American Dad: TBS Announces Season 17 Premiere Date; Network Prez Touts Animated Future

TBS is bringing back American Dad sooner rather than later in 2022 and now we know January 24th will be the magical return date.

“American Dad!” is Cable’s #3 comedy and centers on super patriotic CIA agent Stan Smith (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) and the misadventures of his unconventional family in Langley Falls, VA. Stan applies the same drastic measures used in his job at the CIA to his home life, where Stan’s blissfully unaware wife, Francine (Wendy Schaal), has an unfaltering loyalty that makes her blind to his unabashed arrogance. His left-wing activist daughter Hayley (Rachael MacFarlane), however, doesn’t let him off so easily – and knows just how to push her father’s buttons. Hayley’s brother is the geeky-yet-confident Steve (Scott Grimes), a kid who spends his time playing video games and obsessing about the opposite sex. The Smith cabinet is rounded out by two rather unconventional members: Roger (MacFarlane), a sassy, sarcastic and routinely inappropriate space alien, and Klaus (Dee Bradley Baker), an attention-starved goldfish with the brain of a German Olympic skier.

The animated comedy from 20th Television Animation was created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, and is executive produced by co-showrunner Brian Boyle along with MacFarlane and Weitzman.

Network President Brett Weitz had a chance to talk to Deadline about the future of adult animation for TBS, especially with the recent departure of Family Guy and the soon-to-be exiting Bob’s Burgers. Here’s what he had to say:

And we have Close Enough on the air right now from HBO Max. I’m very open to animation because it works on our air. That’s a pretty destination-based consumer, meaning they will show up for great animation, which is fun to pull a younger audience in. American Dad does so well for us, after 17 years, it continues to just be such a top 10 performer each and every week.

So, we have a ton of stuff in development when it comes to animation, and we also have some great animation that we’re partnering with DC on. It is stuff we’re doing with Warner Bros Animation and Peter Girardi, Sam Register and his whole team over there. So, we are constantly looking for new animation, we’re open to all forms of funny and all forms of great content on TBS.

Our Take

I’m not sure if Brett is referring to animation in development in conjunction with HBO MAX or if TBS really is trying to jump back into a format that serves the network well with ratings numbers. The network needs to build back up it’s roster somehow and someway, Close Enough’s entire run so far has produced eight half-hours so far, TBS needs more.