American Dad must choose to either finish on a high or carry on into mediocrity.
American Dad has been one of the best animated shows on TV for the best part of two decades. However, as it reaches its 21st season, is it time for the star family of Langley Falls to bow out gracefully on a high?
Created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, the masterminds behind Family Guy; American Dad follows the eccentric, upper middle class CIA agent and patriot, Stan Smith, and his family, living alongside a flamboyant alien who is a master of disguise and an East German bobsled champion whose mind is in the body of a goldfish. This is set in a fictionalised version of Langley, Virginia; where the CIA is headquartered.
From the very beginning of the show’s early seasons, American Dad’s humour was on another level. Unlike many other animated shows of the time, American Dad focused on relatable issues which provided genuine character growth for its protagonists over each episode’s resolution. With issues that were grounded in the real world, space was allowed for absurd plots that would never usually work or make sense in family-based stories. Like earlier seasons of The Simpsons, the episodes pack gag after gag into every scene, giving viewers a laugh a minute experience.
A lot of the humour is quite controversial and dark. But this is properly balanced out by each character growing and learning important life lessons about themselves, their relationships and society. These lessons have great relevance in real life with the show itself being progressive in its message, using the questionable humour and story of the protagonist Stan Smith as part of it; himself a gun-toting Republican who decries all things liberal.
But problems in quality began in season 20, or season 19 if you’re watching on Disney Plus. Episodes in the first half of the season such as Cow I Met Your Moother and Stan Fixes a Shingle continue the progressive nature of the show but largely dispense with the same level of humour as was previously there. Gone are the many laughs a minute and the riskier jokes which the show had, with nothing to replace them. This ruined the feel of the show as it seemingly became a comedy show with no comedy in it. As such the episodes became increasingly tedious to watch.
American Dad is a show you come to for comedy with the expectation of laughs but instead are left waiting and wanting the entire time. Continually, the hype built up in the minds of viewers from previous episodes was not lived up to, leaving them disappointed and annoyed at the time lost watching. Exactly the same has happened with The Simpsons, as later episodes of the show, while interesting in their own ways, have lost their comedic value and their spark.
It hasn’t all been equally poor; with the show still holding on to some of its previous quality and striking the balance between humour and seriousness in some later episodes of the season, delivering multiple gags a minute and making absolutely crazy plots work brilliantly. But, as time wore on, and in spite of the above, the show continued to stagnate overall. The show is now at a point where the comedy isn’t as funny or as frequent as it once was and the show is teetering on the edge of falling back to the quality of episodes like Cow I Met Your Moother.
Seth MacFarlane and Matt Weitzman have a choice to make. They can either end American Dad now and let it hold on to its legacy as one of the greatest animated sitcoms of all time, or they can keep dragging it on until – inevitably – the ideas tap runs completely dry. There have been too many shows that have dragged on too long and lost the quality they once had as a result, along with their fanbases. Why let that happen to American Dad? Let the show go out on the high it deserves and keep its reputation. Otherwise, a great show, which has been both funny and progressive, will be consigned to the dustbin of irrelevance as fans turn away in protest.
Words by James Jobson
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