The Cleveland Show

The Cleveland Show
The Brown/Tubbs family. From left to right: Back: Cleveland, Donna, Roberta. Front: Cleveland, Jr. and Rallo
Genre	Cutaway gag humor Black comedy Off-color humor Surreal humor Slapstick
Format	Animated sitcom
Created by	Seth MacFarlane Mike Henry Richard Appel
Voices of	Mike Henry Sanaa Lathan Kevin Michael Richardson Reagan Gomez-Preston Jason Sudeikis Seth MacFarlane
Theme music composer	Walter Murphy
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	65 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Seth MacFarlane Mike Henry Richard Appel Co-Executive Producers: Kirker Butler John Viener Dave Jeser Matt Silverstein Jonathan Green Gabe Miller
Producer(s)	Kara Vallow Courtney Lilly Co-Producers: Aaron Lee Matt Murray Supervising Producers: Aseem Batra Clarence Livingston
Editor(s)	Kirk Benson
Camera setup	Animated rendition of single camera
Running time	22–23 minutes
Production company(s)	Person Unknown Productions Happy Jack Productions Fuzzy Door Productions 20th Century Fox
Distributor	20th Television
Broadcast
Original channel	Fox
Picture format	720p (HDTV)
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original run	September 27, 2009 – present
Chronology
Related shows	Family Guy American Dad!
External links
Official website

The Cleveland Show is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry and Richard Appel for the Fox Broadcasting Company, as a spin-off from Family Guy. The series centers on the Browns and Tubbs, two dysfunctional families consisting of parents Cleveland Brown and Donna Tubbs; and their children Cleveland Brown, Jr., Roberta Tubbs and Rallo Tubbs, and, like Family Guy, exhibits much of its humor in the form of cutaway gags that often lampoon American culture.

The series was conceived by MacFarlane in 2007 after developing two animated series, Family Guy and American Dad! for the Fox network. MacFarlane took Family Guy character Cleveland Brown and redesigned his son Cleveland, Jr. by making him older, softly-spoken and obese, respectively.

Since its debut on September 27, 2009, the show has broadcast 64 episodes and the third season started airing on September 25, 2011.

The Cleveland Show has been nominated for one Annie Award, one Primetime Emmy Award and two Teen Choice Awards, with all been nominated. It has mainly received mixed reviews from media critics. The Cleveland Show holds a TV-14 rating.

Origins

Main articles: Family Guy and American Dad!

The Cleveland Show is a spin-off of animated series, Family Guy

MacFarlane initially conceived The Cleveland Show in 2007 while working on two animated series, Family Guy and American Dad!.

Production

Development

The Cleveland Show first appeared on the development slate at Fox in early 2008, under no official name for the pilot, after a report that Fox had purchased the series from creators. On May 5, 2008, MacFarlane and 20th Century Fox Television inked a deal. The pilot was named The Cleveland Show in May 2008, when it appeared on the primetime slate for the 2008–09 television season, although it wasn't officially on the network schedule. Shortly after a report that the Fox network had cancelled King of the Hill, The Cleveland Show was picked up for a full season, after an additional nine episodes of the show was ordered. In May 2009, The Cleveland Show appeared on the primetime slate for the 2009–10 television season, for airing on Sunday nights at 8:30 p.m. On June 15, 2009, it was announced that The Cleveland Show would premiere on September 27, 2009.

MacFarlane and Henry pitched a 22-minute pilot to Fox which aired on September 27, 2009 but had been leaked on the internet in June 2009. Even before the pilot episode premiered, the show had already been renewed for a 22-episode second season. After the first season of the show aired, it was given the green light to start production. On June 10, 2010, less than three weeks into the first season's summer hiatus, it was announced that Fox was ordering a third season. A fourth season was announced on May 9, 2011.

Executive producers

Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry and Richard Appel serve as executive producers on the series since the first season.

Voice cast

Main article: List of The Cleveland Show voice actors

Mike Henry voices two of the show's main characters: Cleveland Brown and Rallo Tubbs. The voice of Cleveland was developed originally for Family Guy by Henry after being influenced by one of his best friends who had a very distinct regional accent. For the voice of Rallo, Henry has stated that he had originally created the voice over twenty years ago, when he had made a series of prank calls

Sanaa Lathan voices Donna Tubbs, the wife of Cleveland. In developing the character, Lathan said that the producers "wanted her to be educated, but to have some edge." Prior to voicing Donna, Lathan had only one other voice credit in a relatively low budget film entitled The Golden Blaze. In addition to the show, she also primarily worked as an actress in such films as Alien vs. Predator, Love & Basketball and The Family That Preys.

Reagan Gomez-Preston plays Roberta Tubbs, the stepdaughter of Cleveland. Gomez has stated that she uses her own voice to portray Roberta, and that she herself gets mistaken to be a fifteen year old over the phone "all the time." Before Gomez was cast as Roberta, Nia Long had provided the character's voice during the first production season, before leaving to fulfill prior acting commitments.

Kevin Michael Richardson, a recurring guest voice on Family Guy, portrays Cleveland, Jr., as well as Cleveland's next door neighbor Lester Krinklesac. In portraying Cleveland, Jr., Richardson drew inspiration from a character named Patrick that he had played on the NBC drama series ER who was mentally impaired and wore a football helmet. For Lester, Richardson stated in an interview that, being African American, he had "run into a few rednecks in [his] time," and decided to simply perform a stereotypical redneck impression for the voice of Lester.

Jason Sudeikis plays Holt Richter, one of Cleveland's drinking buddies with a short stature, and Terry Kimple, one of Cleveland's longtime friends who now works with him at Waterman Cable. Sudeikis originally began as a recurring cast member, but starting with the episode "Harder, Better, Faster, Browner", he was promoted to a series regular.

Seth MacFarlane plays Tim the Bear, which MacFarlane admits is a "Steve Martin impression [...] a Wild and Crazy Guy impression".

Other voices include that of Arianna Huffington as Tim's wife Arianna the Bear, Nat Faxon as Tim and Arianna's son Raymond the Bear, Jamie Kennedy as Roberta's boyfriend Gabriel Friedman, a.k.a. "Federline Jones", Will Forte as Principal Wally, Frances Callier as Evelyn "Cookie" Brown, Craig Robinson as LeVar "Freight Train" Brown and David Lynch as Gus the bartender.

Main cast members
Mike Henry	Sanaa Lathan	Reagan Gomez-Preston	Kevin Michael Richardson	Jason Sudeikis	Seth MacFarlane
Cleveland Brown and Rallo Tubbs	Donna Tubbs	Roberta Tubbs	Cleveland Brown, Jr. and Lester Krinklesac	Holt Richter and Terry Kimple	Tim the Bear

Characters

Main article: List of The Cleveland Show characters

Cleveland's newly introduced family includes his new wife in her early forties, Donna Tubbs Brown (voiced by Sanaa Lathan); Donna's teenage daughter Roberta (originally voiced by Nia Long, but now voiced by Reagan Gomez-Preston); and Donna's five year-old son Rallo (also voiced by Mike Henry). Cleveland, Jr. underwent a complete redesign for the show, becoming sensitive, soft-spoken and obese.

Broadcast

Episodes

Main article: List of The Cleveland Show episodes

Season		Episodes	Originally aired		DVD release dates
			Season premiere	Season finale	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	1	21	September 27, 2009 (2009-09-27)	May 23, 2010 (2010-05-23)	September 28, 2010 (2010-09-28)	September 27, 2010 (2010-09-27)	June 29, 2011 (2011-06-29)
	2	22	September 26, 2010 (2010-09-26)	May 15, 2011 (2011-05-15)	September 27, 2011 (2011-09-27)	January 30, 2012 (2012-01-30)	November 9, 2011 (2011-11-09)
	3	22	September 25, 2011 (2011-09-25)	May 20, 2012 (2012-05-20)	TBA	TBA	TBA
	4	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

Syndication

In July 2010, the Turner Broadcasting System picked up syndication rights, for their networks TBS and Adult Swim, set to premiere in fall 2013.

International broadcast

Country	Network	Premiere date
Canada	Global	September 27, 2009
Australia	Network Ten Eleven FOX8	December 2, 2009 – January 12, 2011 January 12, 2011 – present March 13, 2011–present
United Kingdom	E4 FX	February 1, 2010 – present January 6, 2011 – present
Mexico	FX Latin America	April 25, 2010
Brazil	FX Latin America	April 25, 2010
Ireland	3e	February 21, 2010
Portugal	Fox	June 5, 2010
Denmark	TV 2 Zulu	June 23, 2010
Israel	Yes Comedy	July 2, 2010
Greece	FX	March 2010
Hungary	Comedy Central	July 7, 2010
Russia	2x2	September 2, 2010
Italy	FOX Italia 2	September 7, 2010
Spain	FOX Neox	July 19, 2010
Norway	TV2	August 13, 2010
Netherlands	Comedy Central	September 12, 2010
New Zealand	C4 Four Comedy Central	2010 February 10, 2011 – present 2011–present
Philippines	Jack TV	October 2010
South Africa	Vuzu	November 29, 2010
Uruguay	Monte Carlo TV	December 18, 2010
Sweden	Kanal 5 (Sweden)	January 3, 2011
Czech Republic	Prima Cool	February 5, 2011
Poland	FOX Poland	February 16, 2011
France	France Ô	April 8, 2011
Estonia	TV6 (Estonia)	June 1, 2011
Latvia	TV6 Latvia	December 1, 2010
Palestinian territories	FX	July, 2011
Argentina	FX	January 29, 2012
Hong Kong	Fox	April 2, 2012 (Season 2) (Mondays to Wednesdays 11:40 pm (UTC+8))
Indonesia
Malaysia
Singapore
Taiwan

Reception

Critical reception

The Cleveland Show has received mixed to negative reviews. Review aggregator Metacritic gave the show a score of 57 out of 100, with a user score of 3.4/10. Tom Shales of The Washington Post spoke very negatively about both the show and MacFarlane himself, describing him as "no better than the dirty old man hanging around playgrounds with naughty pictures or risque jokes as lures". Roberto Bianco of USA Today wrote a similarly negative review, suggesting that the easiest fix for its problem was "cancellation". John McWhorter of The New Republic called it "a patronizing mess" and "basically Family Guy in blackface". He added: "What isn't black in it is so shamelessly ripped off from Family Guy that it's hard to believe it's the product of creators who are usually so studiously 'post-' obvious stunts of the sort." However, Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was more positive about the program, writing that although The Cleveland Show was "just as rude-crude" as Family Guy, it also had "more warmth" due to Cleveland being a more likeable character than Peter Griffin. Owen also praised the character of Tim the Bear, stating that "Tim is by far the most amusing creation".

The conservative Parents Television Council has given The Cleveland Show a "red light" designation in the organization's Family Guide to Prime Time Television, for sexual and violent content, and for foul language. "True to form, this Family Guy spin-off is every bit as soul-sucking, nihilistic, infantile, and crass as its predecessor—the only difference being, this serving of filth airs a half-hour earlier, so even more kiddies can tune in!" the PTC stated in deeming the pilot episode its "Worst TV Show of the Week". Five other Season 1 episodes—including several repeat broadcasts—were named "Worst TV Show of the Week".

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipients and nominees	Outcome
2011	Annie Awards	Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production	Mike Henry as Cleveland Brown	Nominated
2011	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program	The Cleveland Show	Nominated
2011	NAMIC Vision Awards	Animation	The Cleveland Show	Nominated
2011	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Animated Show	The Cleveland Show	Nominated
2010	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Animated Show	The Cleveland Show	Nominated

External links

• Official website
• The Cleveland Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Cleveland Show at TV.com