Last night, once again, the animated FOX comedy Family Guy included a Star Trek reference. This one was a Next Generation call out that may be a bit obscure for the mainstream, but shows again that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is a Trekkie. You can watch it below.
What kind of gift would Peter want
The reference came when the Griffin family was appearing on The Family Feud and Peter was asked to name a gift, here is the clip. (via Hulu, USA only, sorry)
The gift of a flute that Peter is referring to is the ‘Ressikan Flute’ that Picard played in the classic Next Generation episode "The Inner Light". Picard learned to play the flute while living a lifetime while under the influence of an alien probe. Here is the final scene after Picard has returned from the probe’s control and is given the flute.
The flute would make a great gift. The actual prop (which actually doesn’t work as a flute) was sold at the Christies Star Trek auction in 2006. The estimated price was $1200, but the winning bid was $40,000.
Lot #537 from the Christies 40 Year’s of Star Trek Auction
Come On Paramount – let them do Wrath of Khan
Once again TrekMovie implores Paramount, CBS, Bad Robot, anyone, let Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy take a crack at Wrath of Khan. They really want to do it and clearly love Trek, so why not do it?
LET THEM DO IT!!!
I too would like to see their take on Wrath of Khan. He’s a funny guy.
I, for one, do not want to see a Family Guy Trek parody. The show is lazy comedy, reliant on shock humor.
It might be okay for Star Wars, but not Trek.
3 – That’s fine, but it’s not like you have to watch it. I think the real point ought to be that Paramount should lighten up on jealously guarding Trek from things that probably should be considered “fair use” anyway. Some of us remember the silly pogroms they had in the 1990s against putting up video clips, transcripts, and so on — or the famous fight against Marty Rubin when he successfully trademarked warp drive.
DO IT!!! Family Guy is hilarious!
yah boo!
not available outside the US
In the TV special about the Christie’s auction, Brannon Braga talked about how he was sure the estimate on the flute was way off (as should be obvious to any real TNG fan), so I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see it go for $40K. The giant ILM model of the Enterprise-D going for $500K was much less surprising by comparison.
I thought that bit was HILARIOUS!!! I was cracking up and all my roommates had no idea what was going on. And then when Peter added the “I was in the survey” line I ended up rolling on the floor.
Hey Paramount…..ya listening? We want the TWOK parody. Lighten up.
Picard stuff goes right over my head (most of the time).
not available outside the US is right — what about us?
Is it just me or have they been doing a lot of TNG jokes lately on Family Guy/Cleveland Show? It’s been making me smile a lot!
4. Admiral Waugh – January 4, 2010
Paramount is not guarding against “Fair Use” just “FOR PROFIT” use. Look at New Voyages, Intrepid, Hidden Frontier, Etc…
Family guy sells advertising and is in it to make a profit.
George Lucas owns all the rights to all things Star Wars, so its a smaller level of bureaucracy to go through.
Picard might have learned to play that flute, but the episode’s composer gave him a poor tune to play on it. Almost all of the incidental or “heard by the show’s characters” music was elevator muzak, no strong themes or real melodies. Quite unlike the music on TOS, be it the Green Orion Slave Girl music, or Uhura’s songs, or music playing in a lounge, it was all memorable.
Just my opinion.
And that went for all the spinoff shows. If music was heard by the characters, it was just random notes or weak stuff. Compare the “music” the green girls danced to in Enterprise against Vina’s.
That was a great episode and Seth’s regard for quality sci-fi is well-establsihed. I’d really like to see them do more in-jokes and parodies. They’re more homages in truth.
BB
“The Inner Light”. One of the best TNG episodes. When Sci-Fi is about the story and script and not the visual effects.
@10 Sorry you deprive yourself. That TNG episode is easily one of the best of any Trek.
@15 It was just supposed to be simple tune that this character was learning to play. Not everybody learns Bach the first time out.
The inner light was one of those episodes that blew my mind… made me start questioning our perceptions of reality. Amazing episode. That was Trek at its best.
Love the “I was in the survey” line. lol
I watched this episode last night with some friends and I was the only who got that TNG reference.
I nearly dropped the bon….I mean the remote control.
“The Inner Light” is a classic.
Seth MacFarlane is one of the richest men in Hollywood. He is reportedly worth over $100 million. Why doesn’t he use some of his money to get a new TNG film off the ground? “Bad Robot” can have Star Trek, and Seth’s “Fuzzy Door Productions” could have TNG.
I hate the show itself, but that clip was pretty funny.
When did Richard Dawson come out of retirement?
“Show me Picard’s flute.”
Anybody?
Aw c’mon! Like YOU didn’t snicker at that line.
#14 Von Fronkensteen … In that case the tune was perfect. It was intended to be folk melody so naturally it would be simple. In addition, the dotted-eighth-sixteenth pairings and the octave skips are very common in many Brittsh Isles melodies. But I do agree with you about most of the other music in TNG being a bit bland. It is a reflection of the 80’s I think.
Instead of Khan, they should just do TNG and the Borg spoof, enough with Khan ;)
#23
That is like using your life savings to collect sports cards, kinda expensive hobby don’t you think?
“22. Millennium Vulcan – January 4, 2010
I watched this episode last night with some friends and I was the only who got that TNG reference.
I nearly dropped the bon….I mean the remote control.”
Hilarious.
1. I WOULD HAVE SPENT A MILLION FOR THAT FLUTE IF I HAD THE MONEY TO BLOW!!!!
2. PARAMOUNT… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET SETH DO THE WRATH OF STEWIE IT WOULD BE SO GREAT!!!
“19. I’m dead Jim – January 4, 2010
@15 It was just supposed to be simple tune that this character was learning to play. Not everybody learns Bach the first time out.”
Wasn’t Picard trapped on the planet 20 – 30 years. That’s plenty time to learn a good song.
23#
That’s an awesome idea! Seth is a huge TNG fan, so why shouldn’t he do something like this? As long as he has a game plan and can make his money back (plus profit), then sure, why not. Plus because he is seen as “hip” by today’s audiences in the same way that JJ Abrams is, so it would generate positive fan buzz. Yep, Set should produce a TNG film! :)
Didn’t Seth appear as an extra in the last episode of Enterprise?
I think we should start a petition for Seth MacFarlane to produce a new TNG film! I mean, c’mon… the guy has Patrick Stewart as a voice actor on his show. Safe to say he would have some pull with the TNG cast! And even if it wasn’t a theatrical release, maybe we could get a tv movie or dvd movie. Maybe Seth could even produce a new Trek show?
I liked Picard’s song… guess I must be in the minority.
I actually wanted to buy that prop flute and give it to my girlfriend.
Aw crap, here come the waterworks!. Seriously, that scene gets me every time when Picard tightly clutches the flute.
*sniff!*
Why not make a Star Trek Lego game. Seems everything is always Star Wars and never Trek.
In the meantime, suggest Seth McFarlane have Family Guy retell SPACE:1999. That has potential. If they do it carefully, they can have it serve as a transparent Trek parody too. After all, TMP and TNG have certain similarities to 1999. Pajama uniforms, goofy stories, etc.
I’m sure Prince would give permission to use “Party Like It’s 1999” as the “theme” song.
You want Paramount to let a Fox show parody it? Not going to happen.
As well as a “TWOK” parody, I think a “Star Trek: First Contact” parody would be hilarious. Stewie can play Picard going postal on the Borg, Chris can play Data and Lois can be the Borg Queen. Also Peter would make a great Zefram Cochrane. But that will remain a pipe dream unfortuneately, seeing how there are too many legal issues to overcome.
While it would be fun to watch a “Family Guy” parody of a Trek movie or episode, it aint gonna happen.
Didn’t Paramount just let JJ make a parody of Star Trek?
Hahahahaha…
Oh, actually it wasn’t funny at all.
Like all MacFarlane crap.
#40: What about Quagmire as Cochrane? C’mon, Lily! Giggity giggity!
#41: It wasn’t attached to an existing property of a competing network, though.
^14. TNG’s music was severely constrained by executive producer Rick Berman’s mandates, which took effect after Gene Roddenberry was no longer in day-to-day control. The theme from The Inner Light was one of the few times a memorable melody was allowed. Composer Jay Chattaway expanded the theme into an orchestral suite for an album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=606Vk2iSFNk
The prop flute is non-functional. I wonder if the real instrument the studio musician played on the soundtrack — not seen but what we actually hear — would get anything at an auction.
#17 :: Amen. I would say “marry me” but that would be kinda creepy.
Even more so, it’s the characters, not the plots, that make up a good storyline; a good series. The best Trek, if you ask me, has been character-driven… Such is what I learn in my creative writing courses. ;3
#43 Yeah, I forgot about Quagmire.Of course, he could play Data, while Chris plays Riker. Peter I think, would have to have a fairly big role, and Cochrane would fit the bill. Zephram Cochrane kind of “stumbled” onto warp drive more so than actually setting out to invent it. Brian could be Lt. Hawk with Cleveland as Geordi and his wife as Lily. Stewie as Picard would finally be able to kill off his mother (Borg Queen) and Brian.
@10: How utterly unsurprising.
@45: It’s probably just a standard piccolo flute, so I wouldn’t think so, unless it was made by somebody famous, like Stradivarius violins.
@17: Right on! Not that I’m averse to a good SFX extravaganza now and then, but it’s hollow if the the characters don’t make you care about them.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think (as sick as it sounds) that 100 million dollars qualifies Seth as one of the richest people in Hollywood. People like Tom Cruise make 1/2 that off of one movie, even though he’s so not worth it.
#48 “@10: How utterly unsurprising.”
Well, he is the “TOS Purist”. Can’t expect him to post anything else aside from his hatred for non-TOS Star Trek. I don’t understand why he feels the need to criticise non TOS related articles. Certainly since he doesn’t have to read the article. Of course, he does have the right to free speech and it would be boring if he quits posting. :-)
As for the “Inner Light”, it really is surprising how good and popular the episode is. On paper, the story seems uninteresting, but it was quite the opposite after watching it. First, Patrick Stewart’s acting was top notch (as usual of course). Secondly, you kind of got the sense of what it would have been like for Picard to have had a family, even though Picard was living someone else’s memories. And thirdly, it was a unique and unconventional method of discovering another civilization.
“The Inner Light” was voted the fourth most popular TNG episode conducted in a viewers choice poll prior to the airing of “All Good Things…” the series’ finale.