G-String Circus
Encyclopedia
"G-String Circus" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of American Dad!
. It aired on November 29, 2009, on Fox
. This episode mainly center around Stan
, who is saddened by the fact that Hayley
refuses to take any advice from him. Stan goes to a strip club with his CIA co-workers, where he meets a stripper
named Tanqueray. Plagued with a leg cramp, he suggests that she eat a banana because of its level of potassium
. Her cramps go away, which drives Stan to prove his daughter wrong and that she should take his advice. His plan for a dry-cleaning business ultimately fails, and in order to pay off the debt, Stan becomes a stripper. With the large amount of money he receives from stripping, Stan tries to hide away the fact that he is stripping in order to prove Hayley wrong.
This episode was written by Erik Durbin and directed by Bob Bowen. It was met with mixed to positive reception from most television critics, with much of the praise coming from the development of the storyline centering around the relationship between Hayley and Stan. This episode was viewed by 6.4 million homes during its initial airing, and it garnered a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, according to the Nielson ratings. It featured guest appearances from Kat Dennings
, Donald Faison
, and Jim Rash
, along with several recurring voice actors and actresses of the show.
, Stan is depressed because she is not interested in his idea to start a dry cleaning business instead. Meanwhile, Deputy Director Bullock finds out they need to spend any remaining money in the CIA budget immediately or face cutbacks in the following year. They go to a strip club to spend the money. Stan meets a stripper named Tanqueray and talks her into a dry cleaning
business after she takes his advice about eating a banana to help her with a potassium deficiency. Hayley's business takes off while Stan's goes into the tank. Stan decides the answer is to hire even more strippers. Roger promptly puts them on the internet and teases Steve. Feeling bad that Stan's business is failing, Tanqueray goes back to stripping to make money for Stan. Stan shows up at the club but finds out it is "ladies night" and the girls have left. The club manager is impressed with Stan's physique and talks him into dancing for money when the club is short of dancers. Stan passes off the money he makes as money earned from his dry cleaning business. Roger takes Hayley to the club to cheer her up because she is depressed that Stan appears to be succeeding. She sees him dancing as a stripper and realizes Stan has lied about how he earned the money. Hayley returns home to find Tanqueray, who suggests her to appreciate her father's advice as she leaves.
Meanwhile, Steve and his friends find out they have been accepted for space camp. It turns out the time at camp will be spent doing unexciting, administrative things. When Steve sees the girls Roger has in his room making out with each other, he and the gang decide to escape. When they get home, they find the girls have already left. Roger tosses them a g-string to fawn over until he tells them it was Stan's.
, and its sister shows The Cleveland Show
and Family Guy
. It was watched by 6.4 million homes during its original airing, despite simultaneously airing with Sunday Night Football on NBC
, Desperate Housewives
on ABC
, and A Dog Named Christmas
on CBS
. It acquired a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The episode's total viewership and ratings increased at a considerable rate from the previous episode, "My Morning Straitjacket", which was watched by 5.52 million homes during its initial airing, and got a 2.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
"G-String Circus" was met with generally positive reception from television critics. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club
gave the main plot a positive review, writing, "I liked how it was built on the relationship he has with Haley [sic], which is one of the relationships the show could do more work with." However, he would criticize the delivery of the plot, calling it "predictable". He went on to give the episode a B+, the second highest grade of the night, scoring higher than The Cleveland Show episode "From Bed to Worse" and Family Guy episode "Dog Gone", but scoring lower than The Simpsons episode "Rednecks and Broomsticks
". Jason Hughes of TV Squad gave the episode a positive review, saying, "Everything about this episode was on fire. Stan's ridiculous scheme to have his gaggle of mentally vacant strippers run a dry-cleaning service, to his own turn as a stripper to try and earn back the money he was losing on the dry cleaning business. I would have liked to see a bit more of just how horrible the Space Camp experience was for Steve and his friends, but I still appreciated their disturbing rise from the mud and ultimate escape." He went on to praise the episode for its humor, writing, "The highlight for me was when Roger called Steve, who was at the worst Space Camp ever, and showed him the strippers cavorting around his room, and making out on his bed. At least I thought that was the highlight, until Roger instigated a pillow fight, knocking one of the girls out cold with his pillowcase of full soda cans."
The Parents Television Council
, a conservative media watchdog group and frequent critic of MacFarlane
-produced programs, named American Dad! the "Worst TV Show of the Week" for "G-String Circus" for the week ending November 29, 2009. In an extremely negative review for the episode, the group criticized the episode for its "excessive sexual dialogue and cartoon nudity", and went on to write, " American Dad [...] never shies away from exposing its audience to bizarre sexual fetishes and arcane carnal knowledge. Past episodes have dabbled with incest, depicted a “furry” fetish, and romanticized group sex. After the November 23rd episode, a few more salacious items can be added to that list." In conclusion of their review for the episode, they went on to write, "American Dad highlights the confluence of factors that make animated shows especially worrisome for parents. On the one hand, network censors appear to be more lax when it comes to animated sexual depictions. On the other hand, cartoons attract younger viewers whose parents frequently assume that if a show is animated, it must be okay for kids to watch. Parents wouldn’t let their children visit porn sites. Yet, American Dad continually revels in smut."
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
. It aired on November 29, 2009, on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. This episode mainly center around Stan
Stan Smith
Stanley Roger "Stan" Smith is a former American tennis player and two time Grand Slam singles champion who also, with his partner Bob Lutz, formed one of the most successful doubles teams of all time. Together, they won many major titles all over the world...
, who is saddened by the fact that Hayley
Hayley Smith (American Dad!)
Hayley Dreamsmasher Smith Fischer is a character from the animated television series American Dad!. She is voiced by Rachael MacFarlane, the younger sister of one of the series co-creators, Seth MacFarlane....
refuses to take any advice from him. Stan goes to a strip club with his CIA co-workers, where he meets a stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
named Tanqueray. Plagued with a leg cramp, he suggests that she eat a banana because of its level of potassium
Potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are...
. Her cramps go away, which drives Stan to prove his daughter wrong and that she should take his advice. His plan for a dry-cleaning business ultimately fails, and in order to pay off the debt, Stan becomes a stripper. With the large amount of money he receives from stripping, Stan tries to hide away the fact that he is stripping in order to prove Hayley wrong.
This episode was written by Erik Durbin and directed by Bob Bowen. It was met with mixed to positive reception from most television critics, with much of the praise coming from the development of the storyline centering around the relationship between Hayley and Stan. This episode was viewed by 6.4 million homes during its initial airing, and it garnered a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, according to the Nielson ratings. It featured guest appearances from Kat Dennings
Kat Dennings
Katherine Litwack , better known by the stage name Kat Dennings, is an American actress. Emerging with a role in an episode of the HBO dramedy series Sex and the City, Dennings has since appeared in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma's House 2, Charlie Bartlett, Raise Your Voice, The House...
, Donald Faison
Donald Faison
Donald Adeosun Faison is an American actor, comedian, and voice actor best known for his role as Dr. Chris Turk in the ABC comedy-drama Scrubs and as Murray in the film Clueless and the subsequent television series of the same name.Faison has also co-starred in the films Remember the Titans ,...
, and Jim Rash
Jim Rash
Jim Rash was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter.His most noticeable appearance was when he portrayed Mr Grayson/Stitches, a sidekick to the supervillain 'Royal Pain' in the 2005 film Sky High and as the recurring characters Fenton on That '70s Show...
, along with several recurring voice actors and actresses of the show.
Plot
When Hayley announces she is taking a semester off to raise money for charity through organic mulchMulch
In agriculture and gardening, is a protective cover placed over the soil to retain moisture, reduce erosion, provide nutrients, and suppress weed growth and seed germination. Mulching in gardens and landscaping mimics the leaf cover that is found on forest floors....
, Stan is depressed because she is not interested in his idea to start a dry cleaning business instead. Meanwhile, Deputy Director Bullock finds out they need to spend any remaining money in the CIA budget immediately or face cutbacks in the following year. They go to a strip club to spend the money. Stan meets a stripper named Tanqueray and talks her into a dry cleaning
Dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a chemical solvent other than water. The solvent used is typically tetrachloroethylene , abbreviated "perc" in the industry and "dry-cleaning fluid" by the public...
business after she takes his advice about eating a banana to help her with a potassium deficiency. Hayley's business takes off while Stan's goes into the tank. Stan decides the answer is to hire even more strippers. Roger promptly puts them on the internet and teases Steve. Feeling bad that Stan's business is failing, Tanqueray goes back to stripping to make money for Stan. Stan shows up at the club but finds out it is "ladies night" and the girls have left. The club manager is impressed with Stan's physique and talks him into dancing for money when the club is short of dancers. Stan passes off the money he makes as money earned from his dry cleaning business. Roger takes Hayley to the club to cheer her up because she is depressed that Stan appears to be succeeding. She sees him dancing as a stripper and realizes Stan has lied about how he earned the money. Hayley returns home to find Tanqueray, who suggests her to appreciate her father's advice as she leaves.
Meanwhile, Steve and his friends find out they have been accepted for space camp. It turns out the time at camp will be spent doing unexciting, administrative things. When Steve sees the girls Roger has in his room making out with each other, he and the gang decide to escape. When they get home, they find the girls have already left. Roger tosses them a g-string to fawn over until he tells them it was Stan's.
Reception
"G-String Circus" was broadcast on November 29, 2009 as part of the animation television block on Fox. It was preceded by The SimpsonsThe Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and its sister shows The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show is an American animated television series that premiered on September 27, 2009, as a part of the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox in the United States...
and Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. It was watched by 6.4 million homes during its original airing, despite simultaneously airing with Sunday Night Football on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, and A Dog Named Christmas
A Dog Named Christmas
A Dog Named Christmas is a 2009 American television film that debuted on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on November 29, 2009. The film was produced by Brent Shields, directed by Peter Werner and written by Jenny Wingfield, who based the script from a novel of the same name by Greg...
on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. It acquired a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The episode's total viewership and ratings increased at a considerable rate from the previous episode, "My Morning Straitjacket", which was watched by 5.52 million homes during its initial airing, and got a 2.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
"G-String Circus" was met with generally positive reception from television critics. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
gave the main plot a positive review, writing, "I liked how it was built on the relationship he has with Haley [sic], which is one of the relationships the show could do more work with." However, he would criticize the delivery of the plot, calling it "predictable". He went on to give the episode a B+, the second highest grade of the night, scoring higher than The Cleveland Show episode "From Bed to Worse" and Family Guy episode "Dog Gone", but scoring lower than The Simpsons episode "Rednecks and Broomsticks
Rednecks and Broomsticks
"Rednecks and Broomsticks" is the seventh episode of the twenty-first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 29, 2009...
". Jason Hughes of TV Squad gave the episode a positive review, saying, "Everything about this episode was on fire. Stan's ridiculous scheme to have his gaggle of mentally vacant strippers run a dry-cleaning service, to his own turn as a stripper to try and earn back the money he was losing on the dry cleaning business. I would have liked to see a bit more of just how horrible the Space Camp experience was for Steve and his friends, but I still appreciated their disturbing rise from the mud and ultimate escape." He went on to praise the episode for its humor, writing, "The highlight for me was when Roger called Steve, who was at the worst Space Camp ever, and showed him the strippers cavorting around his room, and making out on his bed. At least I thought that was the highlight, until Roger instigated a pillow fight, knocking one of the girls out cold with his pillowcase of full soda cans."
The Parents Television Council
Parents Television Council
The Parents Television Council is a U.S. based advocacy group founded by conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995 using the National Legion of Decency as a model...
, a conservative media watchdog group and frequent critic of MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American animator, writer, comedian, producer, actor, singer, voice actor, and director best known for creating the animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, for which he also voices many of the shows' various characters.A native of Kent,...
-produced programs, named American Dad! the "Worst TV Show of the Week" for "G-String Circus" for the week ending November 29, 2009. In an extremely negative review for the episode, the group criticized the episode for its "excessive sexual dialogue and cartoon nudity", and went on to write, " American Dad [...] never shies away from exposing its audience to bizarre sexual fetishes and arcane carnal knowledge. Past episodes have dabbled with incest, depicted a “furry” fetish, and romanticized group sex. After the November 23rd episode, a few more salacious items can be added to that list." In conclusion of their review for the episode, they went on to write, "American Dad highlights the confluence of factors that make animated shows especially worrisome for parents. On the one hand, network censors appear to be more lax when it comes to animated sexual depictions. On the other hand, cartoons attract younger viewers whose parents frequently assume that if a show is animated, it must be okay for kids to watch. Parents wouldn’t let their children visit porn sites. Yet, American Dad continually revels in smut."