American Dad! Continuity Problems Addressed.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

On the new commentaries from the A.D. volume seven DVD set it is officially revealed that they don't know what to carry on continuity wise from episode to episode!

I.E. hence why nobody knows wtf age Hayley is... they just make the shows and try the best to be on the same page... and they often fail.

Matt Weitzman spills the beans, basically stating they are more worried about writing jokes than paying attention to what continuity is going on, and the fans can like it or not.

For example: Jeff and Hayley move back in with the Smiths in "There Wil Be Bad Blood", yet several episodes later when the whole house gets evacuated in "Fartbreak Hotel" Jeff and Hayley aren't there.
Clearly the episodes ran (aired) out of the intended order.. and we're produced in an equally confusing way.

Listening to Weitzman talk on the commentary that he's so easily confused by all of it.. I'm surprised they kept anything straight.. b/c of the way the entire show gets made.

Good for him admitting the some-what painful truth, honestly.

_

I'll put Weitzman's exact quotes up here after I re-watch all the epiosdes with commentaries.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

I don't tend to care that much with AD.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

Also the real Jeff Fischer has a "plan" to open up a medical pot shop alongside his wine venture.. and jokingly thought the character of 'Jeff Fischer' could do the same on A.D. for the 200th episode; and they could tie it into to the real pot shop and it would be an official "American Dad" themed medical cannabis shop.

It was all a joke... but it seemed Jeff Fischer was semi-serious about opening his own medical pot-shop with an core A.D. motif.

[Dark Homer]

isn't this the show where the rapture happened? why does anyone, anywhere care about continuity?

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

isn't this the show where the rapture happened? why does anyone, anywhere care about continuity?

I saw lots of complaints about Hayleys age in the newest episode.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

That happens in every episode.

[Shaunbadia]

At least they were nice enough to address it for the fans instead of giving us a Family Guy style "If you don't like it, go on the internet and complain".

[Food Blog]

Apologies in advance for this post - I'm a writer and in a bad mood and this is not directed at anyone on this board:

Fully aware that complaining won't fix anything; I find everything about it pathetic except for the fact that the showrunners own up to their lack of logic and where their priorities lie. Admittedly, focussing on gags over petty details is commendable and I'd rather certain other shows would forget a few distant relatives in favour of making us laugh. However, basic continuity is not hard. Pretty sure there was a rapture episode in The Simpsons as well. Futurama has a damn lot of continuity for a fictional universe where so much of it could be walked right away from with a "new technology". Not being able to pinpoint a character's (rough) intended age in a sitcom with a floating timescale defies the point of a floating timescale in the crappiest way possible, and in general I find their laziness in production a lot more humorous (read: tolerable) when noticed and lampshaded than when they don't even care - if you can't lampshade it, it IS unacceptable. I'm just saying, they have no option than to not care what the audience thinks because anyone who has tried to write or watch a long-running series will identify it as risky.
Big love for them having the balls to address this though!

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

Basically they do care, but there is so much happening at once during the production of a season, things get seriously confused and lost.

For example: Jeff and Hayley were originally going to spend the 50k on worldwide adventures that would be explored in b-plots.. they dropped that almost instantly and Roger make's them waste it all in one b-plot the very next episode.

So they do care.. they just suck at it.

[Food Blog]

^ That's a pretty good example of dropping an idea successfully. At least it went somewhere, even if that was disappointing for some people. Aww well, tis cute when people are crap at displaying their caringness - whole point of Homer anybody?

I feel lucky to be the only one on my production team. Scared of what would happen if that changed... :P

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

The ending to that American Dad rapture episode always kinda bugged me. So is the current show all just Stan's perfect heaven that happens to be his normal life? I know, I know it's a cartoon, but still kinda bugs me. Not enough to influence my enjoyment of the new episodes or anything though of course.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

See Ras, the thing is.. I am insane... I liked the idea that they all died and that everything after is all Stan's personal heaven.

[Shaunbadia]

Consider this....Rapture's delight was the last standard definition episode...so Stan's personal heaven is his normal life...in HD!

[Company Picnic]

At least The Simpsons would never upset continuity with a Doomsday episode

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

The Simpsons Doomsday episode is not only fantastic, vastly superior to the AD one imo, it resets things in a much better way.

[Company Picnic]

Yeah, it's easily one of my favourite post classic episodes, I just saw an opportunity to cram in a pathetic joke

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I figured as much honestly

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

why do people obsess over continuity in comedy?

[Company Picnic]

why do people obsess over continuity in comedy?

Because it's the only serious thing left in our lives

(strike two )

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

why do people obsess over continuity in comedy?

So we have something to yak about.. duh.

_

Plus shows like The Venture Bros. have changed the way I view continuity.

I like it when my animated characters die, get older, and realistically leave and come back from period to period.

Ah, streamlined continuity you are amazing; it makes me love the characters that much more.. to watch them grow old with me.

And makes them that much more meaningful in the end... that's why.

[Mr. Krikt]

American Dad felt to me like one of the shows were continuity mattered a bit more and things did change. I must have been mistaken but I thought Steve was actually getting older.

[FranklinGeorge]

If it's possible, can someone please post the commentary information for AD Volume 7 on this thread? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[Food Blog]

Consider this....Rapture's delight was the last standard definition episode...so Stan's personal heaven is his normal life...in HD!

If I could thumb this up five times... :')

American Dad felt to me like one of the shows were continuity mattered a bit more and things did change. I must have been mistaken but I thought Steve was actually getting older.

Got the same feeling tbh, that's why nothing has annoyed me as much as the last error. It just isn't normal practise to be so inaccurate; usually I love that everyone can go on wacky-unrealistic adventures and that the status quo is often restored so shoddily - some parallel with the real world is the only thing suspending our disbelief, and I'd more readily accept revival from the dead than plainly wrong in-world history such as Hayley's age. Even in the "Stan's ideal world" canon, there's no reasonable explanation for changing it.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

If it's possible, can someone please post the commentary information for AD Volume 7 on this thread? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

I will.... here is a nugget:

Matt confirms Fox is forcing them to do less commentaries and put less features onto the dvd sets.

lame.

[kupomog]

Obsessing over continuity is one thing, I usually don't notice that type of stuff with this show. However, I think that to say Hayley has always been the older child around the age of 18 in college while Steve is most certainly a freshman in high school, and then have an ep where they are practically the same age, is a little glaring. It's less about being able to chart out a timeline to pinpoint years and days and events, and more about the fact that Hayley being suddenly 3-4 years younger is almost a completely different demographic than what she was created for.. If it was Bart and Lisa, having Bart be a year younger in age accidentally wouldn't mean much of anything.

It's not EXTRA SUPER SERIOUS or something to stop watching a show over, certainly not anything to continue griping about past this post; It definitely made me go "really? come on guys at least try," though. Fucking up something so small only leads to fucking everything else up eventually. That's mostly what worries me.

[FranklinGeorge]

I will.... here is a nugget: Matt confirms Fox is forcing them to do less commentaries and put less features onto the dvd sets. lame.

I actually meant post which episodes have commentaries and whose on each commentary.

[Shaunbadia]

Even in the "Stan's ideal world" canon, there's no reasonable explanation for changing it.

Maybe deep down he doesn't want his little girl to grow up

[Food Blog]

Shaunbadia, you may have just spoilered us on the "last ever episode" they don't yet know they're producing! Genius observation there.

kupomog - That, basically. I'm gonna stop posting about this now, you pretty much summed it up. The age difference is integral for the way the characters play off, and in The Simpsons it's so much less relevant as Lisa would be hilariously smarter than Bart even if he was 16.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

what was this episode where steve and hayley were the same age

[Food Blog]

^ "The Kidney Stays In The Picture" told us that Hayley's year of conception would be almost impossibly close to what we'd assume Steve's is. In fact, what? Didn't she have a twin brother who died?
*mindscrew*