Francine and Stan are in luck when Hailey ends up dating Stan’s body double, Bill. Yes, it is freaky to see someone who looks exactly like Stan to be kissing Hailey, but you just have to go with it, I guess.

I haven’t seen enough episodes of American Dad to say whether or not all of the episodes are poorly written, but it’s hard to really be surprised by the plot developments. Neither this episode nor the previous one delivered anything that could be considered surprising.

The closest thing they came with was all of the adult talk. Hailey repeated talking about “doin’ it” was very grating and was more uncomfortable than funny. Isn’t this supposed to be a funny show? I think this will be my last review. I find it hard to come up with anything good to say about Seth MacFarlane’s second major animated series.

Rating: 4.5

Steve was quite surprised to learn that his own friends were the ones who put up the website. Steve ended up attacking them, but the fight was cut short when a few others wanted in. By “a few others,” I am referring to all of the jocks and cheerleaders, of course.

This episode was quite predictable and really never featured the Smith family with the sole exception of a five second scene which was meant solely for the purpose of including them in something. It felt strange to have an entire episode devoted to one person like this. I don’t consider this to be a very good episode due to its writing. It was boring, predictable, and never gave the family much to do.

Rating: 5

Things got a little predictable when Stan tested Francine’s love by leaving with Roger for a period to see if Francine would fall in love with her ex. Stan thought he had the perfect plan, do a little vacationing on a secret FBI island while he eavesdropped on Francine. This quickly changes when Stan and Roger’s little island is destroyed by an enormous wave.

Back away, Steve. It’s a trap.

Neither Stan nor Roger coped very well but managed to get to safety when Roger allowed Stan to sit on top of him and paddle to safety.

For me, the funnier plot was the one surrounding Steve and that cat. Sure, it was largely overlooked by Stan’s insecurities, but being a cat owner, I happened to find Steve’s plot more entertaining and it just got wilder as it went on.

Still, there wasn’t a whole lot of humor in this episode. The Steve/cat plot had a few memorable moments, especially the ending. Steve couldn’t get rid of that cat no matter how hard he tried.

Rating: 5.2

Much of this episode was about the one word men tend to have a difficulty saying: no. In this case, Stan couldn’t refuse any favor asked by his CIA boss, even though it drove Francine crazy. Avery Bullock, voiced by Patrick Stewart, is an interesting fellow, namely because of his wife being kidnapped in Fallujah and because he refuses to negotiate with terrorists, his poor wife has been over there for quite some time and has been brainwashed.

The Smith house is in chaos thanks to Stan.

Stan’s willingness to be a “yes man” puts his family in an awkward position of keeping an eye on Avery’s adopted son. Francine is obviously put in charge of babysitting the little tike, but it causes her to lose a great deal of sleep. The fact that Stan refuses to decline requests of his boss absolutely infuriates her. I can certainly sympathize with her, but this isn’t exactly an original story. The writers have borrowed this scenario (to an extent) from other shows.

Roger grew to become very annoying in this episode. I’m having trouble enjoying this character. He’s a very immature alien, who resorted to lame attempts to get attention and even tried drowning Avery’s baby at the lake.

My favorite moment wasn’t an entire scene, it was simply a joke from Roger about his spider. He claimed to name one of his black widows Courtney Love because like Ms. Love, the spider also killed her husband and is always full of various toxins. The jokes on American Dad sometimes come up so quickly with very little setup it’s tough to appreciate them at times, but I enjoyed this moment in a rather predictable episode of American Dad.

Rating: 5.7

Even when liberal vs conservative politics weren’t being brought up, there were still occasional politically sensitive issues introduced. Everything from the silly terror threat level system, illegal immigration, gay rights, women’s roles, and even bum fighting managed to make it into this episode. Yes, bum fighting. I remember when some people made money being involved in this a few years ago. It’s sad to think that people are that desperate to make money.

Stan Smith

After a terror scare at home, Francine realized how little she’s done with her life, so she naturally decided to get a job. Being the stereotypical Republican, Stan had a huge problem with it. He didn’t want his wife out selling real estate; he wanted her back at home, taking care of the joint. After giving in, Stan was no longer the breadwinner. Francine’s commissions were pretty impressive and made Stan feel like less of a man.

Rarely without a plan, Stan decided to shake up the economy by having Alan Greenspan’s dog suddenly get kidnapped so that the interest rates would skyrocket and no one would want to buy homes, thus causing Francine to lose her job. It was a long way to go, but I still enjoyed the story. Stan’s not the most politically correct fella around, but I admire his passion.

I’d like to see Klaus get a little more airtime. His accent is very funny and he’s got a big crush on Stan’s wife, Francine. I really like their moments together. I’ve found that the first two episodes, at least, almost seemed to run longer than 21 minutes. I’m wondering if the pacing has something to do with that. I don’t see any other possible explanation.

Rating: 7.3

I thought the pilot did a very good job of informing viewers of the origins of Roger the alien and Klaus the goldfish. Roger was smuggled home from Area 51, while Klaus had his brain exchanged with that of a German skier. I loved the scene which showed the German skier going down the slopes, while behaving like a fish.

President Bush and God

Roger’s weight problem seemed rather odd. He doesn’t look fat, so the fact that he was breaking tables and chairs was rather difficult to believe. He managed to bypass Francine’s forced diet by making deals with Steve and Hayley.

It was only a matter of time, however, before the deal with Hayley fell apart. I assumed Roger would end up failing to complete the paper on time and if it weren’t for that hysterical dead dog, Hayley would have been in trouble.

Being introduced to the series in the fourth season as I was, I didn’t know a whole lot about the characters. I was a little surprised that Steve is pursuing the same cheerleader in the fourth season that he is here in the pilot. I guess some things never really change, do they?

The pilot was very well written. It had a nice flow to it. The writers did a nice, simple job of explaining Klaus and Roger to the viewers, but kept the show very funny. The fact that Stan is a gun-toting Republican was excellent. The political stuff wasn’t lost upon me. I especially liked God’s phone call to Bush. Had I seen the pilot some time ago, I would have probably began watching it regularly.

Rating: 8.4

After a night of drinking, Roger came home to a Smith family intervention. They were all upset about his behavior of late. He had apparently been drinking more, has been stealing clothes, and has been an all-around jerk to the Smiths. As I mentioned last week, American Dad is a new show for me, so I’m not that familiar yet with each of the characters, but I had to assume that all of these complaints were new.

Roger and Klaus

When Roger tried to charge some alcohol to his credit card, he realized he was a victim of identity theft and took action. He made the poor guy’s life a wreck, getting him fired from his job as a bible maker, destroying his garden, and even messing things up between he and his girlfriend.

I liked seeing Roger take initiative, but I was a little surprised to learn that Roger’s alter ego is the one who was responsible for the credit card problem. Sydney, Roger’s alter-ego, fell in love with a young lady and bought her an expensive diamond ring for a marriage proposal.

With the fire, the shooting, and the threats of being killed, there was almost as much drama in this episode as there was comedy. Speaking of comedy, there weren’t any laugh-out-loud moments for me. I did enjoy the making fun of the stupid girl Sydney fell in love with, but the Simon Says subplot involving Stan and the family was more sad and pathetic than funny. Klaus, the little goldfish was the only one involved in that plot who brought out anything funny.

Rating: 6.5

The season premiere started with Roger spying on the family from the set of stairs in their home, hoping to get some clues as to whether or not they were working on his birthday party, his 1600th birthday, actually. But the work the family was doing is put to an end when Steve awakes and comes down and proudly announces his first pubic hair, putting it on display for everyone.

This was a rather awkward moment. While it was hysterical, it was a little odd to see an animated show have to blur out something like this. Again, I’m not familiar with American Dad, so I don’t know if this is a common thing for the show, so for me, this was rather new. I loved Steve’s line at the end of the scene about having to go comb and style his new hair.

While Steve was clearly happy with himself, Stan and Francine were in panic mode. They remember how puberty impacted their lives when their daughter Hayley went through it. They weren’t sure they would, let alone Hayley.

To counter the aging of Steve, Francine gets a drug from the CIA and injects it into Steve’s body in the middle of the night, but it ends up making Steve younger by several years. Hah!

At this point, I started feeling sorry for Roger, who just wanted to have a birthday party, but the family was caught up with Steve and his puberty. Stan only made the problem worse when he turned his son into an old man, covered with age spots.

I admit I should have started from the beginning of the series, but I will go back and watch the early episodes eventually and get caught up. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, even though I watched it out of context with the previous episodes. The show is very well written.

Rating: 8.4

I’m trying to avoid getting too involved in the speculation as to whether or not the show will be a success, but judging by the new teaser (preview) from Fox, the show could be good. The bears that live next door could steal the show.

Here’s the plot for the show, followed by the new preview:

Many years ago, Cleveland Brown (voiced by Mike Henry) was a high school student madly in love with a beautiful girl named Donna. Much to his dismay, his love went unrequited, and Donna wound up marrying another man. Cleveland once told Donna he would always love her, and if this man ever done her wrong, he’d be there when she called.

Well, this man done her wrong.

Donna’s husband skipped town with another woman, leaving Donna with a daughter and a baby. Now she’s come to Cleveland and offered him another chance at love. Unattached after the Loretta-Quagmire debacle and true to his word, Cleveland joyously accepts and he and Cleveland Jr. move to Stoolbend, VA, to join their new family.

Once in Stoolbend, Cleveland has a few surprises in store for him, including a flirtatious new stepdaughter, a 5-year-old stepson who loves the ladies, as well as a collection of neighbors that includes a loudmouth redneck couple, a British family seemingly stuck in the Victorian era and a family of bears living at the end of the block.