huh. Crossover episodes tend not to go over as well for the most part.

"I guess even *whatever alignment Bart has* Has Standards."

Everyone Has Standards.

I like seeing how the characters meet each other and interaction in crossovers. But, I'm not much of a fan of Family Guy and I don't really like a lot of Simpsons main characters, so...yeah...

Does anyone here think Fox will release this episode on a standalone DVD? I think they will because they did it for the Star Wars crossovers, and both Family Guy and the Simpsons are major money spinners. If they got this out on DVD in time for Christmas, that would be a license to print money for them.

I liked how they referenced/spoofed the "Brian's death" debacle by having Peter ran over by Moleman and Grandpa and then being perfectly fine two seconds later. Also I loved the courtroom scene, that was also a throwback to that Simpsons episode where the creator of Itchy & Scratchy was accused of plagiarism.

I didn't like the Car Wash scenes, but then again I never liked Overly-Long Gags, so probably that's just me.

All in all it was better than what I thought.

edited 1st Oct '14 1:45:03 AM by DaddyMulk

Oh yeah, they're definitely going to do it.

Archived live-chat of the crossover at the AV Club.

I guess they didn’t like it.

Im surprised to say some of the jokes were funny. One was so funny....I cried.

I really hate Family Guy's Overly Long Gag timing. Car Wash should have either been much shorter or much less disgusting. The fight at the end seemed long even by Chicken Fight standards (and I was waiting for the chicken to come in angry at both of them for stealing his bit).

I really enjoyed the first half. The Duff/Pawtucket Ale meta gag was run into the ground by the end of the first scene of it (though I did like the character parallels bit and Fred Flintstone cameo) and I would have rather had more of everybody playing off each other like in the first half than the lawsuit and fight.

I would've paired Stewie with Maggie, and Chris with Bart. Chris had barely anything to do. However, that does leave Brian without anything to do really.

Hey-Diddly-Ho Neighbor!

Really wished they found some way to get Ned Flanders in the episode.

edited 3rd Oct '14 12:20:34 PM by Lionheart0

No way. For some reason, Harry Shearer was the only Simpsons cast member who couldn't record for the crossover.

Don't ask me what brought this on, but i really have to get this out, even though i know what the response to it is gonna be

First, as i said earlier, this crossover only further proves what a terrible father Peter is to Meg. I don't care how many "once in a blue moon" times he was nice to Meg, they hardly make up for the many times he, and Lois, and the show in general, have been cruel to her. She deserves better than this.

Secondly, while i wouldn't call this crossover bad, i wasn't really expecting to see it. Mainly because it didn't seem necessary. Plus, i really couldn't imagine the Simpsons in the same kind of sadistic and blue-collar environment as Family Guy. That bit with Marge pointing out that Brian was a dog just seemed so out of character for her. From where i stand, the Simpsons had its limits with how far it would go with its comedy and satire.

Thirdly, it felt like they were trying to get us to feel sorry for the Griffins, when Peter deserved everything that he got and ever has gotten and ever will get

You know, I bet if this crossover came out around 2005-2008, more people would have been excited and the special would have gotten higher ratings. Mainly because people still watched FG (and Simpsons to a lesser extent) and had mostly positive things to say. I mean, FG used to be so much attention just from short jokes like Cool whip!

edited 5th Oct '14 2:48:12 PM by Teddy

I laughed at a few of the jokes and as an episode of Family Guy it was good. But as this big, 10 years in the making extravaganza it fell a bit flat.

I felt that during the first half, not enough was done with the concept. For the first 20 mins, they could have told the exact same jokes and exact same story using Cleveland, Joe and Quagmire. The Simpsons were completely superfluous.

I think the episode highlighted brilliantly just how different the two shows really are. Family Guy is a laugh out loud dark comedy that pushes boundaries while the Simpsons is a slower paced but sharper show that tries harder to develop characters. And really, other than the fact that they're both animated. nuclear family sitcoms; Family Guy and The Simpsons really have nothing in common. It's like trying to crossover Fritz the Cat with Looney Tunes.

On the other hand, I thought the second half was much better. The story line with Pawtucket being a rip off of Duff was a bit of an on-the-nose reference to the Family Guy/Simpsons rivalry but it was great because it's exactly the kind of thing crossovers exist for. That story could not be done without The Simpsons in it and still retain the same impact. Having Fred Flintstone call them both rip offs of himself was a stroke of absolute genius mind you, the only thing that could have topped that would be Jackie Gleason appearing.

There was plenty of stuff that did make me laugh; Stewie's crush on Bart, Cleveland and Carl being the funniest guys in their town, James Woods and James Woods disliking each other and the Homer vs Peter chicken fight were all great.

If they had put the same effort into the second half as they did the first, I'd have been much happier.

Still, I am not surprised by my reaction; I've hyped this up for months and months and it's probably unfair for me to judge it based on the lofty idea I had. I'll probably have to watch it again to really make my mind up on.

Not to me. Marge is used to regular dogs and in her world, dogs belong in the kitchen, not sitting at the dinner table.

Isn't Brian the only "non-regular" dog in his world anyways?

Also, I loved the "US Air Force" cutaway gag.

There's also his brother. Maybe more, but I'm not sure since I'm not a follower.

That's pretty much it outside of cutaway gags.

Besides Brian, there's Jasper, Vinny, New Brian, and Todd, the Griffins' previous dog, though the latter might not be canon, since he was only shown in a cutaway.

I know it's a really cheap joke but I was always imagining "Giggidy" vs "Diddily".

edited 7th Oct '14 1:32:24 PM by RainingMetal

Who is "New Brian"?

From "The Man With Two Brians." He was the family's replacement dog who was better than Brian at everything, but died when he revealed that he had sex with Stewie's teddy bear...

So... I'm a little late to this party, but I just found the crossover on youtube and watched it. Here are my thoughts:

- I did not expect to enjoy Lisa and Meg's scenes as much as I did. The moment when Lisa snatches the saxophone out of Meg's hands was just brilliant on so many levels. I mean, here we see Lisa, an eight year old prodigy/ honor student trying doggedly to help Meg boost her self esteem, and just as her efforts are starting to pay off... she cracks. That reaction was so uniquely Lisa, and it's exactly what I imagined she would have done. Also, the 'shut up, Meg' at the end was one of the most heartfelt moments in the series.

- The ending fight had some pretty decent gags, but was I the only one who found it a little too brutal? I cringed during that graphic shot of Peter and Homer getting their faces caved in. That, and they seem a litlte too willing to forgive each other after literally fighting to the death moments before.

- This is a minor point, but it's kind of odd that Bart wasn't at least a little surprised to meet a talking baby. Actually, now that I think about it, why didn't any of the Simpsons find anything strange about a walking, talking dog coming into their home?