I just watched this episode of American Dad as it was being shown on 3rd May 2021 at 12:15am on ITV2 and I actually really liked this episode. I'm not sure why people are giving this episode a really low rating though. The whole premise of Stan's Best Friend kind of reminded me of the Futurama episode with Seymour, and oh man did it give me the feels...
7 Reviews
it is my most favorite episode
da_prizo26 June 2022
By far, the funniest episode to me. Steve is such a drama queen and I believe that is why I laugh so much. Every time I watch the episode, I laugh as if it is the first time I ever saw it. The poor dog. He could not catch a break.
One of the most vile and disturbing episodes in an otherwise great show
bellino-angelo20149 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I always had been a huge fan of AMERICAN DAD and I watch it from time to time when they air it on TV. I reviewed the entire show three years ago and now I had the idea of reviewing the episodes that struck me the most, or the ones with famous actors guest starring. And I decided to begin with this one, even tho I hated it.
Steve wants a dog but his dad Stan doesn't because he suffered a trauma when he had to kill his own dog as a boy. Francine however buys a small dog to Steve and Stan begins to love him. However one day the dog suffers a nearly deadly accident after he ends up under a hot air balloon and when they rush to the hospital, all the doctors say that there is nothing to do. For not disappointing Steve, Stan brings the dog to a special doctor that will cure it with surgery. However, the dog turns out to be a monster (full of a horse leg, a bat wing and a wheelchair for his behind legs) and when Stan brings it home both Francine and Steve are disgusted after they see it. Stan has no other choice to blowing the dog up with dynamite (and this is the worst part in the episode).
This episode is probably one of the worst in the show despite there are many good ones. When the dog appeared after that special surgery, I was ready to throw up as its appearence was really gross. And when there was shown the explosion that killed the dog forever, I really bursted into tears because I thought that if Stan would have cared for him, he could have had at least letting him die peacefully and then buying another one identical. I am personally also an animal lover, and it was too much for me to stomach!
I wouldn't recommend this episode to anyone since it made me suffer a bit especially in the ending as that it's one of the most vile acts of animal cruelty ever seen (tho I can't give it a score of 1 because it's a cartoon show) and if you have had some of your pets dying you should avoid this episode at all costs as it will bring back lots of awful memories and pain. Not recommended especially to sensible viewers.
Steve wants a dog but his dad Stan doesn't because he suffered a trauma when he had to kill his own dog as a boy. Francine however buys a small dog to Steve and Stan begins to love him. However one day the dog suffers a nearly deadly accident after he ends up under a hot air balloon and when they rush to the hospital, all the doctors say that there is nothing to do. For not disappointing Steve, Stan brings the dog to a special doctor that will cure it with surgery. However, the dog turns out to be a monster (full of a horse leg, a bat wing and a wheelchair for his behind legs) and when Stan brings it home both Francine and Steve are disgusted after they see it. Stan has no other choice to blowing the dog up with dynamite (and this is the worst part in the episode).
This episode is probably one of the worst in the show despite there are many good ones. When the dog appeared after that special surgery, I was ready to throw up as its appearence was really gross. And when there was shown the explosion that killed the dog forever, I really bursted into tears because I thought that if Stan would have cared for him, he could have had at least letting him die peacefully and then buying another one identical. I am personally also an animal lover, and it was too much for me to stomach!
I wouldn't recommend this episode to anyone since it made me suffer a bit especially in the ending as that it's one of the most vile acts of animal cruelty ever seen (tho I can't give it a score of 1 because it's a cartoon show) and if you have had some of your pets dying you should avoid this episode at all costs as it will bring back lots of awful memories and pain. Not recommended especially to sensible viewers.
One of the most disturbing, depressing & traumatic things ever
AvaFromEngland28 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Steve wants a dog. Stan doesn't want a dog. Francine got Steve a dog. Stan begins to love and care for the dog. The dog ends up in a almost fatal accident and there could never be surgery. Stan finds a "Doctor" who will perform "surgery" on the dog. When the dog is out of "surgery", Stan sees that the dog would give Frankenstein's Monster a run for his money. Stan brings the Frankenstein-dog home and Francine and Steve are disturbed and upset over it. Stan ends up having to put the dog out of his misery.
It is horrifying and no one should watch this episode EVER. I threw up a dinner's worth of food. I cried like I was at a funeral. Never watch this.
It is horrifying and no one should watch this episode EVER. I threw up a dinner's worth of food. I cried like I was at a funeral. Never watch this.
Sad & Not the best made of a touchy topic...
jay-zouk17 September 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I just didn't find this episode of A.D. funny at all. Frankly it was sad, and not that they didn't try to made light of a sad situation.. they did.. but it's one that undoubtedly most of the viewers will relate to: a pet dying. Yes they kind of barely save it in the end... (by trying to make it end on an up note) and there's a message or two (one quite political in there). But I really just don't see what the motivation was for this episode. It's not funny and American Dad is not the show you watch to have those schindlers list type moments. It's what you put on to laugh at really funny outrageous even inappropriate stuff - not feel more depressed than when you first tuned in. Maybe they were trying on something new here to gauge the reaction? I also like rogers strange character usually, this episode made me dislike him intently. There's a thousand theme's they could have focused this episode on, I'm puzzled why it was done like this. Glad it's a one off.... :-\
Tries too hard to be different.
david_ghunt3 July 2014
Flying with TV tropes can be a major problem for many television series'. American Dad is seeming to do the opposite. It is flying to hard against them, and if that's better, it is marginally so. The American Dad charm of small awkward moments and character-driven plots is gone in this episode, and in it's place is flat-out uncomfortable and cringingly random events barely strung together to create a story. It tosses the previous seasons under the bus with no respect for itself, and that's sad to see on what was a clever show with it's own niche. It seems to try to hard in these later seasons to stand out from the flurry of adult animated television shows, and in doing so is removing the reasons why anyone would want to watch it.
American Dad does the "Scott Tenorman" format of animated comedy
watchinglotsofstuff12 November 2021
Hopefully, as soon as I invoked the South Park classic "Scott Tenorman Must Die", the manifold similarities between that and this became obvious to anyone who has seen both episodes. Both use their 20 minute runtimes almost solely to build up to a superlatively dark reveal at the climax. The major flaw of this template is self-evident: the whole episode lives and dies on how well the big reveal goes down. It's a high risk/high reward strategy because the line between sadistically funny and just sadistic is hair thin. But when the gamble pays off, you end up with television history. "Scott Tenorman Must Die", being one of the most prominent and also earliest examples of this long gambit in adult animation, executed on its concept to perfection, leading to the most highly-rated episode of South Park to date and a TV moment that nobody will ever forget. I don't think it's a spoiler to say upfront that "Stan's Best Friend" is no "Scott Tenorman".
It's incredibly hard to know where the line in comedy is -- and it was still hard even ten years ago(1). It's completely subjective. We've seen enough comedians and their raunchy or off-colour routines over the years to learn that people will laugh at literally anything -- at least some of them, some of the time. But it's about playing the numbers and knowing your audience. With some people, the closer to the edge you go, the harder they laugh. With others, there's a point at which they recoil away. And with a subset of those others, there's a point that's so far beyond their usual breaking point that they find themselves laughing again despite themselves at the sheer level of intransigent excess. I suppose the AD writing room was hoping that they'd be able to find the intersection between the first and second groups by going to the edge that the sickos love and then so far over it that the rest follow involuntarily.
Did average American Dad fans find the A-plot with the Frankenstein puppy funny? Going by the reviews here, no. But we have a tiny sample size, a self-selecting sample, and the fact that people with extreme reactions, positive or negative, are far more likely to do something like post a review (in that sense, I seem to be an exception). The ratings tell a different story. An episode like "Stan's Best Friend" is profoundly polarising. The fact that many people clearly rated the episode so lowly implies that there must have been a decent number of dissenting high ratings for the current overall score of 6.9 to occur (or a massive group of strangers conspired to create a cosmic "nice", I guess). Without a doubt, 6.9 is a below average score for an American Dad episode from this era, but it's not horrendous or anything. I think the average around that time was about 7.5. (If you ask me, the show's golden age was the first four or five seasons, but I digress.)
The big difference between "Scott Tenorman Must Die" and "Stan's Best Friend" - besides the latter going too far in the eyes of some - is that "Scott Tenorman" managed to be pretty consistently funny, despite the first two acts only serving as a device to create the crescendo. I think that consistency was key to making "Scott Tenorman" an all-time great as opposed to a fondly-remembered gimmick. Episodes like these have intrisically limited longevity, so, despite the formula seeming to be an obvious "distract and then devastate", you can't afford to produce filler on the way up, because it's all that's left on repeat viewing. In that sense, I believe that "Stan's Best Friend" is a little too reliant on its big moment shock factor. The rest of the episode lacks in what feels like true A material. If you're going to do the "Scott Tenorman" formula, you've really gotta go big and commit: "Stan's Best Friend" does this at its gruesome apex but not consistently through the remainder of the episode.
For what it's worth, I do feel the same way as many of the other reviewers: the big reveal was more uncomfortable than funny to me (which I actually found impressive in its own way because I've never been made to feel uncomfortable by an animated sitcom before(2)). But, seeing the episode's intent and recognising its potential, I haven't docked points for failing to meet my subjective tastes in the big moments. Generally, I'm in the first group of people I mentioned above - the sick ****s - but "Stan's Best Friend" just doesn't match up well with my personal sense of humour (for me, by the way, this has nothing to do with the fact that it's a dog involved in the climax; I think I'd feel the same if it were a person instead(3)). I wasn't offended in any way; I just wasn't entertained either. And with the rest of the episode being somewhat mediocre, a middling score, like the 7/10 I've given, seems warranted and diplomatic. American Dad did this formula far better and even more faithfully in the following season's "Love, AD Style" (the one in which Roger falls in love with Hayley).
(1) I'd argue that in today's climate, you *can't* know. Even asking "can I get away with saying x?" is enough to ruin you as if you'd actually said x. So instead you find out where the line is when you get fired, either immediately or retroactively after enough time has passed for the joke to have become "unacceptable" somehow. As a result, we're going to see a continuation of the trend towards less experimentation and adventure in comedy.
(2) Except a certain live action clip in a certain episode of South Park, which was quasi-traumatic, but which doesn't count because it was a live action insertion into an animated show. And what a bizarre choice that was, too. It'd make a hell of a lot more sense nowadays. But I bet that episode no longer airs uncut, if it airs at all.
(3) I feel quite strongly about this. I love dogs and have had several, but people who care more about dogs than people - like this woman I know who openly prioritises her pet dog over her husband - are incomprehensible to me. They actually kinda concern me. Most of the time these people harmless enough, I suppose, but they just don't understand that a dog's loyalty is deterministic: it's essentially bred into their DNA that they have to love you. Is that really love? I'm not saying you or I can't appreciate a dog's love for what it is, but it's just not the same as a human with a full understanding of you as a person choosing to give you their heart. People who try to trick themselves into believing those *are* the same (typically "dog mommies" or, worse, "cat mommies") are often unhealthy and unhappy.
It's incredibly hard to know where the line in comedy is -- and it was still hard even ten years ago(1). It's completely subjective. We've seen enough comedians and their raunchy or off-colour routines over the years to learn that people will laugh at literally anything -- at least some of them, some of the time. But it's about playing the numbers and knowing your audience. With some people, the closer to the edge you go, the harder they laugh. With others, there's a point at which they recoil away. And with a subset of those others, there's a point that's so far beyond their usual breaking point that they find themselves laughing again despite themselves at the sheer level of intransigent excess. I suppose the AD writing room was hoping that they'd be able to find the intersection between the first and second groups by going to the edge that the sickos love and then so far over it that the rest follow involuntarily.
Did average American Dad fans find the A-plot with the Frankenstein puppy funny? Going by the reviews here, no. But we have a tiny sample size, a self-selecting sample, and the fact that people with extreme reactions, positive or negative, are far more likely to do something like post a review (in that sense, I seem to be an exception). The ratings tell a different story. An episode like "Stan's Best Friend" is profoundly polarising. The fact that many people clearly rated the episode so lowly implies that there must have been a decent number of dissenting high ratings for the current overall score of 6.9 to occur (or a massive group of strangers conspired to create a cosmic "nice", I guess). Without a doubt, 6.9 is a below average score for an American Dad episode from this era, but it's not horrendous or anything. I think the average around that time was about 7.5. (If you ask me, the show's golden age was the first four or five seasons, but I digress.)
The big difference between "Scott Tenorman Must Die" and "Stan's Best Friend" - besides the latter going too far in the eyes of some - is that "Scott Tenorman" managed to be pretty consistently funny, despite the first two acts only serving as a device to create the crescendo. I think that consistency was key to making "Scott Tenorman" an all-time great as opposed to a fondly-remembered gimmick. Episodes like these have intrisically limited longevity, so, despite the formula seeming to be an obvious "distract and then devastate", you can't afford to produce filler on the way up, because it's all that's left on repeat viewing. In that sense, I believe that "Stan's Best Friend" is a little too reliant on its big moment shock factor. The rest of the episode lacks in what feels like true A material. If you're going to do the "Scott Tenorman" formula, you've really gotta go big and commit: "Stan's Best Friend" does this at its gruesome apex but not consistently through the remainder of the episode.
For what it's worth, I do feel the same way as many of the other reviewers: the big reveal was more uncomfortable than funny to me (which I actually found impressive in its own way because I've never been made to feel uncomfortable by an animated sitcom before(2)). But, seeing the episode's intent and recognising its potential, I haven't docked points for failing to meet my subjective tastes in the big moments. Generally, I'm in the first group of people I mentioned above - the sick ****s - but "Stan's Best Friend" just doesn't match up well with my personal sense of humour (for me, by the way, this has nothing to do with the fact that it's a dog involved in the climax; I think I'd feel the same if it were a person instead(3)). I wasn't offended in any way; I just wasn't entertained either. And with the rest of the episode being somewhat mediocre, a middling score, like the 7/10 I've given, seems warranted and diplomatic. American Dad did this formula far better and even more faithfully in the following season's "Love, AD Style" (the one in which Roger falls in love with Hayley).
(1) I'd argue that in today's climate, you *can't* know. Even asking "can I get away with saying x?" is enough to ruin you as if you'd actually said x. So instead you find out where the line is when you get fired, either immediately or retroactively after enough time has passed for the joke to have become "unacceptable" somehow. As a result, we're going to see a continuation of the trend towards less experimentation and adventure in comedy.
(2) Except a certain live action clip in a certain episode of South Park, which was quasi-traumatic, but which doesn't count because it was a live action insertion into an animated show. And what a bizarre choice that was, too. It'd make a hell of a lot more sense nowadays. But I bet that episode no longer airs uncut, if it airs at all.
(3) I feel quite strongly about this. I love dogs and have had several, but people who care more about dogs than people - like this woman I know who openly prioritises her pet dog over her husband - are incomprehensible to me. They actually kinda concern me. Most of the time these people harmless enough, I suppose, but they just don't understand that a dog's loyalty is deterministic: it's essentially bred into their DNA that they have to love you. Is that really love? I'm not saying you or I can't appreciate a dog's love for what it is, but it's just not the same as a human with a full understanding of you as a person choosing to give you their heart. People who try to trick themselves into believing those *are* the same (typically "dog mommies" or, worse, "cat mommies") are often unhealthy and unhappy.
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