American Dad premiered on Fox in 2005, following Super Bowl XXXIX. Nearing its 20th anniversary, a look back at the show is overdue. The political adult animated show was an outlet for creator Seth McFarlane. Now far removed from the politics of the early 2000s, it’s quite interesting to look back at the Bush-era TV show.
Seth McFarlane created the show’s premise based on his frustration with the 2000 election and displeasure with the Bush administration. “We figured we should channel this into something [American Dad] creative and hopefully profitable,” said McFarlane after being asked what spurred his idea for the show.
This idea is especially clear in episode seven, “Deacon Stan, Jesus Man” written by Nahnatchka Khan, where Stan runs to be the deacon of his church to beat his rival. To help his campaign, Stan enlists the help of Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s senior adviser. The episode characterizes Rove as a literal demon.
No other member of the Bush administration is targeted more than Dick Cheney. If you are a fan of Vice (2018), you will get a kick out of the early 2000s political jargon. The show does a great job describing these political figures. Even with a modern lens, you have a sense of who these people were. In episode two, Stan devises a plan to stop his wife Francine from making more money than him by kidnapping Alan Greenspan’s dog to blackmail him into raising interest rates. Francine was working as a real estate agent, but the housing market bubble popped later in the year, causing the market to crash, which only adds to the joke.
One thing that might be tough for modern viewers is how the show tackles homophobia and racism, more specifically, Islamophobia. The show is set from Stan Smith’s perspective, which is that of a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative. Often, the joke of mistreatment of Middle Eastern people is not written the best, making it mean-spirited rather than the progressive message it intended to send. This was relatively progressive for 2005, especially in episode 6, “Homeland: Insecurity,” where Stan essentially traps his Iranian neighbors in a Guantanamo-style prison, in which he then traps the rest of his neighbors and tortures them. He gets tortured by Francine in a homage to the Abu Ghraib torture pictures that were released roughly a year before this episode premiered. Although the jokes aren’t delivered the best, Seth McFarlane was getting his point across on prime time television.
Where these jokes fail is that often, it is Stan or Steve Smith who are being morally corrupt, but usually, they’ll be characterized as the caring dad and geeky son in the same episode. It is nice to have layered characters, but it makes it feel weird when you are supposed to adore and also be disgusted by these characters. Often, the characterization works, like in the pilot episode in which Stan meddles in the school government election so that he will win. Stan then wins and takes absolute power and creates zany school rules. This works because what Stan and Steve do is relatively innocent, but in episodes where Stan is upset, the CIA doesn’t take long to go torture people. It is weird to feel like we have to care about him, but often, the episodes are written well enough that the nuance is there to make it land. But occasionally, an episode or joke will just fall through.
The character of Hayley Smith helps create this nuance. She is often overly preachy. However, at the end of most episodes, Hayley is the correct one, making this nice dynamic of her being the offset to her family’s craziness. Without her presence, the show would not make sense. When she is made fun of for pointing out the absurdity of her family’s actions, the joke is not about her, it is about how bad her family is.
The show is ahead of its time. At the same time, it is so set in 2005, that it feels like the perfect media encompassing what was happening in America in that time period. Then again, its ability to tackle tough subjects before any other piece of entertainment is astonishing, something that shows today struggle to do. It is a nice time capsule, and we should also learn from its ability to discuss these important issues we struggle with today.
