American Dad! Totally Explained

Everything about American Dad totally explained

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

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's changed for every episode, except for Office Spaceman, which started with the sequence interrupted early. 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 (for example 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 hasn't 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. However it does much better in the ratings following Family Guy than King of the Hill as it did during this time. 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 "Plagiarism", indicating the belief that Family Guy is a ripoff of The Simpsons) and Stan Smith "Plagiarismo di Plagiarismo" (faux-Italian for "Plagiarism of a Plagiarism", 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, socializing and sipping red wine.
- 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 is 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.

Main Cast

Seth MacFarlane as Stan and Roger

Wendy Schaal as Francine

Scott Grimes as Steve

Rachael MacFarlane as Hayley

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)
	Seven Network (free-to-air) and FOX8 (subscription based)	11:00pm Thursdays (Seven Network)Sundays 9:30pm & Mondays 2:30pm (FOX8)
	FX (First run rights) and BBC Three (Terrestrial rights)	Thursdays, 10:00pm (2 episodes) FXMonday - Sunday, various times, 2 episodes BBC Three
	MTV Austria	Mondays, 10:30pm - Tuesdays, 10:30pm - Wednesdays, 11:00pm (2 episodes)
	Global TV	Coincides with the American broadcast
	MTV Eesti
	FOX South Africa	Mondays, 7:30pm - Tuesdays, 7:30pm - Wednesdays, 7:00pm (2 episodes)
	Channel 6	Tuesdays, 10:25pm
	FX	Sunday, 10:30pm - Tuesday 11:30pm (In English and Spanish)
	MTV Latvija
	MTV Lithuania
	Viasat 4	Monday-Friday, 5:55pm
	TrueVisions	Saturday, 9:30pm
	ComedyMax
	Jack TV
	JIM TV	(Dutch)
	Xtra HOT	Thursdays
	C4	Thursdays, 7:30pm
	FX	Sundays 9:30pm and Fridays 9:30pm (reprise)
	SIC Radical FOX Portugal

DVD releases

DVD Name	Release dates			Ep #	BBFC/IFCO/OFLC Rating	Additional Information
DVD Name	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4	Ep #	BBFC/IFCO/OFLC Rating	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 the UK 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. In Germany it was shortly rerenamed to Volume One, 2 weeks before the release. In the UK when the Boxset of Volumes 1-3 was released, the Season One discs were labelled Volume One.
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" doesn't 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'd been excerpted from the release.

The name of the Region 2 and 4 DVDs of Volume 2 wasn't renamed to Season 2 and instead kept the title 'Volume 2'.

Episodes

Further Information

Get more info on 'American Dad'.

External Link Exchanges

American Dad character voiced by Eddie Kaye Thomas - Ask.com UK Web Search

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://american_dad.totallyexplained.com">American Dad! Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.