American Dad Kickstarts Fox Comeback With Return of Missing Characters After Many Years

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American Dad! Season 20 serves as a great reintroduction to the animated series for those fans who might have not have been keeping up with all of the episodes it aired with TBS, and the animated series took this head on with a couple of shake ups to the status quo. Namely bringing Francine’s sister Gwen back to the series after 12 years with a new voice actor behind her, and Steve’s ex-girlfriend Debbie 17 years after her last prominent appearance in an episode.

American Dad Brings Back Francine’s Sister After 12 Years With a Twist

American Dad! Season 20 premiere, “Aw Rats, A Pool Party,” sees Francine addressing meeting up with her sister Gwen for the first time since she went to jail in the Season 10 episode, “Now and Gwen.” It’s revealed that her sister is now eight months pregnant, and bears no ill will towards Francine for getting her put in prison (even if she had vowed revenge during that first appearance). But not only is she visually different, she has a different actress behind her this time around as well.

Voiced by Uma Thurman in her original appearance, in the Season 20 premiere Gwen is voiced by Ming-Na Wen. Teasing that we’ll be seeing much more of her in this new era, Gwen’s character has gotten a reboot essentially as it will likely help to open up a whole new avenue of stories for Francine. The same thing is happening with Steve as his ex-girlfriend Debbie also makes a return in the episode when the Smiths decide to host a pool party.

Debbie Returns to American Dad After 17 Years

Debbie is a much bigger return of the two by comparison. Because while like Gwen we have seen Debbie in crowd shots and other smaller spots over the years, Debbie hasn’t had a prominent role in an American Dad! story since the Season 4 episode, “Bar Mitzvah Hustle” in 2009. This was the episode that ultimately saw Debbie fully break off with Steve, and the two have been distant in many ways since. But in the premiere, Steve reveals he’s trying to get back with her.

The two immediately get back into the same rhythm of Steve being immature and Debbie being bothered by it, but this return is clearly the start of something more for Steve. This is going to open him up for the kinds of stories we haven’t seen since that original Fox run, so it really does bring up a lot of questions for what he’ll get up to next.

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