A Gay Alien Makes American Dad a Good Show
Added 2023-02-02 03:38:19 +0000 UTCA heads up: This episode discusses sexual assault in the context of it being something that would get referenced in mid-2000s shows as a marker of being “edgy.” Also, there is a discussion of anal probing in the context of alien abduction, not to be funny but to try and understand why this is a concept that shows up on sitcoms.
“Roger ’n‘ Me (April 23, 2006)
As a follow-up to last week’s Great Gazoo episode, we return to American Dad to try to explain why Roger the alien is such a successful character and, really, a likely reason why American Dad show succeeds. This is an early episode exploring Roger’s relationship with Stan. And while the show suffers from being more like Family Guy than it would be even a year later, there is surprisingly nuance to the way the show deals with these two sharing what amounts to a sexual experience.
Listen to our previous episode on American Dad.
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Read the Reddit thread “How did anal probing become associated with alien abductions?”
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Comments
Drew, your alien commercials might well be from the Time Life Mysteries of the Unknown series. Several are out there, and if this isn't precisely the one it might at least strike a familiar chord. https://tinyurl.com/4d4kdxmh
knope2001
2023-02-10 19:10:03 +0000 UTCBefore the majority of the family shifts from Liberal to Conservative, Hillary Banks is sort of a lazy lefty who attends progressive functions primarily to interact with celebs.
Erin Hardy
2023-02-06 17:20:27 +0000 UTCThings are getting too spicy for the pepper could mean that things are getting so bad that even a pepper thinks it bad
Ryan Zepp
2023-02-03 13:11:39 +0000 UTCWhat a great episode! I also love American Dad and would be fine with you discussing it all the time.
Seth Reeves
2023-02-02 21:44:04 +0000 UTCI would happily listen if y'all did a miniseries just on American Dad :D
Zachary 'Pup GIR' Ledbetter
2023-02-02 18:10:28 +0000 UTCOkay, so this is a weird thing that has been in my head the whole time I was working on this episode. I have no idea who I said was the basis for Roger in the previous GEE on American Dad, but going into this, I thought it was CNR, but then all the research I was pulling up said Paul Lynde — not just in the wikis but in the source materials. This Seth MacFarlane interview (which I found looking up Spewey from Get a Life): http://www.bullz-eye.com/television/interviews/2007/seth_macfarlane_01.htm This Paley Center thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RycYlI3-7DU And Mike Barker, co-creator and showrunner for the first ten seasons, speaking to TV Guide: http://www.paullynde.info/Magazines/American_Dad.html But in the episode, when I say that when Seth does an impression of Paul Lynde, it actually doesn’t sound exactly like Roger to me. There’s a difference between his Roger and when his specifically doing Paul Lynde. It’s making me wonder if… 70s pop culture sponge though Seth may be, could he be thinking mashing the two together, doing am impression of CNR but thinking he’s doing Paul Lynde? Because they’re actually pretty close in terms of the space they occupied in pop culture, even if their voice and mannerisms are different.
Drew Mackie
2023-02-02 06:26:41 +0000 UTCFellow podcaster posting a correction, which will almost certainly send me to hell: I believe Roger's voice is based on Charles Nelson Reilly. An unimportant distinction from Paul Lynde, but Reilly was still alive for the first few seasons of American Dad. Also, I've been on the fence for a while but Drew may get me to rewatch all of AD after originally falling off in the fifth season due to life circumstances.
Bob Mackey
2023-02-02 05:06:47 +0000 UTC
