A Man. And His Blog.

The first season of FOX's spin-off comedy aired during the TV season 2009/2010

“My name is Cleveland Brown, and I am proud to be right back in my hometown with my new family. There’s old friend and new friends, and even a bear. Through good times and bad times, it’s true love we share. And so I found a place, where everyone will know my happy mustache face. This is The Cleveland Show. “
This FOX animated comedy is a spin-off of the much-loved series Family Guy. The series features the adventures of Peter Griffin’s neighbor Cleveland Brown. Many years ago, Cleveland made a promise to his old high school sweetheart, Donna. Cleveland, along with Cleveland Junior, move to Stoolbend, VA to start a new life with Donna and her two children.

Episode 01: Pilot
Way back during the first days of the TV season 2009/2010 I reviewed the pilot episode. Click here to read it. 6/10

Episode 02: Da Daggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance
“How was your first school day?” – “Worst than an ABC comedy show” Muhaha, I was laughing. But that was not the only funny dialogue: “Who is Chloe Sevigny?” – “Just some gross indie porno actress”
A good episode, and I like how the main topic of the series (Cleveland tries to be a good stepfather) is still going on. But not that will hold on for the complete first season: doing something wrong and then being hated by the kids. Because that would be boring after a short while.
Even the moral of the story was good, because it didn’t jump you from the start, like every 7th Heaven episode once did.
Boring was Cleveland’s speech after he won the Academy Award, and a few of these “in-between” scenes lost a bit of sense. Only the dubbing seems to suck balls; I can’t start to like the voices. 7/10

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Is Seth MacFarlane the new man for FOX’s animated Sunday program? Three of four series are created by him (the fourth one being the veteran The Simpsons) and probably the next animated programs are coming from his mind. The current one is the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show. It’s about Family Guy’s character Cleveland (voice of
Mike Henry). A father, who just has been divorced from his wife and got custody for his son Cleveland jr. (voice of Kevin Michael Richardson) and thinks about moving out of the old house, after he learned he is not going to do it in Rhode Island anymore. So he is moving to California, with a little detour in Stoolbend, Virginia). And the big adventure of family Brown can begin.
I once saw bits and pieces of the first season of Family Guy and so I didn’t have any expectations on this series, not only did I not really like Family Guy, but I don’t have the nerves for another animated comedy series (I rather wait for the next season of the newly reanimated Futurama), which tries to be satirical and funny and tries to copy the other ones out there. After the pilot I can say that I actually like the animated black comedy style and I liked it more than FOX’s other black comedy Brothers. And The Cleveland show is way better than Brothers. But for the rest: The pilot didn’t really work for me, because it was just uninteresting.
Even animated comedies could make some interesting characters once in a while. I know that this isn’t standard for US animation, but why is it so difficult to put some “seriousness” in the animated program? In the pilot I saw some moral stories and especially at the end the episode hat its best moments, but for the rest it was just useless, unimportant, partly funny and not interesting for me. Cleveland seems to be the perfect character for an own show and is truly the next reanimation of Homer (The Simpsons), or Fry (Futurama), or Peter (Family Guy). The rest is just a copy of the rest of the animated characters in the other animated shows.
At least there was some sort of story: It was nice to see that Cleveland made some development during the first episode. The departure during a part of Family Guy (in full screen), and then the efforts to live in the new city with a new family (in nice HDTV). I could have done it without the Family Guy part, because it took too much time. Maybe it would have been better to start directly with Cleveland and kid in the car, driving to their new home. But the introduction of Cleveland’s new family was good. And with a little love story and Cleveland’s efforts to be a father for Donna Tubbs’ (voice of Sanaa Lathan) kids, the teenage daughter Roberta (voice of Reagan Gomez-Preston) and the five-year-old son Rallo (voice of Mike Henry), the series has some interesting stories coming up. Assumed Seth MacFarlane thinks about some real stories and trying to put some effort in his series and not just copy his own success. That would be boring.
By the way: The voice actors could maybe voice their characters not so over the top. I had the feeling, I am hearing the same voice for all of the characters.
6 out of 10 points.