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This previous Sunday, an outdated new face returned to Fox’s storied animation lineup. Following “Household Man” at 8 and “Common Primary Guys” at 8:30, 9 p.m. noticed the season premiere of “American Dad!” It’s a homecoming for the sequence, which premiered in 2005 and ran for 11 seasons earlier than getting canceled by the community in 2014. Its dying was short-lived as a result of it was shortly acquired by TBS and ran quietly however efficiently for an additional 11 years, whilst cable networks like TBS started closely divesting in producing authentic content material.
Final 12 months, that tenuous place modified once more, as TBS canceled the sequence; once more, followers had little time to mourn the present, as a result of it was introduced the identical day Fox was contemplating bringing it again. In the end, the sequence comes again to its authentic dwelling with the promise of longevity, with a 4 season pickup that may carry all of it the way in which to the 2028-2029 broadcast season.
Grownup animated sequence operating for a particularly, extraordinarily very long time shouldn’t be a singular phenomenon: simply take a look at Fox’s lineup, the place “The Simpsons” already has a renewal by a landmark fortieth season and a second film developing, “Household Man” has been operating for twenty-four seasons since 1999 (nicely, give or take a short three 12 months cancellation), and “Bob’s Burgers” has been regular consolation meals for 15 years. “American Dad!” additionally isn’t the one animated present to outlive a dying or two, together with reveals like “Futurama” or “King of the Hill” which have resurrected themselves on streaming.
Nonetheless, the lengthy lifetime of “American Dad” feels stunning when you think about it has by no means precisely been a top-shelf animated sequence (it has solely ever obtained two Emmy Award nominations for Animated Program, successful neither), usually flying beneath the radar in comparison with the larger hits. It was dismissed upon its premiere as a clone of “Household Man,” and has at all times been sometimes regarded as that different Seth MacFarlane animated present.
What’s extra, the cultural context “American Dad!” was initially created in response to has kind of utterly dissipated. The present started as, primarily, “All within the Household” for the George Bush administration, a satire of jingoistic mid-2000s America through which the CIA weapons knowledgeable and Republican lead Stan clashes together with his extra liberal household. Early episodes had been so closely steeped within the cultural stress of the time, similar to an episode the place Stan grows paranoid when an Iranian household strikes into the neighborhood, that it’s troublesome to see how the present may evolve by three completely different administrations and counting.
Not solely has the present stayed on air, “American Dad” has achieved one thing uncommon regardless of its community adjustments: consistency. All of Fox’s long-running reveals, plus different animation establishments like “South Park,” have had fallow durations the place they ran out of fuel creatively, and you may see shifts of their writing method as they adapt to the occasions (“The Simpsons” has had just a few good current seasons which have leaned extra closely on meta humor, “Household Man” has turn out to be a bit softer-bellied and sweeter as its aged, and “South Park” has gotten renewed consideration for its extraordinarily topical — if not notably unbelievable — satire of the Trump administration 2.0.). “American Dad,” alternatively, has been persistently sturdy since very early in its run, the place it largely shed the political satire to turn out to be a extra character-based sitcom.
What’s its secret? Properly, it helps that the present has had a comparatively steady artistic workforce behind it from the bounce. Though Macfarlane voices Stan and is the largest title hooked up to the present, for many of its existence, the sequence was dealt with by the opposite co-creators Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman; Weitzman remains to be co-showrunner of the sequence together with Brian Boyle.
Moreover, what makes “American Dad” good has been the precise factor that’s allowed it to run for such a very long time: its simplicity. Regardless of the plain comparisons to “Household Man,” the present truly has a really completely different sensibility and elegance of humor, leaning much less on topical references (the cutaway gags which can be the “Household Man” signature aren’t current in any respect) and extra on situational-based comedy.
From their begin as a set of stereotypes, the solid shortly turned sharper and extra well-defined, and in addition (in a rarity for an animated sequence) extra likable: Stan went from a paper-thin reduce out of a Bush-era Republican to a dumb and smug however loving father, his children Hayley and Steve advanced from skinny foils for his or her dad to extra dynamic characters, and the present refreshingly utterly prevented the stereotypical smart spouse by making Francine into somebody even crazier and sillier than her husband. Better of all, Roger the alien advanced from an affordable copycat of Brian from “Household Man” into an insane, genius creation, a sociopathic however fabulous alien (and drag icon) with lots of of various personas that permits the present to take the character and an episode in any bizarre, artistic course they please.
The season premiere, “Aw Rats, a Pool Social gathering” isn’t an S-tier episode of the sequence, precisely, but it surely’s nonetheless a stable outing. The present will get the compulsory acknowledgment of its return to Fox out of the way in which shortly (“Getting again collectively after so a few years may very well be a catastrophe,” Hayley says because the channel’s brand flashes within the backside of the display screen) earlier than launching into a light-weight, interconnected farce the place Francine and the household throw a pool celebration that turns right into a catastrophe when a useless rat reveals up within the water. There are some stable jokes, one extraordinarily bizarre and artistic sequence involving anthropomorphic micro organism, and a candy ending that arrives at its pathos fairly naturally. In different phrases, it’s a stable, sturdy episode of “American Dad” — the sort the present has been producing for 20 years, and can carry on producing for extra years to come back.