animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

comedy series Television comedy is a category of broadcasting that has been present since the early days of entertainment media. While there are several genres of comedy, some of the first ones aired were variety shows. One of the first United States television ...

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

Griffin family The Griffin family is a fictional family and main characters in the animated television series ''Family Guy'', and who also appear in ''The Cleveland Show''. The Griffins are a dysfunctional family consisting of the married couple Peter and Loi ...

nuclear holocaust A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear annihilation, nuclear armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a Futures studies, theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes widespread destruction and radi ...

Y2K Y2K may refer to: * Y2K problem, a computer issue related to the year 2000 * Year 2K, the year 2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular cultu ...

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

Twinkie The Twinkie is an American snack cake, described on its packaging as "golden sponge cake with a creamy filling". It was formerly made and distributed by Hostess Brands. The brand is currently owned by Hostess Brands, Inc., in turn currently own ...

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan are a television writing team who have worked on television comedies ''Family Guy'', ''Scrubs (TV series), Scrubs'', and ''Community (TV series), Community''. Another project was the television pilot ''Nobody's Wa ...

Patrick Duffy Patrick Duffy (born March 17, 1949) is an American television actor and director widely known for his role as Bobby Ewing on the CBS primetime soap opera ''Dallas (TV series), Dallas'' (1978–1991). Duffy returned to reprise his role as Bobby ...

Victoria Principal Vicki Ree Principal (born January 3, 1950),Jack Perkins,

Will Sasso William Sasso (born May 24, 1975) is a Canadian comedian, actor, and podcaster. After a starring role as Derek Wakaluk on the Global teen drama television series '' Madison'' (1994–1998), Sasso had his breakout as a regular cast member on the ...

, and

Joey Slotnick Joseph Slotnick (born October 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for roles in ''Twister'' (1996), '' Hollow Man'' (2000), ''Elevator'' (2011), '' The Single Guy'' (1995–1997), and '' Nip/Tuck'' (2003–2006). Life and career Slotnick ...

along with several recurring voice actors for the series. This is the first episode that aired to feature

Mila Kunis Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and raised in Los Angeles, she was Jackie Burkhart on ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) and has voiced Meg Griffin on ''Family Guy'' since ...

as the voice of

Meg Griffin Megan "Meg" Griffin is a fictional character from the American animated television series ''Family Guy''. She first appeared in the show's pilot episode, " Death Has a Shadow", on January 31, 1999. The character was originally voiced by La ...

, following Lacey Chabert's departure from the series. However, Chabert does reprise the role of Meg on a few occasions, such as in "flashback" or "time travel" episodes.

Plot

On December 31, 1999, Quahog prepares for

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

and the new millennium and the Griffins have been invited to Quagmire's millennium party. At a store, a man wearing a chicken suit asks

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

if he wants a coupon, but Peter refuses, recalling an incident in which he got an expired coupon from

Ernie the Giant Chicken ''Family Guy'' is an American animated comedy multimedia franchise originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company, primarily based on the animated series ''Family Guy'' (1999–present), its spin-off series ' ...

, resulting in a destructive fistfight. The man then warns Peter that the world will end because of the

Y2K problem The term year 2000 problem, or simply Y2K, refers to potential computer errors related to the Time formatting and storage bugs, formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. Many Computer program, programs repr ...

, so Peter locks himself and the family in their

basement A basement is any Storey, floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the Furnace (house heating), furnace, water heating, ...

in hazmat suits, despite Lois' objections. Just after midnight, the Y2K bug hits. This causes a worldwide nuclear attack, with

vehicles A vehicle () is a machine designed for self-propulsion, usually to transport people, cargo, or both. The term "vehicle" typically refers to land vehicles such as human-powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles, tricycles, velomobiles), animal-powered tr ...

crashing and

missiles A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this u ...

self-launching, destroying much of the world, and mutating, injuring, or killing most of its inhabitants. The Griffins remain safe, though their house has been severely damaged. Starving, Peter immediately eats all the dehydrated meals, without adding water. Peter recalls that the snack food

Twinkie The Twinkie is an American snack cake, described on its packaging as "golden sponge cake with a creamy filling". It was formerly made and distributed by Hostess Brands. The brand is currently owned by Hostess Brands, Inc., in turn currently own ...

is the only food that can survive a nuclear holocaust, so the family prepares to travel to

Natick, Massachusetts Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part o ...

in hopes that the Twinkie factory has survived. The Griffins' car runs out of gas, so they must walk to Natick. Once the Griffins approach Natick, they discover that there are no more factories in the area. Realizing that their route to Natick was all for nothing, Stewie berates Peter for costing them their lives before tripping and falling into a puddle of nuclear waste; his arms soon mutate into

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

s. Upon sunrise, the factory is revealed to still be standing and in perfect condition. Expecting to be able to live off the snack food, they establish the town of New Quahog around the factory, with Peter as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

. In time, New Quahog becomes a thriving community, complete with houses and wells. However, when Brian points out that New Quahog is a peaceful place with no violence, Peter deems that they are completely defenseless. He proceeds to bring out the plan of making guns, but Cleveland doesn't desire to agree with it, stating it could be a problem. Meanwhile, Stewie's torso and limbs have completely transformed into an octopus and he layed hundreds of eggs. Outside, Peter informs everyone that he made guns using the water pipes from the city's Irrigation Systems, outraging the citizens. Despite Peter's insistence that he is fit to remain as mayor, the townspeople throw him out of New Quahog, and his family follows him. The citizens destroy the guns by throwing them into their ambitious firepit, only to be overpowered by hundreds of newly hatched Octopus-Stewies, which destroy the city. As the family walks away, oblivious to New Quahog's destruction, they decide to continue to a Carvel factory in

Framingham Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popula ...

. In a

live action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...

epilogue, which serves as a parody of ''

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

'', the events of the episode are revealed to have been a dream experienced by

Pam Ewing Pamela Jean "Pam" Barnes Ewing is a fictional character from the CBS primetime soap opera ''Dallas (TV series), Dallas''. Pamela is portrayed by actress Victoria Principal, first appearing on the show in the Dallas (1978 TV series) (season 1), ...

(

Victoria Principal Vicki Ree Principal (born January 3, 1950),Bobby Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People *Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (surname), a list of surnames * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwrit ...

(

Patrick Duffy Patrick Duffy (born March 17, 1949) is an American television actor and director widely known for his role as Bobby Ewing on the CBS primetime soap opera ''Dallas (TV series), Dallas'' (1978–1991). Duffy returned to reprise his role as Bobby ...

) that she dreamt about a strange episode of ''Family Guy''. Bobby comforts her but then pauses and asks, "What's ''Family Guy''?" and the two turn and look with confusion at the audience.

Production

"Da Boom" was the third episode of the second season of ''Family Guy'', and the first for director Bob Jaques. It first aired on December 26, 1999. The episode was written by writing team

Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan are a television writing team who have worked on television comedies ''Family Guy'', ''Scrubs (TV series), Scrubs'', and ''Community (TV series), Community''. Another project was the television pilot ''Nobody's Wa ...

, who had written episodes for the show in the first season including "

Mind Over Murder "Mind Over Murder" is the fourth episode of the first season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on April 25, 1999. The episode features Peter after he is placed under house ...

". This was the first episode to have

Mila Kunis Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and raised in Los Angeles, she was Jackie Burkhart on ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) and has voiced Meg Griffin on ''Family Guy'' since ...

providing the voice of

Meg Griffin Megan "Meg" Griffin is a fictional character from the American animated television series ''Family Guy''. She first appeared in the show's pilot episode, " Death Has a Shadow", on January 31, 1999. The character was originally voiced by La ...

.

Lacey Chabert Lacey Nicole Chabert ( ; born September 30, 1982) is an American actress. One of her first roles as a child actress was the part of Bianca Montgomery, the daughter of Erica Kane, on ''All My Children'' from 1992 to 1993. She gained further pro ...

, the original voice of Meg, left the series due to time constraints with her acting role in ''

Party of Five ''Party of Five'' is an American teen and family drama television series created by Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman that originally aired on Fox from September 12, 1994, to May 3, 2000, with a total of six seasons consisting of 142 epis ...

'', as well as schoolwork. Kunis won the role after auditions and a slight rewrite of the character, in part due to her performance on ''

That '70s Show ''That '70s Show'' is an American television teen sitcom that aired on Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from 197 ...

''.

Seth MacFarlane Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, comedian, and singer. He is best known as the creator and star of the television series ''Family Guy'' (since 1999) and ''The Orvill ...

, the show's creator, called Kunis back after her first audition, instructing her to speak more slowly, and then told her to come back another time and enunciate more. Once she claimed that she had it under control, MacFarlane hired her. This was also the first episode of

Ernie the Giant Chicken ''Family Guy'' is an American animated comedy multimedia franchise originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company, primarily based on the animated series ''Family Guy'' (1999–present), its spin-off series ' ...

, an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

chicken who serves as a rival to Peter. He has a long, unexpected fight with Peter, which interrupts the main storyline. This has become a

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...

, having reappeared in episodes such as " Blind Ambition", " Internal Affairs", "

No Chris Left Behind "No Chris Left Behind" is the 16th episode of the fifth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 6, 2007. The episode features Chris after he is expelled from James Woods High ...

" and " Meet the Quagmires". He is voiced by regular show writer Danny Smith. In addition to the regular cast, actress

Victoria Principal Vicki Ree Principal (born January 3, 1950),Will Sasso William Sasso (born May 24, 1975) is a Canadian comedian, actor, and podcaster. After a starring role as Derek Wakaluk on the Global teen drama television series '' Madison'' (1994–1998), Sasso had his breakout as a regular cast member on the ...

; reporter, commentator, war correspondent, and anchorman Jack Perkins; voice actor

Joey Slotnick Joseph Slotnick (born October 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for roles in ''Twister'' (1996), '' Hollow Man'' (2000), ''Elevator'' (2011), '' The Single Guy'' (1995–1997), and '' Nip/Tuck'' (2003–2006). Life and career Slotnick ...

; and character actor

Patrick Duffy Patrick Duffy (born March 17, 1949) is an American television actor and director widely known for his role as Bobby Ewing on the CBS primetime soap opera ''Dallas (TV series), Dallas'' (1978–1991). Duffy returned to reprise his role as Bobby ...

guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actress

Lori Alan Lori Alan is an American actress. She has played a long-running role as Pearl Krabs on the animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. She also voiced Diane Simmons on ''Family Guy'', the Invisible Woman on ''Fantastic Four'', and T ...

, writer Danny Smith, and actor

Patrick Warburton Patrick Warburton (born November 14, 1964) is an American actor. His live action TV roles include David Puddy on ''Seinfeld'', the Tick (character), title character on ''The Tick (2001 TV series), The Tick'', Jeb Denton on ''Less than Perfect'' ...

also made minor appearances.

Cultural references

The episode's live-action epilogue is a reference to the final (moments and) episode "Blast From the Past" of season 9 of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

soap opera ''

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

'' that erased the death of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), which turned out to be a dream experience by Pamela Ewing (Victoria Principal). Principal and Duffy reprised their respective ''Dallas'' roles in a live-action recreation of the shower scene at the end of the episode.

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is known for his non-rhotic Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early America ...

appears singing everything he sees in a musical moment. The plot includes references to the

Y2K bug The term year 2000 problem, or simply Y2K, refers to potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. Many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two d ...

. Peter takes away

Trix Trix may refer to: Brands and products * Trix (cereal), a breakfast cereal made by General Mills ** Trix yogurt, branded Yoplait yogurt * Trix (company), the German company that produced Trix construction and model train sets * Trix (construct ...

from the Rabbit, which is a reference to commercials for Trix cereal. Chris tells E.T. to run when he thinks Peter is the government coming for him. When travelling to find food they are stopped and there's a reference to ''

Family Feud ''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. Two families compete on each episode to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes. The show has had three separate runs, the ...

''. Stewie's line, "Game over man! Game over!" is a nod to the science fiction film ''

Aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

''. Arriving at the Twinkie factory, Peter uses the same words to describe what he sees that Dr. Ellie Arroway used in ''

Contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * C ...

'' when witnessing a celestial event in a foreign galaxy.

Reception

The episode received positive reviews. Ahsan Haque of

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

rated the episode a 10/10, saying "Overall, this episode easily ranks as one of the best episodes in the series. Almost every joke succeeds, and the far-fetched alternate reality storyline thoroughly entertains. Despite the fact that all of the events in the episode are revealed to be a dream, it doesn't take away from the high degree of amusement provided." Tom Eames of entertainment website ''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

'' placed the episode at number sixteen on his listing of the best ''Family Guy'' episodes in order of "yukyukyuks" and described it as "classic bonkers Family Guy". He added that the episode was "potentially the first time fans realised this wasn't just a ''Simpsons'' ripoff."

References

External links

* {{good article 1999 American television episodes Family Guy season 2 episodes New Year television episodes Natick, Massachusetts Fiction set in 1999 Television episodes about dreams Post-apocalyptic television episodes Television episodes with live action and animation Works about gun politics in the United States Fiction featuring the turn of the third millennium Cultural depictions of Hillary Clinton Cultural depictions of Bill Clinton Television episodes set in the 1990s