My Morning Straitjacket
My Morning Jacket on American Dad
The entire band appeared as themselves in the American Dad episode, "My Morning Straitjacket", which aired on November 22, 2009. The show’s co-creator Mike Barker wrote the episod. Barker is a fan of the band and has said in an 2009 interview (Rollo & Grady) that he wanted to share his love of the band through the characters of American Dad."My Morning Jacket is one of the greatest bands of all time, so why wouldn’t I try to share that fact?"
Guest Voice Cast
Zach Galifianakis as Heavyset Man and Norman
Patrick Stewart as Bullock
Carl Broemel as Himself
Tom "Two-Tone Tommy" Blankenship as Himself
Bo Koster as Himself
Patrick Hallahan as Himself
Jim James as Himself
Episode plot
Stan gets angry when Hayley is not at the dinner table because she has gone to a rock concert, which he considers to be a bad influence. Stan decides to scare Hayley straight by dressing up as a spider when she comes home, but Hayley defends herself against Stan and says that she is going to see My Morning Jacket when they play the next evening.
To keep Hayley from going Stan swallows Hayley's ticket, but Francine later retrieves it from Stan's body using tongs, then reminisces with Hayley about her own concert-going days, remarking on how hard she had to work to get backstage.
While Hayley is at the concert Francine has Roger dress up as Hayley. Stan does not notice at first, but the ruse fails when Francine calls Roger by name. Stan races to the concert, only to find himself entranced by the music.
Oh my God, I feel, I feel everything"
Stan becomes obsessed with My Morning Jacket and decides to meet Jim James, believing they are soul mates and that James is writing the music specifically for him. Disguised as a reporter for Rolling Stone (an allusion to the film Almost Famous), Stan follows My Morning Jacket on tour, accompanied by Roger. Roger manages to get Stan backstage at a show and onto the tour bus, but when Stan tells a bogus story about freebasing cocaine with 'Tina Jivestrong' & 'the black guy from The Beatles', they get thrown off the bus. Roger steals a car to get them to the next concert in Albany, New York. However, Stan does not get through the backstage entrance after Roger abandons him.
Deciding to help Stan and end his quest, Francine turns up, dressed as a groupie. She effortlessly flirts and flashes her way through numerous security checkpoints, progressing from lifting her shirt to lifting her skirt to making out with the last guard, a woman. Stan meets Jim James, who after being freaked out by Stan points out the flaws in his logic and tells him that he could not possibly be writing his songs just for him, seeing as how they never knew each other, and that Francine is the one who truly understands him.
The episode ends with Francine and Stan rekindling their passion for each other (still in Jim James's dressing room) with the female security guard coming in the room to join them, closing the door behind her.
- Mike Barker, co-creator of American DadI was definitely conscious of the fact that the band could end up hating this episode and resenting me for not delivering like I had assured them I would. I mean, it’s tricky. Normally when we (the writers) make our episodes, our primary rule is that we have to make ourselves laugh. We have to find the episode interesting and funny. Because if we’re laughing, then there’s a good chance our audience is laughing, too. But with this episode… well, suddenly there’s this entirely new segment of people that will be watching the show, many of them for the first time, and that’s the My Morning Jacket fans. And the fans have certain thoughts and feelings about both the music, as well as the guys making it. The last thing I want is for my episode — which is really a pretty personal creative experiment — is for it to somehow reflect negatively back on the band. Jim and the guys were really great at respecting my autonomy throughout the process. This is a story I wanted to tell, and basically they took a big leap of faith by entrusting me, this absolute stranger, with their music, their voices, and ultimately, their image. So perhaps the most important thing for me in regards to the band was to do everything in my power to make sure that the episode didn’t suck. Because if it’s bad, or embarrassing, then that leads to questions from the fans like “Why would MMJ do this?” and suddenly this incredibly thoughtful and principled band is on the firing line for selling out or something.
(Rollo & Grady interview, November 2009)
