With "American Dad," Fox has the right idea. Don't throw risque stuff into the Super Bowl halftime show. That only leads to outcries from politicians, e-mail from defenders of morality and burdensome fines from the FCC.Reviewed by Barry Garron of the Hollywood Reporter

Instead, save the ribald stuff for after the big game, in a cartoon series, where it can be mixed with political and social satire.

Seth MacFarlane, whose "Family Guy" returned to Fox last month thanks in large part to a devoted following that made the show an enormous hit on DVD, has created an even more outrageous comedy in "American Dad." The show, an off-kilter slice of dysfunctional family life, mixes blatant sexual references with more restrained political jabs, all tied to together with a more or less conventional story line and densely packed humor. It's bound to offend a few self-appointed guardians of decency; everyone else should enjoy its mildly subversive and proudly underground style.

In this case, the American dad for whom the show is titled is Stan Smith (MacFarlane), an overzealous CIA operative who treats even the most innocent of objects (a toaster, chewing gum) as potential weapons of terrorism. In Stan's world, the means don't justify the ends, the means are the ends. His wife, Francine (Wendy Schaal), is the levelheaded one in the family, though she has a backstory that Marge Simpson could only dream about.