American Dad, Season 8, Episode 4: American Stepdad, Review

Stan’s stepfather died, leaving his mother broke.  His mother is going to have to move into the attic.  This makes Stan kick Roger out of the attic.  Naturally, Roger doesn’t like this and throws a fit.  Roger marries Stan’s mother.  Stan thinks Roger is doing this just to get the attic back.  It turns out that Stan’s mother is actually using Roger; she took out a life insurance policy on him and tries to kill him at Niagara Falls.  Stan sees “10 best ways to kill your spouse at Niagara Falls” on Roger’s computer, and thinks Roger is trying to kill his mom.  So, he rushes to Niagara Falls and tries to save her.  However, he finds out that his mom is trying to kill Roger.  Somehow, Stan finds himself holding onto both of them over a cliff and he has to choose which one to save…does Stan save his alien friend or his loving mother?  Neither; Roger lets go of Stan’s hand and falls into the abyss.  Don’t worry, though–we see Roger moments later leading a tour group in typical Roger-a-listic fashion.

Steve and his gang of outcasts are out hiking in the woods and come across a plane that has crashed.  Onboard the plane, they find a dead man carrying the script for The Fast And Furious 7.  Steve reads the script aloud to the gang.  This is one of the funniest moments of the show.  As a person who can’t stand the Fast and Furious franchise and thinks it is way over the top and an insult to movies, it is amusing to hear what Seth MacFarlane thinks the movie sounds like as a script.  The script uses language like “totally awesome” and “way cool” and “super hot;” I guarantee that you would really find those words in a Fast and Furious script. 

Upon reaching the end of the script, the boys notice that the script goes off onto a hardcore gay sex romp.  They decide to remove those pages from the script before they bring it to Hollywood.  The director that they bring it to says it wasn’t a legitimate script because it was missing the gay scenes that all Fast and Furious scripts have.  He explains that they shoot all of the scenes written, including the gay ones, to give to movie chemistry and then they cut down and edit the film for theaters (except in France).  

This episode had me thinking about similar shows like this (Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, The Simpsons).  We don’t ever see any continuances in these shows; there is never a continuing story line through more than one or two episodes.  I would like to see something like this.  I’d like to see an animated series that has characters growing with their age instead of remaining the same age and maintaining the same appearance throughout.  This is a giant hole in the animated world, and provides room for a talented writer to swoop in and capitalize on it.  Make it happen, Hollywood!

Overall, this was another hilarious episode.  The dynamic created between Stan and Roger is always funny, and the mischief that Steve and his friends get into never lets me down.  Scott Grimes, who voices Steve Smith, continues to be a hilarious vocal talent by making Steve’s voice shriek and squeak at just the right moments.  I would like to see more one-liners from Klaus thrown in the mix, and maybe even an entire episode dedicated to his character, as he can be quite the character.  Seth MacFarlane is an animated genius and quite possibly the best at what he does.  He is everywhere, now.  He hasn’t even broken 40 years of age yet and already has two incredibly funny animated series (Family Guy, American Dad) a hilarious movie (Ted), and numerous cameos in shows.  Dear Seth, while we appreciate you immensely, take a frickin’ break already!

Episode Rating:  8/10