When you have shows like The Simpsons well into twenty years on television, a sixth season renewal for any show doesn’t seem so grand. However, I’m excited about American Dad coming back because it’s easily my favorite animated show on TV right now. You read that right, American Dad is the best in my opinion.

Fortunately, I’m not alone. American Dad “rates among the season’s top 10 shows with men 18-49 and adults 18-34″ and was recently nominated for outstanding animated program.  Well deserved I might add. This season six renewal, along with the second season pickup of The Cleveland Show, means creator Seth MacFarlane maintains his lock on Fox’s Sunday night “animation domination” lineup.  Not bad for a guy who had his original series, Family Guy, canceled only to return after record-breaking DVD sales.

As to the reason why I prefer American Dad, it’s quite simple. The Simpsons has completely lost it’s edge in my opinion. For anyone who watched the last Halloween special you’ll know what I mean (boring!). Family Guy is still funny but like The Simpsons all too often builds off absurd circumstances which drives the characters and can get old really fast. Same goes for The Cleveland Show.

American Dad, on the other hand, affords the characters themselves the opportunity to get into, and out of, trouble on their own accord. In particular, Stan Smith’s unabated self-assurance and political ideology is spectacular to watch when it seems the world is out to prove him wrong. American Dad stands out because it lets the characters lead the story instead of  the story leading them. Not a lot of animated shows do that these days which makes American Dad so enjoyable.

Check out American Dad Sunday’s on Fox along with The Simpsons, Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.

Well, we all knew this day would come. When something pure and excellent in the world of animated comedy would eventually get tapped in an attempt to make more money and multiply. It happens with the best of things: Macaroni and Cheese becomes Spider-Man Shaped Mac and Cheese, iPhone brought on the Gphone, and Family Guy brought on American Dad (which isn’t all that bad) and now The Cleveland Show. One of these things are still great (looking at you, web-shaped macaroni), but sadly the rest come across as poor knockoffs, and truly miss the point, especially the spin-off about Peter Griffin’s affable-yet-slow neighbor, Cleveland Brown.

Mike Henry, who writes for Family Guy and voices Cleveland, is now leaving the show, and taking his voice with him. With Seth McFarlane as one of the hottest and highest paid TV writers in Hollywood today, Fox was easily talked into a second spin-off to the twice canceled series about a family from Rhode Island.

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