American Dad: Volume One

American Dad: Volume One

April 17, 2006 - Mike Restaino, DVDFile.com
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I know it’s exceptionally trendy right now to hate Family Guy, with all the new South Park episodes that lampoon it and whatnot, but I can’t deny it. I really do abhor that show.

And it’s a pain in the ass because I seem to be surrounded by people who absolutely love it. One of my dearest friends in the world – and the one with otherwise stellar taste in film and TV – watches it every week. Ryan has tried on several occasions to change my tune on the show, but for my sensibilities, that dog simply won’t hunt.

You can give me South Park any day of the week.

So now that I’ve been given the dubious task of wading through a handful of episodes of American Dad – which can, in all seriousness, be referred to as Family Guy redux – a similar sentiment is reached.

While Family Guy was on indefinite hiatus a few years ago, creator Seth MacFarlane and his buddies came up with an idea to house their pop culture reference-heavy scenarios in characters that are barely dissimilar from the archetypes from FG. We get the flag-waving idiot father, a clueless mother, an alien instead of a sibling, and instead of a brazen British baby we get a German fish (complete with requisite fishbowl).

I’m sorry if I’m not making much sense, but there was a sense of ire that rose up in me upon watching these episodes. It’s specifically tied to the fact that regardless of whether or not you find MacFarlane’s sense of humor endearingly and spastically goofy, American Dad is without a doubt the same-old same-old. It becomes obvious while watching this series that regardless of whether it’s the scenarios of Family Guy or of American Dad, MacFarlane and company have one particular way of telling a joke and they’re riding it into the ground.

That’s a shame because every once in a while, both American Dad and Family Guy are pretty damned funny. With gags that come with a rapid rat-a-tat frequency, one’s bound to score once in a while, maybe one time out of ten or twenty. So it’s apparent that the creators of these shows have something going for them, but for this writer, Family Guy (and especially this carbon-copy American Dad) is just one long stoner joke that gets old fast.

But who am I to talk? There’s a faction of the viewing public that finds MacFarlane’s gifts to be on a bona fide genius-level. They buy up Family Guy season box sets with almost reckless abandon – they love the guy. So if you love Family Guy and want to see the exact same gags with mildly permutated animated characters and caricatures, I’m sure this one will fly.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Yeah, I may think it’s a crappy show, but man do these full- frame transfers look gorgeous! Colors are supple and well defined, and black levels are deep and robust. Sure, finely grained detail suffers a bit, but that’s a small demerit on an otherwise pristine visual representation.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks on this collection also are surprisingly solid. Dialogue and effects are given a nice sense of room and expanse in the mix, and the show’s musical score and atmospherics are also given regal treatment. And even more impressive is the amount of enveloping presence these mixes offer. These aren’t just tracks with subtle surround effects; the sound designers and mixers really went out of their way to make this an effective aural experience. Well done.

Included are English, French, and Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The twelve screen-specific audio commentaries included on this set are just as irritating as the episodes themselves. Yeah, there are occasional blasts of revelation here and there, but most of the time, the groups of commentators are either enjoying in-jokes among themselves or merely sitting silently and watching the show. Ugh. Commentators include Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker, Matt Weitzman, Ron Hughart, Rachael MacFarlane, Jeff Fischer, Pam Cooke, Caleb Meurer, Rick Wiener, Kenny Schwartz, Dan Vebber, Steve Hely, Albert Calleros, Rodney Clouden, David Zuckerman, Nahnatchka Khan, John Aoshima, Chris McKenna, Brent Woods, Dave Hemingson, Matt McKenna, Mark Douglas, Matt Fusfeld, Carter Bays, Craig Thomas, and Anthony Lioi.

We then get a series of featurettes. All In the Family – Creating American Dad is a fairly straightforward making-of. Secrets of the Glass Booth – Behind the Voices of American Dad is the only really unique thing on this collection; the footage of these guys doing the voices is way more interesting than their animated counterparts. American Animatics takes a look at the differences between the show in animatic form and its final appearance. And we get a complete table read and animatic for the episode Threat Levels.

Rounding out the collection are 42 deleted scenes (none of which are all that funny), and two promo spots.

Final Thoughts

If you love American Dad as much as your beloved Family Guy, you probably think I’m a cranky, idiotic dumb-ass, which is fine with me just as long as I don’t have to watch those shows again. But for those ready to pick this one up, rest assured that you’re getting fantastic video and audio quality, and while the bonus features aren’t necessarily groundbreaking, there’s definitely a lot of stuff for fans to chew on.