American Dad! will jump to TBS, ensuring continued peaceful relations between Fox, Turner

Though it started out as little more than a variation of Family Guy where Peter Griffin is lantern-jawed, archly conservative, and armed to the teeth (and Stewie is a goldfish for some reason), American Dad! has grown into one of the strongest links in Fox’s Animation Domination chain over the course of nine seasons. However, the animated series will defect from its broadcast homeland following the 2013-14 TV season, seeking the greater freedoms afforded by basic cable.

American Dad will join fellow network expatriate Cougar Town on TBS in the fall of 2014, exploring the cable outlet’s ostensibly looser standards for cartoon violence while speaking in exotic, previously taboo swears. TBS and its sister network, Adult Swim, have long offered off-network refuge for American Dad! and its ilk, and this move comes off as a gesture of continued diplomatic relations between the broadcasters—defusing speculation that Fox’s forthcoming Animation Domination High Definition is in any way an attempt to invade the late-night cartoon territory occupied by Adult Swim since 2001. For the time being, the comically long bomb fuses remain unlit, the TNT plungers un-pushed, the cartoon revolvers merely loaded with telescoping flags that read “BANG!”