Thoughts on the Family Guy/Simpsons Crossover Episode

As a long-time fan of both The Simpsons and Family Guy, I have to admit that I was absolutely stoked (and a tad bit nervous) about yesterday's crossover episode between the two series.  The stakes were pretty high-these are two of the most iconic network television programs of the past 25 years, and while they clearly have borrowed from each other (admittedly MacFarlane borrowing a wee bit more from Groening), they don't have quite the same stylistic approach to stories.  I left the episode both thrilled and feeling almost dizzy from the meta opportunities of the episode.  Here are some of my principle thoughts (spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the episode yet).

Best Moment

Easily the best moment of the episode was during the deposition at the court case.  After Homer accused Pawtucket Ale of being a rip-off of Duff (a pretty game stab by MacFarlane and his writers to settle a long-running feud between Simpsons and Family Guy fans that Family Guy was just a rip-off of The Simpsons), we saw a series of characters sitting next to each other showing how oddly similar they are (Seamus/the Sea Captain, Adam West/Mayor Quimby, Smithers/Bruce).  Best of all, and the best moment of the night, was when James Woods shows up at the end.  Woods of course has appeared as himself on both series, but first with The Simpsons with him running the Kwik-E-Mart (admittedly not as memorable, though, as his many visits to Quahog).  After the Simpsons-James Woods reminds the audience of this, the Family Guy-Woods says, "we're gonna lose."

Best Single Line

Really any time the show got fourth wall-meta on us.  Upon seeing the sign to Springfield, Stewie asks, "what state?"  Brian (who frequently breaks the fourth wall in the episode), says "I can't imagine we're allowed to say."  Later on we get a moment between Stewie and Brian where they compare "eat my shorts" and "what the deuce" and discuss which is more popular.  Brian cleverly acknowledges that "eat my shorts" is "probably way, way more popular."  Finally, there's the moment when Homer, during a fight with Peter, opens a closet full of Emmys and throws them at Peter, to which he replies, "hey no fair, I don't got none a them."

Best Pairing

Probably the smartest pairing was Peter and Homer-I mean, these two are oddly similar lugs who are genuinely nice guys and cannot help but acknowledge that they are fans of each other.  Second to this would be Stewie doting on Bart, a completely realistic idea, and I loved that they ended the episode by pointing out that Stewie was way too intense for Bart to be his pal.

Smartest Cameo

Aside from Woods (that was gold), you have so many homages being paid to other television programs throughout the episode, with Groening/MacFarlane acknowledging this is a major moment in primetime sitcoms.  The Cleveland Show (Cleveland), Bob's Burgers (Bob), American Dad (Roger), and even The Flintstones (Fred) were all tallied and accounted for in brief cameos.  It's just a pity that Futurama and South Park couldn't find their way into the mix.

Weirdest Moments

This was basically any-time that a Simpson or a Griffin went into one of the other show's bits, from Peter saying, "d'oh!" to the inevitable cutaways.  Most of these bits worked, but it was like taking your boyfriend to meet your parents-it's something you can imagine over and over in your head, and yet it's still bizarre to see these two worlds colliding.

Worst Moments

The episode, while highly enjoyable, and quite a lot of fun, still had a couple of moments that didn't sit well with me (well, two with an addendum).  The first was the end fight between Homer and Peter in an homage to his Giant Chicken battles.  This was of course inevitable (this is one of the most successful Family Guy running gags), but Homer Simpson isn't really a violent man, certainly not someone that would ever kill someone (on purpose...sorry Frank Grimes), and felt very out-of-the-moment.  I also had trouble believing that Lisa wouldn't want to encourage Meg more thoroughly, even when she was better at the saxophone than she was.  I know there's some evidence of this (Maggie was also good at the sax), but Lisa's character has grown a bit since then and I just cannot fathom her not wanting to encourage an emotionally abused person like Meg.  Just in general, in fact, it showed how very different these shows' attitudes toward family are-the Simpsons genuinely love each other in a way the Griffins really don't.

I also wish that we'd had a proper payback crossover between the two (couldn't Matt Groening have done that)?  The show was clearly grounded in Family Guy (it was an episode of the MacFarlane show), but I would have loved for the Simpsons writers (who are considerably better at writing women-wouldn't you have loved a series of the side characters interacting with their counterparts and then a cutaway to fifteen or so of the Springfield women all sitting around with just Bonnie?) to have tackled Family Guy and seen where they went with the program.

Characters/Bits I Wish We'd Had Time For, but It Was Only an Hour

Off the top of my head...Stewie proclaiming "excellent," having Snake be the thief of the car, a Conway Twitty bit, the Bonnie sight gag I just listed above, Peter meeting Flanders, Quagmire romancing a woman of Springfield, Joe meeting Chief Wiggum, Tom Tucker and Kent Brockman both trying to interview people on the courthouse steps, and some acknowledgement that Marge and Lois so rarely get the same sort of adventures their husbands do (Francine, Wilma, and Donna could all share in this moment).

Those were my thoughts-you must have a few-share them in the comments!