Family Guy: Blue Harvest

Production
Blue Harvest originally aired on September 23, 2007, as the premiere for the sixth season of Family Guy. The episode was written by Alec Sulkin, who has been with the show since the fourth season. It was directed by series veteran Dominic Polcino, who has been directing for the series since its first season. Series regulars Peter Shin and James Purdum served as supervising directors. The episode's music was composed by Walter Murphy.
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane explained that the reason they made a parody of Star Wars in particular was because the show's staff members were huge fans of the films. Another reason they chose Star Wars was because Lucasfilm allowed it. MacFarlane stated that creating parodies based off Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark or Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was originally considered, but they assumed they would be unable to gain permission from the owners of those properties (in this case Paramount Pictures). Lucasfilm only gave the show's staff one condition, which was that the characters had to look exactly like they do in the movies.
Clips of the episode were shown to audience members at Star Wars Celebration IV, where a panel was hosted by MacFarlane, Sulkin and Polcino, and executive producer David A. Goodman. The episode was also previewed at the 2007 Comic-Con International.
In addition to the regular cast, actors Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo, musician Mick Hucknall and political commentator Rush Limbaugh made guest appearances. Recurring guest voice actors Phil LaMarr, Johnny Brennan, John Benjamin, Lori Alan, Adam West, Ralph Garman, writer Danny Smith, writer John Viener, executive producer Steve Callaghan, Kirker Butler, executive producer Mark Hentemann writer Wally Wingert and Alec Sulkin also made minor appearances in the episode.

Cultural References
"Blue Harvest" contains many references to the popular culture, particularly to the Star Wars film series. Most of the episode itself is a retelling of George Lucas' film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The episode's name is a reference to the fake working title for the production of Return of the Jedi. One of the band members that plays at the cantina ask for any song request and then he subtly responds to his own question by saying "play that same song," a reference to the fact that the song being played in the film scene lasts a long time.
When Peter is about to begin telling the story he says that it is about "love and loss, father and son and the foresight to retain international merchandising rights", a reference to the fact that 20th Century Fox gave those rights to Lucasfilm. During the text scrawl actress Angelina Jolie, her film Gia, and the television channel HBO are mentioned.
One of the Star Destroyer's displays a bumper sticker reading "Bush – Cheney" a reference to United States President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's 2004 re-election campaign. Once Leia is captured, Vader asks her where she hid the Death Star plans, leading her to respond that they are in one of twenty-six briefcases, a reference to the game show Deal or No Deal.
When Luke is watching the sunset he breaks the fourth wall by introducing Star Wars composer John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra who have been scoring the scene. Luke then asks the orchestra to play the theme of The People's Court. Later in the episode when Luke finds his uncle and aunt murdered, he also finds that Williams and the entire orchestra have been killed as well; this saddens Luke since the episode will now have to be scored by composer Danny Elfman. A political commentator on the radio is heard saying that the "liberal galactic media is saying that the planet Hoth is melting", this commentator is voiced by Rush Limbaugh who also runs a political radio program in which he criticizes the liberal media.
Obi-Wan sings a rendition of (I've Had) The Time of My Life from the film Dirty Dancing, in case he never sees Luke again. In a fight with a group of TIE fighters, Luke asks the origins behind their name; the following scene then shows that the pilots are from Thailand. Leslie Nielsen's character from the movie Airplane wishes Han good luck during their encounter with the TIE fighters. When seeking how to destroy the Death Star, the rebels look at an instructional video hosted by basketball player Magic Johnson. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo's characters from the National Lampoon's Vacation films appear driving by the Death Star. Chris, who is voiced by Seth Green, points out that Robot Chicken already did a Star Wars parody (Green is the creator of Robot Chicken).