From smartphones and accessories to mobile plans, Rogers has what you need. Find the right cell phone for you, plus learn about tablets, smartwatches and more. Rogers: Wireless, TV, Internet, Home Phone & Home Monitoring.

Roger Smith is a 4'3' (1.29m tall) fictional extraterrestrial in the adultanimated sitcomAmerican Dad!, created, voiced, and designed by Seth MacFarlane. Roger is a 1,601-year-old (as of 2010), grey space alien living with the Smith family, around whom the show often revolves. Having lived on Earth since crashing in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, Roger came to live with the Smiths after rescuing main character Stan Smith at Area 51 four years prior to the beginning of the series.^[1][2]

Roger began the series as a sensitive careless person who often took advantage of, cheated, and ridiculed people. Over time, the character has become a sociopath, exhibiting increasingly cruel, selfish, devious, and depraved behavior,^[1][3] although the Smith family are curiously oblivious to his nature despite being his most frequent victims, with the only three exceptions of Stan, who despises Roger for his annoying antics despite the fact that he saved his life; Klaus, who acts as Roger's frenemy; and Steve, who is usually Roger's partner in most of their misadventures together. In early episodes of the show, Roger is disallowed from leaving the Smith house in order to conceal his being an alien.^[4] This restriction is soon abandoned and Roger begins adopting disguises and fictitious personas in order to have a life outside the house.

Roger's personas have become a major plot device, with his myriad alter egos frequently being the subject or facilitator of an episode's main story or subplot. This also helps to amplify his pansexuality and androgynous nature, which varies dependent on the plot situation and persona he has adopted. Aside from catalyzing the plot or subplot with his various personas, and despite his increasingly evident self-interest, he often serves to counsel the show's main characters, by humorously affirming or bluntly disregarding their opinions.

When voicing the character, MacFarlane speaks in a swish accent intended to resemble Paul Lynde (who played Uncle Arthur in Bewitched).^[5] In 2014, Roger was voted 'Gayest Cartoon Character of All Time' in a first-ever March Madness style competition held by Logo TV.^[6]

Character[edit]

Roger loves drinking wine. He is currently single and is also pansexual. Having his feelings hurt usually spurs the creation of his alter egos and schemes. Roger typically displays a lighthearted, carefree temperament while at the same time engaging in his freakish grossness, outrageous malice, and rascally shenanigans.^[1][3][7] Crude and brazen, Roger has no qualms with randomly saying and doing whatever is on his mind, having little to no sympathy for anyone who might suffer as a result of his actions, and regularly misleading and finagling others to achieve his desired ends. He is the best friend of Steve Smith, and several subplots revolve around them, most notably the Wheels and the Legman episodes. Roger and Steve have a love-hate relationship, in which they constantly bicker and insult each other, but show affection for each other several times. However, according to the episode 'Frannie 911', Roger is not this unpleasant by choice; his species of alien must let all unpleasantries out, for if they don't, it will turn into poison and kill them.

History[edit]

Rogers.com

Also according to 'Frannie 911', Roger has been on earth for over 60 years, having arrived in 1947 as a result of being tricked,^[8] led to believe he was 'The Decider' in whose hands the fate of mankind rested, when in fact he was serving the role of a crash test dummy. Earlier, after causing his aunt's spaceship to crash, Roger lived with a family of pioneer fur trappers that died traveling on the Oregon Trail in the episode 'OreTron Trail'. There is also the possibility, he or another member of his race came to earth in early antiquity, as in the first episode of the 13th season a stone carving is shown depicting an alien-looking like Roger squatting above a pyramid with two Egyptians presumably praising him and hieroglyph characters surrounding them. In the episode 'Naked to the Limit, One More Time' however, it is evidenced that Roger remains on Earth by will, the episode revealing that he can simply call for his people's spaceship to return him to his birth planet if he so desires.

Details on Roger's actual family and pre-Earth life have yet to be shown on the series. Although in the episode 'Lost in Space', a brief clip revealed that prior to Roger's life on Earth, he was involved in a homosexual romantic relationship with another member of his alien race, Zing; however, Roger cheated on Zing, blatantly making out with a human male in front of him. It's also been revealed in the episode 'I Am the Walrus' that Roger ate his father when he turned 15. Roger revealed in the episode 'OreTron Trail', that he once visited Earth before in the 1800s after crash landing with his aunt Caroline and she died on impact.

Roger came into contact with the Smith family when he saved Stan's life back when Roger was a fugitive of Area 51 (four years prior to the show's beginnings). Feeling he owed Roger a life debt because of this, Stan rescued him from government capture and allowed him to live in his home. Stan has allowed this in defiance of his employer, the CIA. Roger now covertly lives in the Smith home. Roger uses the Smith's attic as his hideout/room/bar.

Roger Federer

Roger's disguises[edit]

After Stan took Roger in for saving his life, he felt that it would endanger him and the rest of his family if it were to be discovered that Roger is an alien and living with them. Consequently, Stan forbade him from leaving the house when the series first began, even in disguise. Confined to the house in the first couple of seasons, Roger was miserable and malcontent.^[4] However, Roger is able to skillfully use disguises to exist in the outside world, which has become a major plot device in later episodes. Adding to this, he's created countless alter egos to go along with them.^[7]

Roger has, however, abused this practice, leading numerous lives and outrageously deceiving numerous people. In fact, some of Roger's characters are in prison, while others are widely despised, and others somehow have full-fledged human families and are even married; several of his characters somehow have birth children while others are graduates of Howard University. Roger also uses several of these personas to act in a criminal manner, as several of his alter egos have been seen to engage in robbery, sexual assault, police corruption, identity theft, drug trafficking, child abuse, and with one persona even admitting to being wanted 'for a series of prostitute murders'.

As the series has progressed, Roger's personas have developed their own lives that even he can be unaware of and his control has been shown to be tenuous at best. In 'The Horse Whisperer' he realizes seconds before walking into a room (to see a horse therapist) that he is the one inside; In another episode, both he and Stan express surprise that a character introduced by Roger wasn't one of his personas.

Despite his numerous disguises consisting of only a different set of garment and hair with no effort to disguise his gray skin, non-human face and body features (with some exceptions, like additional bodyweight, facial hair, or wrinkles), Roger has been capable of deceiving virtually every single person he interacts with without ever being discovered as an alien; not even by Stan's colleagues from CIA, who according to him, have 'an entire floor' looking for Roger. The Smith family is the only exception; however, for each member of the family, there is one individual alter ego they can not recognize as Roger. On top of that, Roger has been sent to the hospital several times over the course of the series, and medical personnel, for some reason, have never found out that he's not a human.^[9]

Potential film adaptation[edit]

At Comic-Con 2013 on July 20, Mike Barker revealed that an American Dad! film centering on Roger and set on his birth planet may take place in the future. Barker did not announce any specifics as it relates to the nature and type of film he and the rest of the show's creators had in mind for the series; however, he strongly suggested that a film is where the show's staff and creators would like to take things. Barker further hinted that an American Dad! film may already be in the works and partially written.^[10] Barker further hinted that an American Dad! movie may already even be in the works and partially written. No further information about the movie was released following Barker's exit from the series in November 2013.^[11]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abc'Roger Video | Movie Clips & Character Interview'. Ovguide.com. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013. Retrieved April 9, 2013.
2. ^McEwen, Lauren (October 8, 2012). ''American Dad': One of the most sophisticated mainstream shows on African American culture - The Root DC Live'. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
3. ^ ^abEmily VanDerWerff (September 28, 2012). 'Comedy Showrunners Week: American Dad's co-creators on the show's weird evolution | TV | Interview'. The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
4. ^ ^abAWN. 'American Dad Touchdown | AWN |'. AWN. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
5. ^'A Chat with Seth MacFarlane'. Bullz-eye.com. May 21, 2007. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
6. ^Nichols, James (April 8, 2014). 'Roger Of 'American Dad' Crowned LOGO's 'Gayest Cartoon Of All Time''. www.huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
7. ^ ^abMcFarland, Kevin (February 18, 2013). ''Naked To The Limit, One More Time' | American Dad | TV Club | TV'. The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
8. ^'American Dad Scripts'. American Dad Scripts. Archived from the original on January 4, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
9. ^'American Dad!' Roger Passes the Bar (TV Episode 2014), retrieved June 21, 2017
10. ^+ data.results.personName+ (July 20, 2013). 'Comic-Con 2013: 'American Dad' Season 10 guest stars include Zooey Deschanel, Alison Brie and Mariah Carey - Zap2it'. Blog.zap2it.com. Archived from the original on August 22, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
11. ^+ data.results.personName + (July 20, 2013). 'Comic-Con 2013: 'American Dad' Season 10 guest stars include Zooey Deschanel, Alison Brie and Mariah Carey – Zap2it'. Blog.zap2it.com. Archived from the original on August 22, 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2020.

Roger Troutman (November 29, 1951 – April 25, 1999), also known mononymously as Roger, was an American singer, composer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and the founder of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the funk movement and heavily influenced West Coast hip hop due to the scene's heavy sampling of his music over the years. Troutman was well known for his use of the talk box, a device that is connected to an instrument (frequently a keyboard, but most commonly a guitar) to create different vocal effects. Roger used a custom-made talkbox—the Electro Harmonix 'Golden Throat'—through a Moog Minimoog and later in his career a Yamaha DX100 FM synthesizer. As both band leader of Zapp and in his subsequent solo releases, he scored a bevy of funk and R&B hits throughout the 1980s and regularly collaborated with hip hop artists in the 1990s.

Biography[edit]

Early career[edit]

Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Roger was the fourth of ten children. His first band was called the Crusaders; however, they are not to be confused with the jazz group featuring Joe Sample and Wilton Felder. Troutman's band played in Cincinnati and recorded a single, 'Busted Surfboard'/'Seminole'. The band members were Rick Schoeny, Roy Beck, Dave Spitzmiller, and Denny Niebold. Troutman had formed various other bands with his four brothers, including Little Roger, and the Vels, and Roger and the Human Body. In 1977, he and the Human Body issued 'Freedom', their first single.

Within two years, Roger and his brothers were discovered by George Clinton, who signed the newly christened Zapp to his Uncle Jam Records label in 1979. The original line-up consisted of Roger Troutman, Larry Troutman, Lester Troutman, Terry Troutman, Gregory Jackson and Bobby Glover. Zapp made their professional television debut on the first and only Funk Music Awards show.

A year later, as Uncle Jam Records was forced to close, Troutman signed with Bootsy Collins under Rubber Band Music to Warner Bros. Records and released his self-titled debut 'Zapp', which yielded 'More Bounce to the Ounce', produced by Collins, co- produced, written, composed and performed by Troutman. The song peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Soul Singles chart in late 1980. The debut album reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200.

From 1980 to 1985, Zapp released the gold-selling albums Zapp, Zapp II, Zapp III and The New Zapp IV U, including the Top 10 R&B singles 'Be Alright', 'Dance Floor', 'I Can Make You Dance', 'Heartbreaker', 'It Doesn't Really Matter' and 'Computer Love'. Throughout Zapp's history, around 15 musicians participated. In 1993, Zapp released their biggest-selling album: Zapp & Roger: All the Greatest Hits. It featured remixed cuts of Troutman's solo singles along with a new single 'Slow and Easy', (featured vocalists Shirley Murdock and Ronnie Diamond). The album sold over two million copies. The album Zapp VI: Back by Popular Demand was released in 2002 by the remaining brothers after the deaths of Roger and Larry.

Solo career and production work on other artists[edit]

In 1981, Troutman cut The Many Facets of Roger, his first solo album. Featuring a funk cover of Marvin Gaye's 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine', which went to number 1 on the R&B singles chart, the album sold over a million copies. The album also featured the hit 'So Ruff, So Tuff', which was similar to 'More Bounce..' as were most Roger/Zapp singles during this time. The same year, Troutman recorded with Parliament-Funkadelic on the band's final Warner Brothers' album The Electric Spanking of War Babies.

In 1984, Troutman issued his second solo album The Saga Continues.., which featured the singles 'Girl Cut It Out', 'It's in the Mix' (which was dedicated to Soul Train and its host Don Cornelius), and a cover of Wilson Pickett's 'In the Midnight Hour', which featured gospel group the Mighty Clouds of Joy. In 1987, Troutman scored his most successful solo album with Unlimited!, carried by the massive hit 'I Want to Be Your Man' which rose to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the R&B chart.

Alongside his successful career as Zapp member and solo artist, Troutman also became a producer and writer for other artists including Shirley Murdock, whose 1985 Platinum debut featured the Roger-produced hit 'As We Lay'. Microsoft remote desktop ipad. He also produced for Zapp member Dale DeGroat on his solo efforts. In 1988, Troutman made an appearance on Scritti Politti's third album Provision, providing talk box vocals on the songs 'Boom There She Was' and 'Sugar and Spice'.

Three years later, Troutman released his final solo album with Bridging the Gap, featuring the hit 'Everybody (Get Up)'. He worked with Elvis Costello on the song 'The Other Side of Summer'. In 1989, NBA Entertainment selected Troutman among a variety of candidates to record a tribute song called 'I'm So Happy' for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Career re-emergence[edit]

Troutman toured after the release of All the Greatest Hits. He was invited to appear as guest artist on several hip-hop albums, including Snoop Dogg's 1993 debut Doggystyle. In 1995 he was featured on Eazy-E's posthumous album Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton on 'Eternal E'. The same year Troutman performed vocals on 2Pac and Dr. Dre's single 'California Love'. The song became Troutman's biggest-selling and most successful single to date as the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100^[1] and sold over two million copies, and received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.^[2] Troutman then produced a top 10 R&B hit cover of the Persuaders' 'Thin Line Between Love and Hate', performed by Shirley Murdock and R&B group H-Town, with talk box by Troutman. The movie soundtrack to A Thin Line Between Love and Hate also included a club hit 'Chocolate City'. In 1998, he appeared in a remix version of Sounds of Blackness' 'Hold On (A Change Is Coming)', which sampled Zapp's 'Doo-Wah Ditty (Blow That Thang)'. Roger last recorded on the song 'Master of the Game' from rapper Kool Keith's album Black Elvis/Lost In Space.

Death[edit]

On the morning of April 25, 1999, Troutman was found shot and critically wounded outside his northwest Dayton recording studio around 7:00 a.m. According to doctors, the 47-year-old had been shot several times in the torso. Troutman died during surgery at the Good Samaritan Hospital and Health Center. Roger's brother Larry was found dead in a car a few blocks away with a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The car matched the description of a vehicle leaving the scene of Roger Troutman's shooting, according to witnesses.^[3] The gun found with Larry also matched the one that fired the fatal shots at Roger, suggesting that Larry had shot Roger and then committed suicide.

Solo discography[edit]

Studio albums[edit]

Roger Stone

Singles[edit]

Roger Williams Zoo

As featured artist[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'2Pac Billboard Chart History'. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
2. ^'Grammy Archive'. Retrieved 2004-04-12.
3. ^'California Loved'. Retrieved 2007-04-12.

External links[edit]

• Roger Troutman discography at Discogs
• Roger Troutman at IMDb
• Roger Troutman at AllMusic