Family Guy spinoff doesn’t spin too far from the mould

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This article was published 24/09/2009 (6205 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THERE’S a unique kind of challenge that faces a sitcom spinoff — it must be faithful to the show that spawned it, while at the same time establish­ing itself as a stand-alone series with its own sense of individuality and identity.

Oh, and it has to be funny. At least as funny as the show that launched it, and preferably a bit funnier with its own unique comic sensibility.

The Cleveland Show, the new cartoon-sitcom spinoff from Family Guy that premieres this Sunday at 7:30 p.m. on Fox and Global, gets the job about half done. It’s really funny, about half the time, and it’s got its own sense of style and comic timing — except when it’s busy looking and sounding exactly like a darker-hued copy of that Griffin-y comedy.

The premise that drives The Cleveland Show is pretty simple: Peter Griffin’s African-American pal, Cleveland Brown, learns that his divorce is finalized and he’s been asked to move out of the family home within 24 hours.

With hefty, underachieving son Cleveland Jr. in tow, he decides to head to California to pursue his dream of being a minor-league baseball scout (apparently, Dodgers manager Joe Torre is an old friend who’s promised to help him get started). On the way, he decides to stop and spend a few reminiscence-filled days in his hometown of Stoolbend, Va.; while touring his old high school, he runs into the object of his unrequited adolescent affection, Donna Tubbs, and learns that she’s also recently divorced and struggling through the single-parent thing.

She offers him a place to stay for the few days he’s in town; before long, of course, he sees an opportunity to turn this into a permanent arrangement.

A very odd and decidedly mismatched blended family is born.

Cleveland (voiced by Mike Henry) is a kind-hearted soul who genuinely wants to do the best thing for his new family; Donna (Sanaa Lathan), however, is a girl who’s always been drawn to the bad boys, and her youngsters, precocious five-year-old Rallo (Henry) and perhaps-promiscuous teen daughter Roberta (Reagan Gomez-Preston), aren’t exactly thrilled to have another seeming loser trying to be their dad.

Cleveland Jr. (Kevin Michael Richardson) has problems of his own trying to fit into the new arrangement, starting with (but definitely not limited to) the high school gym teacher assigning him to the girls’ team and renaming him Beth.

In the tradition of Family Guy, this new animated offering is filled with pop-culture gags and more-than-slightly-off-colour jokes of the sexual and scatological variety. But it doesn’t employ quite the same machine-gun pace as its predecessor, and there’s more of a determined effort here to create a sense of a stable, loving family with a shared commitment to good-heartedness.

Cleveland’s new friends and neighbours compensate nicely in the offbeat misbehaviour department — there’s a gap-toothed, gun-toting redneck named Lester (Richardson) living across the street, a vertically challenged wannabe hipster named Holt (Jason Sudeikis) on one side, and a married pair of religious and oddly accented bears named Tim and Arianna (Seth MacFarlane, Arianna Huffington) on the other.

Like Family Guy, The Cleveland Show seems like a comedy that deals in volume doses and will be satisfied if its jokes bat .500. And as such, it’s a show that serves its master well but will likely succeed — as an apt replacement for King of the Hill — in Fox’s prime-time cartoon block on its own terms.

If you like Family Guy, you’ll probably enjoy The Cleveland Show. If the Griffins offend you more than they amuse, well, you weren’t going to give Cleveland a try, anyway.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

 

 

TV worth watching

FlashForward (tonight at 7, ABC) — This new ABC drama, which speculates on what might happen if everyone on Earth blacked out for a couple of minutes at exactly the same time — and had a simultaneous vision of the near future while they were unconscious — boasts one of the most stylish and cinematic pilots of the new season. Joseph Fiennes stars as an FBI agent who’s in the middle of a high-speed chase when the blackout occurs. 

The Ron James Show (Friday at 8 p.m., CBC) — One of Canada’s most reliable standup performers gets a second — and, hopefully, more sensibly structured than his first try, Blackfly — shot at TV-series success. The show hasn’t been made available for preview, but this much is beyond dispute: James knows how to make Canada laugh.

 

TV ON DVD: 

Being Erica: Season 1 (release date: Sept. 22) — Just in time for its second-season debut, CBC’s most appealing new show of last year — which focuses on a star-crossed 30-something single (Erin Karpluk) who’s suddenly given the opportunity to revisit the events of her past and, perhaps, correct some mistakes — releases its first set of episodes on DVD. It’s worth a look.

 

Top TV Shows

1. Big Brother 11 (Global, Thursday) — 1,789,000

1. Big Brother 11 (Global, Tuesday) — 1,789,000

3. Glee (Global) — 1,768,000

4. Hell’s Kitchen (City TV) — 1,632,000

5. Wipeout (Global) — 1,565,000

6. C.S.I. (CTV) — 1,563,000

7. NCIS (Global) — 1,500,000

8. The Vampire Diaries (CTV) — 1,459,000

9. So You Think You Can Dance Canada (CTV) — 1,454,000

10. CTV Evening News (CTV, Monday-Friday) — 1,398,000

 

— BBM Nielsen Media Research, Sept. 7-13