American Dad began under a Bush administration, in part as a way for the show’s producers (including Seth MacFarlane) to get political. Stan is a Republican and daughter Hayley the liberal rallying against the man; but now the tables have turned, Obama is going to be the new US President. Where does this leave the show? Executive producer Mike Barker has been explaining why they are not concerned:-
“It kind of invigorates the show because we’ve had a character who’s been on top for four seasons. Starting the fifth season Stan‘s now on the losing side of things.”
According to Barker, Stan is going to be “more of an Archie Bunker — a guy who thought the world made sense, but now everything ceases to be comprehensible to him.” Expect to see him stealing soup from homeless people, or refusing help for his nascent crack addiction, after all, from Stan’s perspective, what entitles them to such help?
As for Hayley, she’s going to be suffering “a bit of an existential crisis… Now that the Man is no longer in power, what does she rail against?”
Of course there is a bit of a problem for the American Dad universe as Obama won’t be president until the fifth season starts. It takes a long time to put together an animated show like American Dad or Family Guy. “Hopefully the audience bears with us, and doesn’t take us to task too much on the fact that he should probably be more disgruntled earlier than we can actually make him,” says Barker. Apparently, they’re considering putting together an episode suggesting that Stan’s “been in complete denial about the outcome of the election.”
Source: Hollywood Insider