Roger (American Dad!) - Backstory

Backstory

The character of Roger is enhanced with an elaborate backstory. He was born in AD 410. He has shown an affinity for the cold, and has remarked that snow reminds him of his home world and that he learned to ice-skate there. Roger's planet and species are never specifically named, and were not seen until the season nine episode "Lost in Space." He has, on one occasion, demonstrated the ability to move at superhuman speed.

On his home planet, Roger worked as a greeter at a Walmart-style department store. Roger was tricked into coming to Earth as a crash test dummy under the assumption that he was "The Decider" and that the fate of mankind was in his hands. A later episode reveals that prior to this, Roger was the boyfriend of the Emperor, and broke the Emperoer's heart by cheating on him with another man. In the course of learning his true purpose for coming to Earth, he discovered that he was very resistant to fire. Having survived the crash, he has been on Earth since 1947. Similar to Forrest Gump, Roger has been a part of several important moments in recent American history. Roger had a hand in inventing disco music, was a member of the Miracle on Ice 1980 US Olympic men's hockey team, was Jerry Lewis's tailor in 1966 and gave him the idea for the MDA Telethon (for which Lewis took full credit), fought for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, was the CEO of General Motors during the 1980s, and was responsible for the death of The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997 after angering an armed driver who cut the rapper off in traffic (Roger survived the shooting and stole Notorious B.I.G.'s gold chain, which Stan assumed was a gift Roger made for him). He is also responsible for getting Joseph Hazelwood (captain of the Exxon Valdez) drunk, leading to the infamous oil spill in 1989, was a pro-segregation protester in Alabama during the 1960s (he was seen knocking the books out of Vivian Malone's hand as she was being escorted by military officers inside the University of Alabama), and created the initial design for Jar Jar Binks for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, as seen in flashbacks in "You Debt Your Life". He also discovered the recreational uses of the drug MDMA (ecstasy) in the mid-1990s.

There are numerous references to him having attending Howard University in 1983 (the non-canon episode "Tearjerker" showed Roger in an Afro giving a black power salute as part of his graduation picture). Apparently he graduated with a master's degree in City Planning (as he explained in "Stanny Boy and Frantastic") and the episode "Hurricane!" shows he still had their sweatshirt until it was destroyed in that episode.

He has also had several one-shot jobs, such as car salesman and college professor as well as showing a number of talents for things like house cleaning, cooking, bartending (possibly the job he's stuck with the longest), wedding planning, and, in general, the ability to organize large scale projects (like a massive spring break blowout) very well.

Roger is skilled in the art of disguise, being able to pass for either a man or a woman and to adopt an accent as required. He is also multilingual, speaking (at least) fluent Vietnamese and Chinese such as in "In Country...Club", "Stan's Food Restaurant" and in other episodes.

He lived with several families before the Smiths, with varying degrees of amicability, the Smiths being the only family knowing that he is an alien. Additionally, Roger seems adept at either identity theft and/or creating new identities for himself (many of which have Social Security numbers) so he can move freely in the world. The CIA is aware of his existence and has been attempting to capture him, succeeding once (when Stan Smith met him), and once when Roger accidentally caught himself while working at the CIA. In order to make Roger palatable to the family, Stan gave him to his son Steve as a birthday present, and Roger is now accepted as part of the Smith family.