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American Dad

Written by sdettorre

After taking some time off for the holiday season to travel to Pennsylvania and New Orleans, but still watching a good amount of television, I’ve had a chance to think about things. And as any regular reader of this column can testify to, that’s never a good thing.

One of the topics that got the hamster turning in my noggin was how FOX could cancel three shows that were critically acclaimed and had a reliable audience tuning in every week. These shows are Kitchen Confidential starring Rachel McAdams’s chach-bag boyfriend from Wedding Crashers (available in early January on DVD by the way), Reunion which was the third show Amanda Righetti took a stab at on FOX (The OC as Kirstin’s sister and North Shore as a hot chick) and of course Arrested Development, the Gayle Sayers of TV shows (short career but Hall of Fame-worthy).

As if canceling these shows wasn’t bad enough, the higher-ups at FOX decided to continue airing some of the worst programs on TV. Examples of this include Nanny 911, Bones and Hannity and Colmes. But the most unbelievable decision was to keep American Dad on the air when the three aforementioned shows were headed to the TV graveyard.

American Dad is a cartoon that focuses on the Smith family in suburban Washington, D.C. Stan and Francine are the head of the Smith clan. They have two children Hayley and Steve as well as a talking goldfish and an alien that lives in the attic.

Stan Smith works at the CIA and unless he sends his wife to Africa on a fact-finding mission his cover should remain in tact. Stan is a “man’s man”. He is church-going and opposes any kind of challenges to his authority. He sounds eerily familiar to someone in the news a lot, I just can’t put my finger on it.

Francine Smith is the stay-at-home wife of the Smith family. She lets Stan run his mouth and get into trouble but is the brains behind the operation of the Smith family. She is the voice of reason and is often the good-cop to her husband’s bad-cop.

Hayley Smith rebels against everything her father stands for. He is straitlaced and she dates a guy who lives in a VW Van. She has multiple piercings and changes her hair color about as often as Kimberly Stewart gets engaged.

Steve Smith is an awkward, socially-stunted teenager. He has no luck with the ladies, wears glasses and his best friend isn’t even human. This sounds strangely familiar to another Steve I know pretty well who would turn red whenever a girl asked him a question in high school, even if it was something along the lines of “Do you even go to this school?” Watching Steve Smith is as if a cartoonist captured my entire life from ages13-16. As much fun as it was living those years, it’s too painful to re-live them in animation.

Klaus is a goldfish with a German accent that lives with the Smiths. He brings nothing to the table except for an occasional quip in a heavy German dialect. He is the Yakov Smirnoff of this program. “What a terrible show” (I hope at least a few people reading got that).

Roger is an alien who lives in the Smith’s attic. I liked the alien living with humans theme the last time around when it was called Alf. And Alf didn’t talk like a mix between Dame Edna and Michael Jackson.

In case it’s difficult to read between the lines American Dad is not one of my favorite shows. It is supposed to be the anchor leg of FOX’s Sunday night prime time lineup. While the first three shows (the Simpsons, The War At Home and Family Guy) are entertaining, funny and most importantly offensive, American Dad lacks humor, is poorly written and is a feeble attempt by creator Seth MacFarlane to cash in on his Family Guy popularity. The show is supposed to be a comedy but I don’t think I’ve even chuckled during it. And I’m not exactly a tough sell, I thought Kenny Bania was funny.

One way to tell how popular or well-liked a show is, particularly a cartoon, all one has to do is look at the guest-stars. The Simpsons have had hundreds of A-List guest stars ranging from The Rolling Stones to Hugh Hefner to Kelsey Grammar. Family Guy has had Adam Corolla, Will Farell and Luke Perry. American Dad has had Patrick Stewart. That’s it. They couldn’t even get the first Star Trek captain William Shatner, and he’ll do anything for a paycheck. Any-thing.

As Futurama was to Matt Groening’s The Simpsons, American Dad will be remembered in the same light for Seth MacFarlane. Or in layman’s terms Futurama and American Dad should be held in the same regard as Jackie Brown (Tarantino), Artificial Intelligence: AI (Spielberg), and Bringing Out the Dead (Scorsese) as projects that the director/creator should have put the pencil down on.

Which is exactly what I am doing right now.

If you have a comment email me at tvdinner90210@yahoo.com