Pilot (American Dad!)

File:Roger pilot.jpg

"Ah... Gesundheit?"

The Pilot episode of the tv animated series American Dad! was the episode that the show's creator, Seth McFarlane used to pitch his original idea to the FOX Network. As such, the official series premiere was in fact the second episode produced, Threat Levels.

The Pilot first aired (in the United States) on February 6, 2005, in the Sunday 9:30 p.m. timeslot on FOX. It was written by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. The episode was directed by Ron Hughart and had the guest voices of Carmen Electra (as Lisa Silver), Mike Henry(as Jackson), Curtis Armstrong (as Snot), Daisuke Suzuki (as Toshi), Chris Cox (as George W. Bush), Kevin Michael Richardson (as Principal Lewis), André Sogliuzzo (as Mr. Goodwin), Natasha Melnick (as Hilary), Mike Barker (as the Biology Teacher) and Jeff Fischer (as Jeff).

Plot

Template:Spoiler In the pilot, Steve is upset about his lack of popularity. He notices that girls seem attracted to guys with dogs, so he asks his parents for one. Stan gets Steve a 19-year-old dog, because it was alive during the Reagan administration. One night, Roger the Alien makes a noise and Stan goes downstairs, thinking it's an intruder ("Osama? Is that you?"). Stan shoots the intruder, only to find out that he just accidentally killed Steve's dog.

They bury the dog, and Stan tries to make up for it by rigging the school election so that Steve becomes the school president. Once elected, Steve uses his attribution as student body president to impress the head cheerleader. He gets drunk with power, but believes that he is succeeding, until she dumps him when he first tries to kiss her. Steve goes crazy and holds the school hostage. Stan sneaks into the school and gets Steve to stop by revealing that he was unpopular in high school as well.

On another front, the audience is introduced to Roger, an alien who saved Stan's life in Area 51. As repayment, Roger lives with the Smiths, but his presence is ignored by the CIA, Stan's employer, and the world. Since Stan fears that the CIA would erase his and Roger's memories if the alien were ever discovered, Roger is forced to live in confinement at the Smith's. Roger is also addicted to sugar, and Francine puts him on a forced diet when his weight causes him to break a chair and the dinner table. In order to get around Francine's strict control of candies in the house, Roger strikes a deal with Hayley to do her homework in exchange for her smuggling sweets to him. It works at first, but on the night before the deadline for one of Hayley's papers (on Henry Kissinger), Roger has too much sugar and passes out without doing the work. He and Hayley are able to come up with an excuse to make her teacher give her an extension on the paper's deadline (they dig up Steve's dead dog and Hayley tells the teacher that she just lost her dog). After this scare, however, Hayley decides to discontinue her agreement with Roger. The alien, noticing Steve's frustration in getting a girl, becomes his adviser for dating, in exchange for "boatloads" of candy. Roger also reveals that every seven hours an ooze shoots out of his body, "like clockwork".

Trivia

• In a cut scene to a couple in Iraq the woman is shown to bearing a full length Afghan burqa, a piece of clothing which has never been widespread in the country. In addition to this, the man follows an exclamation of "for Allah's sake..." with "get me a beer". The drinking of alcohol is not permitted in Islam.
• When Klaus looks up Francine's skirt, he says he can see her "Schmutzplätzchen", which means "dirty cookie" or "dirty place" in German. "Plätzchen" is also an often used belittlement for a comfortable, cosy place.
• Unlike the rest of the American Dad episode the pilot had a few random jokes simliar to Family Guy. However this was droped after the first episode. Randoms jokes are: Gods calls president Bush, Klaus original body with the fish brain, the Jack in box man in the basement.

Cultural references

• Steve wears a Shazam! shirt.
• When Stan searches his house, he calls out for Osama.
• The school Steve goes to is Pearl Bailey High School.
• The old algebra teacher is called Mr. Feeney. This may be a reference to the school teacher of the same name in Boy Meets World.
• Roger: "We can't all look like those anorexic aliens on the James Cameron movies." Roger is referring to James Cameron's 1989 film "The Abyss".

Notes

• Langley Falls Post front page headline (original pilot): "TV Critics Broker Mid-East Peace Deal."
• Langley Falls Post front page headline (FOX televised version): "Democratic Party Missing: Feared Dead."
• The name of the Pearl Bailey High School newspaper is called the "Pearl Bailey High Bugle."

Changes from the online pilot

• The voice of Steve was changed.
• Some of the dialogue in the opening scene was different.
• In the original pilot, Steve wore a red shirt with an orange lightning bolt with short blue shorts and high white socks.
• Originally, the Jack in the Box Man was the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
• A scene where Stan explains to Steve that, in college, he was called "The Penis" was cut.

Similarities with Family Guy

• Roger's quote "You know, we can't all look like those anorexic aliens on the James Cameron movies" is very similar to Stewie's quote "Well, pardon me for not being one of those anorexic babies from the diaper commercials." Family Guy Episode Guide, Fore, Father

• The image of God is very similar to the image of God in Family Guy.
• Stan's quote to Steve, "You're a Smith, and a Smith always gets his girl", is similar to something Peter Griffin tells his son Chris, "You're a Griffin, and a Griffin never knows when to stop."

Production notes

• Advertised as a "series preview" on FOX.
• The original broadcast of this episode on FOX scored a 10.8/20 rating, bringing the total viewers for the episode to 15.1 million.
• Adult Swim airdate: February 13, 2005.
• The original broadcast of this episode on Adult Swim received a total of 743,000 viewers among adults 18-34.
• A preview of the episode aired during the Super Bowl XXXIX Pregame Show. That preview was in 16:9 widescreen, while the actual episode was not.
• Was originally supposed to air February 6, 2005 at 10:30 p.m. ET on FOX, but was pulled back to 11:15 p.m. ET due to the Super Bowl. It aired 15 minutes late in all other time zones as well, as the Super Bowl is a live event.
• Because the episode debuted after 11 p.m. EST, it was not counted in the primetime rankings for the week.
• The episode was released on a bonus DVD included with the Family Guy Volume Two Fully Loaded! set.
• A preview of this episode, which includes the breakfast scene and when Stan brings home the dog, can also be found on the Family Guy Freakin' Sweet Collection DVD.
• A promo clip of the breakfast scene was included on the Alien vs. Predator DVD.