40 Fun Facts About American Dad

Besides the creator of Family Guy, which two writers co-created American Dad!?

MacFarlane largely handed the show to Barker and Weitzman to keep it distinct from Family Guy.

The pilot episode aired directly after which event on February 6, 2005?

Super Bowl XXXIX: Fox premiered the pilot straight after the game on February 6, 2005; the rest of the first season did not arrive until May.

What inspired MacFarlane and Weitzman to conceive the show?

The 2000 presidential election: MacFarlane and Weitzman, frustrated with the Bush administration it produced, devised Stan as a flag-waving conservative to satirise; the pilot aired in February 2005.

In which fictional Virginia suburb do the Smiths live?

Langley Falls blends the real Langley, home of CIA headquarters, with nearby Great Falls, Virginia; Stan commutes from the suburb to the agency's offices.

What is Stan Smith's job?

A CIA agent: Stan works at the agency's Langley headquarters under Deputy Director Avery Bullock and applies the same extreme measures at home that he uses at work.

Which cable network took over the show from Fox in 2014?

TBS took over from Fox on October 20, 2014; the show's first decade had aired on Fox's Sunday-night animation line-up.

Klaus, the family goldfish, was originally what?

An East German Olympic ski-jumper, whose mind the CIA moved into the fish at the 1986 Winter Olympics to stop him winning gold.

How did Roger come to live with the Smiths?

He saved Stan's life while escaping Area 51, four years before the series begins; Roger had been on Earth since crashing at Roswell in 1947.

Where in the house does Roger keep his hideout and bar?

The attic, where Roger keeps his bar and costume collection; Klaus is often up there with him while he tends bar in one of his many disguises.

Roger's voice is modelled on which camp 1960s and 70s comedian?

Paul Lynde, the camp comedian of Bewitched and Hollywood Squares; Roger's voice imitates Lynde's arch, nasal delivery.

Roger believed he was 'The Decider' of humanity's fate; what was he really?

A crash test dummy: in 'Weiner of Our Discontent' Stan discovers Roger was merely a dummy used to test a spaceship, not the Decider he believed himself to be.

Which of Roger's personas is described as a particularly vicious criminal?

Ricky Spanish, a persona so loathed that the whole town wants revenge on him in the episode of that name; Roger's disguises started as a workaround for being forbidden to leave the house.

Who voices Stan Smith?

Seth MacFarlane voices Stan, Roger and news anchor Greg Corbin; his sister Rachael voices Hayley.

Which Star Trek captain voices Stan's boss, CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock?

Patrick Stewart, Captain Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, voices Bullock, a depraved, eccentric and erratic CIA chief.

What is Hayley Smith's middle name?

Hayley Dreamsmasher Smith: the family's left-wing hippie daughter, voiced by Rachael MacFarlane, who constantly clashes with her conservative father.

Who voices Steve Smith in the series proper, after Ricky Blitt did the original pilot?

Steve's design was made taller and less geeky when Grimes took over.

On American Dad, which of Steve's friends speaks only Japanese, so everyone misunderstands him as a running gag?

Toshi's one English line came in 'Independent Movie', asking to be left alone in a cornfield.

What is Snot's real first name?

Schmuley Lonstein, nicknamed Snot; Curtis Armstrong, Booger from Revenge of the Nerds, voices him.

Who provides Barry's sinister 'evil' voice when he goes off his medication?

Craig Ferguson, the Scottish comedian, supplies Barry's cultured evil voice; Eddie Kaye Thomas does Barry's normal voice.

What are Greg and Terry, the couple across the street, by profession?

Local TV news anchors: they co-anchor W-ANG-TV, and Seth MacFarlane voices Greg.

What is unusual about Roger's excrement, as revealed in 'Homeland Insecurity'?

It is solid gold with jewels: the 'Golden Turd' running gag follows strangers who find the jewel-encrusted nugget, usually ending in someone's death.

Stan Smith was originally modelled on which classic sitcom patriarch?

Archie Bunker: MacFarlane pitched the show as an All in the Family for the Bush era, with Hayley as the Gloria and Jeff as the Meathead to Stan's Archie.

Why is Hayley's paternity uncertain?

The episode "The Kidney Stays in the Picture" raised the question; Stan regards her as his daughter regardless.

Which actress voices Debbie Hyman, Steve's goth girlfriend?

Lizzy Caplan, of Mean Girls and Party Down, voices Debbie Hyman, the plus-size goth who becomes Steve's girlfriend.

Who voices Steve's unhinged principal, Brian Lewis?

Kevin Michael Richardson, the deep-voiced actor who also plays Jerome on Family Guy, voices the hedonistic Principal Brian Lewis.

Who voices Stan's needy mother, Betty Smith?

Swoosie Kurtz voices Betty Smith, Stan's needy mother, whose romances Stan sabotages in 'Oedipal Panties'.

When a spaceship arrives to take Roger home to his birth planet, what does he do?

Roger stays behind and throws Jeff into the ship's beam in 'Naked to the Limit, One More Time'; Jeff is stuck in space until 'Holy Shit, Jeff's Back!' the following year.

What title does Stan hold at the CIA after a promotion that changed nothing about his duties?

Deputy Deputy Director, a title Stan flaunts though it brought no new duties; his boss remains Deputy Director Bullock.

Why did the showrunners temporarily step away from the series in May 2023?

The show was already renewed through its twenty-fifth season at the time.

American Dad! was the first series made specifically for which Fox programming block?

Animation Domination launched on May 1, 2005, with the rest of American Dad!'s first season alongside The Simpsons, King of the Hill and the revived Family Guy.

In 'The Vacation Goo', who had secretly been faking the family's holidays?

Stan: the family learns their past holidays were simulations fed to them in goo tanks while Stan holidayed alone, so they insist on a real cruise.

Rachael MacFarlane's album Hayley Sings was tied to which episode?

Love, A.D. Style: Hayley's club performances in the April 2012 episode led to Rachael MacFarlane's standards album Hayley Sings, released by Concord Records.

What is Klaus the goldfish's surname?

Klaus Heissler; in 'Da Flippity Flop' he briefly swaps bodies with Stan.

What is the name of Stan's con-man father?

Jack Smith, a jewel thief who posed as a CIA agent and abandoned the family when Stan was a boy, first appears in the 2006 episode 'Con Heir'.

Why did Francine's wealthy birth parents give her up as a baby?

Nicholas and Cassandra Dawson handed her over for the seat upgrade, leaving Francine to be raised by her adoptive Chinese-American parents, the Lings.

Who voices Francine Smith?

Wendy Schaal has voiced Francine across every season on Fox and TBS.

What is Stan Smith's full first name?

Stanford Leonard Smith is the full name, a fittingly stiff one for the CIA man MacFarlane modelled on Archie Bunker.

Steve Smith attends a high school named after which real entertainer?

Pearl Bailey High is named after the real singer and actress, a special Tony winner for Hello, Dolly!; Steve is a perpetual freshman there.

What was the 2011 crossover event linking American Dad, Family Guy and The Cleveland Show called?

Night of the Hurricane sent the same storm through all three towns across one night of episodes.

In "Lost in Space", Roger is shown cheating on which member of his own species?

A brief clip shows Roger in a relationship with Zing, then blatantly making out with a human male in front of him. Zebleer is the Collector who impersonated Jeff.