Is Cleveland Show Too Unoriginal?

[GWOtaku]

To me Cleveland Show seemed all right based on an episode or two. Nothing spectacular, but all right. But then I came across this piece, where John McWhorter of The New Republic tears into it with civil criticism. His broad argument is that Cleveland Show is mostly just plugging Cleveland into his own Quahog situation, and we're asked to consider it different and fresh by virtue of its "blackness." He sees Cleveland Jr. as a substitution for Chris, the midget kid as doing nothing that Stewie hasn't done as well or better, and so on.

Money quote:

The question is: would the Family Guy people create a show where a white supporting character – say, paraplegic Joe voiced superbly by Patrick Warburton -- moves to another town and settles in with retreads of the Family Guy characters? No – it’d be seen as folly to let that get beyond a conversation over beers. The reason it felt right to pull this with The Cleveland Show is because of a sense that blackness is so much a “thing,” so diverting in itself, that painting the Family Guy people brown makes artistic and commercial sense.

And there was a time when it did – but it was a time we’re all happy to be past. The Cleveland Show is reminiscent of all-black productions of musicals in the old days such as the Hello, Dolly! with Pearl Bailey. The underlying notion was that because you couldn’t cast a black performer in a non-black role in a mainstream production, it made theatrical sense to concoct an occasion for there to be a black Dolly, a black Horace Vandergelder, a black Barnaby singing “It Only Takes a Moment.” What mattered was not the particulars of the performances – the names of the performers in these all-black mock-ups, other than the superstar leads, were quickly forgotten – but the fact that black people were doing them at all.

That was the best they could do back then. Today, that isn’t true. Popular culture is long past black characters held up as a genuflective novelty in their brown skin alone, à la Franklin in the Peanuts comic strip or even Homer Simpson’s drinking buddy “Carl,” with a dopey white working-class voice, and “black” only in tint, as a gesture of diversity 1989-style. Even Cleveland is a character of our own times in that the voice the white Mike Henry gives him is indeed one with a distinct and believable black American cadence, and on Family Guy he has been portrayed as a culturally black man in various ways.

And a finishing blow:

“We can dress as you, but you can’t dress as us!” Cleveland objects when a character walks on dressed and made up as him – with this kind of thing the creators of The Cleveland Show think of themselves as ahead of the curve with the winkiness of it all, as if we are so past the conversation on race that we can just relax and make fun of it.

Which is true to a point. But reproducing a white show with black faces and voices (and sometimes butts) and presenting it as viable weekly entertainment of long-term standing? This is not ahead of the curve, it’s retrograde.

Seth MacFarlane and company are capable of so much better that it’s painful watching them put so much energy into a tired, reductive joke not worthy of their usual artistry.

Ouch.

My first impression is that you could take this thinking a bit too far and logically criticize a show just for not having a multicolor cast, as if indulging in sameness can never be more than a "retrogarde" pandering attempt. That just wouldn't be fair, since sitcoms on white families never get this criticism as far as I know. On the other hand Cleveland Show does feel very much like a Family Guy spinoff in a few ways, even though its humor is executed a bit differently. At first, I accepted it for the things that the writer talks about in the first 2-3 paragraphs. But when he basically says it's too much of a close spinoff to really prosper and let Cleveland do his own thing, I find it hard to argue.

Read the whole thing. Is he right? Did Cleveland need a more "interesting world" of his own? What do you think of this?

[ThePRPD]

The Cleveland Show doesn't really seem a lot like Family Guy at all. If you ask me from episode 2 and on it felt like it's own show and to be honest it has more of a sitcom feel than Family Guy does. I don't take race into account.

[JD08]

I just think the cleveland show is something for everyone but it's trying to play to a black audiences who really can't relate to the griffins. With Family Guy they can't get away with jokes about black people like cleveland show can because The writers are working with Black People so they'll know when it's to far or too racist so far i've enjoyed the cut-aways because I can relate to them as a black person. The columnist probably hasn't watched the other episodes I just wish people give the characters time to grow before throwing them in just any category because jr. is not chris rollo is far from stewie and Roberta is so much better than Meg and Hayley combined. They're just going by the plot structure and it's a basic structure mom,dad,son,daughter, little child it doesn't matter if it's the same it's what they do with it. And what The Cleveland Show is doing is no different from the wiz, blacula, or The Wizard of Oz with Ashanti (which still was a heap minus the black people and muppets) or Dolemite is to James Bond. But I can Assure you the way he goes on he would have been happy with a quagmire spin-off like the rest of the no-personality lot

[Radical Raven]

His argument is kind of sullied by the fact that The Cleveland Shows cast is not "Family Guys painted black". Rallo is not all that similar to Stewie, really; ones an machiavellian, quasi-homosexual, but still notably infantile character, and the others just a short black stereotype. Cleveland is nothing like Peter; his bar buddies don't resemble Quagmire or Joe.

The Cleveland Show has problems, but I don't think this "Family Guy Clone" thing is one of them.

[GWOtaku]

Well, I think his criticism was intended to be more broad than that. In other words it isn't that Rallo is exactly like Stewie but that he shares the role of the adult kid in the show, which McWhorter (correctly) thinks is nothing new. And so on for most other characters he singles out, fairly or not.

[Blackstar]

Rollo isn't a ripoff of Stewie in terms of personality, but he is essentially the Stewie of his series, being the youngest kid who acts more like an adult midget. Cleavland Jr. is essentially this shows' Chris (Cleveland Jr. is arguably the most blatant ripoff in this case), and Roberta is essentially this shows' Meg, even though she has an altogether different personality than Meg does.

The most glaring example for me would have to be Donna, who is a lot like the early, pre-slutty, pre-catty Lois, only with brown skin and black hair. She's just kind of there as the generic everymom/everywife character. Perhaps Donna will get an actual character as the series progresses, but for now, she's a very boring character.

[ThePRPD]

Other than being fat(ter) Cleveland Jr. doesn't really act like Chris and you can't say Roberta is like Meg because of... obvious reasons.

[Blackstar]

Originally Posted by ThePRPD

Other than being fat(ter) Cleveland Jr. doesn't really act like Chris and you can't say Roberta is like Meg because of... obvious reasons.

I didn't say that Roberta was like Meg; merely that she has Meg's role on her series: the bland daughter. I guess that you didn't read this part:

Originally Posted by Me

Roberta is essentially this shows' Meg, even though she has an altogether different personality than Meg does.

I get that you're a fan of The Cleveland Show, and that's fine, but I think that you're too busy defending the show from any kind of criticism that you're not seeing that there are indeed some glaringly obvious similarities in form and structure to it's predecessor, Family Guy. Love the show or hate it, you can't deny the similarities that exist between the 2 shows.

[Undrave]

At least Cleveland is more clever than Peter or Stan.

[Radical Raven]

Originally Posted by GWOtaku

Well, I think his criticism was intended to be more broad than that. In other words it isn't that Rallo is exactly like Stewie but that he shares the role of the adult kid in the show, which McWhorter (correctly) thinks is nothing new. And so on for most other characters he singles out, fairly or not.

His reference to "All-black versions of Hello Dolly" made me think otherwise, though.

My argument here is that this issue of race is a non-issue from the series point of view; the shows similarities with Family Guy can be debated all day, but I don't think Fuzzy Door set out to make "The Black Family Guy" (and, IMO, they succeeded).

[Super Leviathan]

The Cleveland characters are more or less confined to the same niches as their Family Guy counterparts. Like Blackstar said, Rollo isn't quite a DIRECT rip-off of Stewie personality-wise, but he fulfills the exact same function (small child who acts surprisingly adult). Likewise, Cleveland Jr. IS Chris, 110% percent.

American Dad was a lot better in differentiating its main characters from the Family Guy cast. Cleveland feels like a cheap copy-paste.

I think Cleveland could improve if they start doing episodes that focus on Rollo. He's not only the source of what few funny moments the first few episodes have, but his character is distinct enough from Stewie that he could lend himself to different, better material.

[Blackstar]

I could be wrong here, but I thought that the issue at hand was that the characters in The Cleveland Show are similar structure-wise to the characters on Family Guy, not that they're black. This could have been a show about green skinned aliens living on Earth, but if they were essentially the same characters as the Griffins, people would still compare them. Their skin color isn't exactly relevant here.

[ThePRPD]

Originally Posted by Blackstar

I get that you're a fan of The Cleveland Show, and that's fine, but I think that you're too busy defending the show from any kind of criticism that you're not seeing that there are indeed some glaringly obvious similarities in form and structure to it's predecessor, Family Guy. Love the show or hate it, you can't deny the similarities that exist between the 2 shows.

I know that there are similarities between it and Family Guy. That's a given. I just usually wind up commenting when it comes to the characters. I had misread your post a little when I responded.

[Daffyfan2003]

I don't know. It seems kind of original to me. In the first ep, the Griffin's and the resident's of Quahog had to show up since they were explaining the move and everything, but after that episode it seemed to be more of it's one show.

[Robochao]

Cleveland is a spin-off of Family Guy.

Do you know how much Family Guy borrowed from Simpsons?

I can't put it in simpler words. Cleveland show doesn't do anything new or original at all. But do you see me turning off the tv? Nah.

[CaptainHero]

To people who seem confused about what the writer meant regarding race. He means that the crew basically is trying to make an 'urban Family Guy' that will appeal more to the black community.

[Marinite]

An animated sitcom about a family's life is unoriginal? Well, I'd agree with that.

[Eleanor Hugbees]

Didn't American Dad fall under criticism for having "essentially the same setup" when it first came on? I think it really does come down to the individual character/plots because when you judge it at face value, you're going to always find similarities.

My problem with Cleveland show isn't the setup. It's just the lameness of some of the jokes. Cutaways with absolutely nothing added to them seem to be a huge problem with this show as well as just bad delivery.

I know Family Guy has a huge record, but the cutaways are usually funny with different outcomes added to the spoofs or I would at least see what brought that on. Even with the Conway Twitty thing, the whole point was to annoy you. What was the point of Cleveland's Men's Warehouse cutway? Was it supposed to be funny because i've seen Men's Warehouse before?

Honestly, once(or if) it establishes it's continuity and gets better jokes, I could see more people warming up to it.

To people who seem confused about what the writer meant regarding race. He means that the crew basically is trying to make an 'urban Family Guy' that will appeal more to the black community.

I never understood the whole "relate to them cause they look like you" thing. First of all, why in gods name would I or anyone else relate to the Cleveland show characters or Family Guy characters period? They're actually horrible people on that level.

Second of all, Good jokes are understood by all races. So no, I'm not going to find a joke magically funnier when a black person is doing as opposed to a white person.

[toonfan2003]

Whenever i watch The Cleveland Show, ill always be reminded of Family Guy because thats where he came from.

But the show itself is its own show. The family set-up is the same but thats pretty much where it stops.

Besides, the "same old set-up" is a tired argument. Lots of shows live action and animated have the standard father, mother, daughter, and son (with a pet on animated shows).

Look at the Simpsons, King of the Hill (yes, i know luanne is hank's niece), Wait til Your Father Gets Home and im sure theres more.

I think the standard family keeps it simple and nice. What, were people expecting one of Cleveland step-children to be some adopted Vietnamese 5 year old boy or something?

[PC!]

Personally, I don't really mind if The Cleveland Show is original or not. If it keeps me entertained and makes me laugh, it's done its job.