Dan Cromar / Roundup
This past Sunday marked the first episode of ‘The Cleveland Show,’ Fox Network’s latest animated primetime comedy, and a spin-off of Seth MacFarlane’s wildly successful show ‘Family Guy.’
There was some speculation before the show aired of whether or not the show could live up to its predecessor.
So does it?
Let me put it this way: I recorded ‘The Cleveland Show’ on my DVR. After watching it, I found that I had also recorded the first few minutes of the new ‘Family Guy’ episode.
I immediately wished that I had recorded ‘Family Guy’ instead.
‘The Cleveland Show’ is basically just “‘Family Guy’ Light.” It has a few of the same characters but hardly any of the humor.
The show opens with the main character Cleveland Brown telling his ‘Family Guy’ friends that he is leaving the neighborhood. As he pulls away, Stewie Griffin says “What the hell, HE’S getting his own show?”
That line, in addition to summing up the whole show, is one of the last funny things that happen in the entire half hour.
The rest of the episode shows Cleveland as he goes back to his hometown and ultimately marries his old high school crush. It’s as uninteresting and unfunny of a series premiere as there ever has been.
‘Family Guy’ fans will get a kick out of some of the inside jokes early in the episode, like about Cleveland’s son, Cleveland Jr., who seemed to disappear early in the series, or how no one ever pays attention to anything Cleveland does.
However, after that, they will just be left longing for their old show.
‘The Cleveland Show’ clearly tries to be like ‘Family Guy’ while still being distinct from it. They only do a few cutaway jokes, but still show some of the shows trademark humor. For example, there is one scene where Cleveland is ranting to his new stepdaughter’s girlfriend in traditional ‘Family Guy’ fashion.
The result is just a confused show that seems to having an identity crisis.
The new characters are not much better. Cleveland’s new family is just as uninteresting as you’d expect.
The only one who’s actually funny is ‘The Cleveland Show’s’ answer to Stewie, Cleveland’s new stepson, Rallo.
Rallo is basically a black Stewie. He’s a wisecracking little kid who acts years beyond his age. The only difference is that instead of being a matricidal infant, he’s a horny preschooler who makes primarily sex jokes and fat jokes.
Funny thing is it actually works. While he’s nowhere near as funny as his ‘Family Guy’ counterpart, he could be enough to carry the show for awhile.
It’s hard to say that ‘The Cleveland Show’ is a disappointment, seeing as I can’t imagine that anyone could have possibly had any real hope for it to begin with.
Let’s just hope that the next time they attempt to make a ‘Family Guy’ character, they pick a more interesting character to do it with.