Series Continuity Error / American Dad!

Like many long-running shows, American Dad! tends to have a lot of continuity errors in their later episodes. Some are Rule of Funny, cases of Early-Installment Weirdness (or Later-Installment Weirdness), and/or evidence that Seth MacFarlane's animated shows don't follow continuity; others (especially in the later FOX episodes and the TBS episodes) are obvious mistakes/oversights by the writers often for the sake of the plot or a joke.

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Season 2 (2005-2006)

• "It's Good to Be the Queen": Francine reveals her favorite song is "Little Red Corvette" by Prince, but in "Francine's Flashback", it was established as "The Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston (in fairness, given Francine's promiscuous past and the innuendo-laden lyrics, "Little Red Corvette" is actually a better fit for her).

Season 3 (2006-2007)

• "Joint Custody": Jeff's father says that Jeff's mother left before he was born (with Stan wondering how that was even possible), but in "Stan Knows Best" Jeff says that his mother gave birth to him in the passenger seat of his van (where Hayley was currently sitting).

Season 4 (2007-2008)

• "The Vacation Goo": Mr. PiBB is mentioned and consumed in this episode despite a major plot point for "A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial" being that production on the drink was being ceased in favor of Mr. PiBB Xtra.
• "Haylias": This episode marks the first of several instances where it's said that the Smiths live on 416 Cherry Street instead of 1024 Cherry Street which was the address identified in the pilot.
• "42-Year-Old Virgin": The plot of the episode about how Stan has never directly killed anyone is contradicted by several instances in Season 1 where he did directly kill someone (mostly by accident) which includes Jay Leno in "Stan of Arabia Part 1" and Jackson's body double in "It's Good to Be Queen".
• "Surro-Gate": Francine says that both of her previous pregnancies were a breeze. This contradicts what was established in "Star Trek" when she told Steve that she had a cesarean with Hayley's birth and a perineum scar while giving birth to him.
• "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever": Hayley is shown to be born in Africa during Stan & Francine's Safari trip. This contradicts "Star Trek" establishing that Hayley was born via a cesarean section. Hayley also said she was born in America in "Of Ice and Men" (though it's likely she was unaware of her true birth circumstances, and her statement was mainly rhetorical).
• "Spring Break-Up": Roger and Francine are discussing her figure, and he mentions that she looks good for saying that she's had three kids. Francine corrects him that she's only had two kids, to which Roger responds pityingly that in that case she doesn't look so good. Both of them seem to forget that earlier in the season (in the episode "Surro-Gate"), she was the surrogate mother for Greg and Terry's daughter Libby, and so has actually been pregnant and given birth three times (four, if you count Bailey on "White Rice" who was implied to have died because he wasn't vaccinated).

Season 5 (2008-2009)

• "Choosy Wives Chose Smith": While stuck on the deserted island, Stan grows a beard despite him saying he was incapable of such in "Homeland Insecurity".
• "Phantom of the Telethon": Jim appears as an audience member despite being killed in the 2nd installment of the Golden Turd saga in "Failure is Not a Factory-Installed Option".
• "Chimdale": We learn that Stan went bald after being the guinea pig for an acne medication which has the side effect of hair loss while he was in college and now has to wear a wig, but a lot of earlier episodes have shown that Stan's hair is real. In "Frannie 911," one of the flashbacks of Francine enabling Roger's behavior includes Roger [dressed as an American Indian] scalping Stan and Stan shown with stubble where his hair used to be. If Stan were bald from college into his mid-adult years and has to wear a wig, Roger could have just taken the wig instead of scalping Stan. In turn, this is forgotten in "Old Stan of the Mountain", when Stan is cursed to age prematurely, and his hair gradually greys and falls out and in "Gifted Me Liberty," where Stan's constant blood and semen donations causes his hair to fall out. His baldness was finally referenced again in "Comb Over: A Hair Piece", where Stan gets hair plugs.
• "Stan Time": During the song he sang, Stan mentions learning how to play a guitar even though he already knew how to play the guitar in "Stannie Get Your Gun".
• "Family Affair": Hayley's shown taking part in a family prayer despite being an Atheist and is later eating lobster with her family despite being a vegetarian.
• "Jack's Back": Stan claims to have never learned how to fish before despite him fishing with his friends from work in "Francine's Flashback".
• "Bar Mitzvah Hustle": When Stan breaks the fourth wall, Klaus is revealed as a costumed character in front of a green screen. In "Bullocks To Stan", Klaus is shown at a table read for American Dad! as a normal sized fish.
• "Delorean Story-an": Steve says he's been playing the cello for five years. But in "Choosy Wives Chose Smith" he mentions beginning to learn how to play the cello simply to impress Lindsay Coolidge.
• "Every Which Way But Lose": Steve says it might not be possible for Stan to cry as he's never seen him do it. Despite this, Steve has previously seen Stan cry in "Roger Codger" & "Camp Refooge".
• "Weiner of Our Discontent": Stan is revealed to have a shellfish allergy despite him ordering shrimp in "Meter Made" and eating lobster with his family in "Family Affair".

Season 6 (2009-2010)

• "Shallow Vows": This episode establishes that Stan & Francine have been married for 20 years. This technically isn't true since they were temporarily divorced in "When a Stan Loves a Woman" and Stan was remarried to Joanna (who is present at their vow renewal in this episode).
• "Don't Look a Smith Horse in the Mouth": Not only has Al Tuttle's name been changed from Bob, but Steve picks up a picture of Al next to his wife's tombstone which reads Lisa Tuttle despite it being previously established in "Homeland Insecurity" that her name was Betty.
• "May the Best Stan Win": This episode establishes that Stan was born in 1967 while Francine was born in 1971. But in "Bullocks to Stan", it's reported that Stan's only 10 months older than Francine.
• "Return of the Bling": Roger mentions that his constant usage of steroids during his time being a part of the 1980 US Olympics Hockey Team is the reason 'why his penis is so small'. Despite numerous past and future episodes establishing that he has no genitals at all (unless it's so small, it may as well be invisible).

Season 7 (2010-2011)

• "Son of Stan" has Roger track down Hayley and Jeff by taking pills and smoking a bong (somehow this magically takes him to them). "Joint Custody" showed that marijuana makes Roger immune to gravity, causing him to float away. He suffers no such fate here. It's possible that the pills he took countered those effects.
• "Stan's Food Restaurant": Roger bleeds red when he bites the plate, even though his blood has been previously shown to be purple in "One Little Word".
• "There Will Be Bad Blood": Roger is shown to be visibly suffering from the effects of being out in the cold despite him being immune to freezing in "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever" due to low temperatures being a feature on his home planet.
• "The People vs. Martin Sugar": The address on Stan's self addressed envelope for jury duty shows his house number to be 43 Cherry Street instead of 1024 Cherry Street.
• "You Debt Your Life":
  • The plot of the episode ends up making no sense when you realize that Stan had previously paid off the life debt in "Office Spaceman" when he saved Roger from being dissected.
  • Gertie (the racist old lady from "Rodger Codger" that Stan claimed to be an alien in order to save Roger) is seen at Area 51 in a stasis tank despite previously being on the doomed bus in "100 A.D." earlier this season ^note  Although this can be explained as this episode was produced before "100 A.D." in production order. .

Season 8 (2011-2012)

• "The Worst Stan": One of the people at El Fuego Del Sexo is Becky Arangigo despite being killed in "The Vacation Goo".
• "Virtual In-Stanity":
  • Stan says he slept with Francine on his first two dates with her. Yet in "When a Stan Loves a Woman", he says he didn't have sex with Francine until they were married.
  • The home movie for Steve's birth has Stan absent even though the flashback to Steve's birth in "I Am the Walrus" had him present.
• "The Scarlett Getter": Roger claimed to have no bones in his arms in "American Dream Factory", yet here bones are clearly visible when Stan & Francine are slap fighting each other with them.
• "Stanny Tendergrass": The subplot is about Francine wanting to create a catchphrase, despite already inventing "Hill of bananas" in "Bully for Steve".
• "The Wrestler":
  • This episode shows that Stan was one of his high school's star athletes, due to having a record-breaking number of wrestling wins. This in spite of the fact that, in all prior references to Stan's time in high school (including the pilot episode), he was depicted as a zit-faced, braces-wearing geek who was picked on (much like Steve) and didn't become handsome or popular until after he graduated high school.
  • The little girl named Susie is seen at the Early Bird Nursery School at the end of the episode despite having appeared earlier in the episode at Pearl Bailey High School when Principal Lewis announces the restart of the wrestling program. Furthermore, she's been shown at Pearl Bailey High School several times beforehand including "Red October Sky".
• "Stan's Best Friend":
  • Subverted when Francine reminds Stan that they've had dogs before (Thor [the 19-year-old walking corpse that Stan shot accidentally] in the pilot and Fussy in "Not Particularly Desperate Housewives") as he quickly claims that those were dreams.
  • Played straight when Francine mentions Steve owning Thor five years prior to this episode, when the pilot actually aired seven years before this one.
  • We see that there is a Heaven for dogs, despite Father Donovan claiming in "Roger Codger" that such a Heaven doesn't exist, though this can be excused as Father Donovan is a cynical jerkass who doesn't believe in God.
• "The Kidney Stays in the Picture":
  • This episode reveals that Hayley was conceived in 1996 which would make her either 15 or 16 at the time of its original airing. However, she claimed to be 18 in "Stan Knows Best" and turned 19 by "Faking Bad" (she got ten years in prison for her and Steve's fake I.D. racket, and she tells Steve that she'll see him when she's 29.) "Paranoid Frandroid" and "One Fish, Two Fish" also confirm her to be 19. She's a community college student, so she can't be any younger than 18.
  • Stan's younger self is aware of Back to the Future, even though his present self claims to have never heard of it in "Delorean Story-an".
• "Ricky Spanish": Roger's blood is red in this episode despite it previously being purple in episodes like "One Little Word" and "There Will Be Bad Blood".
• "Toy Whorey":
  • The entire episode revolves around the fact that Steve still plays with his toys, which contradicts the ending of "Bar Mitzvah Shuffle" where he tells Snot that he sold his toys in order to pay for his bar mitzvah.
  • In this episode, Steve is 14 despite turning 15 in "Virtual In-Stanity".

Season 9 (2012-2013)

• "National Treasure 4: Baby Frannie: She's Doing Fine: The Whole Story": Francine laments the fact that she hasn't achieved anything, seemingly forgetting that she discovered the colossal squid in "Stan Time".
• "Naked to the Limit, One More Time": The entire plot of this episode about dealing with Jeff learning about Roger being an alien completely falls apart when you realize that he had previously seen him without a persona twice (the first in "Widowmaker" and the other in "I Am the Walrus"). However, this may be justified by Jeff possibly being high on these occasions.
• "Spelling Bee My Baby": Hiko Yoshida (Toshi and Akiko's mom) is revealed to not speak Japanese despite Toshi's fluency with the language. But she'd previously scolded him in "Best Little Horror House on Langley Falls" meaning that she at least understood the language then. Additionally, dialogue from Stan in "The Magnificent Steven" reveals that she and her husband spoke Japanese in that episode when he mentions being unable to understand them while trying to get their permission to take Toshi on his cattle drive.
• "The Missing Kink": The Midget Assassin is seen during Stan and Francine's kinky sex, even though he was killed by Francine in "License to Till."
• "Da Flippity Flop": Stan claims to have been "made" in 1968, despite it being shown in "May the Best Stan Win" that he was born in 1967.

Season 10 (2013-2014)

• "Steve and Snot's Test-Tubular Adventure": Steve and Snot ask Hayley for romance advice, despite the latter lying to her in "The Missing Kink" by claiming that he was gay.
• "Buck, Wild": Just like in "Toy Whorey", Steve is said to be 14 despite turning 15 in "Virtual In-Stanity".
• "Familyland": Roger is seen at the beginning of the episode playing with a tablet, despite claiming in "Toy Whorey" that he "Doesn't have the fingers for it".
• "Introducing the Naughty Stewardesses": Steve claims to have never met a girls' parents before, despite previously meeting Jeanine Winthrop's parents in "A Jones for a Smith" (unless he meant "both parents", as Steve only met Jeanine's father in "A Jones for a Smith").
• "Rubberneckers": Steve mentions that he would have sex with Francine if she wasn't his mother during the song "Is She Not Hot Enough?", but "Poltergasm" had him disgusted about the idea of having sex with her (though later episodes do hint at Steve having an incestuous attraction to Francine).
• "The Longest Distance Relationship": When Roger turns his body inside out, he's shown to have bones despite it being previously established that he didn't have any in his arms on "American Dream Factory".

Season 11 (2014)

• "Roger Passes the Bar": Roger clenches his chest when he's having a heart attack, even though in "Four Little Words", he says his heart is actually where his butt is.

Season 12 (2014-2015)

• "CIAPOW": Dick claims to have never seen the movie Argo despite him mentioning in "Stan Time" that he was in the process of watching every movie ever made due taking the pills that prevented him from sleeping (unless Dick skipped over that movie or stopped taking the anti-sleep pills before he could get a chance to see Argo).
• "Scents and Sensei-Bility": Steve doesn't know what a "starfish" is (the anus), but in "Son of Stan", he tells Stan and Francine he's going to "put a Popsicle on the ol' starfish" after getting wedgied in school.
• "Now and Gwen": It's revealed that while Francine was a freshmen in high school her adopted sister Gwen was a senior. Even though it was said in "Meter Made" that Gwen is three years younger than Francine and Gwen isn't smart enough to have skipped junior year of high school.
• "Dreaming of a White Porsche Christmas": Despite having an It's a Wonderful Life-esque fantasy in "Stan of Arabia Part 2", Stan claims to have never seen the movie.
• "Morning Mimosa":
  • Once again Steve is said to be 14 despite turning 15 in "Virtual In-Stanity".
  • Snot is romantically interested in Hayley despite losing interest in her in "The Missing Kink" (though it's safe to say he probably got it back when Jeff returned from space).
• "My Affair Lady":
  • Hayley mentions being unemployed for five years even though she's been shown have numerous jobs before such as an airport attendant in "Minstrel Krampus" and as a bartender in Roger's bar in "She Swill Survive" (though both were temporary; the airport attendant job was for the holiday season only and Hayley had to quit being a bartender because it was making her an alcoholic and a threat to national security).
  • Klaus' human design seen in this episode is drastically different from the one shown in the pilot and "Da Flippity Flop" (it looks more on par with how he would hypothetically look as a human as seen in "Tearjerker").
• "Manhattan Magical Murder Mystery Tour": Francine writes a mystery novel even though she said to have hated reading in "Stan Time".
• "Seizures Suit Stan": Klaus mentions writing the texting rules in German as "a little incentive to learn German", even though it's been established in the pilot episode that he's a native speaker of the language (though time away from his native land may have caused him to forget).

Season 13 (2016)

• "Roots": Stan is shown riding a bike his tree in the flashback sequence even though "Jack's Back" showed that he never learned how to ride a bike as a kid because his father abandoned him before he hit the age when most boys would learn how to ride a bike.
• "Hayley Smith, Seal Team Six": Roger claims to remember "Happy Hayley" (Hayley when she was 6), but it was established in "A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial" that the family didn't get him until Steve's 10th birthday when Hayley would've been either 14 or 15.
• "N.S.A (No Snoops Allowed)": Hayley freaks out over eating veal, when there were plenty of past episodes (such as "Family Affair") that showed Hayley eating some kind of animal meat.
• "Kiss Kiss, Cam Cam":
  • Hayley claims her favorite song is "Bathtub Gin" (the "Live from Atlantic City" version) by Phish. However, in "Jenny Fromdabloc" it's said that her favorite song is "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio.
  • Katie (one of the members of the Ladybugs from "Not Particularly Desperate Housewives") is seen at the ballgame despite previously dying in a bus crash in "100 A.D." (unless that's a case of animators recycling and repurposing older characters to fill out crowd scenes).
  • Francine reminds Stan that she hates hot dogs, despite the scene in "Seizures Suit Stanny" in which she claims to "need, need, need a hot dog."
  • In this episode, Klaus says he doesn't know dick about writing, but in "The Boring Identity," he self-published a pulp short story compilation called, Shut Your Mouth about Francine getting smacked around the bedroom by Stan.
• "The Devil Wears a Lapel Pin":
  • Francine claims she never went to college, even though she mentions meeting Stan there in the pilot as well as mentioning how she stabbed her college roommate in "Family Affair" .
  • Apparently the Smiths live on 416 Cherry Street instead of 1024 Cherry Street, according to the credit card bill mailed to Roger.
• "Widow's Pique": Stan eats clams despite saying that he had a shellfish allergy in "The Weiner of Our Discontent".
• "Daesong Heavy Industries":
  • Steve acts surprised that he's in a sermon for adults, even though "Deacon Stan, Jesus Man" from season one showed him at the adult sermon with his family.
  • Steve poking holes in the Bible stories causes Stan to lose his faith in religion, even though Stan previously met God Himself in "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever" (though "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever" is said to be non-canon, so this is up for debate on whether or not it's a mistake).
• "Criss-Cross Applesauce: The Ballad of Billy Jesusworth": Roger breaks his ankle despite him claiming to have no bones in "Stan-Dan Deliver" and "The American Dream Factory".
• "Mine Struggle": Now the Smiths live on 1018 Cherry Street instead of 1024 Cherry Street.
• "Garfield and Friends": In the flashbacks of Hayley and Stan bonding over their Presidents' Day trips, Hayley is shown as a teenager happily singing along to "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus, even though "Hayley Smith, Seal Team Six" established that Hayley hasn't been happy since she was seven. On top of that, she's portrayed as younger during the time of the song's release when she would've been the same age she's always been when it originally came out (mid-2009).
• "Standard Deviation": Just like in "Familyland", Roger is seen at the beginning of the episode playing with a tablet, despite claiming in "Toy Whorey" that he "Doesn't have the fingers for it".

Season 14 (2016-2017)

• "Fight and Flight": The Smiths are said to live on 416 North Cherry Street instead of their usual 1024 Cherry Street.
• "Casino Normale": Jay Leno appears and dies in this episode despite already appearing and dying in "Stan of Arabia Part 1".
• "Camp Campawanda": Steve is once again said to be 14 despite there being an entire episode dedicated to him turning 15 six seasons earlier.
• "The Life and Times of Stan Smith":
  • Roger claims to have never seen an episode of Mr. Belvedere. However, in "The American Dad After School Special" he mentions being part of an Internet chat group for the show where he posts episode summaries.
  • Since the very first episode, Klaus was established to being a skater in the 1986 Winter Olympics. In this episode, his past is changed to make him a college student post-1994 when the Foo Fighters were formed (unless Klaus somehow became a frat boy in 1994 while still in his fish body)
  • Roger has the ET power of bringing people back to life with his finger, but the pilot, he told Stan (after Stan shot the dog), "Don't ask me to bring him back with that E.T. finger thing, because that's a load of crap."
• "Family Plan": Francine claims to have never met her birth parents, although they were present at the vow renewal in "Shallow Vows".
• "The Talented Mr. Dingleberry": Steve claims he doesn't know Morse code, despite Stan mentioning that he taught it to him in "Homeland Insecurity".
• "Roger's Baby": Roger tells Hayley that she can't have a baby with Jeff because he has an alien body and his brain is the only human part of him left, but the episode before this one ("Bahama Mama") reveals that Hayley is able to conceive a child, but the child will be part-alien. On top of that, "The Vacation Goo" revealed that Hayley won't be able to have kids since the titular substance causes infertility in women, unless the CIA found a way to reverse its effects.

Season 15 (2017-2019)

• "The Mural of the Story": Clown with Glasses appears in this episode (during the part where Roger's H.J. Rimmins persona gets in trouble for abusing Steve), even though "100 A.D." and "Son of Stan" revealed that he died in the bus crash (with his widow sobbing over his death).
• "Klaustastrophe.TV": Jack is human again despite being in Krampus’ body.
• "Railroaded": Krampus is alive and in his own body despite dying and Jack being in his body on "Minstrel Krampus".
• "My Purity Ball and Chain": Stan worries about giving Steve the sex talk in this episode, even though Stan did it before (and on live local TV, no less) on "A Smith in the Hand".
• "OreTron Trail": Roger mentions how Stan transferred Klaus' mind into his SUV in "A Nice Night for a Drive". However, Stan actually had nothing to do with that as Klaus transferred his mind into the SUV on his own.
• "The Legend of Old Ulysses": Roger can't ride a bike, despite previously doing so in "The Boring Identity" (though that was a Big Wheel tricycle for toddlers) and "Julia Rogerts".
• "One Woman Swole": Hayley and Steve complain that Francine had a one-woman show she never finished, despite that Francine did one-woman shows as a stand-up comic on "White Rice".
• "Twinanigans": Roger's shown to have been part of the Smith family as early as Steve being five, despite it being previously established in "A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial" that he wouldn't become part of the family until Steve's 10th birthday.

Season 16 (2019)

• "Mom Sauce": Steve and Snot are shown to have met in elementary school, despite "Lost Boys" claiming that they, along with Barry and Toshi, all met at a Chuck E. Cheese's.

Season 17 (2020)

• "Brave N00B World": Stan calls Steve a virgin, even though Steve was heavily implied to have finally lost his virginity to Shannon (with Stan's help, no less) in "My Purity Ball and Chain".
• "Into the Woods": In this episode, Roger prepares for an upcoming cold, but in "Threat Levels", Roger tells Stan that his alien species is immune to all human ailments (until Stan points out that Roger has a cold sore. This could be Roger being a liar, since "Roger Codger" also implies that he gets hemorrhoids when he tells Stan that his roll-on deodorant did wonders for his "'roids").
• "Ghost Dad": Stan's dad is shown as human, even though he died and became the Krampus in "Minstrel Krampus". In the episode, the news does mention his Krampus form, saying he is a "seasonal evil spirit of Christmas", which might mean he only is Krampus during Christmas.
• "The Old Country": Steve's family tree shows blank spaces for Francine's parents, even though "Big Trouble in Little Langley" reveals that he knows that Francine was adopted by a Chinese couple and has white biological parents.
• Linda Memari is seen in both "One Fish, Two Fish" (albeit with much darker skin) and "300" despite Roger claiming she died in "Cheek to Cheek: A Stripper's Story". Then in "Don't be My Neighbor", it is stated that the Memaris were coerced into moving away courtesy of the "Neighbor-Haters Club".

Season 18 (2021)

• "Cry Baby" focuses on Stan's inability to cry even though he's cried many times throughout the show. Steve previously taught Stan to cry in "Every Which Way But Lose" and does so again here.

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