A trademark of American Dad is that at least one character experiences some form of epiphany in each episode. Peter from Family Guy also goes through some similar emotions, but in Family Guy, its as if hes very much aware of his faults, and yet he still goes through with them every day. In American Dad, the characters work towards their emotions. Their faults are clearly displayed early on, and have a whole episode that uses a bizarre plot as a kind of vessel to carry those characters towards that emotional realisation. Interestingly, that realisation can be seen as only lasting as long as the episode/story itself in which the character has that epiphany. After all, these are only cartoons. Maybe Im reading too much into them...