Sundays With Seth: 'American Dad' Celebrates Its 100th Episode

['The Cleveland Show' - 'Cleveland Live!' Season 2, Episode 2]
['Family Guy' - 'Excellence in Broadcasting' Season 9, Episode 2]
['American Dad' - '100 A.D., Part 1' season premiere recap]

The whole band got back together, so to speak, to celebrate the 100th episode of 'American Dad.' As Seth MacFarlane said in the dramatic introduction to the "live" episode of 'The Cleveland Show,' " 'American Dad' 's a show, too." It is indeed, Mr. MacFarlane. It is indeed.

But it wasn't 'American Dad' that offered us a special "live" edition to celebrate this momentous milestone. Instead, they promised to kill off 100 side characters that we'd come to know and love over five seasons of the series. What's that? You didn't know there'd been that many? Well, that's kind of the point.

Unlike 'Family Guy,' 'American Dad' never really developed a huge supporting cast, and certainly none of MacFarlane's shows have created an entire town with the depth of characters as 'The Simpsons,' but for 'American Dad' it kind of works. For all their excessive and outlandish behavior, they're a rather self-absorbed bunch, which means they're not out making meaningful connections with other people in their community.

Thus, when a bus crashes and kills 96 of them, who's really going to notice? How many of those faces could you immediately pick out of the crowd and remember when you saw them in a previous episode? Maybe it's MacFarlane's way of saying he's ready to move forward into bold new directions with the show in season six. Marrying off Hayley was a big step, but there's no real reason she couldn't or shouldn't be married to Jeff. The guy even earned Stan's begrudging respect at the end by duping him out of $50,000 dollars in reward money.

It would have been cool to see more of the Langley Falls extras and their crazy race up the mountain to try and stop the wedding once Stan posted that reward money, but we got some good moments with the principal at least. Maybe this could have been stretched to an hour to accommodate, but it's a two-parter already. I'm not sure what part two will do, unless the plan is to get the wedding annulled, or find out it was all a dream like Stan flying around the planet backwards to turn back time à la Superman, just so they can reset the show back to status quo. I'd kind of like to see it take a step forward, as a Jeff and Hayley family could make for some interesting drama.

I know animated shows don't change and grow, but maybe MacFarlane could use 'American Dad' as an exception to that rule. Imagine Hayley getting pregnant and even having a baby. I say do it. You were bold enough to take animated sitcoms into uncharted territory with a live episode tonight, so how about growing and aging your characters?

'Cleveland Live!' felt more like a season opener than last week's rather generic episode, and it was an incredibly entertaining spectacle. All the little things, like embedded sponsorship (from Circuit City no less -- "There's one left. Come find us!"), Roberta being ticked off that her storyline was cut, getting drunk and revealing that she only plays 15 on TV. That one was a nice nod to all the gray-haired teens with lines on their faces we've sadly come to accept on our television shows. They had the crowd whooping and hollering throughout, and Cleveland even had to restart a line three times while waiting for them to calm down at one point.

He pulled off one-and-a-half cutaways during the taping, having to run off and change costume to a new set for the gag, injuring himself by falling off the set. It's like the producers and writers really took the time to think of everything that could go wrong in a live taping and made sure to have it happen. They also played with the trappings of television, like conveniently placed furniture, hiding supposed nudity and stunt casting.

Apparently no Julia Roberts were harmed in the filming of this episode, so that's good news. 'Cleveland' couldn't get away with doing that this week, but I am in love with how it embraces its classic sitcom format and plays with the conventions of it. I imagine we'll get a "very special episode" at some point, as well as a clips special for an anniversary. It's a brilliant conceit for the series that helps it stand out from the other two MacFarlane properties on the night, while still being connected. How about a three-part crossover event across all three shows. Maybe a blackout? Oh wait, they're doing that. With a hurricane.

Stan Smith made an appearance on 'Family Guy' and his show got a mentioned in that aforementioned 'Cleveland' intro, so MacFarlane is trying to convince his fans to sample all three of his series. 'Dad' is the one most in need of some ratings attention. But why stop at an approval of Brian's sudden conversion to conservative Republican. Smith could have made a guest appearance alongside Rush Limbaugh.

After last week's cinematic widescreen debut, we finally got to see the new widescreen intro, filled with supporting characters from the show in place of the showgirls. Did you identify them all? I know there's one you didn't know right away, because she hadn't been introduced yet. It turns out, as I hoped, Diane Simmons is no more, as Tom Tucker recapped what she'd done and introduced Joyce Kinney as his new co-host on the news.

In this episode, Brian had a change of faith because, as Lois aptly put it, he likes to be on the unpopular side. Republicans are out right now, so Brian suddenly liked them. He also represented quite well that large percentage of America that form opinions based on other people's opinions, rather than bothering to get informed themselves. Limbaugh called him on it by asking if Brian had ever actually read any of his books -- of course he hadn't. But as Americans, we don't need to read a book or actually hear someone speak to know what we think of them, because some pundit (like Limbaugh, ironically) is always ready and available to do our thinking for us.

While harsh to the conservative viewpoint, Limbaugh still managed to come out of it looking okay, and certainly deserves credit for his willingness to participate and lend his own voice. It's a sign that he believes in the discussion and the debate, and is willing to mock the weakness of his own side; and there was plenty of that in the episode. But it also shows that just because two people have differing ideologies, like MacFarlane and Limbaugh, it doesn't mean they can't respect one another and be willing to have a mature and intelligent conversation. And maybe a musical number, too. Who wants to go to Republicantown?

I suspect that many Americans will find it much more difficult to be civil in response to this episode, as opinions of both men tend to be very passionate and heated, which is why it was such a brilliant move for them to unite in such a bold and funny way. Plus, if I'm being completely honest, the episode was funny. The flashback scenes of Limbaugh and John McCain solving mysteries with their dog ("Hot Dog") were funny, as was Brian getting attacked by a multi-racial gang who wanted to get him, but not because of his color. Wouldn't we all be happier getting assaulted for reasons that have nothing to do with bigotry of any kind?

[Follow Jason @ultraversion21 on Twitter.]