American Dad! producers sound genuinely surprised to make it to 400 episodes

“I was stunned when I was told that we were going back,” co-creator Matt Weitzman said in a new Variety piece timed to the anniversary, recounting the moment when he was told that Fox intended to save the show for a 22nd season, after TBS decided it was done with it last year. “I’m like, ‘Come on, that’s not real.’ But then I was giddy and laughing for three days about it. It was insane that it really happened, and we got to go back to home base.” Adding “The show really doesn’t want to die,” Weitzman said he was happy to keep up with demand: “As long as people keep on wanting it, there’s no reason for us not to do it.” (“As long as Seth is willing to do it!” Weitzman then added, acknowledging that, although he is famously pretty hands-off with the show’s writing and direction, co-creator MacFarlane is still both the owner of their production company and the voice of two of their most popular characters, so his interest remains pretty important to the series continuing forward.)

Asked to speculate on why American Dad!—a series that can jump between esoteric stage plays, absurd supermarket heist films, apocalypse stories, or just a brutally mean send-up of basic sitcom tropes in the span of a handful of episodes—has persisted, Weitzman pointed to that variety, noting that “There are pure comedy shows, and then there are the weird, esoteric episodes that are unlike anything else. So as an audience, you don’t necessarily know what kind of show you’re going to get.” But while Weitzman was shocked at the series’ rescue, his co-showrunner Brian Boyle claims to have been far more confident: “I just thought it would come back it’s such a good show,” Boyle asserts. “Every time that we’re like, ‘This is it,’ in my head I’ve always been like, ‘No, it’s not.’ I had stopped even looking for work! They’re never going to want to stop the show, and you can quote me on that!”