Da Boom

Plot

On December 31, 1999, the Griffin family gets ready for Quagmire's millennium party. While at a grocery store, a man dressed as a chicken hands Peter a coupon. Peter turns it down, remembering a past fight with Ernie the Giant Chicken over an expired coupon. The chicken-suited man warns that the Y2K bug will end the world.

Taking this seriously, Peter forces his family into the basement in hazmat suits, despite Lois's protests. Right after midnight, the Y2K bug triggers a global nuclear holocaust. Cars crash and missiles launch on their own, destroying civilization and leaving survivors mutated. The Griffins survive unharmed, though their house is wrecked.

Starving, Peter eats all their dehydrated food without adding water. Recalling that Twinkies are said to survive a nuclear blast, he leads the family to Natick, Massachusetts. Their car runs out of gas, so they walk. Finding no factories, Stewie scolds Peter, then trips into nuclear waste, mutating his arms into tentacles.

At sunrise, the Twinkie factory appears intact. The family builds "New Quahog" around it, with Peter as mayor. Growing paranoid, Peter makes guns from the town's irrigation pipes, ignoring Cleveland's objections. Stewie's lower body becomes an octopus, and he lays hundreds of eggs.

The citizens banish the Griffins and toss the weapons into a fire, but are overwhelmed by octopus-Stewie clones. Unaware, the family walks off toward a Carvel factory in Framingham.

Production

"Da Boom" is the third episode of Family Guy's second season and the first to be directed by Bob Jaques. The script came from Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, who had previously written first-season episodes like "Mind Over Murder." This installment introduced Mila Kunis as the voice of Meg Griffin, replacing Lacey Chabert, who left the series due to schoolwork and time conflicts with her role on Party of Five. Kunis earned the part after auditions and a minor character rewrite, helped by her work on That '70s Show.

Creator Seth MacFarlane initially had her speak more slowly, then focus on enunciation before officially hiring her. The episode also features the first appearance of Ernie the Giant Chicken, voiced by series writer Danny Smith, who becomes Peter's long-running rival. Their sudden, lengthy fight derails the main plot and becomes a recurring gag in later episodes. Guest stars include Victoria Principal, Will Sasso, Jack Perkins, Joey Slotnick, and Patrick Duffy, with brief appearances from Lori Alan and Patrick Warburton.

Cultural references

The episode's live-action ending spoofs the famous "it was all a dream" twist from Dallas's ninth season, with Patrick Duffy and Victoria Principal returning to reenact the shower scene. Randy Newman appears, literally singing about whatever he sees. The main story mocks fears about the Y2K bug. Cutaway jokes show Peter stealing the Trix rabbit's cereal, Chris warning E.T. to hide, and a Family Feud reference.

Stewie shouts "Game over, man! Game over!" from Aliens. Peter describes the Twinkie factory using words from Contact.

Reception

The episode received highly positive reviews from television critics. Ahsan Haque of IGN awarded it a perfect 10/10 rating, calling it one of the best episodes in the series and noting that almost every joke succeeds. Tom Eames of Digital Spy ranked it at number sixteen on his list of top Family Guy episodes, describing it as "classic bonkers Family Guy" and noting that it marked potentially the first time fans realized the show was not just a Simpsons ripoff.

Did You Know?

• The live-action epilogue parodies the Dallas season 9 finale, with Patrick Duffy and Victoria Principal reprising their roles to recreate the famous shower scene.
• Stewie's line "Game over, man! Game over!" is a direct quote from the science fiction film Aliens.
• Peter describes the Twinkie factory using the exact words spoken by Dr. Ellie Arroway in the 1997 film Contact when witnessing a celestial event.