Look, after an initial rough patch, I learned to like Family Guy as much as any red-blooded American male under 25. When I haven't watched it in a while, the first few episodes I see leave me in stitches. Eventually I start to feel bad for laughing; but when the show's fresh, it's incredibly funny.

But American Dad? Isn't this the same damn show?

AMERICAN DAD, from “Family Guy” creator SETH MacFARLANE, is the animated story of STAN SMITH, who works for the CIA and is constantly on the alert for terrorist activity. Stan will go to extremes to protect his beloved America from harm – as evidenced by the terror-alert color code on his fridge, and his frequent knee-jerk reaction of shooting holes in the toaster whenever the toast pops up. In addition to Stan’s wife and teenage children, the Smith household has two rather unconventional members. There’s ROGER, the sarcastic space alien Stan rescued from Area 51 who deeply resents the fact that he’s not allowed to leave the house, and KLAUS, a lascivious, German-speaking goldfish – the result of a CIA experiment gone seriously wrong.

What am I missing?