Seth McFarlane, creator of the guilty pleasure “Family Guy,” intrigues the teenager in all of us with the creation of “American Dad.” “Family Guyʼs” Peter Griffin is replaced by Stan Smith, a man who works for the CIA and protects his family with the terror alert wheel on the refrigerator in his house. Stanʼs wife is Francine Smith, who according to www.tvtome. com, is a woman who “has had a past life of drugs, but she has carefully hidden her partygirl personality for the sake of the conservative man she loves.” As the series progresses, we will see how this has played out. Their daughter Hayley is a “hippie” type character who just seems to want peace all the time. Steve, their son, is like Chris Griffin in his sheer stupidity and proves his dorkiness by having his father resort to asking Hilary Duff to come over so that he can eat with someone. Roger is the equivalent to Brian on “Family Guy,” the “smart-ass” type of character whom we love to hate. Finally, there is Klaus, a German who resembles one of Peter Sellers ʼ many characters.
I watched the first episode late night after the Super Bowl, and let me tell you: it sucked. It was not even remotely funny. There were so few amusing moments, I think it should be canceled right away. It was far too hyped up and it just felt like I was watching a drier form of “Family Guy.” In general, if you want to watch a lighter form of Mcfarlaneʼs work, feel free to watch this but do not expect to laugh at everything like you would with “Family Guy.