Sitcoms have long done dual duty as live-action series and animated shows, with Seth MacFarlane being a top animated sitcom creator. American Dad! has been one of his most successful projects with 18 seasons now under its belt. But an odd running gag has blurred the lines between fiction and reality on several occasions, leaving fans to wonder if the characters are actually acting on a show.
American Dad! focuses on the Smith family. CIA Agent Stan Smith is married to Francine, and they have two kids named Hayley and Steve. Hayley is married to a hippie stoner named Jeff. They all share their home with Klaus, a goldfish with the mind of a German skier, and a grey, drunken alien named Roger who likes to play dress-up. It's a pretty standard sitcom scenario.
Everything that takes place in American Dad! happens within the confines of a fictional world created by MacFarlane. But as the series has gone on, the lines between reality and fiction have become increasingly blurry. That is largely thanks to a strange series of running gags that seem to indicate American Dad! might actually be a show within a show.
Throughout the series, there have been several jokes implying the main characters are just actors playing parts. The concept behind these gags is that Stan Smith is not real and is being played by an actor within the American Dad! world. Francine, Roger and everyone else also appear subject to the same rules.
In Season 1, Episode 9, Stan's boss, Avery Bullock, begins dating Hayley, something that makes absolutely no one else in the house happy. Not surprisingly, Bullock is incredibly creepy about the whole thing. Klaus starts doing "DVD commentary" for the episode, during which he mentions the death of a beloved extra. The episode closes with footage of an animated table-read featuring "Stan" hugging Trahn Ng, the actor who died.
This fictional sub-reality pops up again in Season 3, Episode 12. In a random gag that has virtually nothing to do with the actual story, the entire episode comes to a screeching halt so the cast can celebrate the series' 1000th vagina joke. The camera pulls back to reveal that the Smiths' living room is a set while featuring the cast and crew who are on hand for such an auspicious moment. Roger even gives a speech to commemorate it.
However, Season 9, Episode 19 takes this gag to an entirely new level. A scene in this episode reveals that the actor who plays Stan Smith is named Nicholas Vanderbilt and Hayley's real name is Kate Fagan. This seems to confirm that everything that happens on American Dad! is not real, even within the confines of its own fictional reality. Therefore, CIA Agent Stan Smith is not a real person in Langley Falls.
These are not the only examples of this ongoing gag by far. But it all proves that audiences are watching a show within a show, playing out on TV for a group of fans in that reality too. There is also the possibility the elaborate gags are just MacFarlane being meta, and Stan is actually really Stan. However, for people watching American Dad! in the real world, it's funny to think it may also be Peter Griffin's favorite show in the Family Guy universe.
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