American Dad! is a satirical American animated series produced by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions for 20th Century Fox Television.
It was created by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, as well as two former Family Guy writers, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. The pilot episode aired in the United States on Fox on February 6, 2005, thirty minutes after the end of Super Bowl XXXIX; the regular series began May 1, 2005, after the season premiere of Family Guy. American Dad follows the events of CIA agent Stan Smith and his family.
The show centers on the Smith family and the various obstacles Stan, a CIA employee, encounters with his immediate family and in his efforts to ensure the safety of his country. The Smith family lives in the fictional community of Langley Falls, Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The town name is a composite of Langley, a community located in McLean, and Great Falls, two unincorporated communities located in Fairfax County. Langley is also the real-life location of CIA headquarters.
Similar to other animated shows' opening sequences, American Dad! features a recurring gag that is changed for every episode, except for Office Spaceman, which started with the sequence interrupted early. As Stan is singing "Good Morning, U.S.A." he heads out his front door and picks up the newspaper waiting on his front porch. The front page headline is different for each episode, like in The Simpsons (e.g. couch gags, Bart's chalkboard gags or Lisa Simpson's saxophone piece). It is usually a topical joke such as "Child obesity up, pedophilia down" or "Iran changes flag to middle finger" and "Israel pulls out of Gaza, Gaza not pregnant". These headlines are satirical in nature, usually directed at the United States Government, the media or current affairs. However, the current opening sequence is, as stated by the show's creators on commentary for the Volume 3 DVD, to be changed in the upcoming series.
While the show has succeeded in being renewed, it has not matched Family Guy in ratings success. On a typical Sunday, American Dad! has slightly more than half the viewers and share of the Simpsons and Family Guy episodes that follow it on Fox. Its ratings are typically similar to the King of the Hill episode that precedes it. For the week ending April 6th 2008, American Dad was Fox's least viewed primetime program. However it does much better in the ratings following Family Guy than King of the Hill did during this time. Fox has ordered more episodes of all four comedy cartoon programs for the 2008 season.
Some American Dad! characters have had appearances or cameos outside the show. These include:
