play a joke on Klaus by throwing him in his bowl down a water slide, and Klaus swears horrible, excruciatingly painful revenge on them. As a result, they grow paranoid and live in the attic for the nine months in which the episode takes place, starving, wearing diapers and not letting any can of food out of their sight for a second. The two eventually go insane and try to kill each other until they realize that the only way to regain their sanity is to confront Klaus and resign themselves to his wrath. Klaus, however, says he had forgotten about his threat, though now that they have reminded him, his vengeance is renewed. The two then put a stack of books on top of his bowl, trapping him, and wonder why they did not think of that before. Production This episode was written by Erik Durbin and directed by Tim Parsons, in his first episode of the series. In addition to the regular cast, actresses Jane Lynch, Leisha Hailey, and Mary Jo Catlett guest starred in the episode. Recurring voice actors and writers Mike Barker, Erik Durbin, and Mike Henry made minor appearances. Reception "Surro-Gate" was broadcast on December 2, 2007 as part of the animated television line-up on Fox. It was preceded by reruns of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and its sister show Family Guy. It was viewed by 6.48 million homes during its initial airing, according to the Nielson ratings, despite airing simultaneously with Cold Case on CBS and The Oprah Winfrey Show on ABC. It received a 3.2 rating in the 18-43 demographic. "Surro-Gate" was met with mixed response from television critics. Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club gave it a mixed review, calling it "predictable". She went on to write, "American Dad was obviously conceived as a more satire-oriented version of its big brother, Family Guy. Where Family Guy specializes in pop-culture gags and non sequitur after non sequitur after oh-my-god-another-freakin' non sequitur, American Dad likes to pick a single (often politically volatile) target and bludgeon it to death, sometimes with humorous results. However—and this may just be jaded ol' me grinding an axe here—I prefer the show much more when it avoids the standard hot-button issues (religion, gay marriage) and wanders into more absurd territory (Stan's stint as a meter maid, the Vacation Goo)". She went on to criticize the subplot: "I