The Long-Awaited Family Guy/Simpsons Crossover: A Nice Place to Visit, But...

Family Guy S13E01: "The Simpsons Guy"

Can you believe Fox made it all the way to 2014 before staging a crossover episode between its two animation juggernauts, Family Guy and The Simpsons? Just the idea of such a combo was probably the stuff of wet dreams for slashfic writers with animation fetishes. The two series' long-overdue collision in "The Simpsons Guy" was a mixture of pinkish fleshy color and bright yellow skin, typical Family Guy shenanigans and Simpsons humor, and blatant fourth-wall destruction. In other words, it was pretty much everything you might've expected.

"The Simpsons Guy" was technically a Family Guy episode, but let's make it an honorary Simpsons episode as well, since Peter Griffin and his family left Quahog for Springfield. Given its locale, it certainly looked like a Simpsons episode for most of the hour, but overall it fit within the canons of both shows, as they've started to find more common ground over the years. Once the initial shock of seeing the Griffins in Springfield wore off, what should have been weird ended up feeling almost natural. Heck, the hardest thing to get used to was the difference in skin pigmentation (is that racist?); I hadn't really noticed how ill Homer Simpson looks until he was juxtaposed against Peter's "healthy" skintone.

It made total sense for each character to be paired off with his or her Animation Domination counterpart. Stewie idolized Bart and then kidnapped Bart's bullies (and Apu) to impress him; Maggie hung out with her intellectual equal, Chris; Lisa discovered the one thing that Meg can do (play saxophone) and wasn't pleased about it; Brian and Santa's Little Helper went for a walk together despite having nothing in common; and Homer and Peter spent the bulk of the episode palling around town. (Sorry all your Lois-Marge sapphic fantasies went unfulfilled, perverts.)

Ultimately, despite being so obvious, the jokes that blatantly acknowledged the crossover were the best. That's what we all paid to see, right? The cutaway gag to Bob Belcher from Bob's Burgers was probably the highlight for me, thanks to Peter's jab that The Simpsons and Family Guy are carrying Bob's show. Meanwhile, Seth MacFarlane even squeezed in some self-deprecation as we saw Cleveland Brown crashing a plane he tried to fly on his own, an admission that Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show crashed and burned. Also drawing major laughs from me was the courtroom scene in which Duff sued Pawtucket Brewery for intellectual theft and the camera panned around the courtroom to reveal corresponding Simpsons and Family Guy characters sitting together in pairs, with Simpsons originals matched up with their Family Guy knock-offs (including Bee Man and Consuela, Cleveland and Lenny, James Woods and James Woods). For someone who hasn't given either show a lot of thought recently, it was a rather eye-opening experience.

Of course, everything ended in an epic fight between Homer and Peter as they laid waste to Springfield and even went to space, which was a true-to-form way for Family Guy to use the extra time afforded by the hour-long episode.

Some fans may be disappointed by "The Simpsons Guy" or view it as a missed opportunity to create something truly great. However, Family Guy and The Simpsons have been on television for almost four decades combined; expectations should've been tempered. As Chris, the dumbest character in either Quahog or Springfleid, said at the beginning of the episode, "Yay! A crossover always brings out the best in each show! It certainly doesn't smack of desperation. The priorities are always creative and not driven by marketing." Chris, you idiot.

What did you think?

NOTES

– "The Simpsons Guy" contained a rape joke that has the Parents Television Council up in arms. Stewie tried to play a prank on Moe using Bart's famous fake-name formula, but all he said was, "Your sister's being raped." Is that an offensive joke, or is it merely what you'd expect from Family Guy? I'm not saying that being typical for Family Guy makes it okay, but it doesn't seem any worse than what the show has done in the past.

– For Pete's sake!

– That car wash scene went on forever! I'm not even so sure it was funny to being with.

– Well Mr. Fred Flintstone, weren't you just a knock off of The Honeymooners?