I'll admit: I went into the Family Guy episode "Blue Harvest" with low expectations. Star Wars has been spoofed to death, Family Guy has been hit-or-miss since its 2005 revival, and I was worried the episode was just going to regurgitate famous scenes from the movie with no real twist. Not only that, but the Robot Chicken Star Wars Special had recently aired, and that was pretty solid. And I'm not a Robot Chicken fan.
 Surprisingly and refreshingly, however, "Blue Harvest" proved to be a good time, and easily one of my favorite recent episodes. It's not perfect, but I had enough fun watching it to forgive its flaws. If you haven't seen it yet: Take Star Wars: A New Hope, put the Family Guy characters into the various roles, and go through the entire movie plot point for plot point. Sounds lazy, doesn't it? Thankfully the dialog carries things. Every line that Star Wars fans can recite verbatim is twisted into something else entirely here, which almost gives the show a kind of MST3K feel. For example, the famous Cantina scene where two drinkers harass Luke is turned into a set of friendly introductions rather than an exercise in prejudice-filled antagonism.
In that sense, the special works, as it calls attention to all the plot holes, campy aspects, and strange bits of dialog that made the original Star Wars such flawed fun. One of my personal favorite moments has Lois (as Princess Leia) trying to make a movie file of her message to Obi Wan, showing all the troubleshooting that ensues. I think we've all been there.
The choice of who plays who is pretty well-done, too. The much-overused Herbert nevertheless fills Obi Wan's shoes nicely, especially with such gags as a limp lightsaber, and Stewie as Darth Vader is an obvious choice from the get-go. As for who Meg plays, get ready for a surprise, but a very funny one nonetheless, and I won't give it away.
That said, those looking for original material are likely to be disappointed. There are some original bits like Peter and Brian trying to move a couch (a great gag that anyone can relate to), and Joe makes a memorable appearance towards the end, but overall, it is less than truly creative. Ironically, many of the Star Wars-themed cutaways in the series put more of a spin on the universe than this special (such as the true origin of Vader's Death Star).
 Special material on the disc includes a 20-minute making-of program, a 10-minute interview with George Lucas by series creator Seth MacFarlane, a feature-length commentary, an animatic version of the movie, clips of Star Wars references from the series, some easter eggs (including two minutes of a table read), and a generic Family Guy season promo. When you combine all this with the movie itself (which runs a little under 50 minutes), you get about three hours of material. So it's easy to recommend this for fresh eyes; the value is about the same as a typical American movie, so even though the feature doesn't reach an hour, there's enough special material you don't feel ripped off.
Be warned that the animatic doesn't differ much from the final episode, though; and those who have seen "Blue Harvest" already will probably go for the commentary track right away, so that whittles down the runtime for those people right away. In that sense, I would've rather had "Blue Harvest" on the series' volume six, despite its not having Star Wars-themed cover art. It would've felt like a better deal than what is essentially two episodes put together.
I should also mention that the DVD also comes in limited edition packaging, which Fox didn't send me. This includes a t-shirt, 3D glasses, 12 trading cards, and a 20-page "Art of Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest" booklet.
Thankfully, "Blue Harvest" doesn't spit mean-spiritedly on Lucas's legacy but is a loving, light-hearted tribute; the writers were obviously Star Wars fans, and that comes through in the execution. I have mixed feelings on whether the DVD itself is worth the price, but it's an enjoyable episode, so if you've got the cash and are a Family Guy fan, go for it.
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