American Dad

[Reply #80 on:]

Saw the first 5 minutes of it. It sucks.

[Reply #81 on:]

 The dog peeing dust was probably the funniest thing in the episode. Oh, and the period thing was pretty clever too.

[Reply #82 on:]

^Yeah, you are right. But our class made a joke about our Biology teacher just like that last year. So for me, it wasn't anything new. And possibly the funniest thing was when the alien broke the chair and table.
Oh, and thanks for the answer fryfanSpyOrama.

[Reply #83 on:]

Wow, sounds like utter crap aready! who would have guessed?

EDIT:
Why can't people just leave satire to South Park, at least they can pull it off.

[Reply #84 on:]

The pilot wasn't so bad after all! I actually hope they get past the second season now! This episode was pretty good, but I hope they can deepen the characters in future episodes. Right now some characters seem pretty bland. A-

[Reply #85 on:]

I'm going to say that the show had it's moments but I mostly hated it. The perverted fish was really annoying. I think they went too far with that gag/character.

[Reply #86 on:]

I know for a fact that Family Guy's first episode was 100 times funnier than American Dad's first episode. And unless they make some major changes, there's no way the small amount of humor in American Dad will last. Their running gags have already been beaten to death(the retarded fish character, the alien excretions), and it was only one episode!

[Reply #87 on:]

One of the problems with AD is that it doesn't use its premise at all. You could make the father a very Republican banker and made the alien an a grandfather who never leaves the house and last night's episode would be exactly the same.  You would think with the CIA, aliens, and genetic experiement fish running around, there would be some new ground in the plot. Instead, they just recycled two of the oldest sitcom cliches and made it into a show.

[Reply #88 on:]

I loved it.

[Reply #89 on:]

WOW. Everyone is bashing this show to death. I could see that everyone had high expectations, but damn. As for me, I laughed out loud for the whole episode. Of course, like everyone else, it's not as funny as Family Guy, but it was damn funny anyway. Every joke that missed (there were a couple of them) it fell flat, but every other joke that hit, it hit hard. The bit with the Jack In The Box Man, "Ride the buffalo!", and "Don't think I'm gonna do that E.T finger thing, because that's a load of crap!"

Overall, It may be cancelled, but It may get better as time goes on.

Pilot: 8/10

[Reply #90 on:]

I saw the premiere of American Dad. I thought it was okay.  Of course it doesn't hold a candle to Futurama.  I only got a few laughes out of American Dad, anyway.  At least the perverted humor is bashing the people who really deserve it.  Plus, it's nothing like Family Guy where nothing is sacred.  I kind of liked the alien but the goldfish kind of got tiresome after a while.  The kids are all right, too.  At least Hayley acted somewhat normal and Steven was a 'geeky kid' who tries to hard to be popular with the girls, and only succeeds for a little while.  At least Stan and Francine were nothing like Peter and Lois.  I can see Stan is a more competant father than Peter Griffin. 

So, my score for American Dad:  7/10.  Once this show premires, I will watch it. 

[Reply #91 on:]

@Spacepilot: I never had high expectations for this show.


Before I saw it last night I had read a newspaper review that said American Dad was basically the same thing as Family Guy and they were right. I could pin point the Family Guy equivilents of the characters on American Dad and they had the same kind of flashbacks and wackiness they have on Family guy. Thoughout the ep I got to thinking that Seth Mcfarlne might be good at making only one type of cartoon since this came out so simular to Family Guy. Near the end I also got to thinking "I wonder if it's possible to use up all your material in one episode?"

Basically it's not bad, it's just nothing new, just a carbon copy of Family Guy. I'll give it another ep but I currently don't have much hope for this show.

   

Originally posted by *Nurdbot*:
*Why can't people just leave satire to South Park, at least they can pull it off.*

Indeed.

[Reply #92 on:]

I thought it was between ok and under par... there were some parts that were slightly funny, and giggled a little bit... riding the buffalo was probably up there.  Also despite you comparing it to family guy, they really didn't use those flashbacks as much as I would have assumed they would.  However this is obviously another cliche show McFarlan has popped out.  I'll probably watch it when it's on, but I don't think it'll last too long.

[Reply #93 on:]

I did notice that they didn't use flashbacks alot but the ones that they used were in the style of family guy.

[Reply #94 on:]

I liked the pilot alot better than I thought i would, but ti wasnt that great. And it was annoying how they only really used two chraters the whole episode.

[Reply #95 on:]

 

Originally posted by starone:
I did notice that they didn't use flashbacks alot but the ones that they used were in the style of family guy.

No they weren't. A lot of these flashbacks seem like they'll actually factor into continuity. I stand by my comment about likeing this than the first Family Guy episode. I think it has potential.

[Reply #96 on:]

The "riding the buffalo" would have been funnier if it wasn't a complete rip-off of Peter riding Brian after he lost weight.

[Reply #97 on:]

I don't think the flashbacks about the couple in the apartment and the Jack in the Box guy are grounds for any continuity.

[Reply #98 on:]

I watched American Dad yesterday. It sucked, it was exactly like Family Guy to me .... except I liked Family Guy.

[Reply #99 on:]

If American Dad is a carbon copy of Family Guy, then that's cool.  It's better than carbon copies of certain reality shows and lousy cop shows that keep popping up.  American Dad makes me laugh. 

Some people said Futurama was like a carbon copy of the Simpsons when it first came out, but that wasn't the case.

[Reply #100 on:]

I'm reminded of all of the loons at www.jumptheshark.com  who say a show jumped from day one THE DAY AFTER IT PREMIERES!

Really, now, how can you condemn a show based on the strengths and/or weaknesses of its premiere episode?  Have you ever seen the first episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"?  Painful!

C'mon, cut McFarlane and Co. a break.  They have the difficult task of setting up EVERY major character and establishing a show "bible" within 22 minutes, AND they have to keep you attention-span-deficient monkeys on the edge of your seats??

The premiere made me laugh out loud at least five times, which is hard for any "comedy" to do.  The complaints I'm reading about the AD characters being rip-offs of "Family Guy" are eerily reminiscent of the complaints that the "Family Guy" characters were rip-offs of "The Simpsons" characters.

Just be patient, and not so eager to hop on the "Ha!  The show flopped, and I said it first!" bandwagon.  The show WILL flop eventually, but only because FOX will ruin it by pre-empting it, switching its schedule often and banning the more "subversive" elements.

[Reply #101 on:]

 

Originally posted by fryfanSpyOrama:
Some people said Futurama was like a carbon copy of the Simpsons when it first came out, but that wasn't the case.

Uh, that's because it wasen't a carbon copy of the Simpsons. The first episode of Futurama was nothing like the Simpsons.

[Reply #102 on:]

 

Originally posted by starone:
I don't think the flashbacks about the couple in the apartment and the Jack in the Box guy are grounds for any continuity.

That's why I said a lot instead of all. Jack in the box guy may turn into a running gag character, you can't prove he won't.  There are key differences between the type of cutaways used here and the ones usually on Family Guy. I'm too lazy to explain here, though. I'll do it later, when I see the episode again.

[Reply #103 on:]

 

Originally posted by starone:
 
Uh, that's because it wasen't a carbon copy of the Simpsons. The first episode of Futurama was nothing like the Simpsons.

I didn't say I considered Futurama a carbon copy.  Some of my friends, who are big Simpsons fans, saw the Futurama pilot when it first aired and they didn't like it.  They kept saying it was a rip-off of the Simpsons.  One of my friends said that the Blinky cameo was a cheap shot into making people like the show.  I don't agree with any negative thing they've said about the Futurama pilot.  One of my friends said the only funny thing about Futurama was in the episode AHITP where leela said the line, "I knew there was something I was supposed to do today", after she forgot to vote. 

Now, most of them take back some of the negative things they said, most don't consider Futurama to be a carbon copy.

[Reply #104 on:]

 

Originally posted by laroquettespine:
I'm reminded of all of the loons at www.jumptheshark.com  who say a show jumped from day one THE DAY AFTER IT PREMIERES!

Really, now, how can you condemn a show based on the strengths and/or weaknesses of its premiere episode?  Have you ever seen the first episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"?  Painful!

C'mon, cut McFarlane and Co. a break.  They have the difficult task of setting up EVERY major character and establishing a show "bible" within 22 minutes, AND they have to keep you attention-span-deficient monkeys on the edge of your seats??

The premiere made me laugh out loud at least five times, which is hard for any "comedy" to do.  The complaints I'm reading about the AD characters being rip-offs of "Family Guy" are eerily reminiscent of the complaints that the "Family Guy" characters were rip-offs of "The Simpsons" characters.

Just be patient, and not so eager to hop on the "Ha!  The show flopped, and I said it first!" bandwagon.  The show WILL flop eventually, but only because FOX will ruin it by pre-empting it, switching its schedule often and banning the more "subversive" elements.

There's always "letting the show grow" as an excuse for why a new program isn't up to speed, and that's a legitimate excuse. Almost every show takes time to find its proper voice and the correct characterizations for its characters.  That's a natural part of writing television. Even though there have been amazing pilots before (Arrested Development, Futurama, 24 just on Fox), not every show can hit the ground running. But, let's not forget, a pilot is supposed to entice the viewer for more by showing all the potential a show has.

However, from what I saw of American Dad, the staff apparently has spent no time attempting any of this. IMO, the whole episode felt put together at the last minute, which is definately a bad sign since AD has been in production probably more than a year. The plot, as I mentioned above, seemed like it was laying in mothballs since 1982. None of the CIA/alien potential was used at all. There could be so much milage gotten out of the CIA bit, but it seems MacFarlane is trying his best to downplay that aspect of the character in order to make Stan a dad who's always in the house. From that, the show might as well be "According to Jim" for all its worth.

[Reply #105 on:]

 

Originally posted by evan:
There's always "letting the show grow" as an excuse for why a new program isn't up to speed, and that's a legitimate excuse. Almost every show takes time to find its proper voice and the correct characterizations for its characters.  That's a natural part of writing television. Even though there have been amazing pilots before (Arrested Development, Futurama, 24 just on Fox), not every show can hit the ground running.

You were making sense up to here.

 

Originally posted by evan:
But, let's not forget, a pilot is supposed to entice the viewer for more by showing all the potential a show has.

However, from what I saw of American Dad, the staff apparently has spent no time attempting any of this. IMO, the whole episode felt put together at the last minute, which is definately a bad sign since AD has been in production probably more than a year.

The first episode didn't take a year to make.

 

Originally posted by evan:
The plot, as I mentioned above, seemed like it was laying in mothballs since 1982. None of the CIA/alien potential was used at all. There could be so much milage gotten out of the CIA bit, but it seems MacFarlane is trying his best to downplay that aspect of the character in order to make Stan a dad who's always in the house. From that, the show might as well be "According to Jim" for all its worth.

It was only the first episode, give it until at least the 5 episode.

It seems none of you can wait for this show to fail, is it that you hate Seth McFarlane?  I don't get it.

[Reply #106 on:]

Really. Fucking. Awful.

I consider myself a fairly leniant guy when it comes to political humor. I'll read editorial cartoons that probably aren't all that insightful and still chuckle at them, just because I enjoy political humor so much. But this was not even anywhere close to satire. It was a horribly inane and unfair stereotype of conservatives that even I as a fairly staunch liberal (on most issues) found to be pointlessly demeaning. The only thing close to a decent political joke was the "some time and at some place" orange alert gag, which was incidentally done far, far better as just an offhand sight gag on tonight's OFF. Really bad.

But of course the political humor was just a side note to the sitcomish plot that, barring the alien and the fish (two of the most obnoxious cartoon characters ever, hands down), could have easily been done in live action and would have been equally inane. Shit, the joke writing was so sitcommish it could have been written on "Just Shoot Me", and probably would have been clever there too (which is not a compliment to Just Shoot Me by any means). A few times it seemed to want to segue into a Family Guy-esque bizzarro pop culture gag ("Did you ever see Memento?", "And don't make me do that E.T. finger thing...." but just stopped, leaving behind absolutely no trace of humor.

If this goes past a season, the ghosts of "Futurama" and "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" will be weeping. I notice Fox plans on premiering a new "satire" next month about advertising executives, that seems to be lacking in any punch whatsoever about its intended target. Maybe if someone at Fox commissioned a genuinely smart satire of their own kind, they could have it illustrated for them why dreck like this fails.

D-

 

Originally posted by laroquettespine:
I'm reminded of all of the loons at www.jumptheshark.com  who say a show jumped from day one THE DAY AFTER IT PREMIERES!

Really, now, how can you condemn a show based on the strengths and/or weaknesses of its premiere episode?  Have you ever seen the first episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"?  Painful!

C'mon, cut McFarlane and Co. a break.  They have the difficult task of setting up EVERY major character and establishing a show "bible" within 22 minutes, AND they have to keep you attention-span-deficient monkeys on the edge of your seats??

For better of for worse, a premiere has to be intriguing and entice the viewer to come back for more.  This episode did not do that, and as Evan said showed little to no potential for growth.  I have not seen the "Monty Python" premiere (or any of that series actually), but the obvious difference there is that it isn't a sitcom where characters need to be made interesting.  The characters in "American Dad" are awful, either demeaning stereotypes or just completely bland and one-note.  And the humor style itself is terrible; I'm not just talking about the jokes themselves but the very style itself.  Its pitiful and shows no potential at all.  And Mcfarlane has shown no interest (either on this or in "Family Guy" ) in actually developing his characters in meaningful ways, which is one thing in a totally random show like FG, but is completely another in a show that demands it like American Dad.

 

The complaints I'm reading about the AD characters being rip-offs of "Family Guy" are eerily reminiscent of the complaints that the "Family Guy" characters were rip-offs of "The Simpsons" characters.

McFarlane is accused of ripping off The Simpsons because he did, albeit not quite as much as the leading proponents of that argument would usually have you believe ("The Critic" was probably an equal inspiration anyway, and I've seen pretty credible evidence that a comic book character named "Jimmy Corrigan" was the basis behind Stewie).  And anyway, the bigger problem with the FG characters (and the reason the "rip-off" arguments are made) is that the characters were incredibly generic and formulaic in general, which is a problem that's far, far worse in the "Dad" pilot then it was even in the "Family Guy" pilot.  At least that pilot established some interesting elements and hooks for the show.

 

Originally posted by Lrr
The first episode didn't take a year to make.

Logically the show has probably been in some stage of development for over a year, which would certainly include the pilot.  And considering the pilot could have always been altered (and evidentally was) to better fit the rest of the episodes and all that, it makes it even more concerning that this pilot was so awful.

[Reply #107 on:]

I thought it was good. Too bad there arent any new episodes til May 1st. I must agree that some of the humour was dated, but I think they realised that. For example no one at the CIA found Stan's binladen's pooper joke funny, and his family ignored "terror alert orange".

I still stand by my initial statement on page 1, it will run out of material quickly, especially since Family Guy is back. I mean rigging a school election seems a rather Peter Griffin thing to do.

[Reply #108 on:]

Not bad...not great.  I'll probably watch the rest of the episodes...don't see this getting much more than the original 13.

[Reply #109 on:]

I quite liked it. I did feel like I was watching Family Guy, but a clone of FG is a good thing. I'm looking forward to the next episodes.

"God please watch over the soul of this dead dog and carry him up to heaven. Because he sure as hell can't walk - he's dead. Amen."

[Reply #110 on:]

That was pretty funny.

Yeah, they're going to run out of material soon, but so what? I only plan to watch it until Family Guy comes back on.

[Reply #111 on:]

You know why I'm pissed off!?

FOX Providence didn't ever air the show here. They covered it up with highlights of the Super Bowl that nobody gives a fuck about even though I live in god damn New England. Fuck the Patriots. Fuck the Super Bowl. Fuck football. Fuck FOX. Fuck television. Fuck everyone who likes any of those things. Fuck fuck fuck death fuck die shit. Ass.

[Reply #112 on:]

You didn't miss much.

[Reply #113 on:]

 

Originally posted by TheLampIncident:
You know why I'm pissed off!?

FOX Providence didn't ever air the show here. They covered it up with highlights of the Super Bowl that nobody gives a fuck about even though I live in god damn New England. Fuck the Patriots. Fuck the Super Bowl. Fuck football. Fuck FOX. Fuck television. Fuck everyone who likes any of those things. Fuck fuck fuck death fuck die shit. Ass.

*cough*bit-torrent*cough*

[Reply #114 on:]

Are you sure they didn't play it?  My channel did the highlights, played Simpsons right after that (even though it was supposed to be over), and then premiered American Dad.... anyways what Grim said... 

[Reply #115 on:]

 

Originally posted by RavenStar:
You didn't miss much.

You didn't even see the whole thing.

[Reply #116 on:]

 

Originally posted by winna:
.... anyways what Grim said...   

I didnt say anything, I was having a coughing fit

[Reply #117 on:]

 

Originally posted by winna:
Are you sure they didn't play it?  My channel did the highlights, played Simpsons right after that (even though it was supposed to be over), and then premiered American Dad.... anyways what Grim said...   

They played highlights and the Simpsons. But after the Simpsons, my local news did this entire long ass thing on the Super Bowl kissing the Patriots asses.

[Reply #118 on:]

If you absolutely MUST see it, I believe Adult Swim is giving it a special airing on Sunday.

But.....I wouldn't bother.

[Reply #119 on:]

That is a judgment for him to make. Not from those who are biased or haven't even seen more then 5 minutes of the show.