Stan Smith is the exaggeratedly
masculine husband of Francine and father of
Steve and
Hayley. Though Hayley may not be Stan's
biological daughter—Francine was revealed to have cheated on Stan at her
bachelorette party in the episode "
The Kidney Stays in the Picture"—Stan still regards her as such and refused to learn the results of a
DNA test. As the Smith family's breadwinner, Stan is an agent for the
CIA. Tending to take extreme measures with no regard for others nor potentially disastrous consequences, Stan is portrayed as insanely drastic; endangering; rash;
dog-eat-dog; and both inconsiderate and insensitive of others. Stan's mentality is of a staunchly
conservative Republican and self-proclaimed American patriot. His conservatism is expressed ludicrously with him often coming off as severely intolerant,
self-abnegating, and wrongheaded. All the same however, Stan has numerous alternate ways of taking drastic measures beyond politics. As examples—in the episode "
Dope & Faith" when Stan found out one of his friends was an
atheist, he tried getting him to pray by blowing up his home, spreading the
bird flu at his restaurant, brainwashing his wife into thinking she was a lesbian, and taking his kids away; in the episode "
I Can't Stan You", Stan evicted his entire neighborhood and his own family just for overhearing some of his neighbors gossiping about him behind his back; in the episode "
Four Little Words", Stan framed his wife as a murderer all so as not to hear her say the words "I told you so"; etc.
Troublesome sides and extreme-measure taking Insanely drastic and
rashly so, Stan at times acts on his first
impulses, which typically result in extreme measures. Often, his extreme measures are of a conspicuously destructive, disastrous, offensive, or life-threatening nature to others. MacFarlane has likened Stan's original character to
Archie Bunker from
All in the Family. Under his initial persona, he also opposed
homosexuality and
gay marriage for a time. He changed his views on homosexuality, however, in the episode "
Lincoln Lover", once becoming associated with the
Log Cabin Republicans. Stan's stance on homosexuality further softened in the episode "
Surro-Gate" when Francine acted as a
surrogate mother for gay couple Greg and Terry's baby. At the end of this episode, Stan realized what a loving family Greg and Terry were. After the first few seasons and as the series progressed, Stan was portrayed as growing out of these particular traits and they were largely dropped from his character. Branching out, he later began displaying his wrongheadedness and penchant for taking to extremes in numerous other ways beyond ultra
right-wing politics. He has also exhibited instances of gullibility (like his son Steve) such as when he believed he was taking cold medicine when in fact he was smoking "
crack" as Roger nonchalantly points out. Hayley has also tricked him into buying mirrored sunglasses that wound up getting him kidnapped by a group of radicals. In another episode, Roger states to Stan that he has to "
give" his champion racehorse "
a full release", which Stan ultimately does so. Stan has also once drunk Roger's urine due to the alien telling him it was a fancy beer. The episode "
Irregarding Steve" reveals that Stan believes that popcorn doesn't pop above sea level. In "
Love, AD Style" when Francine points out if they added another "C" before the "K" in the acronym of the new car Stan wants to buy he says he doesn't know what she's talking about, clearly not realizing what the new acronym would spell out. In "
Stanny Tendergrass" Stan thought he was able to afford a membership at Mr. Vanderhill's (Roger's) country club after working there thirty years at the cost of seven grand, completely unaware of the vast price inflation cost (two hundred grand). ==Occupation==