25 Best American Dad Episodes Ranked

Since its debut in 2005, Seth MacFarlane's "American Dad!" has remained one of the most popular adult animated series on television, with the show consistently delivering sharp (and often shocking) jokes built around absurdist plots. Unlike "Family Guy," MacFarlane's first hit show, "American Dad!" doesn't rely on cutaway gags to deliver its biggest laughs. Instead, the series derives much of its humor from its colorful main characters, the Smiths.

Led by Stan, the family's gun-toting CIA agent father, the Smiths are a dysfunctional bunch at times, but it's hard to be normal when you have an eccentric alien with a penchant for dressing up living in the attic. As wacky as "American Dad!" often is, the Emmy-nominated series has also been praised for tackling normal, everyday matters audiences can relate to, such as bullying, marital problems, and turbulent relationships between family members with differing world views.

With over 300 episodes and counting, "American Dad!" has carved out a place in pop culture history, but which episodes stand out as the best the show has to offer? Here are our picks for the 25 best episodes of "American Dad!" to date.

Like most sitcom couples, Stan and Francine are prone to the occasional marital spat. In Season 9's "Poltergasm" (which parodies the famous '80s horror flick "Poltergeist"), Francine's unfulfilled bedroom desires manifest into a physical, spirit-like presence that threatens to destroy the Smiths unless Stan finally manages to take Francine to "Satisfaction Avenue." When the spirit sucks Mauricio (Hayley's friend with benefits) into a vortex, Francine has no choice but to reveal the truth to Stan — that she's not satisfied.

Having considered himself a stud for the longest time, Stan is stung by his wife's admission. Ultimately, it works out for the best — they work together to improve the situation in the bedroom and rescue Mauricio in the process. It's a wholesome ending to one of the sauciest "American Dad!" episodes. "What this show can do is bring up sex within a certain set of sitcom parameters and pull at the edges, making it surreal enough to fit and serve the character-based comedy," said the AV Club in its review of "Poltergasm."

Stan and Francine arrange a romantic date night in "Adventures in Hayleysitting," with Hayley volunteering to look after Steve until they get home. When Hayley provokes Steve by calling him "lame," Steve decides to sneak out to a party with his friends, leaving Hayley and Jeff scrambling to track them down.

The best thing about "Adventures in Hayleysitting" is the emotional undertones of the episode. Steve tries to prove to himself and others that he can be a rowdy teen, while Hayley wants to illustrate to her family that she's a responsible and trustworthy young adult. In the end, the siblings work together to accomplish both of their goals, setting aside their differences and developing a mutual respect for one another.

It's one of those rare moments in "American Dad!" where the emotions outweigh the humor, though "Adventures in Hayleysitting" is far from unfunny. The episode contains a memorable appearance from Charlie Day as an unhinged meth dealer out to hunt Steve and his friends down.

An episode that features Francine in a rare starring role, "Fart-Break Hotel" sees the Smiths leave their house and visit a fancy hotel for a week. Facing burnout and emotional exhaustion from constantly taking care of the family, Francine resolves to make a major change in her life. She assumes the identity of a deceased concrete saleswoman named Sarah Blanche, abandoning her family to pursue her professional and personal interests on her own.

Making clever use of time travel and featuring guest appearances from Héctor Elizondo, J.K. Simmons, Alan Tudyk, Missi Pyle, and Will Forte, "Fart-Break Hotel" has some surprisingly poignant moments. It's all about Francine's unhappiness at home and her desire to get away from the monotony of her everyday existence. In the end, her identity-stealing adventure makes her realize how much she loves her family and how they truly bring meaning to her life. It's heartfelt, existential, and a wonderful character study for Francine, perhaps the most underrated "American Dad!" character.

If there's one word you can use to describe the Smith family, "competitive" might be the most fitting. Time and time again, viewers have watched the Smiths take trivial competitions to unhealthy levels. This mutual competitive nature is on full display in "Finger Lenting Good," an episode that revolves around a bet made among the Smiths: The first one to break their New Year's Resolution will have a finger chopped off by Stan's boss, Avery Bullock.

Alliances get formed and underhanded tactics come into play, with the Smiths trying to trick each other into breaking their resolutions. The bet itself may have grim repercussions for the family, but the episode illustrates just how distinct the characters are. Their respective resolutions are unique and true to their personalities, with Stan trying to give up yelling, Steve trying to stop crying, and so on. It's also one of Bullock's best episodes, with the CIA head honcho at his most unhinged.

A spoof of Agatha Christie-style whodunit movies like "Murder by Death" and "Clue," "Death by Dinner Party" finds the Smiths holding an elegant soirée for the most frequently recurring "American Dad!" characters, despite a so-called "dinner party killer" being on the prowl in Langley Falls. When one of the party's guests turns up dead, the characters begin to suspect that someone among them is secretly the killer. Fingers are pointed at Colonel Withersby, a mustachioed, monocle-wearing gentleman who has apparently known the Smiths for years.

Seth MacFarlane is no stranger to murder mystery plots, having wonderfully lampooned the genre in the Emmy-nominated "Family Guy" episode "And Then There Were Fewer." "Death by Dinner Party" is in the same vein, creating a suspenseful atmosphere that builds throughout the episode. The tension reaches boiling point as the bodies start to pile up, but in the end, it's revealed that it was all an elaborate prank to teach Roger a lesson.

Season 5's "In Country... Club" parodies multiple war films, with homages to everything from "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now" to "The Deer Hunter" and the "Rambo" movies. The episode kicks off with Steve getting asked to perform the national anthem at a local veteran's function, leading Stan to volunteer them for an intense reenactment of the Vietnam War at a nearby country club.

The funniest aspect of "In Country... Club" is just how serious the reenactors take themselves. They make great use of the golf course setting, with golf carts doubling as helicopters and the caddy shack becoming a POW camp. Steve adopts a hardened, cynical worldview from the "horrors" he witnesses during the reenactment, leading to some hilarious moments. It's ridiculous and all over the place, but the scope of the battle and the rousing soundtrack really suck you in.

Alongside Roger's eccentric and petty nature, Stan's insecurities provide "American Dad!" with many of its episode arcs. In "Virtual In-Stanity," both Roger and Stan's character traits are on full display. Stan begins to worry about his relationship with Steve when he realizes how absent he's been in his son's life. In an attempt to spend more time with Steve, he begins using a young female android with the outward appearance of a high school girl to hang out with him, though he grows uncomfortable when Steve expresses romantic feelings for the android.

The main plot of "Virtual In-Stanity" is easily one of the strangest in "American Dad!" history, but it ends with a wholesome moment as Stan is finally able to comfort Steve and provide a shoulder to cry on — even if Stan is the person responsible for hurting him in the first place. As good as the main story is — featuring guest appearances from Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan — Roger's B-story easily steals the spotlight. When Roger starts a limo service and gets short-changed by vulgar college frat bros, he begins hunting them down like a slasher villain. In typical Roger fashion, it's completely over-the-top and perfectly illustrates the alien's tendency to overreact to minor offenses.

In "The Unincludeds," Snot and Steve throw a party that they hope will elevate their social standing. When rich versions of themselves travel back in time to warn them that their popularity might mean less successful futures, they try and hopelessly fail to appear "lame" in the eyes of their classmates. The irony of "The Unincludeds" lies in the fact that — despite appearing as awkward nerds in practically every episode of "American Dad!" — Steve and Snot can't help but appear as "cool kids" in front of their fellow students. "As silly as all of this seems (and the constant future jokes keep it light), it's nice to see this rather heavy question get dealt with as these kids try to negotiate through a somewhat serious situation," Den of Geek said in its review.

It's an amusing plotline that would make for a strong standalone episode, but the B-story is even better. The secondary plot is about Roger's petty attempts to get even with a waitress who failed to compliment his "amazing" meal order. When he goes back to the restaurant in disguise and still doesn't get the reaction he's looking for, things get heated in true Roger fashion.

Have you ever imagined what a post-apocalyptic war confined to Disneyland would look like? The answer can be found in "Familyland," one of the funniest "American Dad!" episodes yet. The Smiths are torn into warring factions when the creator of a Disney-esque theme park awakens from his cryogenically frozen state and cuts the place off from the outside world. The episode is "Lord of the Flies" meets "Game of Thrones" set within a Disneyland knock-off, with MacFarlane and his writers mercilessly mocking the animation giant and its theme park properties.

As biting as the humor is and as violent as the "Familyland War" turns out to be, the episode once again touches upon Francine's desire to spend a happy vacation with her family. The Smiths do get some quality time together towards the end of this hilarious episode, even if they come very close to killing each other beforehand.

A Christmas-themed horror episode, "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls" begins with Steve accidentally shooting what he believes to be a mall Santa and the family assisting him in covering up the murder. It's soon revealed that the Santa Steve shot was the real Santa Claus, who is alive and out for revenge against the Smiths.

"For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls" is equal parts "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "300." It mixes laughs with some suspenseful scenes involving the evil Santa, and the gory climactic battle in the episode's last act is one of the best "American Dad!" moments ever. Behind all this lies a more grounded story about Stan finally learning to accept Jeff into his family, concluding a storyline the show had been visiting on and off since Jeff's first appearance.

The evil version of Santa would later pop up in the episodes "Minstrel Krampus," "Ninety North, Zero West," and "Santa, Schmanta," though "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls" remains his most iconic appearance.

"American Dad!" tackles the spy thriller genre in Season 3's "Tearjerker," a parody of the James Bond franchise. Taking place outside the regular continuity of the show, the episode follows Stan as he goes undercover to investigate the villainous Tearjerker, a Blofeld-like character "played" by Roger. His evil plan is to make a movie so sad that millions will cry themselves to death watching it. "Tearjerker" contains many references to classic Bond movies, from the villain's extravagant hideout and his over-the-top plan to the laughably-explicit innuendos.

The episode was met enthusiastically by fans, resulting in "Tearjerker" receiving a favorable IMDb rating of 8.5 and later getting a sequel episode, Season 9's "For Black Eyes Only." It also made it clear that "American Dad!" was capable of lampooning different genres, paving the way for many of the episodes on this list. "A lot of people consider 'Tearjerker' [...] to be one of the show's most enjoyable efforts," said Den of Geek.

Arguably the worst thing that Roger has ever done is sending Jeff into space after he discovered the truth about him being an alien. Jeff's separation from Hayley would last for two whole seasons, with several episodes dedicated to the emotional turmoil it caused her. "Lost in Space" almost exclusively focuses on Jeff and his extraterrestrial adventures aboard a mall-like spaceship inhabited by various alien races and captained by a group of slavers (all of whom are the same species as Roger).

In many ways, it's an episode that feels more like the pilot for a spin-off series starring Jeff, something we'd definitely be down for. The stunning sequence in which Jeff realizes how much he took Hayley for granted is an achievement in itself, but critics also responded positively to the meticulous details and world-building accomplished by the team behind the episode. "'Lost in Space' was a great episode that showed exactly how willing 'American Dad!' is to mess with its format, and how capable it is of succeeding while doing it," said TV Equals.