While fans of the series will have been a little disappointed that Fox cut it in favour of shows of a lower quality, TBS‘s pick-up and now efforts towards marketing animated comedy American Dad! is one that has generated some excitement ahead of its 12th season.
Following Fox’s contract expiry after a three-episode miniature 11th season this September, TBS have picked up full rights to the show and gone all-out with promotions and imagery ahead of their first season as broadcasters, even co-inciding with an Adidas tennis shoe deal.
With a season premiere date scheduled for Monday 20 October, it seems as though the cable network had one other major surprise in store before the first episode… the first episode.
The installment, known as “Blonde Ambition”, surprisingly emerged through the network’s Facebook and Twitter feeds, and on Sunday 12 October on YouTube, with little reasoning given by TBS as to why they have done this.
Fans of the show, particularly those that have no cable access but do have an internet signal, won’t mind at all, though, at the bonus free-to-access episode, with some of the belief that it is merely to further generate publicity ahead of the new season.
TBS, TNT & Turner Classic Movies’ ‘senior vice president of entertainment branding & marketing’ Tricia Melton said as much when she announced the move earlier this month, stating: “This sneak peek is a wonderful way to reward the nearly 20 million fans of American Dad! on Facebook and Twitter for their longtime devotion to the series. It’s also a great way to build up the excitement for the show in its new home on TBS.”
The episode itself (pictured above, viewable below) sees the character of Haley Smith dye her hair blonde to try and attract more attention for her environmentalist causes, while her father and brother Stan and Steve look into moving to a gated community, but end up trapped in a display house by vicious guard dogs.
Though it is yet to be seen if TBS will continue their YouTube screenings in a more post-broadcast on-demand approach, the show appears to have found a more welcoming home that also allows it to go a little further on account of being cable, but will their positive first impression be the start of a long and fruitful run, or is showcasing their content for free (as demonstrated below) something that will put them right into the financial danger zone?
[…] the first question that should naturally be asked is “they let American Dad go for this?”, presumably followed by any number of others relating to Fox’s judgement on […]