Kevin Reilly, the president of the entertainment division of Fox Broadcasting Company, introduced the idea of a crossover to Seth MacFarlane, the creator of all three shows.
When a hurricane arrives at Langley Falls, the Smiths prepare to evacuate their home with their neighbor Buckle in his amphibious raft.
Before the debate can be resolved, the seawall breaks and the ocean floods down the street, removing Buckle and his raft out of its path and trapping the Smiths in their home nevertheless.
Roger cries when his date falls to the floor and gets impaled by a moose antler chandelier (although it is only because she is wearing his favourite sweater).
Stan, Hayley, Jeff and Klaus decide to head to the attic for higher ground, but it starts to flood.
Francine suggests that their rope to the first floor doesn't provide much strength, so she convinces the family to climb it one at a time.
Unfortunately, Jeff, too panicked to remain patient, jumps onto the rope with Steve still hanging on it, tearing it down and angering Hayley as the Smiths are now stuck in the second floor of the tipped over house.
As the storm worsens, the family becomes increasingly frightened and distrustful of Stan when his idea to open another window to let them float to the top results in Hayley being taken by a great white shark.
Steve fails to hide his porn collection from his mother, while Roger secretly drowns his date upon discovering she is still alive.
Stan loses hope and admits Francine's suggestions are better than his own, until Klaus gives him an encouragement speech by comparing him to Nicolas Cage: despite his failure in several movies, Cage eventually made a successful film (which Klaus believes to be National Treasure: Book of Secrets).
Stan obtains a grizzly bear from the zoo to battle the shark, which only further aggravates the situation when the two animals work together to thrash the family.
Buckle enters the house with a tranquilizer gun and sedates the two predators before also shooting Stan realizing that he was an equal threat.
When Francine comes out the front door, Stan accidentally shoots her, which Peter claims to be "classic American Dad!"
[3][4] Kevin Reilly, the entertainment president of the Fox Broadcasting Company, originally pitched the idea for the crossover, which was inspired by theme nights of comedy shows from the 1980s.
[4][6] In his interview on the plot of the final part of the crossover episode, Mike Barker, a producer for American Dad, stated that "[they] end up flooding the house and turning it upside down."
[6] However, on April 29, it was announced that the crossover event would be removed from the schedule, in response to a series of tornadoes that killed nearly 300 people in the Southern United States.
[5][7][8][9][10][11] The crossover was subsequently replaced by reruns of "I Am the Walrus" from American Dad!, "Brian Writes a Bestseller" from Family Guy, and "Ain't Nothin' But Mutton Bustin'" from The Cleveland Show.
[7][11][12] MacFarlane later agreed with the decisions after being consulted with the executives of Fox, and a spokeswoman for the company later announced that the episode would air the succeeding season.
[13] In addition to the regular cast, voice actor Mike Henry, actress Lisa Edelstein and voice actress Kristen Schaal guest starred in the episode as Cleveland Brown, Sharri Rothberg, and Roger's One Night Stand respectively.
[14] Edelstein and McKenna reprised their roles of Shari and Buckle, having last done so in the season seven episode "Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls".