Hot Cuppa Pix of the Week: 'Cleveland' Edition

Today's cuppa: English afternoon tea

Last week, I went to a table reading for an episode of the upcoming Fox animated series "The Cleveland Show," a spin-off of Fox's hit series "Family Guy." Set to premiere in Fall 2009, it focuses on the character of Cleveland Brown (voice by series executive producer Mike Henry), who abandons Quahog, Rhode Island, to return to his Virginia hometown, where he rekindles romance with his high-school sweetheart, Donna (Sanaa Lathan).

That means creating a new blended family, with Cleveland's son, 14-year-old Cleveland Jr. (Kevin Michael Richardson, my pic to the left, with his serious face on) becoming stepbrother to Donna's 17-year-old daughter, Roberta (Nia Long), and 5-year-old son, Rallo (Mike Henry).

Henry shares executive producer credits with "Family Guy" creator and chief auteur Seth MacFarlane and Richard Appel ("American Dad," "Family Guy," "Kitchen Confidential").

The episode being read in a conference room packed with actors (including guest voice Monique Coleman, of "High School Musical" and "Dancing With the Stars" fame, who was cute as could be in a sassy short haircut) was called "Cleveland Gets Gang-Banged."

In it, Cleveland, now a part-time high-school baseball coach, decides to start a club to turn around the lives of a multicultural group of teen miscreants (one of whom bears a strange vocal resemblance to Bowzer from Sha Na Na).

Needless to say, it all goes horribly wrong, only to somehow right itself by the end.

The script included some fairly raunchy jokes (no surprise to "Family Guy" fans), some of which will likely be modified before the show goes on air -- such as one about Amy Winehouse's hair coming back home after a night on the town.

There was also one joke that, according to Henry, will never air at all.

Thrown in by series writers for their own amusement (and the general amusement of almost all in the room), it's a political reference involving a recent candidate whose surname begins with "P" and a derogatory term (usually four letters, but in this case a "y" was added) beginning with the letter "c."

I'll let you figure out the rest for yourselves.

After the reading, and before and after a great lunch, I chatted with that charming and warm Richardson (my pic to the right, with his smiling face on), whom I've been acquainted with since shortly after he did one of my favorite shows, UPN's short-lived 1996 sitcom "Homeboys in Outer Space."

It's possible that I and my mentor in all things tea, the estimable Tia Cupps, are the only two fans of this loopy sci-fi parody/comedy about hipsters tooling around the galaxy in the Space Hoopty. I could be wrong.

Richardson says he has DVDs of the show, which, as far as I know, isn't available commercially on DVD. It's lucky he didn't give me his exact home address (but he lives kinda close by, so I'm sure I could figure it out. Heh. Just kidding. Really.)

I also talked with Mike Henry (who's also worked on "American Dad" and "Robot Chicken") , who, as you can see from my picture (below right, white shirt). doesn't look a lot like Cleveland.

On the other hand, deceptively cherubic Seth MacFarlane, (left) the creator and chief auteur of "Family Guy," doesn't look much like Stewie the Baby or Brian the Dog (below)

Since this was a private table reading and not a public performance, I won't post audio, as I did with the "King of the Hill" 250th episode table-read this past July, but here are a few sample lines from the script (Warning, these are subject to change before air. Other warning: some lines are nasty and may not be suitable for younger readers.)

ROBERTA: Woo! Floor hockey got me sweating like Niecy Nash at Bikram yoga.

(That was for my fellow "Clean House" fans out there.)

CLEVELAND (to miscreant teens): I'm through watching my gosh-damn mouth with you mickey-fickeys! I know what you cork-snarkers are up to... drinkin' beer, drinkin' whiskey, peein' in the bed, pukin' in the bed, peein' on your puke, pukin' on your pee... same bullspit I used to do. Whatever you've done, I've done worse.

(He then recites a speech from "Die Hard." Nope, not gonna say which one, but I will say that the character bought Twinkies prior to delivering it. My photo to the left is Fox Plaza, the real-life location for the movie's fictional Nakatomi Building.)

CLEVELAND JR.: Are we still going to Williams-Sonoma?

CLEVELAND (again to multicultural miscreant teens): That's right. Now listen to me, all of you. Everything that I told you about  how you can be something better...how anything is possible if you believe in yourself. It was a lie! None of you is worth a good g-ddamn! (EDIT MINE) You're all thugs! Gangsters! And that's all you'll ever be, so act like it! Now, how many of y'all are packin'?

And my personal favorite...

CLEVELAND: Sir, I shall avoid you like Nicole Kidman avoids things that make her laugh.