5 Essential American Dad! Episodes Everyone Should Watch At Least Once

It's hard to deny the success of Seth MacFarlane's long-running animated sitcom "Family Guy," but for some fans, the series "American Dad!," which he co-created with Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, is where it's really at. The show, which started at Fox before going to TBS and then ending up back at Fox, has run for 20 seasons and follows the wild adventures of the Smith family, whose patriarch Stan Smith (MacFarlane) is a Republican CIA agent. The Smiths are an unusual bunch even for an animated TV family, with a talking goldfish named Klaus (Dee Bradley Baker) and an alien named Roger (MacFarlane) living with the family alongside homemaker mom Francine (Wendy Schaal), hippie daughter Hayley (Rachael MacFarlane), and super-nerd son Steve (Scott Grimes). They're an off-kilter bunch, but that works because the plots of "American Dad!" are even zanier, with lots of sci-fi elements and even some truly ridiculous supernatural situations.

"American Dad!" clearly draws inspiration from Matt Groening's seminal animated family comedy "The Simpsons," and like "The Simpsons" there are simply a ton of great episodes to choose from if you just want to watch one. But what about folks who haven't watched much (or any) of the series and would be lost in some of the more lore-heavy episodes? You're in luck, because I've put together five of the "American Dad!" episodes everyone should check out at least once.

The interpersonal relationships between the members of the Smith family are all pretty absurd, but the father-son relationship between Steve and Stan is probably the sweetest. Sure, Stan is a pretty toxic man who believes in all kinds of conservative nonsense, but in trying to be a good father to Steve, he actually learns how to be a better man. In the season 5 episode "In Country... Club," Steve believes the only way to experience patriotism is by experiencing war, so Stan signs them both up for a Vietnam War re-enactment at the local country club. Unfortunately, it doesn't go as planned for Stan. Instead, Steve has a "Vietnam flashback" that causes him to suffer a mental breakdown, resulting in him being sent to a psychiatric hospital before he escapes and proceeds to re-enact "First Blood" at the country club, confusing his life with that of John Rambo. (Kind of like Danny DeVito on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia!")

Eventually, Stan realizes that he's pushed Steve too far too many times and that he should have encouraged him in the first place instead of forcing him to experience the (fake) horrors of war. Steve then goes out of his way to embarrass his old man (which he does with aplomb), at which point Roger joins the Vietcong side of the re-enactment and tortures Stan... which he kind of deserves. It's not the best writing in the world, but it is pretty funny, and it's always great when Steve wins out in the end.

"American Dad!" isn't afraid to take its characters to some bizarre places, and that includes the end of the world. (In fact, the show has not just one post-apocalyptic episode, but two!) In "Rapture's Delight," Stan and Francine are left behind after the rapture happens on Christmas, and Stan blames Francine for them not getting into Heaven. This leads to them splitting up, with Francine later befriending and ending up engaged to a man she discovers is Jesus Christ (writer Matt McKenna), who's back to battle the Anti-Christ (voiced by guest star Andy Samberg). The Anti-Christ then kidnaps Francine, so Jesus and Stan have to team up to rescue her. It's absolutely ludicrous stuff that works because the "American Dad!" writers commit to the premise completely, all the while keeping the show's core characters true to themselves. 

TV episodes that get this wild can sometimes lose sight of their characters a bit, having them do things that don't otherwise fit into their personalities or just sticking them in funny costumes for the sake of it. Fortunately, "Rapture's Delight" is actually a killer Stan and Francine episode that just also happens to be set within a ridiculous apocalyptic timeline. It's also one of the show's best Christmas episodes, and there have been some great ones over the years. 

The Smith family ends up including more than just the actual Smiths, with Roger the alien getting quite a few of his own episodes and Klaus getting at least one joke in almost every episode, but Hailey's sweet stoner boyfriend (and eventual husband) Jeff (Jeff Fischer) tends to get the short end of the stick. That all changed in the season 8 episode "Lost in Space," which explained what had happened to Jeff since Roger threw him in a tractor beam that was meant to take him back to his home planet earlier that season. Not only does the episode expand the greater "American Dad!" universe and show us a bit of what the rest of the galaxy looks like, it also gives us new insight into Roger's species, who are just as awful as you might expect. It also gives Jeff a chance to shine, which is great because Jeff is a himbo with a heart of gold.

In the end, Jeff does whatever it takes to try and get back to Hailey, and it's deeply earnest and romantic in a series that doesn't often lend itself to either of those things. There are still plenty of funny moments in the episode, courtesy of the wild cast of aliens and even Sinbad as himself, who mentors Jeff in how to get what he wants. It's a really unusual episode that doesn't feature any of the rest of the main cast, but it works. 

There is one episode of "American Dad!" where the show throws the characters into random costumes and roles, but it manages to be a blast anyway, and that's the season 3 episode "Tearjerker," which riffs on the James Bond franchise. A CIA agent like Stan Smith is bound to see himself as a James Bond-type, so it seems super obvious to do a Bond spoof. Nevertheless, "Tearjerker" manages to do its own thing and make it really funny. Roger is Tearjerker, whose name is inspired by the movie "Moonraker," but he's sort of an amalgamation of Bond villains who wants to create the world's saddest movie. It's a long gag about Oscar bait that should overstay its welcome but doesn't, and the Bond jokes manage to stay fresh throughout. 

There are other absolutely incredible episodes with Roger's many personas, but "Tearjerker" is one of the most accessible for viewers who don't know their Ricky Spanish from Ramona Regina and serves as a good introduction to the series' humor. It's one of the better Bond spoof episodes of TV out there, as well as one of the most rewatchable episodes of "American Dad!"

Another episode that highlights the relationship between Stan and Steve is "Virtual In-Stanity," which follows Stan as he creates a high school girl avatar to date Steve so he can spy on his son's life and spend more time with him. When things start getting a bit too weird, Francine steps in to protect Steve from potentially losing his virginity to his father in a teenage girl's body. Sarah Michelle Gellar provides the voice of the avatar, and she's great at mimicking Stan trying to sound like a real teenage girl, while Gellar's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" co-star Alyson Hannigan voices Chelsea, an actual teenage girl interested in Steve.

Unfortunately, Stan is so hyper-focused on his own needs that he ends up breaking Steve's heart several times over, first as the avatar and then when Chelsea rebuffs Steve because he ditched her for the avatar. It's kind of brutal, but it's a great depiction of who Stan really is. Even after Steve comes home crying since Chelsea wants nothing to do with him and Francine points out that it's all Stan's fault, Stan is just thrilled because he was there to comfort his son. When you add in a B-plot all about Roger getting bloody revenge on some clients of his limo service that didn't pay, "Virtual In-Stanity" is an "American Dad!" all-timer.