American Dad! (TV Series) Francine's Flashback (2005) User Reviews

The Lady of the House

[injury-65447 · 6/10 · 9 June 2020]

By coincidence I just watched the Season 1 Family Guy episode that's about Lois feeling unappreciated, and now I get a Francine-centric episode about her being mad at Stan for forgetting their anniversary.

I have similar feelings about Francine as I do about Lois. She's a good support character but I'm not interested that much in episodes where she takes the focus. Seeing her as an 80s party girl isn't particularly funny.

I also Don't like Hayley's boyfriend and he is in this a fair bit.

The subplot with Steve, Roger and the unsightly friend saves the episode somewhat.

I'm starting to think this show might not be as funny as I remember.

The One Where Stan Erases Francine's Memory...

[taylorkingston · 8/10 · 23 April 2014]

Newspaper Headline: Hooker Killed For Heart Of Gold. I love this episode. So funny. Francine had been giving Stan a lot of hints about their wedding anniversary, but Stan remembers that it's the same time the CIA has their annual fishing trip. He leaves quickly after dropping a bed and breakfast on Francine. Which she now has to clean up. Even though Stan left in a hurry, Francine still hopes that he will remember and do something romantic. Klaus and Roger highly doubt that he will, as they are watching an episode of COPS from the previous year, which had Francine beating Stan to a bloody pulp for forgetting the anniversary. Meanwhile. Haley gets invited to go to Burning Man with her boyfriend. Whilst Stan is midnight fishing with his co-workers, he remembers the fight he and Francine had, had the year before. He then rushes home to try and make amends, with the excuse that he didn't forget, he was just trying to throw her off and brings Whitney Houston home for a private performance in exchange for cocaine. Francine wasn't impressed, so Stan hands her a card that will make everything better. But when she opens it, gas comes out, and knocks her unconscious. Stan takes her to the CIA to have the last 20 hours of her memory erased. But the scientist performing the procedure gets the dials for years and hours confused and ends up erasing the last 20 years from her memory. Francine now believes it's 1985. And Stan finds out that the procurer is irreversible. He hopes that Francine will eventually remember everything. Francine wakes up at home and freaks out, seeing Roger, an alien, and Klaus, a talking fish. So Stan has to gas her again to knock her out. Stan moves her back to her old apartment and Haley is her roommate. Stan and Haley make sure the apartment looks like 1985. Roger suggests to Stan that he should recreate the moment he and Francine met, that maybe that will jog her memory. But that just makes it worse. Francine runs off with Jeff to Burning Man after throwing a party. Francine eventually gets her memory back after Stan says he'll always love her, whilst she is throwing up all over his shoes. Overall 8 out of 10.

Had potential, but was somewhat boring and literally dehumanising

[tonemapped · 3/10 · 30 January 2023]

I've been rewatching "American Dad!" from the start and, compared to later episodes (season 14 onwards), this is a properly written "American Dad!" episode that stays true to the overall programme's plot.

However, despite an interesting buildup featuring gadgets from the CIA (usually resulting in good episodes), Jeff being present (which I like, but realise he's not to everyone's liking), and there being some good jokes, I dislike this episode.

In the scene where it's revealed Stan has kidnapped Whitney Houston (and forces her to sing "Greatest Love of All" - a song featuring a line about not being able to take away her dignity) to sing to Francine, after she's finished singing, they proceed to literally treat Whitney Houston like a dog (Francine throwing a bag of 'chemical stimulants' and telling her to fetch in the tone people use with dogs).

This was entirely uncalled for and ruined the episode - and that's taking the edgy teenage writing style MacFarlane's programmes are infamous for into account.