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Counterpoint: his shit sucks and it is cringeworthy and unfunny.

If someone likes Family Guy, that’s an instant red flag for me.

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Orville was better as a comedy.

American Dad has a few ups and downs but does get better as the seasons go on. You haven't even seen the best Roger moments. The first 3 or so seasons they were still finding the footing of the characters but still has plenty of great moments. The Christmas episodes are all high points of every season. The quality does drop off slightly later on but still remains quite solid.

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Oh one thing you have to look forward to is Steve getting a lot of singing parts, which are honestly amazing. In one episode he becomes part of a boy band and unironically the song slaps, context doesn't really matter so if you want to see it then here is a shot of B12. The insurance fraud episode features Terry Crews rapping as well. Seth Macfarlane loves his musical numbers.

Exactly, I hear people saying season 3 is the best, but it misses the point of the show.

It was better with nob jokes, now it has become the one thing it was supposed to parody.

American Dad is better than Family Guy, because MacFarlane doesn't write for it.

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>So... I guess he created a lot of the characters, and helped launch it, but then other writers took it from there?

MacFarlane was the co-creator along with two others, but even in the first season he wasn't a showrunner or writer. Family Guy was renewed pretty much immediately after American Dad aired, and he said publicly that he was devoting most of his time to the original show. Whatever input he had in the stories or dialogue has certainly reduced as he's only become more in-demand and busy.

I won't lie, I think MacFarlane is a massive douche. But clearly he's a talented producer and voice actor, and a lot of people like his style of comedy. I like American Dad for its completely unhinged sci-fi storylines, which seem to be happening in spite of MacFarlane, not because of him.

American Dad changes after the first couple of seasons. Stan becomes less of a caricature of a stereotypical Republican, and more of...well, just a dumb TV dad, like Homer Simpson or Randy Marsh. But it remains consistently funny, and a lot of the ancillary characters get fleshed out in very interesting ways.

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It depends on how you think about it. If you're only interested in MacFarlane's directly-written work, it's hard to pin down where a lot of it starts and ends for the shows he produces. The first few seasons of Family Guy, certainly, those weird TV specials where he sings a lot, and movies like Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West.

But if you take the broader view of the things he's INFLUENCED, with his quick-cut comedy, lack of continuity, and intentionally offensive subject matter, I'd say that all of his shows broadly match his sense of humor.

It's kind of like being a fan of Star Wars. Sure, we're now getting almost nothing directly from George Lucas. But we can all admit that some of the stuff he had the most control over was the worst in the series, and that he still gets at least some credit for inspiring the best parts.

Check out his bbc proms appearances.

When AD moved to TBS, it got so much better. They were able to do so many stories that I don't think Fox would have allowed.