American Dad is a satirical American animated series produced by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions for 20th Century Fox Television.
Stan Smith (Seth MacFarlane) was the ultimate hyperactive, gung ho, right-wing CIA operative who would do anything to protect his family and his beloved America from terrorists, anti-war liberals and anyone else who he believed to pose a threat in this raucous social parody. Stan and his family lived outside of Washington in suburban Langley Falls, Virginia (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). Stan’s wife, Francine (Wendy Schaal), had been a free-spirited party girl in college but had suppressed her past for the sake of the man she loved.
Their two teenaged kids were sexy Hayley (Rachael MacFarlane), who was going to community college and questioned her father’s conservatism and geeky, horny Steve (Scott Grimes), attending Pearl Bailey High School, who could never be the macho son his father wanted.
Living with the Smiths were Roger (Seth MacFarlane), a sarcastic alien Stan had rescued from Area 51 (where the government hid proof of alien visits to Earth) and Klaus (Dee Bradley Baker), the result of a failed CIA experiment to mix the brainwaves of an East German Olympic ski-jumper with a goldfish – resulting in a hedonistic goldfish with a German accent. Also seen were Deputy Director Avery Bullock (Patrick Stewart), Stan’s boss; fellow CIA agents Jackson (Mike Henry) and Dick (Stephen Root); Stan’s neighbor, Terry Bates (Mike Parker); Hayley’s hippie boyfriend, Jeff Fischer (Jeff Fischer); and Steve’s friends Snot (Curtis Armstrong), Toshi (Daisuke Suzuki) and Barry (Eddie Kaye Thomas).
The show 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.
