Season 11 Review: American Dad

Spoilers Below

Come one! Come all! Feast your eyes on a season review for the last ever episodes of American Dad to air on Fox! With American Dad making it’s way over to TBS starting October 20th, I’ve been tasked with writing a season review pertaining to the last three episodes to ever air on Fox. While it may not be anywhere close to the length of a full season, it will give me a chance to really offer my opinion on how the show stands moving forward. Think of this as a season review with a bit extra to fill in the gaps.

It’s crazy to believe that American Dad has nearly been on the air for a decade. It seems like yesterday that I was back in the sixth grade watching the premiere with my dad. My dad told me it was “from the same guy who made Family Guy”. That’s all I had to hear. I think the success of the show is due to how original it’s been able to be. While it’s clearly animated the same way as Family Guy, the humor is all it’s own. The unique cast of characters offer a wide variety of different story possibilities, and while the show is pretty grounded, there are certain elements that allow it to stretch the imagination. Roger being an alien, Stan being employed by a CIA that is constantly doing crazy experiments. These things allow American Dad’s creative team to pretty much do whatever they please and be able to rationalize it.

So, before I rant on too long about things you probably don’t care about, allow me offer my thoughts and opinions on these last few Fox episodes.

Of the three that aired over the past few weeks, I only managed to enjoy one of them. “A Boy Named Michael” was the shining star of this very short season. If you read my review of the episode, you know that I thought the jokes were on point, the story was engaging, and it had all the elements of an American Dad episode that I truly enjoy. It was a reminder that despite the fact it’s changing networks, American Dad still has the potential to be one of the more entertaining animated shows. “A Boy Named Michael” reminded me of Futurama in a lot of ways, not because of any similarities between the shows in particular, but because you know you’re witnessing Fox giving up on another gem. Perhaps not as shiny of a gem, but a gem nonetheless. Let’s just be happy that American Dad will have a chance to continue over on TBS.

“Roger Passes the Bar” and “Blagsnarst, A Love Story” are different stories though. I wasn’t very impressed with either of these episodes. Each of them had some redeeming qualities, but while “A Boy Named Michael” showed me there is still gas in the tank, these two really revealed the show’s age and fatigue. Towards the end of last season, I found myself getting harder and harder on the show and because of that my expectations began to drop. I’d also like to think that people are still interested in American Dad, because more people tuned in to see the final episode “Blagsnarst, A Love Story”. Sadly, I think that has something to do with Kim Kardashian guest starring though. It’s always good to see viewership go up, no matter the circumstances, so I guess I can’t complain too much. I don’t think I’m tired of American Dad. “A Boy Named Michael” proved that because I was laughing from start to finish. I guess we’ll have to see how ratings are on October 20th.

Overall, not a strong finish on Fox. It didn’t have much of an opportunity to really impress me, but to put things in perspective, only liking one out of three episodes is the same as liking ten out of thirty. If this were a full season, it would have been disappointing. However, it did show me enough to peak my interest in it’s move to TBS. I’m going to do a daring thing and raise my expectations for the show. Perhaps the move can be a fresh start? Perhaps a way to get those creative juices flowing? We can only hope.

When the show comes back on TBS, it will need to take a step back and look at what made the show so great in the first place. At the same time they will need to bring something new to the table. As creative as their stories are, I don’t think some will be enough. They need to do something that will get people talking. Bringing in Kim Kardashian actually wasn’t a horrible idea in this regard, it did get people talking. Her being on American Dad was all over my Facebook feed! (I need new friends). I may be asking too much of the show, I probably am, but American Dad needs to find out what made itself so enjoyable in the first place… then add something to that formula to help it feel fresh.

There are two sides of the coin when looking at this move to TBS. Some seem to think it will help the show, because quite honestly, it will be one of the more entertaining things to watch on the network. Nothing against TBS, we do have the channel in Canada, I’ve just never personally had any interest in any of their programming. That may be because the more popular shows on TBS end up being distributed through Canadian networks. I’d like to think the move will benefit both TBS and American Dad, but that may not happen.
That’s the other side of this coin. American Dad could move to TBS for another season or two, and that will be it. Game over. TBS is Florida, American Dad is a senior citizen. If American Dad doesn’t perform reasonably, that may be the case. That’s why it will be so interesting to see how the premiere on October 20th will do. In my opinion, I think it will give us some insight into how much longer American Dad will last. Honestly though, if it doesn’t do well and we’re in the final chapters of the show, we shouldn’t be sad. Very few shows have reached that decade milestone. American Dad is in no way a failure.  This final season on Fox ended with Stan putting a book titled “American Dad on Fox” on a bookshelf. It had a very strong run with Fox, and now it’s time for it to start a new book.

What did you all think of this final mini-season on Fox? Think I’m being harsh? Will you guys be following it over to TBS? Let us know!