# American Dad **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 7, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744 "2005-02-07T02:50:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/101 "2005-02-14T03:33:04Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > It felt exactly like Family Guy. But not as funny. Yeah. I think the reason for that is that Peter Griffin actually (don’t laugh) has depth as a character. He’s stupid, boorish, and completely inept - but fundamentally, he tries to act as a good and reasonable human being. The way in which he consistently fails is what makes the show funny. Peter, Brian, Stewie et al seem layered in a way that the American Dad characters don’t. Of couse, it’s hard to do much “layering” in a half-hour pilot. _shrugs_ ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/102 "2005-02-14T03:56:49Z")
> [@](#): > > _[Peter] tries to act as a . . . reasonable human being._ No, he doesn’t. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/103 "2005-02-14T04:31:35Z")
> [@](#): > > No, he doesn’t. Ever. I think he tries, sometimes. He rarely succeeds and he often has abhorrent motivations, but he is capable of trying to do good things. Of course, what’s his face from American Dad was sort of the same way in trying to help is son get the girl. I do think that Mr. Excellent is right that the FG characters seem more layered than the AD crew. I think there’s also, and this seems like a weird thing to say about a cartoon, a lack of chemistry between them. Even in the first episode of Family Guy, Peter, Lois, Brian and Stewie play off of each other far better than anyone did in AD. Granted, it’s only been one episode. Although even then, I don’t forsee anything warming me up to that stupid fish anytime soon. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/104 "2005-02-14T14:50:11Z")
> [@The Great Zamboni](#): > > **Scott\_plaid** , … If he was thinking as deeply as you say, then this is his view of how screwed up things are, not as they really are. He left no room for debate about the issues he highlighted his show. That is not brilliant. > > I’m not trying to bring up views opposite to Seth’s, I’m just saying that his political humor is lousy. He could be good if he worked on it, but it just isn’t there. I don’t mean to troll here, but to deffend my point of view. I must say however…What the fuck? If I am correct, and I don’t claim to be, then what is this stuff about “left no room for debate”? , then he is a person giving his point of view in the form of a tv show. The room for debate is inside your own head while you watch the show. “Fair and balanced” belongs on cable news show that aren’t any of those things, not on entertainment made by people who may or may not have political view points. _Scott then goes into Ventricular Fibrillation, only moments before someone says, “Chill out, or you’ll have a heart attack or something!”_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/105 "2005-02-14T16:50:11Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#): > > I don’t mean to troll here, but to deffend my point of view. I must say however…What the fuck? If I am correct, and I don’t claim to be, then what is this stuff about “left no room for debate”? , then he is a person giving his point of view in the form of a tv show. The room for debate is inside your own head while you watch the show. “Fair and balanced” belongs on cable news show that aren’t any of those things, not on entertainment made by people who may or may not have political view points. I know what you mean by giving his viewpoint in the form of a TV show, and I think you’re right. There doesn’t need to be debate in the form of entertainment, but he could leave room for disagreement. Then again, maybe there isn’t a difference. It doesn’t matter to me really because I still think MacFarlane’s political humor is lousy. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/106 "2005-02-14T17:41:30Z")
I don’t think _American Dad_ is intended as political humour, anyway – it’s social satire. Although it’s not difficult to guess what political party American Dad belongs to, very little reference is made to actual politics – it’s all about _values_. I’m not sure what you mean about “leaving room for disagreement.” How do you suggest this should be done? On the one hand, you’ve got an outlandish lampoon of a certain definition of American values in the eponymous character. Yeah, he’s fascistic and reactionary-flavoured. On the other hand, he’s clearly motivated by love for his family and country, and is the protagonist of the show. How could you “leave room for disagreement” in the show? When he subjects his daughter to a security search, should another character interject some counterpoint, like “You know, conservative parents don’t really go in for this sort of invasive control. It’s almost like a cartoon, or something?” I think the tell will come when (inevitably) some “Liberal” characters are brought in for some episodic conflict. If they seem like the voice of Perfect Reason, then I’ll have to agree with you – but I don’t see that happening, since it wouldn’t match the context of the show. More likely, Stan will be protecting America against the school nurse who’s handing out medicinal marijuana to students as part of a communist plot to convert them to vegetarianism, making them too weak to resist an invasion, or something similar. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/107 "2005-02-14T18:23:40Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > No, you’re right, they were here in Baltimore when I was a wee little weirdo. They all left the NE like 30 years ago, and heven’t come back. OK, so I’m not crazy (at least about that). Thanks for the confirm. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/108 "2005-02-14T19:19:25Z")
_Whooooooooooooooooooosh_ Thats the sound of my point going over The Great Zamboni’s head. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/109 "2005-02-15T05:04:38Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#): > > _Whooooooooooooooooooosh_ > Thats the sound of my point going over The Great Zamboni’s head. I got your point. You said that the show is an outlet for certain political and social views, and that it’s MacFarlane’s prerogative to do that. That doesn’t mean I can’t disagree that it should be that. It’s his show, though, and I won’t tell him what to do. > [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I think the tell will come when (inevitably) some “Liberal” characters are brought in for some episodic conflict. If they seem like the voice of Perfect Reason, then I’ll have to agree with you – but I don’t see that happening, since it wouldn’t match the context of the show. You’re right, This is what I meant, though I wouldn’t like it much if the “reasonable” and “stupid” roles were reversed. It just stops being funny whenever that happens I was premature in saying that there is no room for disagreement, since it is the first episode and we have no idea where it’s going. I feel like I’m rambling here. I think you’re both right about the show being an outlet and a social satire. That’s the point of most of entertainment. I can’t believe we are having this kind of discussion about a show that 85% of us agreed was crap. Can we just say I lost, and then go on? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744/110 "2005-02-15T07:58:01Z")
This show seemed more like a bad sitcom than an animated cartoon. All of the characters I’ve seen before (even the alien… see ALF), and all of them I found annoying. I can usually watch any cartoon for a half hour, but I can’t put up with bad sitcoms. My wife finally said, “Please, change the channel” about ten minutes in, and so I did, relieved. The Family Guy pilot (and most animated pilots I’ve seen) wasn’t the greatest, but at least it made me laugh in more than one place, I found the characters likable and sympathetic, and thought that animation was a good medium for the story. None of these held true for me for American Dad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dad/288744.md?page=5)