In the world of adult animation, Seth McFarlane has made quite the name for himself,
and while Family Guy is his most iconic show, a lot of people prefer American Dad.
Unlike in Family Guy where ninety percent of the relationships are toxic…
Just look at what happens to poor Meg… American Dad’s relationships are at least a bit nicer.
But, that doesn’t mean they’re all good… Far from it. So today, we want to take a
look at the show to see which relationships are the best… and which ones are the worst.
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is American Dad Relationships: Healthy to Toxic.
Starting off our list is the best of the best, we’re of course talking about The Healthy.
The gold medal of health goes to Roger and Rogu,
the first paternal relationship on our list. Rogu is formed by Roger while under a lot of stress in
the episode “Persona Assistant” and Rogue has become a major supporting character ever since.
Roger cares deeply for Rogu and it doesn’t seem to be superficial either like a lot of Roger’s
relationships. He acts like a caring father to Rogu and tries his best not to pamper him while
still providing all the necessary love and care that Rogu and any growing child needs. Rogu seems
to love his father just as much although he does get a bit murder happy at times,
which can definitely be an issue but it doesn’t detract from their loving relationship. Roger
never seems abusive, which is why they definitely take the top spot on our list.
Earning our silver medal of health are Greg, Terry, and Libby, but we’re only talking about
Greg and Terry with Libby for now. Libby is the daughter of Greg and Terry after using Francine
as a surrogate and dealing with Stan’s insanity. We’ll get more into Greg and Terry separately,
but when it comes to Libby, they are pretty good, not only together but with her. Libby
is raised well, even if she is being forced to be a golden child, knowing many languages and such,
and when Greg raises her as a single parent, later on, he does pretty well,
all things considered. The problem comes from the fact that while they love Libby,
they don’t seem to care too much about her overall happiness with their arrangement.
Ranking next on our list is the bronze medal of health Betty and Hercules.
Betty is Stan’s mother and that’s a relationship we’ll get to later but in the episode “Oedipal
Panties” she meets Hercules. Hercules is a butcher and a widower, Francine goes to him quite often to
obtain deli meat. Eventually, she tries to connect Betty and Hercules and the two of them hit it off.
Initially, Francine and Roger thought that Betty was being a black widow and
they try to save Hercules, although it turns out that this isn’t the
case. The two of them get married and they seem to be good with each other,
after this episode they don’t really have very many appearances until after Hercules dies. But
in the short time, they are shown, they seem to be quite good for each other, hence their ranking.
Next on our list is none other than Hayley and Jeff. Now, these two may not be much to look at,
but these two have shown to be better than most relationships throughout the show. Initially,
they were an on-again off-again couple, and honestly not that great together, but after
eloping and becoming an officially married couple that all changes. Jeff sees Hayley as his true
love and would do anything for her and Hayley truly cares for him the same, becoming heavily
depressed when Jeff was lost in space. Sure, they’re not perfect, but compared to some of the
things we have coming up, these two are saints and definitely deserve their spot here on our list.
The next relationship we want to talk about is Steve and his friends. Steve has a small
friend group in high school, consisting of his best friends Snot, Toshi, and Barry,
all of which have been friends for a while. While the group all seem to enjoy each other’s company,
they do have a few problems. Toshi seems to pretty much hate the other members of the group,
Barry only stays docile while on his medication and Snot tends to break off from the group for
very minute reasons. When one of them gets a girlfriend they tend to break up the group,
which is definitely worth mentioning. However, they always get back together
and it shows they have a very strong relationship, and Steve stays friends with Snot well into
the future as we can see in one episode. However, they truly aren’t a perfect group.
Up next on our list is another type of friendship, the one between Roger and Stan.
Roger and Stan have been friends since before the show started, up to the point that Roger
was able to move into the Smith house. This is because Roger saves Stan’s life while escaping,
showing he can be a good person at times. Because of this, Stan feels he needs to protect
Roger because of this, and the two get along. Yes, the two fight a lot because of warring ideals but
they almost always make up, even to the point of Roger employing Stan to take over his personas.
Roger and Stan have a very strong friendship and it’s one of the best friendships in the series,
because although they fight, they always stay friends, even when Roger tries to kill Stan.
Regarding romance, next on our list are Steve and Akiko. Akiko is Toshi’s sister and a recurring
character, ever since her second appearance, she’s been a love interest for Steve. However,
due to her consistently shifting age it isn’t really tackled until “Spelling Bee My Baby”.
Akiko and Steve are both practically forced to heat each other because their parents both want
them to win the spelling bee. However, this leads to the two bonding over their parent’s shared
antagonism and the two seem to hit it off quite well. Even sacrificing their chances at winning
so they could be happy, although the two are never really shown to be together afterward.
The two are a really cute couple and they seem to be quite good for each other for the most part.
They only really land here because we don’t see enough of them to rank them anywhere else.
Rounding out the healthy part of our list is another teen relationship,
it’s Steve and Debbie Hyman. Debbie is one of Steve’s earliest romances,
first appearing in Season 2. Steve and Debbie bond over their shared hatred for gym class
and seem to be quite well together, although Stan doesn’t like her. They consistently get together
and then break up, over and over, showing they’re not the greatest couple, mostly because Steve is
immature and doesn’t know the best way to keep her around. Although the on-again off-again nature
of their relationship shows they care for each other, Debbie uses her connections to save Steve
and his gang from being killed, which shows that she definitely likes him enough to save his life.
But now we move down to the relationships that could use some work, this is The Gray Area.
Starting off the Gray Area of our list is Stan and Bullock, being a work-based relationship.
Bullock is the deputy director of the CIA and Stan’s boss, being a major part of his work life.
Bullock acts more like a schoolteacher than a boss, giving out punishments like
time-outs. However, he treats Stan as his star pupil for the most part, save for when
Duper comes around. Bullock deals with Stan’s craziness all the time and more often than not,
helps him with the crazy stuff that goes down. The reason the two fall in the gray is because of
“Bullocks to Stan!” where Bullock starts sleeping with Hayley. Stan and Bullock have an
intense fistfight and no one can convince us that they don’t fall into the gray because of that.
Up next on our list are Francine and her children. Francine is the mother of Steve and Hayley and she
seems to be a good mother on the offset. She tries her best to help Steve and Hayley reach
their full potential while also being happy with their choices. Throughout the show,
she is shown to be generally proud of her children and happy when they do good. However,
Francine is a trophy wife first and foremost and can be abusive to her kids at times, but
mostly emotionally and even that is a very rare occurrence. The only time
off the top of our heads we can think of is the aforementioned “Spelling Bee My Baby”
where she is abusive to Steve trying to make sure he wins the spelling bee. But even this
is a very rare occurrence and we don’t think it’s common enough to cause her to fall further.
Ranking next on our list is the relationship between Steve and Hayley.
Steve and Hayley are siblings and their dynamic can be explained by exactly that. They bicker and
fight more often than not but that doesn’t change their general love for each other.
There are plenty of times when the two seem to absolutely hate each other and other moments when
they are very close friends, such as when Steve is making fake I.D.s. The two don’t hate each other,
but there are plenty of moments where they are shown to care and understand each other.
Their abusive moments are there but still few and far between, meaning they land here on the list.
A friendship for the ages is next on our list Roger and Steve. While Roger came to live at
the Smith house because of his friendship with Stan, the main relationship we see with Roger is
his relationship with Steve. He is one of Steve’s closest friends and Steve is definitely Roger’s
closest friend. Most of Roger’s escapades focus on his relationship with Steve in some way, just
look at the Wheels and the Legman episodes. These episodes show that Roger and Steve’s relationship
is a rocky friendship that is more than a normal friendship. In many episodes, their friendship
gets them out of tough situations, although more often than not, Roger’s usual personality stops
him from ranking any higher on the list. He isn’t wholly abusive to Steve but it becomes obvious at
times that Roger is the driving force behind their low ranking. However, Roger does care for Steve,
as he even swaps faces with him to get with a girl by laying on the charm. Roger and Steve are a very
good friendship with intense low points, but they aren’t bad enough to land any further down.
Rounding out our gray area is the relationship between Betty and Stan. Betty is Stan’s recurring
mother, although her most major appearance is “Oedipal Panties” which is where this
relationship is center stage. Stan cares very deeply for his mother, some might say too much,
as he is willing to do just about anything for her, including disappearing anyone who tries
to date her. Stan is a bit too interested in his mother’s love life, to the point that many
people have been kidnapped and sent to an island because Stan is scared of them hurting her. Now,
by the end of the episode, he has decided to stop this project, but he still cares for
his mother immensely. Now, they aren’t abusive towards each other in the slightest, but Stan
is sort of obsessed with her, which is a problem in itself, so it’s no wonder why it lands here.
But now we can move down to the worst relationships in the show, these are The Toxic.
Starting off the toxic section of our list is the main romantic relationship of the show, Stan
and Francine. Stan and Francine have been together for quite some time, even being
roommates earlier on in their relationship. Stan gets with Francine because of his
“mercy” by killing an animal he accidentally ran over. The two of them are shown to get
along for the most part, except for the wide array of episodes where that’s not the case.
Stan treats Francine as a trophy wife and his conservative values cause him to hate her
any time she tries to get a job, leading to him destroying most jobs she gets.
He’ll put her and the kids in suspended animation to pretend to go on a loving vacation so he can
watch sports. When Francine loses her memory she realizes she doesn’t like his personality
and in the episode “Shallow Vows” it’s revealed they only stay together for shallow reasons.
It’s more than obvious that they’re not good for each other, and yet they stay together regardless.
The next toxic relationship we need to talk about is Greg and Terry. Greg and Terry are the local
reporters for Channel 3 and a very openly gay couple that are neighbors to the Smiths.
Greg and Terry have been together since prior to the show and seem good for each other at first.
However, as episodes go on it becomes obvious that the two are quite surprisingly toxic,
as they constantly bicker and argue and are very rarely shown to love each other.
Such as when they argue and nearly break up due to differing political beliefs in “Lincoln Lover”
or when Greg has to be essentially abused by Terry’s father because Terry refused to come
out to him. In the episode “Anchorfran” it’s revealed that Terry left Greg,
and abandoned his job and daughter to go follow a band on tour. The only reason they don’t fall
lower is that they don’t actively abuse one another, but it comes mighty close.
The next relationship we need to talk about is The Family and Klaus. If you want to talk about abuse,
this is the go-to example. Klaus is the family goldfish who has the brain of an Olympic athlete,
and the family treats him like crap. They verbally abuse him at almost every turn,
never listen to his usually correct advice and even physically toss him around at times. The
thing is Klaus just wants to be accepted by the family even if they don’t want to give him that.
It’s even revealed that hating on Klaus is one of the only things that keep the family together.
The fact that the abuse is one-sided is the only reason this relationship doesn’t fall any lower.
Similar but worth talking about is the relationship between Roger and Klaus.
Much like the rest of the family, he tends to abuse Klaus to some degree,
ignoring him at the best times and essentially torturing him at the worst times. However, there
are a few cases where he’s better than the Family because he tries to at least be civil with Klaus,
such as becoming his authoritative mouthpiece for familial advice. However, the real reason they
rank this low is because of the Season 12 episode “Kloger”. In this episode, the two get involved
romantically and a whole new basket of trouble opens up. Klaus and Roger start having relations
in secret, and Klaus absolutely loves it, when they’re caught, Klaus breaks it off because he
prefers when they were doing it in secret. Roger goes pretty much insane, forcing Klaus to adopt
him so they could work with another taboo, sending him to prison and then stabbing someone, only
after a month in solitary does Roger get over it. The fact that Roger is trying to force Klaus, to
harm people for the relationship and Klaus wanting on the secrecy part, it’s very obviously toxic.
Bagging the bronze medal of toxicity is the relationship between Stan and his Children. Stan,
unlike Francine, doesn’t seem to care about his children in the slightest, except when
they are like him. Stan will do just about anything to exert his will over his children,
and it becomes heavily abusive at times. He’ll do everything from strike his children to mind
control them, there’s an episode where he shaves off all of Hayley’s hair because she dyed it.
He hates the fact that Steve isn’t a jock like he was and only ever seems to care about him
when he has any sort of romantic situation going on. Stan abuses his children in almost
every way except for consistent physical abuse, however, there are plenty of times
when he cares about his kids, it’s just not often enough to pull him from this ranking.
Snatching our silver medal of toxicity is a short one, Jack and Stan.
Jack is Stan’s father and quite the bad one. He abandoned his family while Stan was young,
leaving Stan with little more than tales and assumptions. Jack was in and out of prison for
20 to 40 years and only decided to appear to his son when the actor that was playing Stan’s father
passed. Almost immediately after he appeared it became clear that Jack was little more than a liar
who instantly set up his son to take the fall for his crimes. He physically assaults Stan in
“Jack’s Back” and doesn’t really become that much of a good guy until he becomes Krampus.
This is one hundred percent the worst paternal relationship
in the show because Jack shows little to no love for his son, which at least Stan tries his best.
Grabbing the gold medal of toxicity is our final relationship, Roger and Emperor Zing. Sure, this
is a relationship that only appears in one episode, but it is so vital to the character
of Zing that it needs to be talked about. Before Roger was sent to earth he was in a relationship
with Emperor Zing, subsequently cheating on the Emperor in his own bed. This is the only
real moment we see of this relationship, but it’s said that Zing thought it was true love so we know
that this relationship was very important to him. Roger pretty much chewed him up and spat him out,
leading to Zing enslaving people and trying to eradicate anyone who believed in true love,
showing that it’s completely changed him as a person. So, yes, while it’s a short explanation,
it’s quite obvious why it lands here on the list because Roger completely decimated this man.
But don’t leave just yet, we have some fun Sinner Medals to hand out.
Earning our Darwin Medal is Hayley and Jeff because the two of them
absolutely love each other, but their relationship started off very
dumb, especially in the episode where Hayley moves into Jeff’s van.
Grabbing our lust medal is Roger and Klaus, whose entire relationship
is based on lovemaking and not much else, it’s simple really.
The Wrath medal goes to Steve and Hayley who are quite often dueling
with words or physically fighting each other, because of their sibling rivalry.
Taking our Sloth Medal are Steve and Debbie, this is mostly because their
relationship started off because the two of them didn’t want to participate in gym class.
Maybe a weird one, but our Greed Medal goes to Stan and Betty, this is because
Stan pretty much wants to keep Betty all to himself, which is very weird and very greedy.
Finally, our Pride Medal goes to Stan and Francine, this is entirely because
of Shallow Vows and the two of them only staying together because of shallow reasons.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking.
And tell us what we should cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell
and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked.