the one time i was actually happy to see the ugly grey spacesuit

family_guy_stng.jpg Last night’s season premiere of Family Guy was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen on television. The Spanish Quagmire, spitting milk on Meg, spitting milk on Meg (again), Brian walking in a little circle outside Lois and Peter’s bedroom, Brian and Peter doing the gameshow bit . . . uhm . . . what else . . . ?
Oh yeah, and seeing Wesley freaking Crusher!! I screamed so loud, it knocked out the power in Los Angeles today. (Sorry about that, Los Angeles. If it makes you feel any better, I had to sit at the intersection of Fletcher and Griffith Park — right by Astro Burger — for almost twenty minutes. And I had to pee.)
The thing that’s awesome, (and unintentional, I’m sure) is that the image here is exactly what it was like when I worked on TNG back in the day: we’re all laughing, having a great time, and Michael Dorn hates his Klingon forehead.
(Enormous thanks to WWdN Reader Aaron D. who sent me the screen cap. And yes, I know the ops and conn consoles are reversed. Don’t point that out, or everyone will know you’re a geek.)

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69 thoughts on “the one time i was actually happy to see the ugly grey spacesuit”

  3. I saw it last night too… I was so excited. I actually giggled and jumped on my couch for a minute or so. That was so awesome! XD

  5. Just out of curiosity… is it “normal” at these type of tourneys to have 1/2 (or more) of the table sitting out and just posting the blinds?
    REALLY took the fun out of it. :/ But for a good cause. 🙂

  6. Can I just say… when I saw that scene on Family Guy I sat there wondering “hmmm I wonder if Wil Wheaton’s going to blog about this tomorrow… I bet he’s watching. How cool would that be to see a cartoon of yourself on tv.”
    Glad to see you don’t disappoint. Very cool indeed.

  7. I saw that, too, and immediatley ran to the computer to see if you had blogged about it, yet! I was hilarious. Glad you were able to get a grin over it.
    You’re such a cool guy

  8. Dammit, dammit, sonofabitch. I was playing D&D and we were trying to negotiate with the demilich so we had the TV off. Damn you Max Powers! *shakes fist*
    Now I wish I’d told the lich to go suck on it.
    By the way, guess what Wil, you were on Family Guy, now you’ve really made it! 😉

  9. “You can suck my ridges.”
    I was in my dorm’s basement at the time and people were talking, but I caught that line. Nearly peed my pants, till I saw people staring at me. Oh well.
    I was very impressed on how well the set and characters were drawn. And after the episode, I looked at the credits thinking, “Nah, they couldn’t get Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, and Johnathan Frakes to all do guest appearances.” And then there their names were.
    I was pleased 🙂

  10. I’m with wingedsheep. My first thought after that scene was that you must have been really excited to see yourself on a show you think is so awesome. Put this in the category of Experiences Most of the Rest of Us Will Never Have… sigh. =)
    The gameshow bit with Brian and Peter was great, I agree. I found myself screaming “Willem Dafoe!” at the screen before Brian answered, willing him to answer that instead of whatever he ended up saying. I got a little too excited during the whole episode, I think.

  11. I was wondering if this would make an appearance on WWdN too… And as to if it were truly Johnathan Frakes and Michael Dorn too (since Stewart is on “American Dad” and all I KNEW it was him)…
    I’m glad you made a cameo, it must be pretty cool to see yourself on TV! ( 😀 )

  13. I didn’t get to see it last night, sadly…but the very first thing I thought when I saw that screen cap was, “Data and Wesley aren’t right.” I guess I’m a geek, luckily everyone knows it.

  14. It’s pretty cool to see a cartoon of yourself, but to see it on TFG is awesome.
    I know I’ll never see a cartoon of myself on TV, so my dream’s a little more low-key than that. I’m waiting for the day I can walk into a library and find my name on the catalogue (because I’m an author, not because I’m, like, a serial killer or something).

  15. heh my roommate and i totally called this post last night, after we recovered from our own star trek geekiness to realize that we’d probably be reading about it here today. and you did not disappoint!

  16. “And yes, I know the ops and conn consoles are reversed. Don’t point that out, or everyone will know you’re a geek.”
    Well, actually, I could point out that the arrangement shown for Ops and Conn is the way they had it in “Encounter at Farpoint,” which was, of course, the pilot for TNG, but then everyone would know that I’m…um…an even bigger geek? 🙂
    Nice picture, anyhow…even though I’ve never watched Family Guy.

  17. First of all: DAMN IT! I MISSED IT!!! THIS SUCKS!
    Second of all: the first thing I noticed before I even read the post was the picture and I thought, hey wait. That’s not right. Wesley is in the wrong place man!
    I hope they play that episode again sometime so I can see it. I glad u got to have a cameo in a show you love, as well as everyone else, so much.

  18. I encounter synchronicity too often in my life. And I don’t mean the Police album, though I encounter that fairly often, too. (Damn good album, though not my favorite…but I’m not posting about the Police, dammit.) I spent most of Saturday and Sunday posting on a thread at my hometown underground hip hop board about scifi in general and Star Trek in specific. Then Family Guy (I’s like to hug Chosha for the TFG acronym, because, while simple, it facilitates this synchronicity so well) comes on. My life is so happy.
    Go visit and weigh in. I’m sure I’m wrong about something important: http://www.defjunkies.com/showthread.php?t=4163

  19. I agree the ugly grey spacesuit was way lamer than the Starfleet uniform but it was MUCH cooler looking than the sweatshirt in season one.

  20. So glad you blogged it-when I shot an email your way last night, I wasn’t sure that you’d seen the episode. I figure if you had, there would’ve been something about WESLEY FREAKIN’ CRUSHER in big capital letters in one of your entries.
    My husband and I just finished reading your post, and we’re laughing our asses off. Thanks, Wil, for posting your reaction. I’m glad you’re as happy to see it as we all are.
    You’re so freakin’ awesome!

  21. Dude, the mix-up was the first thing I pointed out to Trevor. Oops. Anyway, I TOTALLY HAD A WIL WHEATON SIGTING TODAY!!
    You were at Hastings at about 7 p.m. (cst) and you weren’t very stealth-like in the way you checked me out. Of course, you were about 4 or 5 inches taller, had earrings in both ears and drank from the fountain of youth to drop down to your late twenties but other than that, I’m pretty sure it was you.
    No, but for real, if this guy were 5’11” instead of around 6’3″, he’d be a dead ringer. Yeah, and because I so rarely get noticed by a hot guy, my mind totally squealed like a teenage girls would.

  22. Wil sez:
    And yes, I know the ops and conn consoles are reversed. Don’t point that out, or everyone will know you’re a geek.
    How bad is it that when I first saw the scene, I thought “They should have put Wil in this..why’s Data in his chair…wait a minute…”

  23. I was so excited when I saw cartoon you on Family Guy. I eeped with joy and then ran over to my computer to see if you had blogged about it. I’m glad you enjoyed it too.

  25. I noticed the consoles, but what stood out was Gordi being on the wrong side of the bridge. The engineering console is on the other side, Gordi!!!

  26. actually the season premiere was going to be a different episode, but it had references to a hurricane so fox decided to postpone it. instead, we got this one.

  28. Jesus crap, Mr. Wheaton (SIR!)…. If you hadn’t been the guy in the TNG costume, you’d be just as bad as the rest of us for getting excited about this stuff.
    Not that it necessarily makes things any better, you understand, but I can at least rationalize in your name….
    JSc

  29. I thought of you when I saw that. Congratulations Wil. Now we just have to get Seth MacFarlane to wake up to the voice talent that is Wil Wheaton!

  30. The first thing I said to myself (after the initial squeel of excitement) was, “hey, Wil looks awful pale… oh wait. Nevermind” yeah, i am a certifiable geek.
    I must make a confession. Wil, you were my first celebrity crush. I used to sit around when the reruns came on, waiting for the credits to see if you were in it, and if your name didn’t come up (I knew the order it was in), I’d turn the tv off and go do something else… and now that i’m all grown up… well… “grown up” is such a relative term for a 21 year old college student…

  31. I’m gonna have to second Indy’s comment … I was all about the Wesley reruns. You can imagine how embarrassing it was to have my parents find out about the real reason I was so eager to spend ‘family time’ with them in front of the TV.
    Anyway, so I did totally notice the Data/Wesely body snatching, but it still makes me wish I watched Family Guy now. That’s pretty damn awesome.
    [BTW, I think you need to be on Red Bar Radio. Do you listen? It seems like something you’d enjoy. Just sayin’. :)]

  35. Come on Wil, I don’t see anything wrong with being a geek (coming from the one who has gamrgrl as her personalized plates)
    And though the consoles are wrong. I think it was done on purpose. It makes you look at Wesley first.
    I think i need to re-watch TNG. ::grins:: Just because.

  36. Oh, sure, you were animated, but you didn’t have a speaking part, like Christina Aguilera. (Then again, you didn’t have Peter Griffin tell you you offended all 5 of his senses. And you didn’t lick your own armpit….)

  39. I just got a TypeKey account so I could tell you that I adored Wesley. My grandmother and I bonded over Star Trek when I was little and Wesley was pretty much the reason I was willing to watch. (Okay, and Geordi, ’cause I recognized Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow.) But in any event, although I am still not the drooling fangirl, I totally love Wesley. I wanted to grow up to be like him. I think I still do.

  40. I never did figure out what the ops position was. In TOS, the two front positions were helm and navigation, which makes sense to a certain extent. The two positions in TNG were helm on the right, and ops on the left? I never did get an understanding of the differentiation.
    I was the sort of person to buy tech manuals, but I never got a TNG one. Hmm…well, I’ve now put a bid on one on ebay, so I’ll soon be back up with the cool kids.
    It’s cool there was a neat homage on Family Guy. I was watching Monday Night Football on ABC. I’ll have to wait for the rerun for that one.
    I didn’t do the Pokerstars tournament last night because of a major family event, but I’ll be in on the tournaments later this week.

  42. Only Wesley could reprogram a tractor field generator into a repulsar beam while drunk off his ass!!! And only Wesley (and that hot chick) could resist the temptations of the Orgasmo game! Leave it to the geeks to save everyone’s ass time and time again! That’s why IT was invented! And who’s to say that geeks are wimps! More geeks play Hockey than any other clique! And there is NOTHING wimpy about Hockey! So what does that mean? It means geeks are cool!

  44. Yes, family guy was awesome, I was definitely laughing my ass off (and also didn’t believe that they actually got the voices to do it, but they definitely did).
    BUT! Did anyone watch American Dad and Patrick Stewart’s performance on that?!?!
    I kept thinking “did he actually read the script?!” and that I would never be able to look at him again without thinking he’s a dirty old man!

  47. According to one of the directors posting in the blog on the family guy website, the gag shown was not the original one:
    and the Star Trek gag
    1) Yes, they were all the REAL people
    2) The orig gag was soooooooo wrong.. it had to do with Counsler Troi missreading a spacial anomoly (sp?) and actually reading Picards warped sexual thoughts about her
    “I sensing… lemonade on my face????? Only that’s not lemonade” followed by a quick exiting captain with “I’ll be in my ready room”.. anyway…

  48. Seeing this entry about “Family Guy” reminds me of what happened this weekend. I was trolling through the DirecTV guide, and stumbled on “The Girls’ Room”, starring (among others) Wil Wheaton. On the VERY NEXT CHANNEL, starting at the EXACT SAME TIME, was “Stand by Me”, starring (among others) Wil Wheaton. Very freaky!

  49. Yeah, that moment on Family Guy made me really happy too.
    Even if they reversed the consoles. Which, yeah, I imagine most of us noticed, because we’re great big geeks & we like it that way. 🙂

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