Da Boom

"Da Boom" is the 3rd episode of the 2nd season of Family Guy. It was first shown on the Fox network on December 26, 1999. The episode is about the Griffin family after their city is destroyed from a nuclear explosion. This was because of Y2K (the Year 2000 problem). This is the first episode to have Mila Kunis as the voice actor for Meg Griffin.
Story
The city of Quahog gets ready for the 2000 New Year. Peter Griffin is worried that Y2K will be the end of the world. Lois tells him many times that the world will not end, but Peter puts his family in the basement of their house. However, Y2K causes many nuclear explosions and other problems through all of the world. The Griffin family is safe, but their house is destroyed. The explosions have caused many problems for Quahog. For example, Meg's boyfriend dies in an explosion, Quagmire and Cleveland are stitched together, and Quahog's news anchors eat each other. Peter eats all of the food that was in the house. Peter thinks that Twinkies are the only food that does not get bad in a nuclear explosion. The Griffin family starts walking to a Twinkie factory in Natick, Massachusetts.
When they make it to Natick, they see a Twinkie factory that has no damage from the explosions. Peter makes a new town near the factory. Peter is the mayor and Joe, Quagmire, and Cleveland are part of the town's council. The town becomes a community with many houses. When Peter sees that the town is very peaceful, he thinks the town is not protected. He makes guns for everyone in the town. The people in the town are angry at Peter for using the pipes from their irrigation to make the guns. The Griffin family must leave the town. Stewie gets into radioactive waste and grows tentacles. Stewie lays eggs that hatches octopuses. The octopuses destroy the town after the Griffin family leaves. The family does not know what happened to the town and walks to another factory.
The episode is then shown to be a dream from Pam Ewing. Ewing is a character from the television show Dallas. Ewing goes to her husband Bobby Ewing and talks to him about her dream. Bobby does not know what Family Guy is.
Production
"Da Boom" was written by Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan. Bob Jaques is the director of the episode.
This is the first episode where Mila Kunis is the voice actor for Meg. Lacey Chabert was the voice actor for Meg for episodes made before this one. Chabert stopped being a voice actor so she can keep working on Party of Five. Kunis had to do an audition to be the voice actor for Meg. In the audition, Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy) wanted Kunis to talk more slowly and clearly. After that, Kunis was put in the show.
The fictional character Ernie the Giant Chicken is first seen in this episode. He is a very big chicken and is an enemy of Peter Griffin. They can be seen fighting for a long part of the episode. They can be seen together in other episodes, for example, "Blind Ambition", "Internal Affairs", "No Chris Left Behind", and "Meet the Quagmires". Danny Smith is the voice actor for Ernie.
Victoria Principal, Will Sasso, Jack Perkins, Joey Slotnick, Patrick Duffy, Lori Alan, Danny Smith, and Patrick Warburton are guest stars in the episode.
Reception
Ashan Haque from IGN said that the episode "ranks as one of the best in the series." He thought that most of the jokes were funny and that the strange story is entertaining. Tom Eames from Digital Spy said that the episode could have been the first time fans could see the show as being very different from The Simpsons. He said the episode is "Classic bonkers Family Guy."
References
Other websites
Family Guy episodes
1999 television episodes