Editing American Dad! (section)

===Characterization===
Early episodes of the series featured political banter between the conservative Stan and liberal Hayley. However, the creators learned quickly that this had only "a limited shelf life" and did not provide them as much as they originally thought it would. Said co-creator Matt Weitzman, "There are times when we still have that kind of dynamic between them, but not nearly what it was in the first season. And I think the show, honestly, has grown and benefited from it, because that would have gotten boring after a while."<ref name="avclub4" />

Roger was enhanced by being provided with a [[running gag]] of alternate disguises and freedom to exist outside of the Smith house. The show's original concept basically portrayed him as being similar to [[ALF (TV series)#ALF|ALF]], having him sit in the house all day while commenting on life. The creators, however, have stated that the character was far too much fun to keep restricted to the house, and having him interact with different people provided for much material. The creators have further appreciated the direction of Roger for the fact that he almost serves as a different [[guest appearance|guest star]] for each episode what with [[Roger (American Dad!)#Disguises and alter egos|his many alter egos]]. The show's staff believe this element of the show highlights MacFarlane's versatility as he voices Roger and his countless alter egos.<ref name="avclub4" />

There have been three versions of the "Steve" character, the creators having twice made considerable adjustments to his design. Steve's initial design ended up being a one-off execution limited to the unaired precursory pilot (not to be confused with the series premiere, titled "Pilot"). By the season premiere, [[Scott Grimes]] had begun voicing Steve, and his design was made taller, more filled out, and less geeky. After early seasons of the series, Steve was remodeled again. This time he was made softer, more emotional, cuter and more endearing, creating a sharper contrast to his father Stan's ruggedness and machismo.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Animation |date=March 23, 2013 |title=American Dad! |url=http://tv-facts.net/movie-review/american-dad/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923001639/http://tv-facts.net/movie-review/american-dad/ |archive-date=September 23, 2013 |access-date=May 4, 2013 |publisher=TV Facts}}</ref>

Between the eighth and ninth seasons, there were significant changes in the show's writing staff. Mike Barker mentions (with one-season-less numbering) "We lost some animators, and we lost a lot of writers. Season eight, our writing staff is about 65–70 percent new."<ref name="avclub4" />