"Something, Something, Something, Darkside" (The Empire Strikes Back parody)
ACTION, COMEDY
"Blue Harvest" director Dominic Polcino returned for this second installment in our Star Wars satire trilogy, raising the bar even higher. "Dark Side" would be the last Family Guy series episode drawn with pencil and paper. The following season production implemented digital storyboarding software.
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Original Rough Thumbnail
Clean Storyboard
Final Aired Episode
Click Image to Enlarge
Click Image to Enlarge
Click Image to Enlarge
Original Rough Thumbnail
Clean Storyboard
Final Aired Episode
Rough Thumbnails
Trying to satire a two hour classic movie in a 45-minute double episode is no easy feat. Many gags were changed or cut altogether, surviving only in the original rough thumbnails. My favorite joke I storyboarded that was cut was George Lucas' cameo as the guy who blasts C-3PO to pieces in Cloud City.
Click Storyboard Grid to View Full Sequence PDF
Clean Storyboards
One of the more tedious technical aspects of cleaning up our storyboards on this special effects-heavy episode was that the space ships, lasers, asteriods, etc. had to all be drawn and registered separately on individual panel layers; to be overlain onto the star field backgrounds later in editorial for the animatic.
Click Storyboard Grid to View Full Sequence PDF
Storyboards-to-Final Episode Comparison
Rewriting sometimes can occur very late in an show's production, even after storyboards are finished. This was the case with Lando Calrissian. Originally drawn as Magic Johnson, Lando was ultimately changed to being portrayed by Mort Goldman. I was surprised as anyone when I saw the finished episode.
Click Storyboard Grid to View Full Sequence PDF
"Something, Something, Something, Darkside" Script Pages (Asteroid Field sequence)
The asteroid field sequence was a huge undertaking to storyboard. It's a major set piece in The Empire Strikes Back and was equally important in our script.I was up to the challenge, having had years of practice as a kid defacing school textbooks with drawings in the margins of Millennium Falcons & TIE fighters.
