American Dad Vol. 1 (1 Viewer)

[Matthew_B]

This was announced some time ago but so far no one's started a thread yet, so I'll go first.

Overall I've come to enjoy American Dad and I try to catch it when it's on, but it's not something I would include in my "favourite TV shows" list and therefore something I must buy (especially when there are so many other things I have already pre-ordered!), so I plan to pass on this purchase.

One thing that I thought was odd is that this release will be in Dolby 2.0 Surround and not DD 5.1 when the show airs on HDFOX in DD 5.1. Sure, it's just a cartoon and it's not mind-blowing to watch it in 5.1 but I still think it's nice to have that ability when it's already created and therefore accessable. They included DD 5.1 for the last Family Guy DVD release, so I wonder why they won't for American Dad as well?

I have to admit there was something nice about watching the last two aired episodes "Finances with Wolves" and "It's Good to be the Queen" both in DD 5.1, especially the music sequences ("September" and "Never Tear Us Apart" come to mind).

 

[Hank E]

Does anybody have this set yet? If you can post some details about the "Family Guy" bonus material that came with the set that would be great. I'm wondering if it's worth getting.

Thanks.

 

[Gord Lacey]

It IS in 5.1, though Fox didn't include that information when they initially announced it.

Gord

 

[RoyWilbury]

The "Family Guy" bonus disc is nice, but it's not terribly substantial. Clearly, its inclusion is to entice "Family Guy" fans into buying the "American Dad" set. I'm willing to bet many fans feel like I do, which is that "American Dad" is not a bad show at all, but I would be iffy as to whether I would buy the show on DVD. It's these fans that the "Family Guy" disc was added for. Fox and the show creators know that "Family Guy" has a relatively huge base of potential DVD sales, and know that they will sell a fair number of "American Dad" sets to "Family Guy" fans who otherwise may not buy "American Dad." Bonus discs are nothing new, nor am I claiming Fox forced me to buy the set. But it does seem a bit messed up that "Family Guy" fans have to buy a whole seperate set to get some new-to-DVD material. I'll be even more disappointed if the deleted scenes on this new "Family Guy" bonus disc end up on a future "Family Guy" set.

In any event, the main feature of interest on the new "Family Guy - Off the Cutting Room Floor" disc is about 13 minutes of deleted scenes from various episodes. Some pretty funny stuff is here.

There are a couple of other very short featurettes. As I recall, they are each only a few minutes long. One features clips of the voice actors recording voices, and the other features a few interview clips with "guest voices" like Adam West.

There is also some sort of storyboard or animatic thing for one episode, although I don't know much about it since those types of things rarely interest me.

In short, if you're a total "Family Guy" fan and must have everything out there, you'll need this set. If you're a more casual fan of "Family Guy" and would not otherwise buy "American Dad", then this set is not a must.

 

[Hank E]

Now that's how to answer a question! Thanks for all the specifics, Roy!