Some American Dad thoughts
I've been rewatching American Dad reruns OnDemand recently and I had a couple of observations I couldn't find a place to put in my reviews of the recent episodes. The two observations are: that Hayley Smith is not a liberal and that Scott Grimes deserves an Emmy. More details on those points below the fold.
Hayley Smith
Hayley Smith isn't a liberal. Not really. Like Brian Griffin, she cannot argue liberal positions rationally. Unlike Brian I don't think it's because the liberal writers are too stupid to actually do that. I think it's just part of who Hayley is. Everyone who disagrees with her is a fascist or evil but she doesn't seem to really understand what those labels mean.
Hayley is simply rebelling against her abusive father and unhappy childhood. Everything her father loves she reflexively hates because of what a complete monster he is. She doesn't actually have many liberal convictions that I've seen.
Take for example the time she dated an illegal immigrant. Once he made it clear to her that working for her father was more important to him than she was, she turned him into the INS. A real bleeding heart wouldn't have done that.
Also look at the time she erased the footage of Dubya's drunken neighborhood rampage from her phone simply because Bush treated her with kindness. A REAL liberal, one with actual convictions would have said "Thank you President Bush" and then pressed "send" anyways. There is NOTHING Bush could ever say to me that would stop me from doing that. Nothing.
Stan Smith is an abusive father and an abusive husband. I'd feel sorry for his wife Francine if she wasn't often complicit in the abuse or abusive on her own. The Smiths are a messed up family and unlike the Griffins I think the kids are decent people. But they will never live up to their potential as long as they live in that house.
Scott Grimes
Everyone always, ALWAYS gives props to Seth MacFarlane for his vocal range but I think the truly talented voice over artist in the Sethverse is Scott Grimes. He pours his heart and soul into the character of Steven and screams his lung out in fits of ecstacy and rage: the whole "Bam! I find out I'M the jerk!" rager from "The 41 Year Old Virgin" was a thing of beauty and Grimes screamed his lungs out without ever busting his voice. Not to mention that his Steve Smith singing voice could actually be a pop star's voice.
What is so great about that singing voice? That he does it in character as Steve. As good as Seth MacFarlane is I can almost always here a bit of himself in every voice he does (even Roger although it's not as pronounced). Steve sounds NOTHING like Grimes. There is NONE of Grimes regular voice in there and the fact that he can sing like a superstar in a cartoon voice is nothing short of amazing. We are all in awe of MacFarlane's singing voice and talent. I think Grime is perhaps even better.
The only way MacFarlane is better than him is that he does so many DIFFERENT voices and Grimes can only do two (Steve and Kevin Swanson who is just his actual voice). But in acting and singing ability I think Grimes is quite a bit better. And if Seth could get an Emmy for his voicework Grimes certainly deserves one.
Hayley Smith
Hayley Smith isn't a liberal. Not really. Like Brian Griffin, she cannot argue liberal positions rationally. Unlike Brian I don't think it's because the liberal writers are too stupid to actually do that. I think it's just part of who Hayley is. Everyone who disagrees with her is a fascist or evil but she doesn't seem to really understand what those labels mean.
Hayley is simply rebelling against her abusive father and unhappy childhood. Everything her father loves she reflexively hates because of what a complete monster he is. She doesn't actually have many liberal convictions that I've seen.
Take for example the time she dated an illegal immigrant. Once he made it clear to her that working for her father was more important to him than she was, she turned him into the INS. A real bleeding heart wouldn't have done that.
Also look at the time she erased the footage of Dubya's drunken neighborhood rampage from her phone simply because Bush treated her with kindness. A REAL liberal, one with actual convictions would have said "Thank you President Bush" and then pressed "send" anyways. There is NOTHING Bush could ever say to me that would stop me from doing that. Nothing.
Stan Smith is an abusive father and an abusive husband. I'd feel sorry for his wife Francine if she wasn't often complicit in the abuse or abusive on her own. The Smiths are a messed up family and unlike the Griffins I think the kids are decent people. But they will never live up to their potential as long as they live in that house.
Scott Grimes
Everyone always, ALWAYS gives props to Seth MacFarlane for his vocal range but I think the truly talented voice over artist in the Sethverse is Scott Grimes. He pours his heart and soul into the character of Steven and screams his lung out in fits of ecstacy and rage: the whole "Bam! I find out I'M the jerk!" rager from "The 41 Year Old Virgin" was a thing of beauty and Grimes screamed his lungs out without ever busting his voice. Not to mention that his Steve Smith singing voice could actually be a pop star's voice.
What is so great about that singing voice? That he does it in character as Steve. As good as Seth MacFarlane is I can almost always here a bit of himself in every voice he does (even Roger although it's not as pronounced). Steve sounds NOTHING like Grimes. There is NONE of Grimes regular voice in there and the fact that he can sing like a superstar in a cartoon voice is nothing short of amazing. We are all in awe of MacFarlane's singing voice and talent. I think Grime is perhaps even better.
The only way MacFarlane is better than him is that he does so many DIFFERENT voices and Grimes can only do two (Steve and Kevin Swanson who is just his actual voice). But in acting and singing ability I think Grimes is quite a bit better. And if Seth could get an Emmy for his voicework Grimes certainly deserves one.