American Dad! The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Episodes, According to IMDb

American Dad! has had a very interesting life as an adult animated sitcom. Starting off as Seth MacFarlane’s answer to Family Guy being canceled, it was initially derided as a Family Guy clone but has since gained a following for its focus as a character-centric comedy. When the show moved to TBS in 2013, it gained even more of a following thanks to its edginess.

Having just started its fifteenth season, and making the slow and steady march to 300 episodes, it’s time to take a look at the best of the best, and the worst of the worst, both on Fox and on TBS. Which episodes worked, and which didn’t? Here are the five best, and five worst episodes of American Dad! on IMDb. To be fair to the more recently released episodes, only ones with at least 200 ratings will be considered.

10 BEST: “Tearjerker” (8.5)

A parody of James Bond films, this episode features Stan as Agent Stan Smith. Smith’s mission is to figure out why Hollywood A-listers are appearing in terrible movies, ultimately stumbling upon the diabolical Tearjerker and his plan to have the world cry to death by watching his aptly named “Oscar Gold” film, about a mentally handicapped alcoholic Jewish boy with a cancer-ridden puppy in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The characters were on point and the running gag concerning Tearjerker’s frustrations with his lair and the terrible contractor that built it were endlessly funny. Special mention goes to Stan highlighting everyone’s obsession with celebrity couple babies.

9 WORST: “Kloger” (6.5)

Seinfeld famously coined the phrase, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”, but it’s highly doubtful that they had the bizarre premise of a pansexual alien having a sexual relationship with an East German man trapped in a goldfish’s body in mind. Between the vomit-inducing visuals of Klaus dry humping Roger and the cringiness of Roger’s obsession with Klaus, going so far as to act out a Lolita fantasy, this episode was eye bleach.

The subplot especially was terrible, with Steve looking for any excuse to not take the Presidential fitness test, going as far as to catch Hayley’s pink eye infection, and ultimately resorting to soiling himself. All in all, it was a completely unwatchable slog.

8 Best: “For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls” (8.6)

This Christmas episode established the “Smith Family vs. Santa” arc that has defined American Dad!’s Christmas episodes. In this episode, we see Stan give Steve a machine gun. Steve accidentally guns Santa down. After they bury the body, a resurrected Santa declares open war against the Smith family.

What really makes the episode shine is the battle between the Smith family and Santa’s elves, as well as Stan’s gradual acceptance of Jeff as a Smith after spending much of the episode refusing to acknowledge his presence in the family. Particular praise goes to the Roger subplot where he learns to make the ultimate moonshine.

7 Worst: “Camp Campawanda” (6.5)

Probably the most forgettable episode on the list, Camp Campawanda circles the proverbial “Steve and Snot encounter relationship issues” plot. In this case, Snot’s decision to enroll as a Counselor in Training clashes with Steve going to the camp as a camper. The premise is incredibly played out and ultimately they make up.

What likely tanks the episode is the subplot, where Roger sells his organs in order to throw a “Burning Man” style wedding anniversary for Hayley and Jeff. While Roger’s anatomy has been covered before, seeing his organs go back inside him was unsettlingly gross.

6 Best: “The Two Hundred” (8.6)

American Dad! is no stranger to the post-apocalyptic premise, and “The Two Hundred” certainly delivered. In this episode, a tattooed Stan returns to a desolated Langley Falls hoping to find his family after leaving them for a mission in South America. We then learn that each new tattoo represents the last painful moment he had with each main family member.

The art direction is solid for the burnt wasteland and the constant references to “The Two Hundred” a.k.a. 200 of Roger’s personas that resulted from the atomic blast, gave us the opportunity to see them all together onscreen. Overall it was a terrific way to celebrate the 200 episode milestone.

5 Worst: “Santa, Schmanta” (6.3)

“For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls” may be the show’s best Christmas special, but “Santa Schmanta” clearly does not do it justice. In yet another “Roger craves attention” episode, Roger decides to learn about Judaism and Hannukah from Snot. As a result, he steals Santa’s suit and makes Hannukah the main holiday of the season, leaving the Smiths and Santa to team up to try and regain the status quo.

While the episode really does a decent job in trying to explain Hannukah, at least from an American Dad! story point, the episode felt incredibly mean spirited, and not up to the level of the other Christmas specials. It also didn’t help that this was the Season 13 premiere when TBS started experimenting with weird scheduling.

4 Best: “Rabbit Ears” (8.7)

If this wasn’t an American Dad! the episode, it probably would have gotten serious consideration for a Primetime Emmy. In this homage to The Twilight Zone, Stan finds an old TV that has only one working channel, showing an old program called  Nighthawks Hideaway. He ends up finding out that the characters in the show, including Tuttle, are prisoners. Additionally, the Hugh Hefner-type host played brilliantly by Chris Pine, is not who he says he is.

Special praise goes to the show’s use of black and white and gradual color shifting to highlight the differences between the TV world and the real one. The music is also especially catchy and worth a listen to as well.

3 Worst: “Family Plan” (6.3)

Fans already knew that Francine’s biological parents were terrible people in “Big Trouble in Little Langley”, but when Francine finally met Nicholas in “Family Plan”, she finally realizes why when in a fit of anger over family members not using his family data plan he has every member of the Dawson family fight to the death.

The episode is pretty forgettable and almost nothing is redeemable about it. Between the Hunger Games-style kill fest, Dr. Kalgary’s wedding to his reanimated corpse bride in the cold open, and Roger’s latest disguise being Nicholas’s pet cat Marmalade wearing thin very quickly, altogether it was just a mishmash of misfired ideas.

2 Best: “Rapture’s Delight” (8.9)

This list already has a post-apocalyptic episode and a Christmas special in the “Best” category, but it concludes with a post-apocalyptic Christmas special. In this episode, Stan and Francine miss out on being raptured after having sex in a church during mass. After Francine leaves Stan for Jesus Christ when he becomes overly obsessed with being raptured, he becomes a savage survivor, whom Jesus recruits to save Francine from the Antichrist.

The episode is visually stunning, especially post-rapture, and the musical scoring is fantastic, plus Andy Samberg’s dual portrayal of Ricky the Raptor and the Antichrist was hilarious. The supposed conclusion of the “Golden Turd” saga also was a fun continuity wink until it was retconned in “Blagsnarst: A Love Story”.

1 Worst: “American Fung” (4.0)

The episode that any fan never wants to talk about, “American Fung” is wrong for so many reasons. First, the show’s main plot, Stan forgetting his anniversary and resorting to institutionalizing Francine as a cover is horrendous and highlights Stan at his worst behavior.

This doesn’t compare to the atrocious B plot. Seth MacFarlane sells the show to an offensively stereotypical Chinese businessman named Fung Wah, who uses his ownership to animate himself into the episode and shamelessly plug Fung Wah products. Wah’s presence in the episode is incredibly cringeworthy and unnecessary, dragging an already bad episode down to the worst in the show’s history.

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