Honestly, it shouldn't work.
You’ve got Sir Patrick Stewart, a man knighted by the Queen, a legendary Shakespearean thespian, and the literal face of moral authority in the Star Trek universe. Then you’ve got Avery Bullock, the Deputy Director of the CIA in American Dad, a character who once recited a Dr. Seuss-style poem about strippers and frequently crashes through ceilings while high on "responsible" amounts of cocaine.
It is the weirdest casting choice in television history. It’s also the best.
Most people assume a celebrity of Stewart's stature just shows up, reads a few lines for a paycheck, and heads back to the West End. But the relationship between Patrick Stewart and American Dad is way deeper than a simple cameo. Since 2005, he has voiced Bullock with a level of commitment that borders on the terrifying.
The "Acting!" Behind Avery Bullock
The joke is the voice.
Seth MacFarlane and the writers initially wanted the head of the CIA to be a stiff, Reagan-era archetype. When they landed Stewart, they leaned into the absurdity of a British man leading the most American agency on earth. No one in the show ever questions the accent. It just exists.
Stewart doesn’t just "do" the voice; he applies his full Royal Shakespeare Company training to every filthy syllable. In a famous appearance at the Oxford Union, Stewart admitted that playing Bullock gives him as much pleasure as almost anything else in his career. Why? Because for decades, he was the "serious guy." He was the bald, deep-voiced authority figure that directors were afraid to cast in anything silly.
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American Dad broke that cage.
He treats the script like it's Hamlet. When Bullock shouts about "boyish night poundings" or his "green mistress" (a ping pong table), Stewart uses the same gravitas he used for King Lear. That’s the secret sauce. If a regular voice actor said these things, it would be a standard cartoon joke. When Sir Patrick Stewart says them, it becomes high art.
The One Rule Patrick Stewart Has for the Writers
You might think the writers just throw whatever they want at him to see if he’ll say it. That’s mostly true. Stewart has stated in interviews that he loves the writing and rarely pushes back.
However, he does have a line.
He reportedly told the writers they can make Bullock a drug addict, a murderer, or a degenerate, but he will not do anything involving "kid diddling." He's fine with Bullock selling a baby to an underground dinner party (which actually happened in the show), but he draws the line at sexualizing children. It's a weirdly specific moral compass for a character who is otherwise a total monster.
There have only been a handful of times where he told the producers, "Guys, I really can’t say that." One instance involved a joke about a personal friend of his, and another was a line he found too politically offensive even for the CIA’s most depraved director.
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Why Bullock Outlasted Other Celebrity Characters
Think about other long-running animated shows. Usually, when a big star voices a character, that character eventually gets phased out or the actor stops showing up.
- Mayor West (Family Guy): Adam West was legendary, but the character was often just "wacky Adam West."
- Principal Lewis (American Dad): He’s a fan favorite, but he fills a specific "crazy guy" niche.
Avery Bullock is different. He is Stan Smith’s boss. He is a mentor. He is a rival. He even dated Stan’s daughter, Hayley, which led to the iconic line about leaving his "electrolytes" in her. Stewart has stayed with the show for over 15 seasons. He doesn’t treat it like a side gig; he treats it like a pillar of his legacy.
In fact, he once joked that he wants to be remembered for Bullock over Picard. A whole generation of fans now knows him as the guy who gets "lost in the brush" of a woman’s hair rather than the guy who commanded the Enterprise.
The Cultural Impact of a "Degenerate" Knight
There is something inherently rebellious about Stewart’s performance.
Growing up, Stewart witnessed domestic abuse in his home, a fact he has spoken about bravely. He spent his early career being the "perfect professional." You can almost feel the catharsis when he records Bullock. It’s a middle finger to the idea that "prestige" actors have to be boring.
Key Bullock Moments That Define the Role:
- The Snorax: His parody of The Lorax where he "speaks for the strippers."
- The Cocaine High: Crashing through the ceiling to offer Stan "responsible" drugs.
- The Rollerblade Diva: Revealing his past as a "rink rat" in gold lamé shorts.
These moments work because Stewart doesn't wink at the camera. He plays it straight.
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What This Means for Your Watchlist
If you’ve skipped American Dad because you thought it was just a Family Guy clone, you’re missing out on Stewart’s best comedic work. Period.
Next Steps for the Patrick Stewart Fan:
- Watch "Bullocks to Stan" (Season 1, Episode 8): This is where the Bullock/Hayley dynamic starts and you realize just how far Stewart is willing to go.
- Check out "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Avery Bullock by the Coward Stan Smith" (Season 14): A rare episode that actually explores Bullock’s psyche (and dementia).
- Listen to his autobiography, Making It So: He narrates the audiobook himself and spends time discussing his love for the "shameful" joy of voice acting.
The reality is that Patrick Stewart is 85 years old. We won't have him forever. While most people will celebrate his Shakespearean soliloquies or his time in the X-Mansion, the real ones will remember him for a bald CIA director who was obsessed with fat Asian women and high-grade opium.
That is true range.
To get the full experience, go back and re-watch the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and then immediately flip to an episode where Bullock is DJing a party. The whiplash is the highest compliment you can pay to an actor of his caliber. It’s not just "doing a voice." It’s a masterclass in not taking yourself too seriously.