Info:
DVD Release Date: May 15, 2007 (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
Color/2005-2006
MSRP: $39.98
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 19
Running Time: 415 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English,
French, and Spanish subtitles
Special Features: Commentaries (all episodes), "An
American Dad Like No Other" featurette, "Favorite
Scenes" featurette, "Drawing Roger" featurette,
deleted scenes
Introduction:
Agent Stan Smith reports to DVD in Volume 2 of
American Dad! Volume 2 contains episode 14-23 of the
first season of the series (the season one episodes
not released in the first set) and the first nine
episodes of the second season in a three disc set
(that is 18 episodes total) complete with plenty of
special features!
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The set begins with the episodes of “Stannie Get
Your Gun,” where Stan and Hayley unite over the
right to bear arms--say what??? Bryan Cranston guest
stars in “Star Wars,” where Steve becomes an
author and a huge celebrity. Sandra Oh and Ziggy
Marley both guest star in “Not So Desperate
Housewives,” where Francine finds the answers to
fulfill her dull life in joining an elite group of
housewives. We get to see some body-switching action
between Roger and Stan in “Rough Trade.” Stan
becomes desperate for a housewife when Francine opens
a muffin shop in “Finances With Wolves,” but is
Klaus (in a new body, of course) REALLY the best
person to be this housewife? Stan wants to prove he
married a queen (or at least a prom queen) in
“It’s Good to be Queen.” Alex Borstein guest
stars in “Roger n Me,” where Stan finds his new
best friend--or alien! In “Helping Handis,” Steve
finds the way to get in with the cool guys--big
breasts (on himself!).
Stan replaces Steve (kind of) in “With Friends Like
Steve’s.” Francine is determined to get revenge on
George Clooney in “Tears of a Clooney.” Steve goes
to the summer camp that Stan has chosen “Camp
Refoogee,” which (as Steve quickly finds out), is
actually a refugee camp. Stan develops anorexia in
“The American Dad After School Special.” Stan
loses everything he has when he is taken on by a used
car salesman in “Failure is Not a Factory Installed
Option.” In “Lincoln Lover,” Stan finds a new
Republican group that he believes is the one that is
right from him: the Log Cabin Republicans. Must be a
group of Republicans that love Abraham Lincoln, right?
Hayley breaks up with Jeff, but he quickly finds a
replacement for Hayley in Steve in “Dungeons and
Wagons.”Elijah Wood guest stars in “Iced, Iced
Babies,” where Francine wants another baby.
Francine discovers Stan’s dirty little secret--he
wants to be an ice skater--in “Of Ice and Men.” In
“Irregarding Steve,” Roger and Steve run away to
New York. Will Stan and Francine care? John Stewart
guest stars. Stan thinks he knows the answer to saving
Christmas (changing the outcome of the Vietnam war) in
“The Best Christmas Story Never.”
Packaging:
The packaging for the set is simple but functional. Essentially, we have a three disc set in three different slim cases. The cover art for the set has Stan
dressed in the American flag and with a gun in his hand with all pictures of the other family members around him. Inside, we have the three slim cases
with rather interesting artwork with Stan and Hayley with a Chinese woman and some monkeys on the case for Disc 1, Francine (dressed very... suggestively) and
Klaus on the case for Disc 2, and Roger and Steve (all dressed up) on the case for Disc 3. The inside of each slim case shows the Smith family
living room, and the disc artwork is "continuous" with the slim case artwork showing Stan dressed in his CIA uniform... but once you take the disc out, you see
different pictures of Stan in the living room (such as him with a beard, him with his new slimmed down body, and one with him having large breasts even). The
back of each slim case has a listing of all of the episodes, along with descriptions, original airdates, writing and directing credits, and a snapshot from the episode. Discs 1 and 2 each contain 8 episodes, while Disc 3 contains 3 episodes and a bulk of the special features.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are very nicely done and pretty basic, with
the main menu listing the episodes and the Play All
option (and bonus features as well on Disc 3), while
clips from the episodes on that disc play on the right
side of the screen. When you select an episode, you
have options of Play, Scene Selection, Language
Selection (allows you to turn on English, Spanish, or
French subtitles), and Commentary, all of which are
self-explanatory. Chapters are placed at all of the
appropriate places within the episodes.
Video and Audio Quality:
This is a newer show, so of course, you’d be correct
to assume that the video and audio quality of the set
is perfectly fine. I didn’t notice any problems at
all that were truly worth mentioning. The audio is
presented in Dolby Digital surround sound and it
sounds great! I really wish that I could write a
realistic review and talk about some kind of problem
here, but it just isn’t possible, because I AM being
realistic when I say this set looks perfect! English,
Spanish, and French subtitles are included in the set.
As for the runtimes of these episodes, every episode
is consistent, running right around 21:52 (this
varies, at most, by 1 second for each episode--talk
about consistency!), so it is pretty safe to assume
that these episodes are unedited (as they should be).
Special Features:
Commentaries can be found on every episode on the set!
This is just like the Simpsons sets! As is often with
the case with shows that have this many commentaries,
things can get repetitive sometimes if you listen to
the entire commentary, but it is still nice to have
all of the commentaries there!
All of the other special features can be found on Disc
3. ”An American Dad Like No Other” (11:38) is
basically just a behind-the-scenes featurette that
talks about the “Dungeons and Wagons” episode. Why
this episode? I’m really not sure, I guess that the
creators just liked this episode. “Favorite
Scenes” (11:39) is mostly just a collection of
favorite scenes from the episodes in the series (not
just the episodes contained on the set) with clips
from the cast and crew talking about the clips. It is
a decent feature to watch. In “Drawing Roger”
(7:12), you get to learn how to draw Roger--if you
really want to do that. Finally, there are deleted
scenes... and you could get lost forever in these!
There are a total of 108 deleted scenes, totaling over
40 minutes worth of these! That is a lot of deleted
scenes considering the number of episodes on the set!
Honestly, I don’t know what more one could ask from
the set--except maybe more interviews (I know, I’m
asking for too much!).
Final Comments:
Other than the fact that Fox chooses to release these
volume sets with confusing groupings of consecutive
episodes rather than releasing sets in the season
format, these American Dad! DVDs are great, and this
set seems even better than Volume 1. More special
features could always be nice, but realistically, this
set does pretty good and is more than adequate on the
special features front. So don't worry about getting
your gun, just get this set!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 5/5
Audio Quality: 5/5
Special Features: 4/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 4.5/5
Overall: 5/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 05/15/07
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