Home Wrecker

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Home Wrecker is the 17th episode of American Dad!'s seventh season. It aired on Fox in the United States on May 8, 2011. The episode centers on Stan and Francine as they clash over the design of their kitchen during a renovation. Their gay neighbors, Greg and Terry, comment on the strength of Stan and Francine’s marriage and make a bet: if Greg and Terry win, they get Stan and Francine’s marriage license; if Stan and Francine succeed in remodeling without breaking up, Greg and Terry will pay for the remodel themselves.

The main dispute grows as Stan wants a traditional kitchen while Francine desires a modern one. After Stan overrides Francine with the contractor, she asks for a bay window, which pushes tensions higher. Greg and Terry watch the fight and pretend everything is fine. The remodeling spreads through the house, and Stan and Francine’s harmony deteriorates until they divide the home into two halves, each decorated in their preferred style. They even build a wall inside and outside the house to separate their spaces. The couple spends holidays apart, but eventually miss each other and tear down the wall—only for the rest of the house to partially collapse in the process.

Meanwhile, at Pearl Bailey High School, Barry, Steve, Snot, and Toshi use Barry’s card-counting ability to win at blackjack with Principal Lewis. When Lewis takes the winnings to a strip club, the kids try to escape but are caught. They expose Lewis, who owes the casino money, and the casino owner orders them shot. They hide behind a trash can as goons fire; Barry betrays Lewis by claiming the goons are out of ammunition, and Lewis is shot in the shoulder. Barry then bites Lewis’s wound as revenge for taking his candy.

Production notes: the episode was written by Alan Freedland and Alan R. Cohen, directed by Joe Daniello, and features guest star Maurice LaMarche as Uzi Knessett. It was originally planned to air as the eighteenth episode of season six, but the crossover event with The Cleveland Show and Family Guy was delayed due to a tornado outbreak.

Cultural references and satire: the Smith family’s musical number parodies Grease’s “We Go Together,” with Stan and Francine resembling Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson. The subplot with Rain Man and 21 is referenced, and Alfred Hitchcock is seen as a silhouette at the strip club. The episode also parodies stereotypes about gay men, including their love of musicals and home decorating, though critics noted the handling was mixed.

Reception: viewership was about 3.29 million with a 1.6 rating among adults 18–49, making it the lowest-rated episode of the season. Critics were mixed. The A.V. Club’s Rowan Kaiser gave it a C+, calling it a very strange episode with uneven humor and overuse of meta-jokes, though he noted some strong bits, like the holiday montage where Stan and Francine celebrate apart from each other.