The One That Got Away (American Dad!)

Last updated
"The One That Got Away"
American Dad! episode
Episode no.Season 5
Episode 2
Directed byTim Parsons
Written by Chris McKenna
Matt McKenna
Production code3AJN16
Original air dateOctober 5, 2008 (2008-10-05)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"1600 Candles"		Next →
"One Little Word"
American Dad! season 5
List of episodes

"The One That Got Away" is the second episode in the fifth season of the American animated television series American Dad! . The 60th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 5, 2008. In the episode, Roger's credit card is maxed out and he is certain it is identity theft. He vows revenge and discovers that a man named Sidney Huffman is responsible. When he is about to burn down Sidney's apartment, he realizes that Sidney is not who he seems to be. Meanwhile, the rest of the Smith family gets sucked into a game of Simon.

Contents

The episode was written by Chris and Matt McKenna and directed by Tim Parsons. It was the first episode to have a Roger-centric main story. The episode's story came from the writer's obsession with The Big Lebowski , and the original concept would include Jeff Lebowski being Roger's alter ego. "The One That Got Away" received positive reviews from critics and was viewed by 6.85 million viewers in its original airing. The episode features guest performances of Diane Delano, John DiMaggio and J.K. Simmons.

Plot

The episode begins with the family staging an intervention with Roger about his alcoholism. They also express concern that he may have an inferiority complex because he spends so much time in disguises. Roger dismisses their concerns, but shortly afterwards discovers that someone has maxed out his credit card. Vowing revenge, he discovers that someone named Sidney Huffman is responsible. Roger begins to destroy Sidney's life by ruining his employment and telling lies to Huffman's girlfriend Judy Panawits, resulting in her breaking off the relationship. He then sneaks into Sidney's apartment one night, and begins pouring fuel everywhere, intending to burn the apartment to the ground. However, just as he lights a match, Roger sees a photograph of Sidney and Judy, which shows that Sidney and Roger are the same person and Roger is shocked at the thought of one of his personas taking on a life of his own.

In a flashback from four days earlier, Sidney wakes up in bed feeling hungover, despite refraining from alcohol. He is shown to be a humble and polite Bible salesman, soon to be proposing to Judy. However over the next few days he discovers the trail of destruction that Roger has set for him. Calling Roger to beg him to stop, Sidney only encounters an abusive message, and realizes that Roger is not going to stop until he is done with Sidney.

The scene then returns to the point where Roger realized that he and Sidney were the same person. At this point a hitman, hired by Sidney, enters and attempts to kill Roger. Desperate, Roger locates Judy at her department store workplace, and admits to her that he is both Roger and Sidney together. While trying to determine what the password was to call off the hit, the hitman enters the store and takes aim at Roger again. Roger hides in a dressing room while the hitman threatens Judy. Glad of the distraction, Roger attempts to make an escape but is stopped when he is confronted by his Sidney personality in the mirror. The Sidney persona is adamant that his feelings are just as valid as Rogers, despite Roger's attempts to convince him otherwise by using a pair of black leather gloves they each had one part of. When Sidney points out that he bought those gloves the same day he met Judy, Roger suddenly remembers how this split-personality came about - it was part of a convoluted scheme to steal the gloves from Judy's department store. He spent $700 to buy a necklace as part of the plan to get the $10 pair of gloves. To do this he took out a credit card in the name of Sidney, which was the name the employees at the store knew him by. But after the theft was discovered and Judy was fired for it, Roger's guilt forced the personality split, causing him to live as "clean" Sidney through the daytime, and his normal self at night-times. Admitting all of this to Sidney, Roger accepts Sidney's suggestion that together they can bring out the best in each other. They embrace, and Sidney calls out the correct password (which was password1) to the hitman, stopping the hit. Roger then stabs Sidney in the back with a dagger, causing the death of his persona as Sidney disappears (along with the dagger on his back). He confronts Judy, and decides to resume his relationship with her, but as Roger this time. The episode ends with them walking off together, hand in hand with Judy revealing she is intersex.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family becomes obsessed with playing a game of Simon. Unable to move, even to eat or relieve themselves, Klaus rescues them by setting off a smoke bomb, causing both the Simon game and Klaus himself to disappear. Seconds later Klaus re-appears, fighting and killing a monster from another dimension. Klaus then says that he was gone for sixty years to him and asks how long it had been back at home.

Production

"The One That Got Away" was written by Chris and Matt McKenna and directed by Tim Parsons. Jennifer Graves served as the assistant director. Co-creator Mike Barker considered it "maybe our most ambiguous episode to date", [1] being the first episode to feature just Roger in the A-story. [2] It was also the first nonlinear episode they had done, with Chris McKenna noting that the second act takes place in the same place as the first. Chris and Matt McKenna came up with the storyline via their "obsession" with The Big Lebowski , imagining how funny it would be if someone urinated on Roger's rug and then he had to figure out who had come after him. Jeff Lebowski would turn out to be an alter ego of Roger, and that got them thinking of storylines involving Roger and his multiple personas, and if "one of them got away." [2] The original story for the episode was that Roger would wake up in Shanghai and in trouble, caused by an evil persona. Chris and Matt McKenna pitched it to Barker, who declined it. They later rewrote it, this time making his persona "the good guy", and the opposite of Roger. [2] Director Tim Parsons tried to make a difference between Roger's world and his alter ego Sidney's world, making the colors in Sidney's world "pastelly" and the backgrounds softer. [3]

Co-creator Seth MacFarlane, who provides the voice of Roger, also provided the voice of Sidney. MacFarlane is often very busy and does not have time to read the script before the table read. However, before voicing Sidney, the producers asked him if he could read the script the night before, to come up with a voice that sounded like an "old-fashioned Dick Powell." [2] Rachael MacFarlane provided the voice of Judy Panawits. Diane Delano, John DiMaggio and J.K. Simmons guest starred in the episode. [4]

Reception

In its original broadcast on October 5, 2008, "The One That Got Away" was viewed by 6.85 million viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings. It finished first in its timeslot, acquiring a 3.5 rating in the 18–49 demographic. The episode finished third in total viewership among the shows in the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox. [5]

Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club enjoyed the Roger story, but criticized the B-story involving the Smiths and Klaus, saying that it "didn't fit with what was going on, and thus distracted from the story." However, he praised the episode for being "great, albeit slightly imperfect" and "surprisingly solid" to be a Roger-centric story. He gave the episode a B rating, the best grade of the night, beating the Family Guy , King of the Hill and The Simpsons . [6] While reviewing the American Dad! Volume 4 DVD set, Thomas Spurlin of DVD Talk, wrote that the episode, alongside "Spring Break-Up" and "Escape from Pearl Bailey", "deliver[s] laughs [...] along with offering bizarrely compelling stories in their compact time." [7] Also reviewing the DVD set, Clark Douglas of DVD Verdict deemed the episode to be one of the highlights. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seth MacFarlane</span> American actor, animator, filmmaker, and singer (born 1973)

Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, comedian, and singer. MacFarlane is well known as the creator and star of the television series Family Guy and The Orville (2017–2022), and co-creator of the television series American Dad! and The Cleveland Show (2009–2013). He also wrote, directed, and starred in the films Ted (2012), its sequel Ted 2 (2015), and A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014).

<i>American Dad!</i> American animated sitcom

American Dad! is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series was moved to TBS in 2014 and continues to air new episodes to this day. American Dad! is the first television series made to premiere on Fox's Animation Domination block. The series premiered on February 6, 2005, following Super Bowl XXXIX, with the rest of the first season airing three months later beginning May 1, 2005.

"All About Steve" is the third episode of the second season and the tenth overall episode of the animated comedy series American Dad!. It aired on Fox in the United States on September 25, 2005, and is written by Chris McKenna and Matt McKenna and directed by Mike Kim.

Roger (<i>American Dad!</i>) American Dad! character

Roger Smith is a fictional character in the adult animated sitcom American Dad!, created, voiced, and designed by Seth MacFarlane. Roger is a grey space alien living with the Smith family. Having lived on Earth since crashing in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, Roger came to live with the Smiths after rescuing main character Stan Smith at Area 51 four years prior to the beginning of the series. The character has also made cameo appearances in episodes of Family Guy.

Steve Smith (<i>American Dad!</i>) Fictional character in the animated television series American Dad!

Steven Anita "Steve" Smith is a fictional character in the animated television series American Dad!, voiced by Scott Grimes. He is Stan and Francine Smith's 14-year-old son and Hayley's younger brother as well as the youngest of the series' six main characters.

Hayley Smith (<i>American Dad!</i>) American TV show fictional character

Hayley Dreamsmasher Smith-Fischer is a fictional character from the animated television series American Dad! She is voiced by Rachael MacFarlane, the younger sister of one of the series' co-creators, Seth MacFarlane. She is Stan and Francine Smith's 19-year-old daughter and Steve's older sister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter's Two Dads</span> 10th episode of the 5th season of Family Guy

"Peter's Two Dads" is the tenth episode in the fifth season of the American animated television series Family Guy, and it's the 90th episode overall of the series. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 2007. The episode was written by Danny Smith and directed by Cyndi Tang, with Greg Lovell as co-director. The plot follows Peter travelling to Ireland, along with Brian, to find his biological father, after he accidentally kills his stepfather at Meg's birthday party. Meanwhile, after Lois hits Stewie, he becomes fascinated with it and goes to great lengths to have her hit him again.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Quagmire</span> Family Guy character

Glenn Quagmire, often referred to by just his surname, is a fictional character from the American adult animated sitcom Family Guy. He is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family and is best known for his hypersexuality and his catchphrase, "Giggity Giggity". The show's creator and voice actor Seth MacFarlane describes him as "an appalling human being who is still caught in the Rat Pack era" based on anachronistic 1950s party-animal clichés. The episode "Tiegs for Two" revealed that the surname Quagmire was originally the Polish surname Quagglechek or Quaggleczyk, the suffix -czyk indicating a diminutive in the Polish language.

<i>American Dad!</i> season 5 Season of television series

The fifth season of American Dad! originally aired on the Fox network from September 28, 2008, to May 17, 2009. It consisted of twenty episodes and was released as two DVD box sets and in syndication. American Dad! follows the dysfunctional Smith family—father Stan, mother Francine, daughter Hayley, son Steve, the pet fish Klaus, and extraterrestrial alien Roger, all of whom reside in their hometown of Langley Falls, Virginia. Season 5, which premiered with the episode "1600 Candles" and ended with "Stan's Night Out", was executive produced by David Zuckerman, Kenny Schwartz, Rick Wiener, Richard Appel, Matt Weitzman, Mike Barker, and series creator Seth MacFarlane. Weitzman and Barker served as the season's showrunners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">It's a Trap!</span> 18th episode of the 9th season of Family Guy

"It's a Trap!" is a direct-to-video special of the animated series Family Guy which later served as the double-episode season finale of the ninth season and is the final part of the series' Star Wars parody trilogy Laugh It Up, Fuzzball. It is named after the phrase uttered by Admiral Ackbar in the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi. The home video was first released on December 21, 2010, and the episode later aired on Fox in the United States on May 22, 2011.

"Rapture's Delight" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series American Dad!. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on December 13, 2009. This episode centers around Stan and Francine's life after the vast majority of the church, including Hayley and Steve, are raptured. When Stan begins to blame Francine for not getting into heaven, Francine ends their relationship and befriends a man whom she later finds out to be Jesus. Francine becomes his bride, leaving Stan behind to participate in the armageddon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quagmire's Dad</span> 18th episode of the 8th season of Family Guy

"Quagmire's Dad" is the 18th episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 9, 2010. The episode features Quagmire after his father, Dan Quagmire, returns to the fictional city of Quahog and comes out as a trans woman. Dan has decided to have gender-affirming surgery and changes her name to Ida. Meanwhile, Brian travels to a seminar and, upon returning, has sex with Ida, who he does not realize is Quagmire's father.

"A Piñata Named Desire" is the eleventh episode of the seventh season of the animated comedy series American Dad!. It first aired on Fox in the United States on February 13, 2011. This episode mainly centers on Roger and Stan, who begin to experience tensions growing against each other for the dominant figure in the house. Roger becomes tired of Stan's stance as the authoritarian figure of the house, and he challenges Stan's leadership qualities. Stan insists that he is better than Roger at everything, and he tells him that he has a mission that involves acting. Unknown to Stan, Roger spies on him, only to find out that Stan is a terrible actor. Roger later boasts to the house that he is a better actor than Stan, but he eventually teaches him to improve his acting skills. Meanwhile, Steve and his friends plan to throw their last slumber party together.

"I Am the Walrus" is the thirteenth episode of the Seventh season of American Dad!, first airing on Fox in the United States on March 27, 2011. It mainly centers around Stan and his son Steve, who are both competing for the dominant role of the house. Steve is the first person to finish his meal, much to Stan's dismay. Stan becomes intimidated by his son, and he is afraid that he will lose his status of alpha male. Meanwhile, Hayley and Jeff are suffering marital relationship problems, so they seek marriage counseling.

"Hurricane!" is the second episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series American Dad!. It first aired on Fox in the United States on October 2, 2011. The episode's plot mainly revolves around the Smith family, who prepare for evacuation in response to an oncoming hurricane. Reluctant to leave his home, Stan encourages his family to ride out the storm in their house with him. The hurricane sends a flood to the city of Langley Falls, which puts the entire family in danger.

<i>Night of the Hurricane</i> 2011 American television crossover event

Night of the Hurricane is a 2011 crossover event on the Animation Domination lineup on Fox. The event involved the three animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane: The Cleveland Show,Family Guy andAmerican Dad!. The event depicts a hurricane which hits the towns of Stoolbend, Quahog and Langley Falls. The actual three-way crossover of the event occurs at the end on American Dad! with the three fathers of each family in the same scene.

"Virtual In-Stanity" is the fifth episode of the seventh season of the animated comedy series American Dad!. It aired on Fox in the United States on November 20, 2011. The episode plot mainly revolves around Stan making a desperate attempt to bond with his son, Steve by creating an avatar in the form of a teenage girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klaus Heisler</span> American Dad! character

Klaus Heisler is a fictional character from the animated television series American Dad! The Smith family's hapless and mostly hated goldfish, he is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, when American Dad! initially premiered on Fox on February 6, 2005 with the series' pilot episode. Klaus is actually a man in a fish body. He was once an East German Olympic ski-jumper until his brain was transferred into the body of a goldfish.

The pilot episode of American Dad! originally aired on Fox in the United States on February 6, 2005, just after Super Bowl XXXIX. The episode was written by series co-creators Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. The episode was leaked onto the internet before its supposed premiere on FOX. The episode features a guest appearance by Carmen Electra.

"Blagsnarst, a Love Story" is the third and final episode of the eleventh season of American Dad! The episode aired on September 21, 2014, and is the final show to air on Fox's first Animation Domination lineup before its revival, as well as the final episode of the series to be aired on Fox as the show moved to TBS from the twelfth season onwards, which started a month later in October 2014. The episode was written by Wes Lukey and directed by series regular Chris Bennett.

References

  1. ↑ Barker, Mike. American Dad! Volume 4: Commentary for "The One That Got Away" (DVD). Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
  2. 1 2 3 4 McKenna, Chris. American Dad! Volume 4: Commentary for "The One That Got Away" (DVD). Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
  3. ↑ Parsons, Tim. American Dad! Volume 4: Commentary for "The One That Got Away" (DVD). Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
  4. ↑ "Listings - American Dad on Fox - The One That Got Away". The Futon Critic. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  5. ↑ Gorman, Bill (2008-10-06). "Sunday Ratings: Desperate Housewives, 60 Minutes Win, CW Crashes". TV By the Numbers. Zap2it. Archived from the original on 2010-12-06. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  6. ↑ Heisler, Steve (2008-10-05). ""Lost Verizon"/"Earthly Girls Are Easy"/"I Dream Of Jesus"/"The One That Got Away"". The A.V. Club . Onion, Inc . Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  7. ↑ Spurlin, Thomas (2009-07-16). "American Dad!, Vol. 4". DVD Talk . Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  8. ↑ Douglas, Clark (2009-06-09). "Buy American Dad! Volume 4". DVD Verdict . HipClick Designs LLC. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.