Carrie Fisher To Appear on Two New "Family Guy" Episodes [Archive] - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

JamesG

11-03-2017, 02:19 PM

"Family Guy" Producer Reveals Details on Carrie Fisher's Final Two Episodes
by Dan Snierson
11/3/17

When Carrie Fisher passed away suddenly at the age of 60 last December, her death was felt across the galaxy, from Alderaan to Hollywood, and all the way to Quahog.

In addition to playing Princess Leia in five Star Wars movies, starring in films like Hannah and Her Sisters and When Harry Met Sally, writing the semi-autobiographical novel and screenplay Postcards from the Edge, and serving as an in-demand script doctor, Fisher had a decade-plus gig on "Family Guy".

She voiced a key character on the animated comedy, Angela, Peter’s boss at the brewery, popping up in two dozen episodes of the animated comedy, dating back to 2005. Angela was guilty of sexually harassing Peter, but we would also learn that she was deeply sad and lonesome; Peter saved her from committing suicide and went so far as to (semi-)cheat on his own wife to lift her spirits.

In the world of "Family Guy", this was a mitzvah.

Fisher may be gone, but her work on the show lives on, at least for a little longer. The first of her posthumous episodes debuted in the spring, as she was seen in a cutaway gag complimenting Peter on his watermelon outfit.

Her second-to-last episode airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on Fox — get ready to watch Angela fire Peter not once but three times — and her final appearance arrives a month later. In addition, the show will provide closure and pay tribute to Angela (and Fisher) in an episode slated to air next fall.

Here, "Family Guy" executive producer Steve Callaghan reveals what you can expect in Fisher’s final two appearances:

Sunday’s episode, “Three Directors,” also features the late Adam West as POTUS. It must have been difficult to cope with two deaths of beloved recurring, important guest stars within a few months.

It was incredibly difficult. The loss of each of those characters in itself was an enormous blow. And then to have two of them happen so close together — we’ve been able to absorb the loss in the show, but I think we’re still processing emotions about losing these two actors from our lives.

Angela fires Peter three times in the episode, once in the style of Quentin Tarantino, once in the style of Wes Anderson, and once in the style of Michael Bay.

What sticks out to you about Carrie’s performance in “Three Directors”?

A couple things. First of all, I love the way that she delivers the lines in which she fires Peter in the style of Wes Anderson because she nailed, in my opinion, what those movies are and the acting styles that’s contained within them. I love Wes Anderson movies, but even he would admit that sometimes his characters speak in ways that are not like humans speak. She comes in dressed in this odd get-up that we’ve never seen her wear before, and says, “You’re relieved of your position.” It’s like, who fires someone that way? Beyond just the words themselves, her delivery of it was perfect, just the right balance of realistic, but stilted and oddly distant.

But I think probably my favorite version of her firing Peter is the Michael Bay [segment], which culminates with Angela and Peter engaging in the grossest, longest French kiss you’ve ever seen. [Laughs] So having to direct her to make those noises was hilarious. We were all just cracking up, because I remember saying to her, “Okay, so now Angela is kissing Peter, and it’s just wet and lots of tongue,” and she just jumped right into these ridiculously gross but hilarious noises. And it just went on for awhile, but we kept laughing with each new iteration of it.

It was actually a lot of fun sorting through those different Carrie Fisher noises and figuring out which would be just the right level of saliva and grossness.

She’ll also pop up in a Christmas episode (“Don’t Be a Dickens at Christmas,” airing Dec. 10). What can you hint about that appearance?

It’s at the very top of the show. It’s Peter’s last day of work before he gets a little time off for the holidays, so it very much has that feeling that we all remember when it’s like the last day at school before Christmas vacation.

Peter is sitting there with a boom box, just waiting to be dismissed from work so he can blare “School’s Out,” by Alice Cooper, and, of course, he keeps jumping the gun, much to the annoyance of Angela, who’s not quite ready to dismiss everyone from work. It’s just Peter’s enthusiasm for Christmas getting in the way — yet again — of him being the type of employee that Angela would expect him to be.

Angela was an important character to the fabric of the show. For fans seeking closure, how will you properly wrap up her story and pay tribute to Carrie?

I’m not going to say too much about that, but we do have an upcoming episode [airing next fall] where we deal with Angela’s departure. The way we’ve written it, and the way that our characters on the show are talking about Angela, it’s very much intended and a respectful goodbye to both the character of Angela and also Carrie Fisher.

Peter has a speech in there where he’s talking about Angela, but we the audience know that he’s also quite deliberately talking about Carrie Fisher. It’s not like the entire episode is about Angela’s departure, but it does introduce Peter’s new bosses that then sets the stage for what the episode is about. Her departure is an integral part of it, but that’s not the story of the episode.

http://ew.com/tv/2017/11/03/family-guy-carrie-fisher-last-episodes/