American Dad: Season 7 Premiere

American Dad has, in seasons past, been Seth MacFarland’s dark horse comedy. While Family Guy and the train-wreck that is The Cleveland Show have been circling the drain. “Dad” has only been getting better. Perhaps, because MacFarland has been focused on his one true love Family Guy (because somehow, it’s incredibly significant and not at all boring to summarize every Star Wars movie), “Dad” has been getting away with actually making good TV.  And perhaps sensing that he had true gold on his hands, MacFarland decided to get more involved in this season of “Dad.”

The episode falls back on an old MacFarland cliché, a Little Shop of Horrors retelling. There have been several places where Family Guy has done a musical number or made references to the 1980’s musical retelling (starring Ellen Greene and Rick Moraniz) of the 1950’s B-movie (starring Jack Nicholson). There was an entire episode where Chris (Seth Green’s) pimple was actually just like Audrey II from the musical. The old pedophile from Family Guy has also sung a few numbers from the musical (“Somewhere That’s Green” stands out in particular.) It seems like any juncture where MacFarland can reference the movie — he will.

Normally, I would laude a show for having the guts to make references to a 1950s B-movie. Especially one that deserves it. However, there’s a difference between a running gag and a tired bit. A running gag changes and comes back two or three times over the course of a season… or the course of an entire series. A tired bit happens repeatedly when writers have run out of interesting things to say. Granted, American Dad’s take on the off-Broadway musical proved quite interesting. Since Cee-Lo Green guest starred both as himself and as the voice of the evil hot-tub (Yes, Audrey II has been replaced with a hot-tub,) there was an R&B twist on all of the musical numbers. It was almost like what The Wiz did with the Wizard of Oz, but with a mostly white cast. Not to mention, The Wiz was a cogent comment on the need for healthy escapism within 1970's urban, black culture since it was ostensibly as poor as rural, depression-and-dust-bowl-afflicted white culture of the 1930s. American Dad didn't have the same kind of coherent comment… or really any kind of coherent comment.

While “Dad” has gotten away with quite a few stretches in the past, this one may have been beyond its breaking point. There seemed to be no reason for a hot-tub to come to life in this universe, or for that hot-tub to be a homicidal maniac. In fact, part of what made American Dad interesting in the first place was its attempt to comment on American culture both as a celebration and a critique.

So did the Season 7 Premiere return to those commentary roots, or was it something else entirely? I can’t speak for the masses, but for me, it was pure shlock.

Lest we forget the cherry on top of this culturally confused culmination of cretan concepts, the episode ends with Stan (voiced, naturally, by Seth MacFarland) dead on the side of the road before he can save his wife. It’s like that joke, in Family Guy, where Peter (MacFarland again) loses his job, but doesn’t get it back in the end of the episode… oh yeah, it’s kind of exactly like that joke — because it’s the same joke. The show didn’t return to the status quo at the end of the episode. It was almost moderately edgy when Family Guy did it, because it was a critique on the predictability of TV shows. This, however, makes the same comment framed slightly differently. It says the same thing about “To be continued…” episodes on TV. This specifically doesn’t work, because there’s no fear that Stan won’t be alive and well in the next episode.

Hopefully, the rest of Season 7 doesn’t mirror this episode as it clearly doesn’t live up to American Dad’s former glory. It has, in the past, been a show rife with ups and downs, and there’s a chance that this was simply a down episode. We can only hope.