ARTSETC.
Macfarlane’s newest proves unsuccessful
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by Jon Wirt
Friday, February 11, 2005
American Dad is a sad victim of circumstance. After creating pop-culture sensation Family Guy, creator Seth Macfarlane was left with the task of developing a new series for Fox. As Macfarlane struggled with a new show idea, the DVD sales of Family Guy skyrocketed, solidifying Macfarlane’s reputation as a comedic genius. Sadly however, American Dad could not live up to the mega-hype the Macfarlane predecessor had laid before it.
Interestingly though, American Dad is not all that much unlike Family Guy. It deals with the same quirks of an unusual family dynamic. The show centers on a family of four, plus two essentially out-of-place characters.
Characters have their own specific quirks. Stan Smith, the so-called ‘American Dad,’ works for the CIA and is thus used as a vehicle to poke fun at conservative America. His wife Francine, an ex-party girl, has to hide her wild past in order to appease her husband. Their son, Steve, is a nerdy, woman-crazed high schooler and his sister, Hayley, is a radical liberal who attends the local community college.
American Dad’s two fish-out-of-water (literally in one case) are Roger, an alien living in secret at the Smith residence, and Klaus, a goldfish who’s had his mind switched with a German Olympic skier. Essentially, American Dad deals with the same situations as Family Guy, with a German goldfish and an overweight alien substituted for a smart-mouthed baby and a talking dog.
In the series premier, young Steve Smith found himself lusting after head cheerleader and most-popular-girl-in-school Lisa Silver. After being rejected by Silver, his dad rigs the school presidential elections so Steve can become president and win Silver’s heart because, as Stan puts it, “women love men with power.”
In the end, power-hungry Steve learns the lesson that you can’t force a girl to like you. Although the show did show flashes of brilliance, overall it was stale and generally unfunny. Also, the pilot did a poor job at introducing the characters. The wife Francine played almost a non-role and goldfish Klaus was too one-dimensional.
One major difference between Family Guy and American Dad is the type of humor employed in the show. Whereas Family Guy focused more on off-the-wall situations bolstered by non-sequiturs and flashbacks, American Dad deals more with political humor. The pilot episode references President Bush’s propensity to refer to God in his speeches and takes a jab at the government’s color-coded terror-alert system.
On one hand political humor can be hilarious; however, Macfarlane’s style of cartoon seems more adept at dealing with unusual situational comedy.
Although Macfarlane’s Family Guy only ran for three seasons, he can certainly be compared to legendary Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Both created a cartoon that turned into a cultural phenomenon and both have delved into side projects of creating new cartoons.
Groening departed from the idea of the oddball family in his show Futurama for a more original idea of a 21st century man placed into the future. By contrast, Macfarlane seems to have just reinvented his old show with American Dad coming off as a remixed, less-original Family Guy.
Macfarlane is the executive producer for both the newly un-cancelled Family Guy and American Dad. He has, however, divvied off some of the responsibilities of American Dad to other executive producers Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, something that in the long run could hurt the show.
Whatever the case, it is partially unfair to judge a show from just a single episode. American Dad has plenty of time to fine tune and adjust its style of comedy before it returns in May.
Traditionally, the pilot episodes of television shows are not representative of the shows’ potential. The pilot episode of Seinfeld was dry and bland, but Seinfeld grew into arguably the best sitcom ever made. This offers a glimmer of hope for American Dad. Although the pilot episode left something to be desired, the show does have potential to be just as funny as its sibling cartoon, Family Guy.
American Dad returns to television May 1 at 8:30 p.m. on FOX, preceding the long-awaited return of Family Guy at 9:30 p.m.
Anonymous (February 11, 2005 @ 11:17am):
The difference between Groening and Macfarland is that Groening is actually original. Family Guy is nothing more than a crude copy cat of the Simpsons, with far less intelligence. While Family Guy can be funny on the first watch, by the second time you are viewing them the jokes appear old and stale. On the other hand Groening creates products that only get better with age. Of course there's the Simpsons, which gets funnier every time you watch it. But even more amazing is how rich Futurama is. The first time you watch some of those episodes you manage a chuckle, but by the tenth time you are rolling on the floor laughing. Not only that, but, besides for the style of animation, Simpsons and Futurama have absolutely nothing in common. It's no surprise that Macfarland had to copy off of his own work to create a new series, because the first time around he had to copy off of his contemporaries.
Anonymous (February 11, 2005 @ 2:49pm):
Every TV show takes from its predecessors and contemporaries. Groening combined the Flintstones with the type of stuff HBO was doing at the time, and was about to show up on FOX in the form of Married With Children as well. Family Guy took both from the Simpsons and South Park, and I would say is just as clever as either. And if you can't see how South Park is clever, you need things spelled out for you. Although I do understand if it offends you.
Really, it is too early to tell how good American Dad will be. There are a lot of people who claim to be Simpsons fans who hate the entire first season, typically for one of two reasons. 1) The animation was crappy. It was, but that's not a reason to hate a show. 2) Homer wasn't quite so dumb yet. Of course, Homer's constantly increasing stupidity is one of the things that is ruining the show.
I haven't watched a new episode of the Simpsons in probably about 4 years. Every time I try, I just end up saying to myself, "This is so stupid." However, the best 5 or 6 years of the Simpsons is the best 5 or 6 year show of any run, period. Those episodes remain funny. However, the sheer breadth of the show helps that as you see the same episode maybe 3 or 4 times a year, unlike Family Guy on Adult Swim where you see the same episode again after a few weeks.
Anonymous (February 12, 2005 @ 3:09pm):
I'm tired of people who hate on new seasons of the Simpsons. It can never be as consistant as it was during its golden era, but I dare you to find any other show on television that is consistantly funny. While the new stuff may be subpar based on passed simspons episodes, it is still easily one of the best shows on television.
