After checking out some panels on Friday at CV, I arrived back at our TFN/Rebelscum/ForceCast HQ just as one of the live ForceCast shows was wrapping up. While I was a little disappointed to have missed the show, I did get a chance to meet Dan Wallace following his ForceCast appearance. Besides giving us a tour of his new book The Jedi Path, Dan mentioned that he was on his way to participate in the Star Wars: Year by Year Quiz Show. While I hadn't planned on attending the quiz show, Dan turned out to be such a nice and engaging guy, I decided it might be worth checking out. The quiz show was essentially a panel advertisement for Star Wars: Year by Year and pitted its authors against each other in a battle for Star Wars knowledge supremacy. (Dan Wallace, Ryder Windham, Gus Lopez and Pablo Hidalgo) Presiding over the panel was the one and only Elvis Trooper and the banter between everyone for the almost hour-long panel was a lot of fun. While it looked like Ryder Windham was going to run away with the win early on, it was Pablo Hidalgo that emerged victorious. Numerous free copies of Star Wars: Year by Year were given out at the end of the quiz show to lucky audience members who also knew their Star Wars stuff. While I may not have won a copy, I still plan on picking one up. (Especially after spending a large portion of Sunday evening at CV reading Eric Geller's copy and the discussions that followed with Rebelscum's Dave Myatt.) This panel was a pleasant laid back surprise and I'm glad I had the chance to attend it.
A big surprise awaited me before the panel began though. About 15 minutes before Elvis Trooper got things going, a roughly ten minute preview of the upcoming Family Guy parody of Return of the Jedi was shown. Not sure why it was shown prior to this particular panel, but I have no complaints. (especially, since I didn't get a chance to see it again) Look for appearances from all the regular characters along with cast members from other Seth MacFarlane animated shows (such as Dee Bradley Baker's Klaus the Fish from American Dad as Admiral Ackbar). Also look for lots of TV editing when the episode makes the jump from DVD to broadcast television. I heard at least one unedited F-bomb. Below are some screenshots I was able to grab just to give you a taste of what to expect. I'm not going to break down the preview as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. These jokes work best when you don't see them coming so glean what you can from the images below. I will say that the preview spanned a number of memorable moments from the movie and didn't just center on one particular scene. We'll keep you posted as to when the preview becomes available for all to view. "Family Guy: It's A Trap!" is currently scheduled to arrive on Blu-Ray and DVD on December 21, 2010.
(Click on the images for full views and I promise to have a better camera by CVI!)