Hayley Smith (American Dad!)

Hayley Smith
American Dad! character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Seth MacFarlane Mike Barker Matt Weitzman
Voiced by	Laura Prepon (unaired pilot), Rachael MacFarlane (official)
Information
Full name	Hayley Dreamsmasher Smith
Occupation	Student
Family	Parents: Stan and Francine Siblings: Steve Pet(s): Roger and Klaus
Spouse(s)	Jeff Fischer (husband)
Children	Nemo/Antichrist (adoptive son)
Relatives	Grandparents: Betty, Jack Smith Adoptive Family: Bàba, Māma, and Gwen and Hercules (Step-Grandfather) Rusty (half uncle)
Nationality	American

Hayley Dreamsmasher^[1] Fischer (née Smith) is a character from the animated television series American Dad!. She is voiced by Rachael MacFarlane, the younger sister of one of the series co-creators, Seth MacFarlane.

Hayley, along with her father Stan, was one of the first two characters that were conceived and created for the series. Across the series, Hayley's storylines typically involve her liberal opinions clashing with her father's staunch conservative beliefs, and her on-again-off-again relationship with boyfriend Jeff Fischer, whom she later marries in the show's sixth season.

Biography

Hayley Smith is the daughter of Stan Smith, a CIA agent, and Francine Smith, a housewife (although, it is later revealed that Stan may not be her biological father but this is one of the three episodes that contradict several others). It is revealed in a brief flashback that she had a twin brother named Bailey who, it is suggested, is no longer alive. Unlike her father, her mother and her brother, Steve Smith, Hayley is ultra-liberal.^[2] She is "addicted" to marijuana and in "Jones for a Smith," Hayley actually worried that her marijuana smoking is getting out of hand and begs Francine to let her go to rehab, with Francine callously telling her daughter to stop being such a melodramatic attention-seeker. Hayley once helped the homeless, and is in favor of gun control.^[3] This causes a great amount of distrust and hatred for her on Stan's part, as he consistently has views that are polar opposite to hers. In the third season episode "Stanny Slickers II: The Legend of Ollie's Gold", it is revealed that her middle name is Dreamsmasher, as given by Stan.

She lives with her parents and goes to Groff Community College, though she moved out temporarily after a bitter argument with Stan.^[2] As a college student, Hayley also minors in women's history^[4] and promotes women's rights.

Personality

Hayley Smith is Stan and Francine's new-age hippie daughter. Despite being a married adult for much of the series, she still lives under her parents' roof along with her husband, Jeff. As revealed in the episode "The Kidney Stays in the Picture", she may or may not be Stan's biological daughter—Francine revealed to have cheated on Stan at a bachelorette party.^[5] Nonetheless, Stan still regards her as such.^[6] Hayley is passionate, insistent and vocal in her convictions. In mentality, she's portrayed as a far-left liberal, what was originally intended to be the antithesis to her father's far right neoconservative mentality. These character traits were particularly emphasized in the show's beginnings but heavily toned down afterwards.^[7] Intuitive and insightful, Hayley is able to instinctively grasp the hidden, inner, and obscure nature of situations. As examples, instantly upon entering the room in the episode "Finger Lenting Good", she realizes what Stan and Steve are up to in trying to get Jeff to hug them so as to lose his finger for engaging in his [Jeff] vice.^[8] As another example, in the episode "Da Flippity Flop" when the essence of Klaus has entered Stan's body and taken control over it, he attempts to deceive Hayley and Francine into thinking he's truly Stan; however, Hayley instantaneously and half-heartedly acknowledges that it's Klaus.^[9] At times, Hayley is casually rude and insulting in attitude especially towards her brother, Steve, which can be described as sibling rivalry. Several story arcs have been about Hayley's romantic relationship with Jeff. Back when the two were dating, they had several break ups. Hayley is very often the most empathetic member of the family. For example, she helped to unionize the homeless men Stan paid to fight each other,^[10] helped free foster children that Roger had enslaved,^[11] and is the one most likely to stand up for people's rights when her family tries to exploit people. Nevertheless, she is also sometimes seen as hypocritical and has moments of weakness—for example, in "Camp Refoogee" she went to an African refugee camp and swore to help the starving people during the short time she expected to be there. However, after finding out they would be there for a few weeks, she went to the spa-like U.N. aid base and went so far as to eat steak,^[12] despite being a vegetarian (The episode, The Longest Distance Relationship, she eats part of a steak, and in N.S.A. (No Snoops Allowed), she went an entire day eating just meat). Other members of the household often disrespect her and seem to find her annoying, especially Stan and Roger.

The fourth season has started showing that Hayley is often prone to violent and uncontrollable mood swings. During puberty, she went through violent outbursts during every development, such as having to wear tampons (and ruining the family's white couch by sitting on it while wearing a skirt), being disappointed over how small her breasts were when they finished growing, and getting an enormous pimple. These mood swings terrified her parents and they were fearful of the same problems in her brother, although it is shown Steve has had his temper more under control. Another episode revealed that Hayley flies into a rage when men break up with her. It has gotten to the point where Hayley will have to go to jail if another relationship she has falls apart.

In "The Kidney Stays in the Picture", when Hayley needs a kidney transplant after drinking more liquor than she can handle, Stan immediately volunteers to have his kidney surgically removed to save Hayley. Francine greatly admires Stan's dedication to Hayley, but sheepishly admits Stan's transplant might result in organ rejection as she is unsure if Stan is Hayley's true father. Stan and Francine go back in time, and it is never revealed who Hayley's real father is as Stan requested that his kidney be taken out regardless and the doctors perform the transplant without revealing which kidney is used. The other potential father to Hayley is Joel Larson, a complete stranger who Francine slept with three days before she and Stan got married. When the doctor asked how they got the other kidney for Hayley, Stan said, " I called in a favor." It was later revealed that Roger cut into Larson's stomach with a drill, getting the kidney.

In season 5 episode 15 "Merlot Down Dirty Shame" it is revealed she and Klaus also share a telepathic ability to communicate. They can talk to each other with their thoughts.

Voice actors

According to a DVD special on the creation of American Dad, Laura Prepon (best known for her role of Donna on That '70s Show and Alex Vause on Orange Is the New Black) was initially chosen to play Hayley, but Prepon was dropped and replaced by Rachael MacFarlane (younger sister of Seth MacFarlane).

Romance

Hayley has an on-and-off boyfriend named Jeff, who is a vegetarian as well.^[13] Hayley did once move out, to move in with Jeff who it turns out lives in his van. They sometimes go hiking and use marijuana together. She once dumped Jeff, because he agrees with everything that she says. During this time, she slept with Stan's boss, Deputy-Director Bullock, a conservative. This happened after they had an argument; he apologized and she ended up sleeping with him at his house. At first, Stan ignored their relationship and decided it was a great chance to be promoted to "Deputy-Deputy Director". Hayley later dumped Bullock before announcing Stan's promotion. Bullock learned that a more assertive Jeff came back into her life. Being very upset, Bullock promised Stan the promotion if he killed Jeff. Stan didn't kill Jeff, but ended up battling his boss upon him insulting Hayley. Bullock gave Stan the job before Stan finished him off. Jeff disappeared for a time after Phantom of the Telethon, where he was performing hacky-sack tricks on-stage at a telethon when a boat, pushed by Roger, fell on him.

Reginald, a talking koala who works for the CIA, befriends Hayley in the episode "Family Affair". and she starts to develop an attraction to him, but is rejected by him as he reveals he has a girlfriend. She respects him, but she leaves an open-ended offer for Reginald by the end of the episode.

Embarrassed, she apologizes to Reginald in "Cops and Roger" and suggests a double date with him and his girlfriend Rhonda and her (temporary) boyfriend, Ian. The date ends up annoying both Ian and Rhonda as Reginald and Hayley continue to openly flirt with each other, and by the end of the episode, both end up leaving their partners in favor of each other.

Jeff returns to serenade Hayley in "100 A.D." and is shooed away by Stan and Francine for not being good enough for their daughter. However, after Jeff goes to Hayley and confesses his love for her, they decide to elope. They then trick Stan and Francine into giving them $50,000, which they spent trying to escape from Roger who was trying to steal it from them.^[14]

Hayley and Jeff reunite with the family in the episode "There Will Be Bad Blood" where they encounter the rest of the family freezing to death in the desert. Hayley reveals that shortly after losing Roger, the two made their way through trying to make their way back through Jeff as a male prostitute, but finding little work with women, Jeff is forced into gay prostitution, putting him on "butt rest". They move back in with the Smith family in that same episode. In "Less Money, Mo' Problems" Hayley and Jeff are shown to be still living in the Smith household, with Jeff constantly annoying Stan with his habits. At the end of the episode, Stan has a change of heart after he sees how hard it would be for them to make it on the salary Jeff brings in.

Jeff becomes tricked by Roger in "Naked to the Limit, One More Time" that Roger is his new imaginary friend. But when Roger accidentally reveals that he is real, Jeff cannot keep the secret and Stan is forced to kill either Roger or Jeff. Both are saved when Roger offers to return to his home planet instead. On the night that the spaceship comes to pick up Roger, he tosses Jeff in the transport beam instead of himself and Jeff is abducted, leaving Hayley all alone.

Hayley is shown pining and grieving over Jeff's disappearance and supposed death in "Spelling Bee My Baby", but in order for her to serve as a line judge, Stan and Roger try to fast track her through the grieving process, but in the end she blames them and steals their shuttlecock in retaliation, forcing Roger to go through the grieving process instead.

After years of pining after her but always being rejected, Snot is able to capitalize on Hayley's loneliness and sadness in "The Missing Kink" and manages to go on a date with her. She has a great time and plans to see Snot more, but seeing as the chase is over, Snot becomes no longer interested in her. To throw her off, Snot pretends to be gay with Barry, which appeases her and leaves her feeling better.

She is seen still grieving and pining for Jeff in the episode "Lost in Space".

When the Smith family was relocated to Saudi Arabia, Hayley also slept with a man named Kazim who claimed to be a tormented, conflicted member of a terrorist group.,^[15] but who was really a vendor for the restaurant chain Shawarma King who lied about his job in order to appear more interesting to women. In "Dungeons and Wagons" the two are shown dating, but again Hayley dumps Jeff for being too clingy; he then goes on to develop a hobby of playing Dragon Scuffle. They are a couple again in the second season finale,^[16] though she breaks up with him yet again in season three.^[17]

She has also turned to exotic dancing in order to pay for her raised tuition^[2] and prostitution to supplement the family's income during hard times (and prostitution for drugs, according to "Helping Handis", when she grumbled "Damn it, Eddie! I slept with you!" after finding nothing but marijuana stems and seeds).^[18]

Jeff appears to return from space in the episode Holy Shit, Jeff's Back!, but it is then revealed that the real Jeff Fischer was killed by a race of aliens called the Collectors, and this Jeff is a Collector named Zebleer. However, at the end of the episode, the Collectors are willing to put Jeff's brain in Zebleer to make Hayley happy. However, before they leave, Hayley and Roger have their memories wiped, so they don't know that Jeff isn't exactly him.

There have been numerous scenes that hint that Hayley might be bisexual. In the episode "Haylias", there's a scene where Hayley tells her parents that she's planning to leave the United States to go to France to live a more uninhibited life as well as engage in a string of wild love affairs, including one with a woman named Simone.^[19]

References

1. Season 3 episode 15 "Stanny Slickers II: The Legend of Ollie's Gold
2. Written by Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. Directed by Pam Cooke. "Stan Knows Best". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 3. FOX.
3. Written by Brian Boyle. Directed by John Aoshima. "Stannie Get Your Gun". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 14. FOX.
4. Written by Rick Wiener and Kenny Schwartz. Directed by Anthony Lioi. "Roger n' Me". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 20. FOX.
5. "Watch American Dad - Season 7, Episode 16: The Kidney Stays In The Picture". Tvmuse.eu. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
6. "Watch American Dad - Season 7 Episode 16: The Kidney Stays In The Picture". Tvmuse.eu. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
7. "Tom's DVD Review Page - American Dad Volume 6". Imemine98.com. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
8. McFarland, Kevin (2013-01-07). ""Finger Lenting Good" | American Dad | TV Club | TV". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
9. McFarland, Kevin (May 13, 2013). ""Da Flippity Flop" | American Dad | TV Club | TV". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
10. Written by David Zuckerman. Directed by Brent Woods. "Threat Levels". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 2. FOX.
11. Written by Chris McKenna and Matt McKenna. Directed by Brent Woods. "Tears of a Clooney". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 23. FOX.
12. Written by Josh Bycel and Jonathan Fener. Directed by Albert Calleros. "Camp Refoogee". American Dad!. Season 2. Episode 24. FOX.
13. Written by Nahnatcka Khan. Directed by Rodney Clouden. "Stan of Arabia: Part 1". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 12. FOX.
14. Written by Alison McDonald. Directed by Brent Woods. "Bullocks to Stan". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 12. FOX.
15. Written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. Directed by Anthony Lioi. "Stan of Arabia: Part 2". American Dad!. Season 1. Episode 13. FOX.
16. Written by Keith Heisler. Directed by Joe Daniello. "Joint Custody". American Dad!. Season 2. Episode 42. FOX.
17. "Haylias". American Dad!. Season 3. Episode 47. FOX.
18. Written by Etan Cohen. Directed by Rodney Clouden. "Failure is Not a Factory-installed Option". American Dad!. Season 2. Episode 26. FOX.
19. Written by David Zuckerman. Directed by Brent Woods. "Haylias". American Dad!. Season 3. Episode 47. FOX.

External links

• Hayley Smith at Fox.com
• Hayley Smith at the Internet Movie Database