American Dad

[Reply #160 on:]

I thought  AD was ok. Its something Id watch again.

[Reply #161 on:]

I finally saw the full pilot, and I really can't see why so many people seem to hate it. I mean, sure, it does have a lot of similarities to Family Guy, and the satire attempts seem a bit poor at times, but still, I don't think I went 2 minutes without laughing once. 

I think this show definitely has potential. Hopefully when it stops being a mish-mash of typical dysfunctional family jokes and satirical humour and starts to find itself, it'll be good. Still, I enjoyed the first episode. It wasn't brilliant, but it's nowhere near as bad as everyone says it is.

[Reply #162 on:]

Yes, see this guy knows what he's talking about. As I said eariler, that's my opinion of the show in general as well. They need to improve it overall, but the seeds for a fantastic show are there.

[Reply #163 on:]

You can't disagree with Beamer. Especially when he agrees with me. His views on television are immaculate.

Woohoo!

[Reply #164 on:]

They're still the same show just with different contexts.

[Reply #165 on:]

^Agrees. (Although I'll still give it a shot this Sunday.)

[Reply #166 on:]

 

Originally posted by Eyedol7513:
(Although I'll still give it a shot this Sunday.)

Holy crap, is it on tommorow?! I better make sure I don't miss it...

[Reply #167 on:]

I just whatched it.It was ok i hope the other eps are better i didn't like this ep that much.The gay reporters were kinda funny but that was mostly it.

[Reply #168 on:]

WOW - that was HORRID!

I seriously will never watch it again - not one laugh the whole show

[Reply #169 on:]

When watching American Dad, I was torn between falling asleep or keeping track of all the jokes that fell flat/died. I dozed off.

I probably won't watch this again.

[Reply #170 on:]

I agree the ep was horrible but i'll give it another chance.

[Reply #171 on:]

Really really disapointed at this show. It was just plain crap.

C-

[Reply #172 on:]

I think about it like this: It's crap.

[Reply #173 on:]

<insert any word you want that means 'total shit'>

A complete pile of crap. There were only two or three jokes I laughed at, and they were so stupid, I don't even remember what they are. (And I saw it less than one hour ago.)

[Reply #174 on:]

Wow, WOW.

The pilot was one of the worst animated things I've seen, but this was even worse. In what may be the first time watching an animated prime time "sitcom", I didn't laugh a single time in the entire thing. And only a single joke stood out to me as being somewhat clever (the Season of 24 bit). I'm in awe of how bad this was, honestly!

Let's start with the positive stuff: the premise was okay. The idea of the husband being threatened by his wife making more money is decent, and the plot pretty much stayed on that idea (after the pointless "We're gonna die" thing in the first act...oh, and before the painful bum fight in the last act). The problem is that an okay premise means nothing if the characters are so terrible. Stan Smith, perhaps an amusing character in theory, comes across as an unbelievably horrible person. He almost snipes his wife? He wants to punch his kid in the face? He abuses his power to send a real-estate agent to some camp in the middle of nowhere? He's narrow-minded, jealous, angry, and completely unlikable, and none of it is funny.

His son is hardly better; he ALSO attempts to kill a family member--his sister--and he's also a greedy, conniving horrible person, sic-ing bums on each other to make money (from who, by the way? Is this a show that's airing on TV or what? This is never explained). The daughter, Hayley, seems to at least have a thread of decency, but the show treats her like the "Meg" of the series, i.e. the unpopular, whiny, PC one. It's like Lisa minus everything that makes Lisa endearing. The fish seems to already have worn out his joke, with what, three lines in this episode?

Maybe I could stomach all this if the episode was funny but...it just wasn't. Nothing was politically smart, everything with the gay guys was terribly done, Stan randomly licking his wife's hand, the man randomly dropping his pants to expose his lack-of-genitals was horrible, the thumb-bite joke...ack, running out of synonyms for "bad" here...you get the picture. This episode didn't have a single laugh, but it did provide plenty of groans.

Bad, awful, terrible, excrement. And so on.

I'm not the biggest fan of Family Guy, but at least it's usually entertaining. This wasn't, in any sense of the word.

1/5, F
Unprecedented.

[Reply #175 on:]

TriforceBun: I think that kid was making money on the Bum Fights by having people bet on who was going to win.
I also agree with everything you said, except for one thing. I'd give it a score of 0.5/10. I give it half a point for those jokes I actually laughed at (more likely snickered), that I don't even remember. I hope this show gets cancelled, and that when Season 4 of Family Guy is released on DVD, the first episode will have 'American Dad' edited into the list of shows Peter recites at the beginning.
And the hopeful cancellation will hopefuly bring back 'Futurama'! Who the hell am I kidding, we know there's a slimmer than slim chance of that ever happening.

[Reply #176 on:]

I think you guys are being a bit hard on it. I think the fact that Stan has no redeeming qualities is the point of his character. He pushes the envelope on what a character like Homer or Bender or even Peter Griffin is. Also keep in mind that these shows take about 8months to create so, roll back the clock on anything that is supposed to be "politically edgy".

I just watched the second episode and I didnt hate it. It was still better than most Simpsons episodes in the last 4 years

[Reply #177 on:]

Homer and Bender (and Peter, sorta...) have redeemable qualities.  Stan does not.

Peter, when he does something wrong, will generally get his cummupence (Homer and Bender too).  Stan (based on the pilot) does not, and holds actual power (this is key).

You can NOT have your main character have no redeeming qualities, and even if you do, they need to at least be powerless and have their just deserts handed to them when they do bad things (this is what keeps Cartman on South Park from becoming genuinely irritating).  This is what makes Stan so unlikeable and unwatchable.

And as for the political humor being 8 months behind, that is no excuse for the terribly stereotypical and weak nature of it.  The political jokes I've seen so far on this show aren't dated.....they're just bad.  I'm talking really, really bad, and this coming from someone who can actually stand political cartoons.  They're just completely unfunny, and pointlessly stereotypical of people.  I'm a fairly staunch liberal on most issues, but I find the characterization of conservatives (mainly Stan) on the show to be pointlessly demeaning and insulting.  The worst Simpsons satires could still run circles around this garbage.

[Reply #178 on:]

Curtis Armstrong does one of the voices.  Sorry, but I just can't hate a show that in any way involves Curtis Armstrong.

[Reply #179 on:]

To clarify an earlier topic, the "bum fights" idea is taken from real life. Apparently some teenage or young adult males (I forget which) convinced homeless people to fight each other for money and videotaped it. They sold the videos on the internet until (luckily) the police found out about it and arrested the kids. So that's where that's coming from.

[Reply #180 on:]

It was so unfunny it hurt. The animation was crappy, and much of the voice acting was bad. What the hell is with the fish? Oh, screw it. I'll watch again next week, but I don't seriously expect any major improvement.

[Reply #181 on:]

First things first  Not gonna watch it again. The airing on AS was not funny, nor was it on Fox (go figure). The odd characters (Alien guy, fish) did not bother me too much, we've all seen stranger characters *cough* zoidberg *cough* but they all seemed uninspired and shallow. A lot of thought has to go into the characters and their personalities, and that seems to have been skipped. People just seem to run around in this show and do stupid things to try to get you to laugh. Prime example: the alien. Not a word out of his mouth was funny. Also they neeeed to lay of the gay jokes. I've heard them all, find something original. It's a shame, cause some of the characters seem to have potential to be funny, it's just that none of them seem to work together. I'm bored of typing.

[Reply #182 on:]

The gay guys correcting each other was really bland and got old after two seconds, the fish got bland, the aliens homosexuality went stale.

This show isn't going to last.

[Reply #183 on:]

It sucked. I think I've seen part of this premise in a Family Guy episode, but it stunk out loud. This show deserves to either be: a)canceled; b)get better; or c)pushed back to NFL season and put at 7PM.

I feel a spot opening up on Animation Domination.

[Reply #184 on:]

 

Originally posted by i_c_weiner:
I feel a spot opening up on Animation Domination.

Yeah, its not animation domination without Futurama, it's just lacking...

[Reply #185 on:]

Hopely it will get canceled and hopely Futurama might take its place i would like that.
PS American Dad will get canceled its doing really bad so far it might last 1 season 2 tops.

[Reply #186 on:]

Man I hope it doesn't last that long. Oh, and I think everyone here would like to see Futurama back. Anyone who laughs is a communist!

[Reply #187 on:]

Killbot - From the way people are talking about it (in and out of Peel) I honestly think it will be lucky if it lasts this one season.  I think Fox will realize they made a huge mistake lowering the Arrested Development series shows to shove this crap on the air.

As far as the political humour - this episode was not too outdated.  The gay thing is still a hot topic in some places.  However the "my wife makes more then me" bit I found rediculous.  Seriously - do guys still feel that way? Because most of the guys I know would kill for that situation so they could sit back and relax.  I think that storyline would have been good during the - oh I dont know, 50's.

One more thing about the Political jokes - The commercial they were using to push the show that night, Stan said something about his daughter eating right so she could be strong.  When she asked why, he said that she needed to be able to fend off President Clinton's sexual advances.  What?! Thats not out dated by 8 months - thats outdated by almost 8 years.

[Reply #188 on:]

Hey, I have an idea for Fox: How about telling Seth to change the art style, add a robot, a delivery boy, and a cyclops, and change the title's name. How about to something along the lines of "Future-orama"? Heck, how about giving the rights to this show to...Matt Groening?

[Reply #189 on:]

 

Originally posted by Slacky v2.0:
I think Fox will realize they made a huge mistake lowering the Arrested Development series shows to shove this crap on the air.

I still don't understand why they took off Arrested Development for this.  They didn't put this show in Arrested Development's timeslot; they just showed an extra Simpsons episode.

 

One more thing about the Political jokes - The commercial they were using to push the show that night, Stan said something about his daughter eating right so she could be strong.  When she asked why, he said that she needed to be able to fend off President Clinton's sexual advances.  What?! Thats not out dated by 8 months - thats outdated by almost 8 years.

Considering that Haley looked a lot younger in that scene than she usually does, I'm guessing that it was a flashback.

[Reply #190 on:]

@ David - yes I noticed that as well about Aressted Development.

Also, even still, being a flashback, you think they could come up with something funnier then that.

[Reply #191 on:]

 

Originally posted by Slackit02:
Killbot - From the way people are talking about it (in and out of Peel) I honestly think it will be lucky if it lasts this one season.  I think Fox will realize they made a huge mistake lowering the Arrested Development series shows to shove this crap on the air.

As far as the political humour - this episode was not too outdated.  The gay thing is still a hot topic in some places.  However the "my wife makes more then me" bit I found rediculous.  Seriously - do guys still feel that way? Because most of the guys I know would kill for that situation so they could sit back and relax.  I think that storyline would have been good during the - oh I dont know, 50's.

One more thing about the Political jokes - The commercial they were using to push the show that night, Stan said something about his daughter eating right so she could be strong.  When she asked why, he said that she needed to be able to fend off President Clinton's sexual advances.  What?! Thats not out dated by 8 months - thats outdated by almost 8 years.

Yeah why wouldn't he want his wife to make more money.He wouldn't need to work as much and he would have extra cash to buy things. Example bigger tv and other things.But it is only a cartoon.

[Reply #192 on:]

 

Originally posted by Slacky v2.0:
Also, even still, being a flashback, you think they could come up with something funnier then that.

Eh, I thought it was funny.  Funnier than any of the jokes in the actual episode, anyway.

[Reply #193 on:]

They took off AD for AD? Stupid bastards! Wait... 


 

[Reply #194 on:]

It didn't replace Arrested Development. Arrested Development just wrapped up it's second season, so there was a free slot on Sunday. (Unless FOX shows re-runs.) When American Dad gets cancelled (hopefully), there'll be one more extra spot.
And I hope American Dad is getting a bad rap on other websites as well.
Oh yeah, FOX is also premiering some new show. Saw a promo of it, but I forgot what the title was. (I think it was a rip-off of Revelations, but I'm not sure.)

[Reply #195 on:]

Eyedol, Fox pushed Arrested Development into an early season finale. The show order was cut down from 22 episodes to 18 just so Fox would have a place to put American Dad. Which doesn't make sense, anyway, because they're already showing two episodes of the Simpsons a night anyway.

[Reply #196 on:]

Damn Fox and their infernal logic.

[Reply #197 on:]

On the Fox website most people are saying its crap

[Reply #198 on:]

One part made me laugh. I can't remember what it was. Hmm. This show is balls, though. I guess it's a good thing because we all knew it wouldn't last anyway. Now it won't be so painful when it gets cancelled.

[Reply #199 on:]

evan: Thanks for the info. I heard that FOX pulled that stunt, but I wasn't sure it was true. I now stand corrected.