I’m usually suspect of story lines that rely on an inexplicably convenient change in circumstance to make a particular plot setup feasible. It’s not that I expect American Dad to be in any way realistic, but it feels like they’re cheating a little when they give the CIA a “slow season” with “summer hours” just so American Dad can pull off a plot where Stan is working a summer job at a country club.
Even if they did take the easy route with the setup of “Stanny Tendergrass,” the resulting events at the country club were ultimately worth the short cut. Although Stan had been talking about the tyrannical Mr. Vanderhill for the first part of the episode, I didn’t expect to see Roger filling that role. After all, if Stan had been working at Hovercamp Country Club for the last 30 years, he’d have recognized Roger, right?
That loophole was pretty cleverly addressed with Roger’s explanation that every person had one “persona” that they couldn’t see through. For Stan, it was Mr. Vanderhill, for Francine it was the young Korean boy, and for Steve it was the “girl” he played spin the bottle with and subsequently dated. That final revelation put the earlier scene with Roger hilariously reacting to Steve’s unwitting sexual innuendos into a new and even more disturbing light.
Roger and Steve being snobs at the country club provided a ton of laughs, particularly the way Roger threw money at Steve every time he was a snobby jerk. When Stan was finally in a position to have the same cruel attitude after taking Roger’s easy money, it just wasn’t as funny as when Roger and Steve were being jerks. It was as if Stan was too eager to be cruel and although he wasn’t doing anything that Roger and Steve weren’t doing just hours before, he was obnoxious.
The whole thing wrapped up in a massive Wrestlemania inspired brawl after Steve brought Hulk Hogan in to show Stan how soft his working man grip had become. Although Hulk walking off into the hills in the buff was wonderfully absurd, the best part of the final fight had to be Roger, cornered by Pamela (his deceased wife’s daughter) who shot him with an arrow rifle as he relentlessly hurled insults at her.
Francine has a rather weak subplot that was born of her desire to leave a legacy after her death, which she decided would be best embodied in a catch phrase. It was amusing to see her dejection during her initial search for a catch phrase, but “things are getting too spicy for the pepper” ended up being a dull line that never paid off. The twist that it was actually an old Salsa Fresca slogan seemed hardly worth mentioning. Thinking back on all the things Francine has said in the course of American Dad, she should have ended up with a much better catch phrase.
My expectations at the start of this episode of American Dad had me anticipating one of those middle-of-the-road offerings that would be funny, but mostly forgettable. Fortunately, a couple of well planted plot twists and some solid Roger and Steve shenanigans kept it from being mediocre and despite some weak spots, “Stanny Tendergrass” ended up being an enjoyable episode.
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