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American Dad revolves around Stan Smith (MacFarlane), a hyperactive C.I.A. agent with a terror-alert fridge magnet and a tendency to blow away the toaster when the toast pops up; his wife Francine (Wendy Schall, who played Vickie on Six Feet Under), a former party-girl who suppresses her past of drinking and drug using for the sake of her conservative husband; Hayley (MacFarlane's sister, Rachael), a liberal college student whogues politics with her dad, which leads to random searches whenever she enters the house; Steve (Two-year ER veteran Scott Grimes, also of Band of Brothers), the dorky son urged by his father to be more manly but can't quite handle it; Roger (MacFarlane again), an oddball alien saved from Area 51 by Stan that must stay in the house, leaving him to vegetate in front of the TV where he demands more "Pecan Sandies;" and finally Klaus (Dee Bradley Baker, who has voiced too many characters to mention), a CIA experiment gone horribly wrong - he's a goldfish with a German man's brain. If the concept seems familiar, it should - American Dad was created to replace Family Guy. However, now that Family Guy is "un-cancelled," the two series are premiering together.

Created by Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame, the weekly Fox animated sitcom American Dad! peered into the home life of a dedicated but thickheaded secret agent. Jut-jawed protagonist Stan Smith was a troubleshooter for the CIA who, by his own declaration, would "stop at nothing" to protect his country -- and in proving this he invariably brought down a great deal of pain and embarrassment to his family. In an all too typical example, Stan had a cute habit of shooting first and asking questions later, which wreaked havoc on faulty household appliances and the like. The Smith family included wife Francine, who had a tough time hiding her drug-addicted past from her straight-arrow husband; daughter Hayley, a community-college coed who'd gone over to extreme left-wing liberalism just to spite her dad; and dorky son Steve, who went to great and pathetic lengths to "be cool." Also members of the household were Roger, a squid-like, Paul Lynde-sounding space alien who'd been hiding out in the family's home ever since Steve rescued him from Area 51; and Klaus the goldfish, who as a result of a misfired mutation experiment spoke in a sinister Peter Lorre-ish German accent. The first cartoon series to truly reflect the singular paranoia of the post-9/11 era, American Dad! premiered February 6, 2005, right after Fox's telecast of the Super Bowl (the same route previously traveled by MacFarlane's Family Guy). Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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