American Family Dad Guy
Going Nowhere points out the American Dad 6-minute pilot (19.3mb WMV) is available for download. Now I’m a big fan of Seth McFarlane’s show Family Guy, and ecstatic that it’s returning next year (and a movie is in the works), but American Dad just looks like… well, more of the same.
I hate to think McFarlane is only a one-trick pony. His vocal, artistic, and writing talents are impressive, but the American Dad pilot just seemed like six minutes of Family Guy shoehorned onto some new characters. Keeping in mind that these observations are based entirely on viewing only the first six-minute pilot, here are my thoughts: Stan Smith is a more macho and conservative version of Peter Griffin: clueless and out of touch with reality, but completely sure that he’s always right. His wife is a blonde clone of Lois Griffin, the peacemaker and glue that holds the family together. His son, Steve, is just like Family Guy’s Neil Goldman, a tragically dorky friend of Meg’s. Stan’s daughter is Meg with an attitude, and the alien, Roger, and fish, Klaus, are both equal parts Brian and Stewie.
American Dad is set to premiere as a midseason entry in Fox’s lineup next January, around the time the new episodes of Family Guy are also set to air. While I’ll always appreciate more of McFarlane’s brand of wacky humour, I don’t know if the rest of the viewing public is going to be willing to accept so much of it at once. In my opinion, either American Dad had better move in a different direction, or get dropped. If it comes to it, I’d much rather see Family Guy live on and American Dad fall by the wayside.
August 8th, 2004 at 11:43 pm
I never really got into Family Guy, but I certainly agree with you about the concept. This is just the way things work in the TV and film world, though, unfortunately. Someone gets successful doing one thing, and then either (a) won’t do anything new for fear of lousing up whatever fame/notoriety he’s achieved, or (b) no one will let him do anything different, for fear they’ll lose the fame/notoriety they’ve gained because of him. It sucks, but that’s the way it is. I know a lot of people don’t/won’t agree with me about this, but that was kind of my feeling about Futurama, too–just The Simpsons set in the future with the names changed. So what?
To me, an example of people who are capable of doing far more–and are generally given the surprising opportunities to prove it–are Matt and Trey Parker of South Park fame. They take enormous risks just on that TV show alone that most series wouldn’t dare, and have done a surprisingly varied selection of other things that really demonstrate their creativity and versatility. Their problem, though, is just that it’s not really possible for them to break through to the mainstream. I suppose it’s a possibility, though, that they don’t really want to. But they’re the epitome of the type of people who, to me, should be some of Hollywood’s biggest stars because they aren’t satisfied with doing the same thing every time, and don’t let people tell them they’re not allowed to do anything else. I think the entertainment business–Broadway, too!–needs more people like them.
Anyway, I hope things turn out well with American Dad, but I guess I’m not tremendously optimistic for most of the same reasons you are. I’ll probably check it out just to see what it’s like, but if it’s too much like Family Guy, it won’t be likely to hold my interest for long.
August 9th, 2004 at 1:07 pm
I think there’s a lot of pressure to produce something that’s very similar because corporate types are very risk adverse for the most part.
What I find interesting is that Fox is notorious for ripping off shows from ABC, NBC, CBS, etc, but this time they’ve decided to rip off their own show.
This also could be an exercise in re-branding of The Family Guy. Fox obviously realized the comic appeal of The Family Guy, but it was far too offensive to their generally conservative viewers which is, from what I understand, part of the reason Fox canceled The Family Guy in the first place. I’ve got a feeling that American Dad has the same kind of odd personalities as the characters in The Family Guy, but over all it probably won’t be as politically incorrect.
January 20th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
I don’t like american dad at all. It doesn’t have the charisma that family guy has. It really doesn’t help that american dad comes on directly after family guy. After i’ve watched family guy, i’m basically all laughed out. There are so many funny family guy quotes i don’t even know where to begin.