American Dad! (2005-)

Description: Stan Smith, who works for the C.I.A. and is constantly on the alert for terrorist activity, will go to extremes to protect his beloved America from harm; as evidenced by the terror-alert color code on his fridge, and his frequent knee-jerk reaction of shooting holes in the toaster whenever the toast pops up. In addition to Stan’s wife and teenage children, the Smith household has two rather unconventional members. There’s Roger, the sarcastic space alien who rescued Stan from Area 51, who deeply resents the fact that he’s not allowed to leave the house, and therefore, has been reduced to drinking wine and smoking cigarettes, and Klaus, a lascivious, German-speaking goldfish; the result of a C.I.A. experiment gone seriously wrong, where the C.I.A. tried to give a fish a German man’s brain. Stan’s son is a dorky teenager who tries to be cool. His wife has had a past life of sex and drugs.
Creators: Mike Barker, Seth MacFarlane, Matt Weitzman
Stars: Seth MacFarlane, Wendy Schaal, Scott Grimes

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Trivia

Originally, Klaus was going to be French, and named François. When Dee Bradley Baker auditioned, he told the producers that his French wasn’t very good, and that he would read the lines in German instead, they liked his performance so much, they retooled him so he was German.

Hayley’s middle name is “Dreamsmasher.”

Steve’s original design was much geekier and gawky, and he was voiced by Ricky Blitt. Halfway through production, his voice actor changed to Scott Grimes, and his design was made to be more attractive, so he would be less comparable to Neil Goldman from Family Guy (1999). This design is a caricature of series co-creator Mike Barker.

Steve’s friend Snot is based on Booger from Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and is voiced by Curtis Armstrong, who played Booger.

The Smiths’ living room was modelled after Ray Romano’s living room in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996).

In some establishing shots of the Smith house, a yellow ribbon can be seen tied around a tree, which represents the support of soldiers during wartime, and their safe return home.

FOX showed a viewer discretion warning before airing season one, episode two, “American Dad!: Threat Levels (2005)”, due to cartoon nudity.

Steve’s middle name is “Anita”.

The season four openings changed from different newspaper headlines, to Roger in a new disguise at the end.

Rob Paulsen, Billy West, and John DiMaggio auditioned for the voice of Klaus.

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