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Fox's American Dad Way Lame

American Dad has been perhaps the most anticipated new television show of 2005. There are even blogs and other fan websites preemptively devoted to it.

Fox gave viewers a sneak-peek of the show following the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The reviews are in.

The pilot of Fox's American Dad was just plain bad. Awful. Not deserving of another episode. Unfunny. Way lame. A total miss.

Most nefarious of all, the disaster that was American Dad has the potential to sink, or at least soil, the much-anticipated return of Family Guy.

That American Dad was even allowed on the air is almost certainly a case of Family Guy overcompensation. National Review's Catherine Seipp explains that Family Guy,

"...was cancelled a couple of years later, and now — after a cult following that grew astonishingly after the show's DVD release [Seasons 1 & 2, Season 3] found an unexpectedly large audience — returns to Fox with new episodes in May. This is really rather a remarkable situation; as far as I know the first time that a cancelled show has been revived years after its demise."

Apparently, creator Seth McFarlane milked Fox's poor judgment in cancelling Family Guy all the way to a shot at a new series. The Fox people, feeling stupid for failing to see the genius in Family Guy, okayed the pilot for American Dad despite its obvious shortcomings. The intensity of Family Guy's grassroots following is remarkable, so Fox, fearing another misread of the viewing public, gave McFarlane's new idea the greenlight.

Call it contrition, call it penitance. Call it whatever you want.

That such an awful show could occupy a prime slot, just 30 minutes following the most-watched event of the year, is clearly a manifestation of Fox's remorse, an overcompensation for their past grievances.

Some blunt reviews, from American Dad's target audience, young males who like Family Guy, on a U.T. message board (warning, some mildly offensive language):

"this show is awful"

"This show sucks so far. Not a single laugh."

"over/under on episodes before cancellation.... 4."

"'stuck up bin laden's pooper'

only part of the show i laughed at."

"this is a much weaker family guy. they should at least get new voices, not slight modifications of family guy characters."

"Alright, the Cartman Special Olympics is on Comedy Central. I'm done with American Dad."

"As I feared, I hate the fact that Family guy will get diluted by this crap."

"Hopefully American Dad will go the route of That 80's Show."

"American Dad was terrible. It was family guy lite but not funny."

"Another thumb down for American Dad."

"D-"

"It was terrible. It was so bad that I got up to do the laundry halfway through. Everything in that show seemed really half-assed and not well-thought out. Poor."

"American Dad is terrible."

"I laughed at the dog being dragged down the street. Otherwise, I think it was more "did you see that" laughter with my friends than 'that was funny' laughter. In other words, had I been alone, I dont think it would have been funny."

"... is Family Guy Light."

"I thought the first 15 minutes was good. The 2nd 15 minutes however was some of the worst tv ever."

"it was horrible. The gold fish creeps me out. So no talking dog in this one, but an alien instead?!?"

"Watched it...It was a Family Guy knockoff, only one or two funny lines...the rest was lame, very lame. :("

"terrible."

"as a huge seth macfarlane fan, i had my reservations when they first started advertising this. those reservations were confirmed last night. baaaaad idea."

As Seipp notes, American Dad, "a kind of anti-Incredibles about a bungling midlevel CIA-operative... sinks under the weight of MacFarlane's political agenda."

While The Incredibles received some of the best reviews of any movie in 2004, raked in an array of awards, and earned more than a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office while subtly promoting conservative ideas, American Dad's tired left-wing drivel is a complete misread of the nation's mood. Expect it to fail in the ratings and get the axe from Fox.

Just one lame and blatantly partisan moment, likely hatched in late 2003 or early 2004, was a scene where President Bush and God talk on the telephone.

Television critic Mike Duffy, who describes American Dad as "mostly just a dud," describes the scene (the only moment he enjoyed):

"There is one cheerfully daft satiric moment when God puts in a call to President Bush in the Oval Office and asks him to cool references to the Almighty in his public pronouncements. 'Give you an example,' God tells Dubya. 'When you make comments like 'God wanted me to be president,' that would be something you ought to just keep to yourself.'"

Weak.

Lame comedy is one thing, but stale lame comedy with a left-wing agenda is just too much.

Well, you may ask, could American Dad become a favorite among the anti-Bush left in America? Could it develop a cult following based exclusively on the legions of liberals in America?

Not likely.

Even the well-known lefties on www.hornfans.com hated American Dad.

Another lame moment, an attempt at homeland security satire:

Television critic Tim Appelo, calling American Dad "unsettling political" and a "flat-out disaster," describes the scene:

"The political satire throughout has that not-fresh feeling. 'We're at Terror Alert Orange, which means something might go down somewhere in some way at some point in time!' warns Stan. 'You know, Dad, it's great that you and your CIA buddies have created a fun little system to keep the masses paralyzed in fear,' retorts Hayley."

Those lines were so not funny. Two years ago.

Not only is the show unfunny and too partisan, but the characters are all thoroughly unlikeable. The father, himself awkwardly paranoid, pats down his liberal daughter, whom he clearly dislikes, for weapons whenever she enters the house. The mother is blank, cold--- sort of a horrible, unfeeling, Republican caricature of a Stepford Wife. The son has almost no redeeming qualities. The family's overweight, effeminate "pet" alien and German-accented fish fall far short of providing any significant or show-saving gags. The characters are one-dimensional, and the single dimension in each case does not elicit any kind of sympathy.

The next episode does not air until May 1. Don't expect it to last to summer.

Posted by Will Franklin · 7 February 2005 06:10 AM

Comments

Posted by: darnok at July 18, 2005 05:19 PM

Posted by: McGee at August 7, 2005 07:10 PM