| "Stanny Boy and Frantastic" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| American Dad! episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 10 |
||
| Directed by | Pam Cooke & Valerie Fletcher | ||
| Written by | Laura McCreary | ||
| Production code | 5AJN13 | ||
| Original air date |
January 23, 2011 |
||
| Roger's disguise | Park Ranger | ||
| Guest stars | |||
| Episode chronology | |||
|
|||
| American Dad! (season 6) List of American Dad! episodes |
|||
"Stanny Boy and Frantastic" is the tenth episode of the sixth season of American Dad!. It aired on Fox in the United States on January 23, 2011.[1] This episode centers around the couple of Stan and Francine, who are bored with their lives. In a desperate attempt to get out of the house, Stan and Francine take Hayley's tickets to a circus in order to invite and bond with a couple. While at the show, they both meet Tom and Cami, a young couple. All four go out on various outings, and Stan and Francine begin to have trouble keeping up with the fast-paced lifestyle of Cami and Tom.
This episode was written by Laura McCreary, and directed by Pam Cooke and Valerie Fletcher. It received mostly positive reception upon its release, with much of the praise stemming from the main storyline. It was watched by 4.80 million homes during its original airing. It featured guest appearances from Paget Brewster, Sarah Chalke, Anthony Michael Hall, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Elmarie Wendel.
Contents |
Bored with their life, Stan and Francine try to spice things up by going to a circus with tickets taken from Hayley. Unable to find anyone to go with, Stan sells the tickets to Tom and Cami, a young couple who appear to be Stan and Francine's ticket out of boredom. Invited out the next evening to a late dinner, Tom and Cami take them for a younger couple. After admitting they do not want kids to slow them down, Tom and Cami invite Stan and Francine out to an after-hours nightclub despite Francine's reservations. Stan, however, is determined to keep up with their new friends. Returning home drunk at 3:00 in the morning, they pass out and are hungover the next morning when they are called up to go rock climbing. Despite Francine's continued reservation about keeping up with the lifestyle, Stan is determined not to lose their new friends. Worse for wear and having rejected Steve while out with their friends, Stan and Francine hatch a plot to ruin Tom and Cami's birth control so they will be stuck taking care of a child of their own. When Tom and Cami find out they are indeed pregnant, they break up. When Tom takes the breakup hard, Stan and Francine plot to get them back together. When Hayley conveniently gets tickets to another circus, Stan and Francine each invite Tom and Cami to force them together. They refuse to fall for the ruse and Stan and Francine are forced to admit that they are parents and it is the greatest thing to happen to them. However, Francine absent-mindedly also admits to the sabotaging of their birth control. Tom and Cami get back together but the friendship is over to Stan and Francine's relief.
Meanwhile, Roger and Steve see an advertisement on television for a cotton-candy shooter and order one with a credit card stolen from Greg Corbin. Klaus is excited to be in on the action but is rudely dismissed by Roger and Steve. When the shooter turns out to be a dud, Klaus convinces them to stand up to the company and demand a refund. Despite finding out the hold wait time is two weeks, Klaus pushes them into waiting it out. When they finally get through, they are directed to Beverly Billingsley instead of billing. After waiting again, they finally get a live operator who simply tells them to return the shooter for a refund. Steve and Roger are overjoyed until they realize the refund will go straight back on to Greg's credit card and their labor gets them nothing. Klaus reveals that he egged them on as vengeance for insulting him and crawls away cackling, leaving Roger to wonder if he and Steve are stupid.
"Stanny Boy and Frantastic" was written by Laura McCreary, and directed by Pam Cooke and Valerie Fletcher. In addition to the main cast, Sarah Chalke guest starred in the episode as Cami,[2] and Anthony Michael Hall would play the role of Tom.[3] Paget Brewster and Elmarie Wendel would guest star as uncredited roles. This would be the first time Brewster would make a guest appearance on American Dad since the season 5 episode "Rapture's Delight."[4][5] Along with reprising her role as Hayley, Rachael MacFarlane would voice various recurring characters.[6] Recurring voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson also made a minor appearance as well.
"Stanny Boy and Frantastic" was broadcast on January 23, 2011 as part of the animated television line-up on Fox. It was the first show on the block, the second consecutive week that it started the "Animation Domination" line-up. It was followed by The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, and its sister shows Family Guy and The Cleveland Show. It was viewed by 4.80 million households, despite airing simultaneously with America's Funniest Home Videos on ABC, the AFC Championship game on CBS, and Dateline on NBC.[7] The episode acquired a 2.2/5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, a significant increase from the previous episode, as well as a 34% increase in total viewership from the previous episode "Fart-break Hotel", which was viewed by 3.58 million households during its initial airing.[7][8]
"Stanny Boy and Frantastic" was met with generally positive reviews from television critics. Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club wrote, "After a somewhat dull episode last week, American Dad moved back into form with a decent episode about Stan and Francine making friends with a younger couple."[9] However, he would criticize the subplot of the episode, saying that the rest of the episode was a "distraction". He went on the give the episode a B, the highest grade of the night tying with The Cleveland Show episode "Like a Boss", and Bob's Burgers episode "Sacred Cow", while scoring higher than The Simpsons episode "Homer the Father". Critics of Daemon's TV reacted positively to the episode, stating the highlights being the physical gags of the episode.[10] Jason Hughes of TV Squad wrote, "I like when a comedy speaks to me on something I can relate to. And I think American Dad was clever enough in approaching how our lives change as we get older in a way that both sides of the situation can relate to."[11]
The Parents Television Council, a conservative media watchdog group that is a frequent critic of American Dad!, as well as the series creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane, deemed "Stanny Boy and Frantastic" the "Worst TV Show of the Week" during the week of January 23–29, 2011.[12] In an extremely negative review of the episode, the group criticized the episode for its "excessive sexual dialogue and cartoon violence", and went on to write, "Unfortunately, it does this with no regard for the Family Hour. American Dad [...] now airs at 7:30 p.m./6:30 p.m. [...], two hours earlier than usual, in order to make room for the new animated show Bob’s Burgers. Undoubtedly, Fox hopes a strong lead-in audience from the 8:00 p.m. episode of The Simpsons will help boost the numbers for Bob’s. However, if Fox really cared about what families watched, they would schedule the much tamer Bob’s Burgers in the earlier slot, and keep the vulgar American Dad for the last hour of broadcasting. That way, not as many youngsters would tune into the kind of raunchy dialogue and over-the-top violence that garnered the recent episode of American Dad the title of Worst TV Show of the Week."[12] In conclusion of their article, the group stated, "It remains to be seen if Bob’s Burgers will find an audience. For now, it is doing better than any live-action sitcom from Fox in recent memory. Hopefully, one day it will become Fox’s new go-to utility show on Sunday night, relegating American Dad to a more appropriate spot – the DVD shelf."[12]