It’s amazing how much more tightly and intelligently written American Dad typically is.
I was actually thinking that while reading this thread. The Overly Long Gag doesn’t appear anywhere near as often in AD as it does in FG. Is someone other than McFarlane producing or headwriting, or is it just that AD isn’t in the FG “brand” and therefore McFarlane is capable of treating it differently?
Don’t be silly, Family Guy jumped the shark years ago.
I don’t know the exact answer, but I was thinking that, too.
Bingo. It’s the biggest flaw in the show – a good joke gets draaaaaged out until it stops being funny.
It is kind of funny how different the two shows are. Understand that I listen to both of them more often than I watch, since I’m usually at the computer while supervenusfreak has them on in the living room, but my usual reactions to the gags in each of them is completely different. To wit:
Family Guy - I’ll laugh, then feel like I need to go to Confession for laughing.
American Dad - I’ll laugh.
It’s like watching a fish flop around on the dock. Flip, flop, flip, flop, flip, flop…it’s dying but it just won’t stop.
Overly Long Gags crack me up. Every time.
I don’t know why. But I am definitely the target demographic here.
I think I would have found that entertaining.
Too long, yes, but that’s what the Fast Forward button on my VCR remote is for (Conway and I even share a birthday!). Funny episode anyway.
Sorry, hastily composed post; I typed that all during the commercial, while trying to get my wife to believe what I’d just seen [she was in the other room].
I shall consider your comment validation of my beliefs, and question them no longer.
(Not surprisingly, my son and I also find ATHF to represent the pinnacle of comedy…)
The problem is that the writers miss that humor needs both good conception and good execution. I can see how the idea of doing something absurd like switching to a Conway Twitty video sounds funny when you think of it around the writers table - it’s a good concept. But it’s almost impossible to execute that same idea and make it funny.
I liked the Conway Twitty segment, but I knew it was coming because I peaked into the Dope before watching. It was fascinating like watching a car wreck. None of the musicians moved any more than was necessary to play their instruments. Conway just stared in the camera with a passive face and sang like a statue. Did these guys ever learn that TV is a visual medium?
Working on that novel = funny
Chicken fight = sorta funny, but entertaining
30 sec of Conway Twitty = funny
Entire Conway Twitty song = stupid and a waste of viewer’s time.
After a little while we just decided to pretend it was a pre-cable 70’s Sunday evening and we were watching Hee Haw.
Yep, 7:00 every Sunday night.
Me too. I thought it was hysterical.
More generally, what was up with a whole episode about OJ? OJ’s in jail now, right? Did they make this episode last summer and gamble that he’d get off?
There was a title card at the very beginning saying that this was a “lost episode” from March 2007, found in Peter Griffin’s attic. :rolleyes:
But didn’t they also reference Jimmy Kimmel hosting Late Night in this episode? How long ago was that decided?