Quote:
Originally Posted by ecriture d'adulte
Their main criticism was that Family Guy is just a bunch of unrelated cut aways with no attention to plot. That obviously doesn’t apply to American Dad which, whether you like it or not, is plot driven.
They said the humour was reliant on cutaways with no bearing on the plot, not that the episodes had no plot. "Plot-driven" stands in contrast to "character-driven", not to not having a plot. One of the examples in the episode:
Quote:
Lois: Peter, you didn't do the laundry today.
Peter: You think that's bad? Remember the time I won a date to Mexico with Gary Coleman?
(cut to Mexico)
Waiter: ¿Qué pasa, señores?
Gary Coleman: Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?
Winning a date to Mexico with Gary Coleman has no bearing on the plot, ie it could be removed from the episode and nothing would be missing from the plot. A depiction of a nonsensical baseball game with jerky frame-rates and film scratches could also be removed from that episode without (I'm assuming, as I haven't seen the episode) there being anything missing from the plot as a result.
I'm only inclined to dispute it so much, since I'm basing my opinion on watching ~1.5 seasons like 13 years ago. But it certainly was a FG clone then, and based on that clip, if it has evolved, its definitely retained a strong family resemblance, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯