American Dad!

American Dad!
File:American Dad.png From left: Roger, Francine, Stan, Klaus, Hayley, and Steve
Created by	Seth MacFarlane Mike Barker Matt Weitzman
Starring	Seth MacFarlane Wendy Schaal Rachael MacFarlane Scott Grimes Dee Bradley Baker
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	54 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 21 minutes
Original release
Network	FOX
Release	February 6, 2005 – present

American Dad! is a satirical American animated series produced by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions for 20th Century Fox Television.

It was created by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, as well as two former Family Guy writers, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. The pilot episode aired 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 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Stan Smith and his family.

Characters

Main article: List of American Dad! characters

The show centers on the Smith family and the various obstacles Stan, a CIA employee, encounters with his immediate family and in his efforts to ensure the safety of his country. The Smith family lives in the fictional community of Langley Falls, Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The town name is a composite of Langley, a community located in McLean, and Great Falls, two unincorporated communities located in Fairfax County. Langley is also the real-life location of CIA headquarters.

Opening sequence

Similar to other animated shows' opening sequences, American Dad! features a recurring gag that is changed for every episode. As Stan is singing "Good Morning, U.S.A." he heads out his front door and picks up the newspaper waiting on his front porch. The front page headline is different for each episode, like in The Simpsons (e.g. couch gags, Bart's chalkboard gags or Lisa Simpson's saxophone piece). It is usually a topical joke such as "Child obesity up, pedophilia down" or "Iran changes flag to middle finger" and "Israel pulls out of Gaza, Gaza not pregnant". These headlines are satirical in nature, usually directed at the United States Government, the media, or current affairs.

Ratings

While the show has succeeded in being renewed, it has not matched Family Guy in ratings success. On a typical Sunday American Dad has slightly more than half the viewers and share of the Simpsons and Family Guy episodes that follow it on Fox. Its ratings are typically similar to the King of the Hill episode that precedes it. For the week ending April 6th, 2008, American Dad was the Fox's least viewed primetime program. Fox has ordered more episodes of all four comedy cartoon programs for the 2008 summer season.

Appearance outside American Dad!

Some American Dad! characters have had some appearance or cameo outside the show. These include:

• In The Simpsons episode "The Italian Bob" in a book of criminal suspects owned by Italian guards, Peter Griffin of Family Guy is dubbed as "Plagiarismo" (faux-Italian for "Plagiarizer", indicating the belief that Family Guy is a ripoff of The Simpsons) and Stan Smith "Plagiarismo di Plagiarismo" (faux-Italian for "Plagiarizer of a Plagiarizer", indicating that American Dad! itself is a ripoff of Family Guy which is a ripoff of The Simpsons).
• Certain characters and locations have been featured in select episodes of Family Guy, another animated comedy created and produced by Seth McFarlane.
  • Roger makes a last-minute cameo in the episode "Meet the Quagmires", asking the Griffins "Who ate all the Pecan Sandies?". His line is a reference to a line he said early in the American Dad! pilot episode, asking Francine if she bought Pecan Sandies while she was out shopping.
  • Roger can also be seen in the hour-long Star Wars parody "Blue Harvest" in the cantina scene.
  • Stan Smith and Avery Bullock, as well as the CIA Headquarters, appear in the episode "Lois Kills Stewie". When they meet, Stewie accidentally calls him "Joe", then explains that he looks like someone he knows; this a reference to the similarities in animation and character designs between the two shows. Although this instance was actually part of a virtual reality simulation, it does seem to imply that the two shows share the same fictitious universe.

Cast

• Seth MacFarlane as Stan, Roger
• Wendy Schaal as Francine
• Rachael MacFarlane as Hayley
• Scott Grimes as Steve
• Dee Bradley Baker as Klaus

Crew

• Seth MacFarlane, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer
• Mike Barker, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer
• Matt Weitzman, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer
• David Zuckerman, Writer/Co-Executive Producer
• Rick Wiener, Writer/Co-Executive Producer
• Kenny Schwartz, Writer/Co-Executive Producer
• Crystal Khan, Writer/Producer
• Mike Shipley, Writer/Co-Executive Producer
• Jim Bernstein, Writer/Co-Executive Producer
• Steve Hely, Writer/Story Editor
• Brian Boyle, Writer/Producer
• Chris McKenna, Writer/Story Editor
• Matt McKenna, Writer/Story Editor
• Dan Vebber, Writer/Supervising Producer
• Jon Fener, Writer/Supervising Producer
• Josh Bycel, Writer/Supervising Producer
• Dave Locke, Writer/Supervising Producer
• John Fitch, Production Editer

International broadcasters

Country	TV network(s)	Weekly schedule (local time)
Australia	Seven Network (free-to-air) and FOX8 (subscription based)	10:30pm Thursdays (Seven Network) Sundays 9:30pm & Mondays 2:30pm (FOX8)
United Kingdom	FX	Thursdays, 10:00pm (2 episodes).
Austria	MTV Austria	Mondays, 10:30pm - Tuesdays, 10:30pm - Wednesdays, 11:00pm (2 episodes)
Canada	Global TV	Coincides with the American broadcast
Estonia	MTV Eesti
Germany	MTV Germany	Mondays, 10:30pm - Tuesdays, 10:30pm - Wednesdays, 11:00pm (2 episodes)
Ireland	Channel 6	Thursdays, 10:30pm
Latvia	MTV Latvija
Lithuania	MTV Lithuania
Norway	Viasat 4	Monday-Friday, 4:55pm
Thailand	TrueVisions	Saturday, 9:30pm
Turkey	ComedyMax
Philippines	Jack TV
Belgium	JIM TV	(Dutch)
Israel	Xtra HOT	Thursdays
New Zealand	C4
Portugal	SIC Radical FOX Portugal

DVD releases

DVD Name	Release dates			Ep #	BBFC/IFCO/OFLC Rating
	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4			Additional Information
Volume One	April 25, 2006	April 24, 2006	May 24, 2006	13	12/15/M(NOTE: Discs 1 and 2 have got a 12 certificate in Ireland, same as American Dad but the content of the third disc raises the certificate up to a 15, the 12 certificate in the UK remains though)	This 3 disc boxset includes the first 13 episodes from Season 1 (Pilot - Stan of Arabia: Part 2). Special features include commentaries, featurettes, and animatics. It was renamed 'Season 1' on region 2 and 4. Only in Germany it was shortly rerenamed to Volume One, 2 weeks before the release.
Volume Two	May 15, 2007	May 28 2007	May 21 2007	19	12/15/M	This 3 disc boxset includes the remaining 10 episodes from Season 1 and the first 9 episodes from Season 2 (Stannie Get Your Gun - The Best Christmas Story Never). Special features include commentaries on all episodes, featurettes, multi-angle scene studies, and deleted scenes. An uncensored audio track is also available on the episode "Tears of a Clooney."
Volume Three	April 15 2008	May 12 2008	May 14 2008	18	15/15/M(Rated 15 in the UK due to the Table Read and some of the commentaries, actual episodes on the set are rated 12 excluding The 42 Year Old Virgin)	This 3 disc boxset includes the remaining 10 episodes from Season 2 and 8 of the first 9 episodes from Season 3 (Bush Comes to Dinner - Frannie 911), though "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever" does not appear on the DVD. Special features include commentaries on all episodes, unrated audio, table read, and deleted scenes.

• 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 fans to believe they had been excerpted from the release.

• The name of the Region 2 and 4 DVDs of Volume 2 was not renamed to Season 2 and instead kept the title 'Volume 2'.

Episodes

Main article: List of American Dad! episodes

External links

• Official American Dad! website at FOX
• Template:Tv.com show
• American Dad! at IMDb
• American Dad! Wiki at Wikia
• American Dad! @ TV Central
• Full episodes of American Dad!
• Watch Full Episodes of American Dad! online at TVcartel

Preceded by Survivor: All Stars 2004

Super Bowl lead-out program 2005

Succeeded by Grey's Anatomy 2006