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TwitterPilot Light: FOX's 'Cleveland Show'
The second installment of Pilot Light, our ongoing look at the first episodes of new shows coming your way next season, focuses on "The Cleveland Show," the "Family Guy" spinoff that will join the network's Sunday animation block this fall.
Standard disclaimer: These aren't reviews -- in a lot of cases, pilots aren't completely finished products yet. But we do want to offer our impressions of the new shows, now that we've seen more than just a few clips.
On to "The Cleveland Show," then.
What it is: Cleveland Brown (voiced by "Family Guy" regular Mike Henry) and son Cleveland Jr. (Kevin Michael Richardson) leave Quahog and return to his hometown of Stoolbend, Va., where he settles in with his high-school sweetheart, Donna (Sanaa Lathan), and her two kids, Roberta and Rallo (Reagan Gomez-Preston and Henry again).
Who's making it: Henry and "Family Guy" impresario Seth MacFarlane co-created the show with "FG" and "Simpsons" veteran Rich Appel.
What to look for: "Family Guy" fans will recognize more than a few conceits in "Cleveland" -- talking animals (in this case, a couple of bears who live next door), cutaways, frequent pop-culture references and some occasionally crude humor. But it's also more of a love story, and Cleveland and Donna seem like a genuinely sweet couple.
What pops: Henry and Co. have made Cleveland a fully realized character. Rallo is the Stewie stand-in here and, like his counterpart, gets the most outrageous lines.
What doesn't: As with "Family Guy," you don't have to wait more than a few seconds for a fresh joke, but there's a definite hit-and-miss quality to some of them.
Related:
Pilot Light: ABC's 'Cougar Town'
VIDEO: 'The Cleveland Show' first look
FOX's 2009-10 schedules
Zap2it's Fall TV Preview coverage
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Seth MacFarlane will have 3 shows on Sunday night, it must be good to be him. I wonder when the "Family Guy" movie will come out? Rated R I hope :)
family guy is pretty awsome!! :D
I hate that FOX canceled King of the Hill for this. Family Guy has been bad for the most part since its return (a couple of good episodes, but most are bad). At least American Dad is good.
Also, I hate that they decided to make Cleveland Jr. about 5 years older and like 80 pounds heavier (the last time he was on Family Guy he was like 6 years old)
I hate that king of the hill is gone but you never know it could come back later on in life. Hey if futurama can then so can king of the hill. I like family guy its usually pretty funny for me. American Dad is one or two episodes that are funny the rest are just blah to me.
I agree with the above comments. I can't believe they canceled "King of the Hill" for this garbage. Bring back the King!
Hills was one of the few shows that held its own against "60 Minutes". Fox should bring it back & pick up "The Goode family" to put on against it(what else are they going to show?). But please don't blame Clevend for this if this a good comedy we need to support it or we'll get stuck with a bunch more game & reality shows.
King of the Hill was terrible. I can't believe it stuck around as long as it did.
Now, if anything else should be canceled it should be the Simpsons as their episodes have been terrible for the better part of a decade now.
R U NUTS THE SIMPSONS HAVE GREAT EPISODES. KING OF THE HILL IS BORING. SORTA. IDK...
I don't think FOX cancelled "King of the Hill." I thought Mike Judge decided to call it quits. Why else would he stick with FOX for "The Goode Family" (which is truly awful)?
"King of the Hill" is great, better written than most live action sitcoms. If FOX sells alot of DVD's it'll come back in some form. "King of the Hill" TV movie? :)