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Stan Smith is the main protagonist of the cartoon American Dad! He is considered an anti-hero and sometimes as anti-villain due to some of the villainous acts he commits, but most of the time, this is because of his low intelligence and extreme political views.

He is a Central Intelligence Agency officer. Although he once a case officer, he is now a weapons expert in later seasons.

In the show itself

Stan Smith is married to Francine Smith. The two met when Francine was hitch-hiking and Stan gave her a ride. As he was driving, he accidentally ran over a raccoon, which he shot and killed to put it out of its misery. Francine thought it was the most compassionate act she had ever seen, which made her fall in love with him immediately. They started dating and got married later that same year. Stan and Francine have an teenage daughter, Hayley, and a teenage son, Steve. Stan allows an alien named Roger to live in the Smith household because the alien saved his life at Area 51 and Roger has come to think of the Smiths as family. In one episode, Roger is seen leaving a bar and walks into the street in front of an approaching bus. Roger nearly avoids death when Stan pushes him out of the way thus ending the life debt between the two. His goldfish, Klaus, was actually an East German Olympic skier whose mind was transplanted into the body of a goldfish.

Stan has a father named Jack Smith who was actually a jewel thief. It is revealed that in "Meter Made" he has a half brother that he calls "bro", which may refer to Rusty, his Native-American half brother introduced in "There Will Be Bad Blood".

Personailty

Although Stan is, for the most part, a loving husband and father, he often causes problems within the home with his patriotism, egotism, and high standards for his family. Stan is also shown to be very manipulative and willing to do anything to accomplish his goals. These include, but are not limited to: having Hayley's mind programmed and then activating the programming to make Hayley compliant to his wishes and having Francine's memory wiped to cover the fact that Stan had forgotten their anniversary. Additionally, Stan has helped his boss cover up a murder he committed unintentionally and then framed Francine for it. Even after experiencing all of the above; Stan still apparently hasn't learned anything and continues to do these sorts of things. Stan is a registered Republican as well as highly xenophobic, Christian, and masculine (possibly showing signs of right-wing authoritarianism, And his ideology is more likey Paleoconservatism). MacFarlane says these qualities of Stan are based on Archie Bunker from All in the Family [But more most exteme right wing (Paleoconservative) version].

Stan is often portrayed as a bigoted, mean, insensitive, arrogant, roguish and sarcastic, holding both right-wing political and social views as well. He initially opposes and , but he changes his mind in the episode after his association with the . Stan's stance toward homosexuality further softens to an extent when Francine acts as a surrogate mother for Greg and Terry's baby and, in the end, sees that Terry and Greg are a loving family in their own right. He is known to mistreat his family, particularly Hayley whom he openly condemns for her liberal views and Steve who, despite idolizing his father, does not fit Stan's views of manhood. These character flaws are routinely exposed in many episodes in which Stan either shows hypocrisy or is forced to accept people for who and what they are (as in Steve as a geek, and Hayley as a grown-up with distinct political views).

In addition to the above, Stan is also shown for the most part as being opposed to any show of emotion, regarding it as effeminate or un-manly. He once said to Steve: "Son, feelings are what women have. They come from their ovaries." Nonetheless, while Stan generally tries to repress his emotions, when they come out they do so spectacularly, and this aspect of his character has led to him doing highly impulsive things, such as going to extreme lengths to stop his mother finding a man for fear he would lose her (in the episode "Oedipal Panties," Stan is revealed to have captured and detained all of Betty's former lovers on an uncharted island), or spending several days in a bouncy castle, refusing food and drink, after realizing he had never had a real childhood.

Stan could also be rather selfish and often didn't care about other family members hopes and dreams, instead focusing on what he wanted. He also had a tendency to be hypocritical. However at times Stan would realize his selfishness and hypocrisy such as in the episode "Chimdale" when he showed Francine, Hayley and Roger that he was bald although all three of them knew already. Unfortunately during "One Little Word". he attempted to be selfless but in doing so he left his boss crippled and bleeding on the floor of a cabin because he had been neglecting Francine due to the fact that he wanted to remain Bullock's "Number 1".

Stan has no qualms about kidnapping, drugging, or tasering anybody, even family members, if he sees it as a means to an end. In the pilot episode, he kidnaps American actress and singer Hilary Duff to date his geeky son Steve.

Stan dislikes overweight people, as depicted in several episodes where he made remarks about his son's friend Barry. In "The American Dad After School Special", he meets his son Steve's overweight gothic girlfriend, Debbie, who he doesn't take very kindly to. However, when he is told he's put on a few pounds, his attempts to slim himself down to prevent becoming what he hates leads him to anorexia.

Stan is very xenophobic and vigilant. In "Homeland Insecurity", he profiled the new neighbors, Bob and Linda Memari as terrorists because of their Iranian heritage, though he later seems to warm up to them. He is so proud of the United States that he hates anything foreign, even food i.e. French toast and falafel. He also hates being pegged as feminine. In "Roger Codger", he began to shed tears before he almost shot Roger. Steve pointed that out, and Stan immediately said, "I'm not a lady!". Stan is very traditional, as he believes his wife should be at home, doing housework, unable to leave the house without being escorted, cooking meals and do whatever he says without question. Seth MacFarlane says these qualities of Stan are based on Archie Bunker from All in the Family. He has been regarded by Hayley in "Homeland Insecurity" and Klaus in "I Can't Stan You" to be insane. During both occasions, Stan has done very irrational things; the first of which was due to his xenophobia while the other was due to him evicting all his neighbors just because they did not like him.

Stan seems to think he knows everything but in "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever " God had to tell him that he does not know everything. Another instance of this is in "Irregarding Steve" where he claims to know everything about fossils. Unfortunately, Steve received an failing grade on his report as a result of Stan's help.

Stan Politcal beliefs

Stan worships Ronald Reagan, quoting his speeches and even going as far as choosing a dog because it was alive during Reagan's administration. He also sees George Bush as a hero as shown in "Bush Comes to Dinner" where he wrote a letter to Bush which has resemblance to a love letter and would send Hayley into a pit via trap door and drugged her so that she could not tell Bush her true feeling and loathing of his decisions. As a proud Republican, he strenuously opposes abortion and gun control. At the beginning of the series, he had a strong prejudice against homosexuality. His views on the subject soften somewhat in "Lincoln Lover", in which he finds out that his neighbor, Greg Corbin, is not only gay, but a Republican; he gradually learns that he and other gay Republicans are not gay by choice, but nevertheless are Republicans by choice. Stan hates Democrats, especially Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda and Michael Moore. He frequently argues with Hayley over her liberal political views and appears to somewhat distrust her. He occasionally uses his CIA status and near-totalitarian views to attempt to control every aspect of her life, such as in "Stan Knows Best" when he shaved her hair just because she dyed it green while participating in a Green Party rally. However when his boss insulted her in "Bullocks To Stan", he defended her honor by nearly beating his boss to death.

Occupation

Stan is an official officer of the CIA. Stan has shown expertise and knowledge in hand to hand combat, small arms, covert survillence methods, torture, the ability to fly aircraft and the handling of assault weapons. Even though he has been arrested several times on several felony charges, such as animal cruelty, child pornography (though this was a wrongful accusation), attempted murder, drug trafficking, possession and use of crack cocaine (he almost flees to South America), transporting infected cattle to be slaughtered for food, impersonating a U.S. Marshal, and identity theft, he retains his official position.

Though it is well known he works for the CIA, very little is actually known about what exactly he does. Sometimes he is seen as a field operative, sometimes an undercover agent, sometimes surveillance officer, even presidential bodyguard, but most often he is seen working in a small cork-walled cubicle with a few of his buddies: Jackson, Sanders, Dick Reynolds, and others. Smith's assumption of these different roles may indicate that he works as a sort of troubleshooter; taking on different responsibilities as required. However, since assuming the role of Deputy Deputy Director, his duties do not appear to have changed.

In the episode "Chimdale", it is revealed that Stan Smith has been bald since college and wears a wig (however, this episode contradicts several past episodes, including "Frannie 911," in which Roger scalped Stan while roleplaying as an American Indian and "Choosy Wives Choose Smith," in which Stan's hair grew after spending months on a deserted island). He drives a black Ford Explorer but has also been seen driving a black Chrysler 300C and owns a DeLorean despite not having seen or even knowing about the movie Back to the Future [Put he once member about it later in series, which he forget leaving it`s unknown]. Stan is also known to have an unexplained fear of seagulls, first mentioned by Francine in "American Dream Factory", although he got over it in "Choosy Wives Choose Smith".

Despite his traditional values, he has been married to two other women. In Saudi Arabia, Stan married an Arabic woman and named her "Thundercat" because he could not pronounce her name, though Stan married her mainly as a servant. At one point Francine divorced Stan so that he could have pointless sex, and he met and married a woman named Joanna, but went back to Francine, though Stan reports that he did consummate the marriage. It is interesting to note that both Stan and Francine admit that each married the other for what Stan describes as selfish reasons. That is, that Stan admits that he married Francine because she was attractive. Francine, for her part, says that she wants someone to take care of her financially and both go so far as to admit this during their vow renewal ceremony to a room full of people. In the episode "Stan's Food Restaurant" it is revealed that Stan is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Hobbies and talents

Stan's childhood hobbies include gun cleaning, wood burning and decoupage. In "A Smith In The Hand", he revisits these hobbies with Steve in order to help him with self-denial. Stan's current hobbies include collecting commemorative plates from the Franklin Mint, and he has an incredible talent in ice skating. Stan can also play the guitar, as evidenced in "Stannie Get Your Gun", "A Smith In The Hand" and "Stan Time". He has passed this talent on to Hayley, and Steve who berforms with his band in "American Dream Factory". He also seems to have an interest in musical theater. In "Homeland Insecurity", Stan performed with his cellmate in jail in the play, South Pacific, and he has long been dying to see the musical Mamma Mia!. Stan is also a fan of the TV series Lost and 24, and has written an extensive unpublished children's book series called Patriot Pigeon. Stan was in competition figure skating, when he was younger. |Francine inspires Stan to get back into skating and they compete in a local figure skating contest.

In "Delorean Story-an", Stan reveals that for years he has been secretly building his dream car, the Delorean. He has spent thousands of dollars of his and Francine's life savings on building this dream car. Stan builds this car not knowing the iconicity of the car from Back To The Future.

Stan is the CIA's weapons expert and is shown to be a skilled fighter with various weapons most notably a pistol which he kept with him at all times. He was also skilled in unarmed combat and his large muscles gave him an advantage over most opponents.

Stan is also an avid Georgetown Hoyas fan as shown in "The Vacation Goo".

Trivia and Facts about Stan Smith

• Stan's favorite beverage is Mr. PiBB, especially medium-sized.
• Stan has a poster on his work desk during season 1 that says "Proud to be American" with an American flag underneath.
• Stan admitted to being afraid of seagulls in "American Dream Factory", although he claims he has overcome his fear after being stranded on an island in "Choosy Wives Choose Smith".
• He is straight, but wanted to have sex with a man to see what it was like, and kissed Terry in "Lincoln Lover", the guy he chose to do it with.
• Stan is bald from testing zit cream so he wears a wig as revealed in "Chimdale", however, this was a one episode joke, as his hair is seen to grow in "Choosy Wives Choose Smith".

• In "Surro-Gate", Greg and Terry put a restraining order on Stan for kidnapping their child Libby. But in "Daddy Queerest" it appears to have been lifted since Stan is seen around Greg and Terry a lot in the episode.

• Stan is a fan of the NFL's Washington Redskins, as shown in "Daddy Queerest" and other episodes.

• Stan usually never shows his feminine side, meaning he doesn't cry a lot, which Steve made him do to save Stan from killing himself.

• However, in "An Incident at Owl Creek", he cries after everyone in town laughs at him.

• Stan reveals one of his school nicknames was Stan Frank for hiding and writing in a diary in "Stanny-Boy and Frantastic". A reference to The Diary of Anne Frank.

• In the theme song when he gets up from the bed he seems to be fat but when he puts on his suit he appears physically fit.

• His first kill was a raccoon as told in "Francine's Flashback" .

• He is allergic to shellfish, as seen in "Weiner of Our Discontent".

• However, this conflicts with eating lobster in "Family Affair".

• Stan is revealed in "Dr. Klaustus" to hate Francine's cooking and keeps a pit of wolves in the kitchen to give them the food she serves him.
• He maybe related to Glen Quagmire due to the sizes of their chins.