If there was ever an animated series that should have been saved from cancellation, it had to be “Family Guy.” Being a person who has always felt that any form of support for political correctness was for the ‘intellectually challenged,’ “Family Guy” consistently struck me as one of the funniest of the prime time animated series. It combined the rapid-fire editing of the “Simpsons” with the taboo humor of “South Park” and delivered a constant barrage of laughs. No topic was too controversial, no joke to perverse. Just to give you an example… the first episodes of the third season alone, “The Thin White Line”, poked fun at drug abuse, pregnant teenagers, people in wheelchairs and Charles Manson. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I mean really, isn’t kind of funny to sneak into a pregnant teen center and put all of girl’s hands into bowls of water while they’re sleeping? Well… uhh… isn’t it?

“Family Guy,” unfortunately succumbed to low ratings after its third season of being pushed around to different time slots and constant preemptions. Basically, it got the same type of treatment from Fox that eventually killed “Futurama.” On the brighter side, Fox did finally make a good decision in releasing “Family Guy” on to the DVD market. They had previously released “Volume 1”, which included the 1st and 2nd seasons and “Volume 2”, which had the third and final season.

After the release of that 2nd volume, “Family Guy” fans such as myself figured we had seen the last of Peter Griffin, his wife Lois and his three adorable children, Meg, Chris and little Stewie. But then something wonderful happened. The sales of these DVD sets were astronomical and somehow convinced the ‘suits’ at Fox that there was an opportunity to make even more money off of the Griffin family. So, in an unprecedented move, the studio decided to bring back the previously cancelled show, much to the delight of audiences everywhere.

“Family Guy,” re-premiered in May of 2005, and immediately made fun of the studios decision to cancel it in the first place. The very first scene shows Peter standing in front of his family and talking about how long of a summer it had been, but goes on to say how wonderful it was to have sooo many terrific shows to watch. He then proceeds to name off every failed series that Fox had aired in their time slot since the cancellation.

Since that time, “Family Guy” has enjoyed a level of success that very few live action shows achieve. And since the series depends upon creator Seth MacFarlane’s encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture trivia, it stands to reason they should make fun of one of the biggest sources of said trivia… “Star Wars.” Last year we were treated to “Blue Harvest” (the working title for Star Wars), which re-imagined the 1st film of the series (which was actually the 4th chronologically, but the 1st in theaters…. As if you didn’t know), replacing all of the timeworn characters with those from the series. Start to finish, it was a hysterical re-telling.

This year, the follow-up was “Something Something Something Darkside”, which as you can guess is actually “The Empire Strikes Back.” I can’t tell you what blew my mind my more… the fact that it was every bit as funny as I would expect from “Family Guy” or how many sequences were shot by shot perfect copies of the original film. Yes, there’s a lot of dumb comedy to be had here… but it’s all put together by the hands of geniuses. After all… how can you go wrong when you get to see footage of Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago in the middle of a ‘Star Wars’ movie?

Fox is releasing “Family Guy: Something Something Something Darkside” on both Bluray and DVD. I checked out the Bluray version and was pretty well impressed with the picture and sound. We’re not talking Pixar quality animation here, but the transfer was still pretty darn clear. There are also a fair amount of extra features including a commentary by Seth MacFarlane, Mark Hentemann, David A. Goodman, Kirker Butler, Dominic Polcino, and Seth Green, all of whom laugh and snicker the entire time. It’s relatively funny, as are some of the points they bring up, but it’s not the best I’ve heard from Team MacFarlane.

You’ll also find “Family Guy Fact-Ups”, which is a pop-up video style trivia track. There is a constant barrage of information, a lot of which is every bit as funny as the movie itself. There is also a cool featurette on the work that went into creating the poster and cover art design as well as a comparison between the animatics and the final shots of several scenes. Last, but not least, are two table reads. The first for the complete movie at hand, and a shorter scene from the upcoming “Family Guy – Episode VI: We Have a Bad Feeling About This.” In both cases, you really have to wonder how they fit so many people into one room. These are interesting to watch for a little bit, but had the sound only been a little better it would have been worth watching all the way through. Additionally, you can get a Digital Dowload of the movie for both PC and Mac.

“Family Guy” has never been for everyone, but it should be. We live in an age of ridiculously defended political correctness where people are afraid to make fun of anything. This show is refreshing in its gleeful attempts to tick off everyone on the planet. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard and so long at the expense of others. And to prove that it is directed at the intellectuals amongst us, what other show can give you MC Escher, Music Man, and Kool-Aid commercial references? Only the best and the brightest will catch them all.

Starring (the voices of): Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green
Extras: Audio Commentary; Family Guy Fact-Ups; The Dark Side of Poster Art; Animatic Scene to Scene; Table Read; Sneak Peek
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: 12/22/2009
MPAA Rating: NR
http://www.foxtvdvd.com

We'll give Family Guy: Something Something Something Darkside (Bluray) a B+.