At the time, Fox was aiming to develop a new lineup of adult animated sitcoms. The original "American Dad!" pilot was a 6-minute version of the first 6 minutes in the series premiere. This precursory pilot was used by MacFarlane, Barker, and Weitzman to sell "American Dad!" to Fox and was never aired along with the rest of the series. Fox green-lit the show and announced that it would air after Super Bowl XXXIX on February 6, 2005. During this, Family Guy was canceled in 2003; American Dad! was initially going to replace Family Guy. But in 2005, the show was revived due to high re-run ratings and DVD sales. Because of this, MacFarlane handed creative control to Barker and Weitzman so he can work on the show. Steve's Shazam! shirt is a reference to the TV show of the same name. The old Algebra teacher's name is Mr. Feeney; which is a reference to the show "Boy Meets World", in which the teacher that seemed to always teach the kids was named Mr. Feeney. The school is named after Pearl Bailey, as Bailey was an actress and singer, who won a Tony Award for playing Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!. The pilot episode received mixed reviews from critics. In a review of "American Dad! Volume 1 DVD", Michael Drucker of IGN stated that it's "occasionally weighed down with its topical humor. Characters are extremely polarized, especially Stan and Hayley, and the constant flow of jokes about their politics can become tiring." The New York Times's Alessandra Stanley said the show "aspires to pick up where 'The Simpsons' and 'South Park' left off, but many of its jokes and cultural references seem off. " Robert Bianco of USA Today said "If you like Family Guy, you'll probably like American Dad. The problem is, if you've seen Family Guy, you've already seen American Dad." In a negative review, Thomas Conner of the Chicago Sun-Times said "The jokes aren't funny, the story is silly (or, really, not silly enough) and the new writers follow the "Family Guy" model so closely they fail to explain any of the characters or even the premise of the show." According to the Nielsen ratings, it was viewed by 15.10 million people in the United States, and required a 7.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic.