American Dad

Post by **Special_Ed** » February 15th, 2005, 12:39 pm

"Look, what Family Guy and South Park do is poke fun at the absurdity of all the politically correct crap in society as well as a lot of our social hypocrisy. And what I like in particular is that both shows satirize BOTH extremes (the extremely liberal and the extremely conservative). "

But you can do that WITHOUT being vulgar.

Post by **AniMan** » February 15th, 2005, 2:45 pm

No arguement from me there, SpecialEd. It can be done without being vulgar. Although I don't watch it regularly, like I do The Simpsons and King of the Hill, I do watch South Park occasionally and it does make me laugh (in between my exclamations of "GROSS!"

)

Post by **Special_Ed** » February 15th, 2005, 10:16 pm

yeah but it still doesn't mean the vularity overshadows the clever gags.

Post by **ShyViolet** » February 19th, 2005, 10:12 pm

Some people find Drawn Together (on Comedy Central) funny but I just find it disturbing.

I totally agree, I hate that show and avoid it. Actually, I have to confess that I dislike most of Adult Swim (with the exception of Futurama and (sometimes) Family Guy) I find a lot of the jokes either off-putting or alienating. Whatever happened to smart, funny, intelligent shows like The Critic and Dr. Katz??

The Critic could be really silly sometimes, but it was mostly harmless and didn't rely on scatalogical humor.

Dr. Katz was funny but you kind of have to concentrate on what's going on to enjoy it, which is a problem nowadays since people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter....at least that's the way it seems.....

I mean, a lot of the "new" cartoons nowadays, both the ones aimes at kids and at adults, throw something at you every 3 seconds. Dr. Katz wasn't art or anything, but it was smart and had a sense of real comedy.
That's just my opinion.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » February 19th, 2005, 10:27 pm

I pretty much don't care for most of Adult Swim, myself, either.

Most of it is recycled H-B from the mid-1960s and whatever isn't looks like it was done in Flash. I'm just not a big fan of Flash animation in general. The Flash animation that does seem to come off well is more likely because of good staging (storyboarding, posing, composition) and writing as opposed to the actual animation which is clunky because of the limitations of Flash.

I've just never gotten the point of Tom Goes to the Mayor, AquaTeen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, and most of Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast. The first show in that list is particularly horrible and really doesn't qualify as animation in my opinion. It's just still drawings with a soundtrack! The others are shows done on the cheap with humor that escapes more than a lot of British humor does. I swear you have to be insanely high to laugh at most of these shows.

The only original Adult Swim show that's really impressed me has been The Venture Brothers but it looks like that show won't be renewed due to higher production costs than the other mostly god-awful AS shows.

IN SPITE OF Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast, it looks like DC Comics has successfully revived Space Ghost as a VIABLE, serious character. I'm hoping someday that the treatment done on this character within the pages of the recent mini-series crosses over to animation. There's no question in my mind that a WELL-DONE animated Space Ghost revival could be the hottest animated action/adventure superhero show since the early 1990s Batman animated series...

Post by **ShyViolet** » February 20th, 2005, 9:36 pm

I swear you have to be insanely high to laugh at most of these shows.

So true.

I think the creators are probably high half the time.

SpaceGhost coast-to-coast just gives me the creeps, although sometimes it's just so dumb it's funny. Didn't Brack get his own show or something? I don't know...

Don't they still show the original SpaceGhost on CN?

I so miss Dr. Katz. It used to be on every Sunday Night on Comedy Central (the animated block). It was Dr. Katz, the Critic, Bob and Margaret and Duckman.

Post by **AniMan** » February 21st, 2005, 1:19 pm

ShyViolet wrote:
I so miss Dr. Katz. It used to be on every Sunday Night on Comedy Central (the animated block). It was Dr. Katz, the Critic, Bob and Margaret and Duckman.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot about Bob and Margaret! I used to love that show, it was so funny, so good! What ever happened to it? Why did they cancel it? The humor was so well written and I loved the animation itself as well. It was totally different from anything else out there.

Post by **ShyViolet** » February 21st, 2005, 5:46 pm

Yeah, it was British. The characters kind of had the "Aardman" look to them.

Bring back the animated block! The "real" one!!

I think it's way more intelligent than a lot of the stuff on Adult Swim. "Adult" indeed.

Post by **otma1918** » February 22nd, 2005, 11:33 pm

no, it's Canadian. and it looks nothing like 99% of Aardman productions...
but it is a hell of a lot better than almost everything on Adult Swim (comedy, anyway).

Post by **Zoltack** » November 29th, 2005, 11:33 pm

I down right think that American Dad is plain stupid. So why do I watch it? Well there really isn't anything else on Sunday evening. I mean it's not realistic... well neither is Family Guy, but they just overdo it by having an alien and a talking fish.

Post by **Macaluso** » November 30th, 2005, 1:00 am

Holy crap, this topic was last posted in, during febuary?

Anyway, the show has gotten TONS better since the first episode, so much so that, with the exception of the past two episodes of family guy, it has been BETTER then family guy. Stan of arabia was amazing. The alien is awesome, and the fish is awesome.

I am very impressed with American Dad as of late. The daydream that Stan has with George Bush coming in to save them... that whole thing was just fantastic.

Post by **Wonderlicious** » November 30th, 2005, 7:31 am

This show finally came on British TV a few weeks ago, and I must say that after just watching one show, I was greatly disappointed with it. Here are the reasons...

1. It seems too copy-cattish. People argue that Family Guy is a copy of The Simpsons, and I have to agree with this for the major part. However, American Dad is extremely unoriginal, as it seems to copy a show that copies another shown. Stuff like this is rather disturbing, especially for people like me. As a hobby, I am currently developing an idea for an animated sitcom, and I am terrified that I'll fall into American Dad/Family Guy territory by copying The Simpsons.

2. The characters aren't really likeable. One of the reasons why some of the great comedies work is that whilst the main characters aren't perfect, there's a nice side to them. American Dad loses points here, as he seems like some obnoxious, ignorant and naive "let's obey everything authority tells us" person.

3. It seems too rooted in fantasy in the wrong places. American Dad seems too much a messy mix of fantasy. A bit of slightly surreal things is okay, but when things that only exist in fantasy (such as aliens) pop up? That's too far.

Those are my reasons for not liking American Dad. That's one TV series that I won't get the DVD of.

Post by **Zoltack** » November 30th, 2005, 1:55 pm

Well said Wonderlicious.

That's exactly how I feel about the whole thing.

Post by **fani** » December 10th, 2005, 5:28 pm

ShyViolet wrote:I haven't seen American Dad but what George C said about it pretty much describes the way I feel about Family Guy. Sometimes I do like FG (I admit it) but a lot of times it's just....unpleasant. Peter is so ANNOYING (especially his laugh)!!!Some of the jokes work, but a lot of them miss. And some of them feel like they SHOULD be funny but just aren't, probably because they are milked to death. Like an "aside" that is meant to be random but is TOO RANDOM and TOO LONG. In the end it's just confusing.
( BTW AniMan I really like your signature! )

OCH ! Finally someone who doesn't really like FAmily Guy!

Post by **ShyViolet** » December 16th, 2005, 5:11 pm

I've come around on it a little, but I still think it's vastly inferior to the Simpsons in its heyday.

American Dad

Re: Family Guy