American Dad Volume 3 DVD Credits:

Region: 1

American Dad Volume 3 DVD Release Date: 7th April 2008

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American Dad Volume 3 DVD Review:

It was odd to receive one, and just one, disc from Volume 3 of American Dad to review, especially because that disc featured only two episodes. Special features make up the rest of the DVD.

American Dad is the less critically acclaimed brother to Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy. MacFarlane, Mike Barker, and Matt Weitzman created American Dad for FOX, as a show that attempts to poke fun at the ultra-conservative right wing. The father, Stan Smith, is a CIA agent. He has the stereotypical wife, Francine, who is just a mix of Marge and Lois.(Of Family Guy and what?) Hayley (actually voiced by MacFarlane’s sister), is their modern day hippie daughter, while their son, Steve, is a helpless nerd. There is the requisite pet: the diabolical goldfish Klaus (should the word with appear?) who could give Stewie a run for his money in the evil genius category. And finally an alien, Roger, the wise ass of the family.

Where Family Guy can poke fun at different races, religions, and sexual orientations; American Dad’s attempts at such jokes come off as offensive because they don’t contain those laugh out loud moments of its superior counterpart. There are high notes throughout the episodes, but they cannot make up for the extreme unease caused by watching the characters trying to be satirical.

The two episodes featured on Disc 3 are “Surro-Gate” and “Franny 911.”

In “Surro-Gate”, Francine offers to be the surrogate mother for her gay neighbors. Stan highly disagrees with the idea of homosexuals even raising children, so when the baby is born he kidnaps it and attempts to take it to Nebraska where homosexuals have few rights (I cannot attest to whether or not this is true). The main storyline of the episode isn’t nearly as good as the stolen B line. After Roger and Steve play a prank on Klaus, the goldfish threatens wrathful revenge. The mischievous duo spends the remainder of the episode in fear of Klaus’ portending payback. Sound familiar? It’s almost the exact same situation Brian put Stewie in during the “Patriot Game” episode. The joke is still funny, but why remind the audience of a better TV show.

“Franny 911” focuses on Roger. After Roger ruins Stan’s study, Stan turns his back on the grey alien. Francine pretends to kidnap Roger, hoping to have Stan save him and prove how much he really does love the alien. But Stan shows a level of intelligence rare for him and Francine’s plan goes awry. Again, the B storyline is much more interesting. Hayley and Klaus get into an intense game of dare. Sadly, many of their moments are not put in the forefront of scenes and can easily be missed.

In my opinion, you should just skip the two episodes and go straight to the special features. Ignore the deleted scenes. They go on for just as long as a regular episode and none of the scenes stand out. I’m actually surprised there weren’t more, since the qualification for a deleted scene seemed to be the inability to be humorous. The best part of this DVD, the best part of any special features I’ve seen on an animated TV series DVD, is a table reading at Comic-con. The entire cast reads the episode “42 Year Old Virgin”, switching between the actual episode and the camera focusing on the actors. It’s quite an experience to see the real faces of the characters. The episode they are reading tells the story of how Stan’s CIA friends find out that he is a “killing virgin” and try to have him get a hit. I’ve never seen the episode, but I doubt it could be funnier than the Comic-con table reading. A little tidbit about how the actors perform this bit, Seth MacFarlane (when he is not reading Stan, Roger, or any of the other numerous characters he plays), is drinking beer. Maybe that’s how he does all those crazy voices. The table reading is followed by a fan favorite, Q and A with the cast and crew.

I can’t recommend buying American Dad Vol.3 because I wasn’t able to see all nineteen episodes. If you like American Dad, sure go ahead. But if you have ever wanted to see an hour long insight into Comic-con and American Dad, I’d recommend renting the set.

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American Dad Volume 3 DVD review written by: Lyz Reblin