"TBS"

2005 · 22 Seasons · Fox / TBS · Animated Sitcom

American Dad! spent its early years trying to escape its creator's shadow, and somewhere around season four it succeeded completely. Roger's limitless personas became the engine for the show's best episodes, the Smith family dynamics found a groove that balanced absurdity with genuine emotional stakes, and the writing pivoted away from topical political humor toward something much stranger and more rewarding. The TBS years gave the creative team freedom that produced some of the show's strongest work, even if the lower budget occasionally showed. Twenty-two seasons in, consistency is the main issue, with a growing gap between the episodes that land and the ones that feel like they're coasting.