The Cleveland Show

**The Cleveland Show** is an adult animated sitcom. It is a spin-off series, of Seth MacFarlane's other hit animated series, *Family Guy*. The series focuses on Family Guy's major character Cleveland Brown, moving back to his hometown, with his son, Junior.

The series was conceived by MacFarlane in 2007 after developing the two animated series Family Guy and American Dad! for the Fox network. MacFarlane centered the show on Family Guy character Cleveland Brown, his new wife Donna Tubbs, his step-children Rallo and Roberta Tubbs, and his son Cleveland, Jr., who, in the show, is depicted as an obese, soft-spoken teen, as opposed to his depiction as a younger, hyperactive child with average body weight on Family Guy.

The series premiered on September 14th, 2008, and ran for four seasons of 105 episodes. The Cleveland Show was nominated for one Annie Award, seven Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Teen Choice Awards. Reruns of the show currently airs on Comedy Central, VH1, BET and ITV2. The series also airs reruns on Adult Swim since November 23, 2009. Since September 25, 2009, the series has been airing on Comedy Central as part of Animation Daze.

## Executive producers

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

### Voice cast

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 stated that he created the voice over twenty years before; he had used it while making prank phone calls.

Sanaa Lathan voices Donna Tubbs, the wife of Cleveland, stepmother of Cleveland Brown Jr., and mother of Roberta and Rallo Tubbs. 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 for a fifteen-year-old over the phone "all the time." Before Gomez was cast as Roberta, Nia Long (who co-starred with Lathan in *The Best Man* franchise) provided the character's voice during the first thirteen episodes. According to Long, she was replaced because producers decided they wanted an actress with a younger-sounding voice, given that the character is a teenager.

Kevin Michael Richardson, a recurring guest voice on *Family Guy* and *American Dad!*, 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 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 played Tim the Bear up until season 3 episode 10, which MacFarlane admits is a "Steve Martin impression [...] a Wild and Crazy Guy impression". Jess Harnell voices the character for the rest of the series from the next episode onward.

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.

## Characters

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

## Crossovers with other animated sitcoms

*The Cleveland Show* characters have appeared on other animated sitcoms and vice versa. *The Cleveland Show* crossovers have all involved two other animated programs. Both the other two animated programs were also created by Seth MacFarlane—*Family Guy* and *American Dad!*. There are also many brief cameos of characters from three other Fox animated shows, *The Simpsons*, *Futurama*, and *King of the Hill*.

## Syndication

In late October 2007, the Turner Broadcasting System picked up syndication rights, for their networks TBS and later, Adult Swim. The series first aired on Adult Swim in the United States on November 23, 2007. The series began airing on Comedy Central in the United States on September 25, 2009 with ViacomCBS sister networks BET and VH1 airing the series starting on August 31, 2011 and September 14, 2012, respectively.

## Reception

### Critical reception

*The Cleveland Show* has received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Rob Owen of the *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette* praised 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 likable character than Peter Griffin. Owen also praised the character of Tim the Bear, stating that "Tim is by far the most amusing creation." Jonathan Storm of the Philidelphia Inquirer, also spoke positively, stating that "There are a few other standout items here. Cleveland's over-the-top high-pitched laugh is even more hysterical in this episode. He sounds funnier, and he shows way more personality than we've seen in his many years on Family Guy. There's a great moment with him and his daughter's date where he's talking through his teeth for far too long about the precise time he's to bring his soon-to-be step-daughter home, and how the timing might interfere with his own booty plans. The opening theme is also ridiculously catchy, and it's hard not to find yourself singing along through its entirety. While it seems to be missing some of the over-the-top offensive bites we're used to on Family Guy, and Cleveland's new drinking buddies aren't quite as amusing as the Quagmire, Joe, and Peter combination - there's a lot to like here. It might take a while for the show to grow out of its Family Guy shadow, but with a greater focus on wacky family-focused stories, we might get to see much personality burst out of the normally sedate Cleveland."