American Dad!

American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Creators and main directors, MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy) as well as two former Family Guy writers, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman aired the pilot episode in the United States on Fox on February 6, 2005, thirty minutes after the end of Super Bowl XXXIX; the regular series began May 1, 2005, after the season premiere of Family Guy. American Dad! follows the events of CIA agent Stan Smith and his family. Unlike Family Guy, American Dad! does not heavily rely on cutaway gags but instead focuses more on situational humor and non sequiturs.

American Dad! was officially renewed for a seventh season, bringing the series through the 2011–12 season.^[1][2] On September 20, 2010, TBS began re-running American Dad!, and now airs the series weekdays at 1ET. Fox also began syndicating American Dad! reruns to local stations in September 2010, with those episodes airing on weekends but as of September 19, 2011 it now airs weekdays. On December 27, 2010, American Dad! began airing on Adult Swim. American Dad! is shown on FX and BBC Three in the UK and 3e in the Republic of Ireland.

Summary

American Dad! centers on the domestic life of its nominal title character, Stan Smith, a staunchly conservative, Republican, CIA agent and self-proclaimed patriot. He is married to Francine Smith, a ditzy housewife who is trying to make up for a wild youth. Their two children are Hayley, a passionately liberal college-aged activist who Stan seems to be in tension with often, and Steve, a nerdy, wimpy high schooler who constantly attempts to live up to Stan's expectations but can never really measure up to the high standards in place for him. The Smith family is also in possession of two bizarre nonhumans — Roger, an escaped alien from Area 51 whom Stan is covertly housing in defiance of his employer due to the fact that Stan owes Roger a "life debt" (until he saves Roger's life and then admits he likes Roger), and Klaus, an anthropomorphic goldfish whom the CIA implanted with the brain of an East German Olympic ski jumper, who seems to have a thing for Francine.

The Smith family resides on 43 Cherry Street, in the fictional community of Langley Falls, Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The town name is a composite of Langley and Great Falls, two unincorporated communities located in Fairfax County.

Plots generally center on the misadventures of various family members in their respective realms. Recurring themes include Stan's desire to see Steve mature properly, Roger's desires to establish a life outside of the house, Francine's desire of breaking out of an overly structured lifestyle, Hayley's desire to rebel against her father's politics, and Steve's desire to finally become one of the cool kids and "get some boob". Stan's conservatism is treated as buffoonish and self-abnegating.

Opening sequence

American Dad! features a recurring gag in its opening sequence that is changed for every episode. Originally, this took the form of a newspaper headline, usually featuring a topical, satirical joke directed at the United States Government, the media, or current affairs. One exception is episode 14 of Season 3, "Office Spaceman", where Stan picks up the paper to read the headline "Alien Spotted!"; the theme music abruptly stops and the episode begins. As of Season 4, the opening sequence had been replaced, starting with the episode "1600 Candles". While featuring the same music, most of Stan's interaction with the family has been changed. Replacing the newspaper gag used in the first three seasons is Roger popping up next to Stan in the family's SUV to sing the final "Good Morning, USA!", wearing a different costume each episode. Roger's sudden appearance causes Stan to crash into the flagpole at the CIA building, thereby ending the sequence.

Main cast

Reception

American Dad! has received generally positive reviews from critics and scoring an average user score of 7.2/10 on Metacritic.^[3] Critics of the show initially focused on the similarities of the show's format and characters to Family Guy, but have also praised the show's more relaxed, approachable tone.

Episodes

Television ratings

Crossovers with Family Guy

Characters from Family Guy and The Cleveland Show have made crossover appearances on American Dad! and vice versa:

• Brian Griffin has made brief cameos in "The People vs. Martin Sugar" as Stan's #1 Fictional Dog. Brian carelessly asks Stan, "Do I know you?" before walking away and Stan shouts, "Stop pretending I don't exist!"

• Brian Griffin has an epiphany in an episode where he changes his political views to Republic Conservatism. Once he realizes this, a cut away shows Stan Smith sitting on the couch supposedly watching Brian like we all are and says, "Good. Good for Brian."

• Cleveland Brown and Peter Griffin appear at the end of "Hurricane!" facing Stan and each other in a stand-off, after a hurricane hits Stoolbend, Quahog and Langley Falls and places the houses of the Brown, Griffin and Smith families in the same neighborhood.

• Stan and Deputy Director Avery Bullock attempt to catch Stewie after he breaks into the CIA in the "Family Guy" episode, Lois Kills Stewie.

• In The Worst Stan, Steve and Roger are watching an unknown episode of Family Guy featuring Stewie and Brian going to Miami to enroll in Florida State University, with Steve questioning how a baby and a dog were able to get on an airplane.

• At the end of the Family Guy episode "Meet The Quagmires", Peter is commenting that everything is back to normal when Roger enters the living room and says, "Who ate all the pecan sandies?".

DVD releases

• The Volume One release was retitled Season One for the Region 2 and 4 releases, however the subsequent releases retained the Volume titles.
• On the packaging for the Season 1 release on Region 2 DVD, there was no mention of audio commentaries or some of the bonus features whatsoever, leading many to (incorrectly) believe they had been omitted from the release.
• The Region 2 and 4 DVDs do not have censored audio tracks on any episodes, although Volume 3 has so called "uncensored tracks" on the set, which was probably an error from the transfer because the tracks are already automatically uncensored on the set.
• The Volume 4 DVD release blurb contained information on the episode Phantom of the Telethon, which was instead featured on Volume 5.
• On Volume 6, despite claims of being uncensored, the bleeps from Home Adrone, My Morning Straitjacket, and G-String Circus are not removed.

International broadcasting

References

External links

• Official website
• American Dad! at the Internet Movie Database
• American Dad! at TV.com