# How was Carrie Fisher on the last episode of Family Guy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318 "2017-03-29T23:56:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/1 "2017-03-29T23:56:17Z")
She died 3 months ago. Do they record the voices earlier than that? Or was that a different actress? ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/2 "2017-03-29T23:58:42Z")
I don’t know which episode you are talking about, but yeah, 3 months is actually kinda short for a lead time. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/3 "2017-03-30T00:04:27Z")
yeah, AFAIK Family Guy has like a 2-3 month lead time on episodes. South Park is the real anomaly in their ability to turn a new episode the week before airing. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/4 "2017-03-30T00:47:32Z")
Yeah I’d say closer to 6+ months for lead time. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/5 "2017-03-30T03:05:47Z")
I have no immediate cite for this, but I thought they actually recorded over a year in advance. I thought Wil Wheaton or another Star Trek cast member mentioned recording dialogue and their episode did not air for a really long time after. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/6 "2017-03-30T03:10:27Z")
I heard there were 2 episodes that featured her posthumously, I know I saw one of them but she didn’t really say anything funny, just set up a joke for Peter. It’s crazy how those years of smoking changed her voice so much. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/7 "2017-03-30T03:19:35Z")
According to Wikipedia, an episode takes ten months to produce. > **[Family Guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Guy)** > > Family Guy is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois, their children, Meg, Chris, and Stewie, and their anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian. Set in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island, the show exhibits much of its... > [@](#): > > MacFarlane has explained that normally it takes 10 months to produce an episode because the show uses hand-drawn animation. The show rarely comments on current events for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/8 "2017-03-30T10:55:55Z")
Traditional animation like Family Guy or The Simpsons has a very long lead time, sometimes as much as a year. South Park specifically has their process set up to churn out episodes very quickly. Of course, they don’t look nearly as pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/9 "2017-04-03T13:51:21Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Traditional animation like Family Guy or The Simpsons has a very long lead time, sometimes as much as a year. Isn’t the Simpsons computer drawn at this point? ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/10 "2017-04-03T14:24:16Z")
Very few cartoons go to air live. It’s a tremendous strain on the animator’s wrist. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/11 "2017-04-03T21:32:07Z")
Nonsense. I make live t.v. every day. 😉 Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/12 "2017-04-03T22:13:51Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Isn’t the Simpsons computer drawn at this point? It’s computer coloured and composited, but I think the characters are still drawn frame by frame by hand. It may not be on paper anymore (though it might be), but it doesn’t save that much time if not. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-carrie-fisher-on-the-last-episode-of-family-guy/783318/13 "2017-04-04T03:56:46Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Isn’t the Simpsons computer drawn at this point? Pretty much all animation is at least colored by computer now. But the individual frames are still drawn one by one. Whether that’s done by hand or on computer I don’t know, but it’s a lot of work. _Futurama_ used to do a lot of 3D animated sequences which were specially rendered to make them look like traditional 2D animation. (With solid colors and outlines.) But those were special sequences and most of the show was still hand drawn.