Pilot (American Dad!)

Infobox American Dad! episode
Title =Pilot
Series =American Dad!


Caption =Just one of the normal side effects of living with an alien
Season =1
Episode =1
Airdate =February 6, 2005
Production =1AJN01
Writer =Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman
Director =Ron Hughart
Guests =Carmen Electra
newspaper_headline = "Democratic Party Missing: Feared Dead"
Episode list =List of American Dad! episodes
Season list = Infobox_American_Dad!_Season_1
Prev =None
Next =Threat Levels

The pilot episode of the television series "American Dad!" premiered on the FOX Network on February 6, 2005. It was written by series creators Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, and directed by Ron Hughart. The pilot introduces the Smith family, father Stan, mother Francine, daughter Hayley, son Steve, pet goldfish Klaus and alien Roger. It guest stars Carmen Electra, Chris Cox and Natasha Melnick. cite web
title = Pilot (American Dad!)
publisher = tv.com
date = 2007
url = http://www.tv.com/american-dad!/pilot-american-dad!/episode/337969/summary.html
accessdate =2007-11-15]

Plot

During breakfast Steve announces that he plans to ask out Lisa Silver the head cheerleader, and Francine puts Roger on a diet fearing that he may be getting fat. Steve is rejected by Silver but on the way home notices a girl attracted to a man with a dog, he therefore decides to ask his parents for one. Stan, however, gets him a 19-year-old dog (133 dog years old), thinking it has character (because it lived during Ronald Reagan's time as president. Later that night Stan accidentally kills it thinking it was an intruder. At the funeral, Hayley chides Stan for it because conservatives oppose gun control, but Stan replies by trying and failing to fart.

Hayley agrees to provide Roger with Junk food when he offers to write her English papers for her, However he passes out without doing one of Hayley's papers the night before it is due. Although Roger able to come up with an excuse to get her an extension, Hayley decides to discontinue her agreement with him. Roger later persuades Steve to get him junk food in return for advice on talking to girls.

Stan rigs the school election so that Steve becomes the school president, and Steve's new position impresses Lisa Silver, so they begin dating. However, Lisa breaks up Steve when he tries to kiss her and Steve barricades himself inside the school. Stan breaks in and tells him that he was unpopular in high school as well. He also cheers him up by having the Silver family deported.

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.
* Roger states "We can't all look like those anorexic aliens on the James Cameron movies." Roger is referring to "Aliens" and/or the 1989 film "The Abyss", both of which are alien movies directed by Cameron in 1986 and 1989 respectively.
* The Jack in the Box man is the mascot for the West-Coast based Jack in the Box restaurant chain.
*Roger is heard to say "Holy Toledo!", a favourite quote of Maxwell Q. Klinger from the television series M*A*S*H.
* Steve names his dog Thor; who is not only a super hero created by Marvel Comics, but also the Norse god of storms.

Notes

* Langley Falls Post front page headline (original pilot): "TV Critics Broker Mid-East Peace Deal."
* The UK airing of this episode cuts out the newspaper headline part of the opening theme.
* When Klaus looks up Francine's skirt, he says he can see her "Schmutzplätzchen", which means "dirt-place" or "dirty place" in German (according to the DVD commentary, it's translated as "dirt-cookie" and "dirty place"). "Schmutzplätzchen" is a very uncommon colloquial synonym for "vagina" in German. "Plätzchen" is also an often used belittlement for a comfortable, cozy place.

Reception

* 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.
* The original broadcast of this episode on Adult Swim, Feb 13, 2005, received a total of 743,000 viewers among adults 18-34.

*In the UL it aired on April 29 , 2005 and gained 7.24 million viewers. It out-rated a Family Guy episode shown before it (5.33 million) and came first in its timeslot. It was the ULB's highest rated episode of that week.

Changes from the online pilot

* In the original pilot, Steve was lankier, had a longer neck, and wore a red shirt with an orange lightning bolt with short blue shorts and high white socks. His voice was also changed to sound less "geeky".
* Some of the dialogue in the opening scene was different.
* 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 (this appears as a deleted scene in the special features section of the American Dad Vol. 1 DVD).
* Advertised as a "series preview" on FOX.
* 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.

References