Dad

‘Noisemakers’ Mom can be charming at first. Problem is, she opens the door to ‘Cowbell’ Dad.

All four of Fox’s animated sitcoms have ended their 2007-8 seasons, and once again, surprisingly, American Dad was the best of the four. I did not like it when it started, and even now it’s hardly on a level with the best episodes of The Simpsons or King of the Hill or even cult flops like The Critic. But it actually has a certain amount of storytelling integrity, which is to say that no matter how ridiculous the stories are, they are structured in a logical and satisfying way, a lot of the humour comes from the characters (especially the nerdy son, Steve) and if the story is built around a political/social issue it will actually address that issue and make it part of the story’s resolution. Simple stuff, but not often found on the other three, longer-running shows. The voice cast has come together very well, too. I suspect that some of the improvement in American Dad is attributable to the addition, a couple of years ago, of showrunner Rich Appel, one of the best showrunners King of the Hill ever had; the fact that Appel will be co-creating the Family Guy spinoff, Cleveland, makes me feel almost optimistic for that show, except that: