The Cleveland Show is an American animated series which premiered on September 27, 2009 as a part of the “Animation Domination” lineup.[3] The series was created by Mike Henry, Seth MacFarlane and Richard Appel as a spin-off from Family Guy, which was also created by MacFarlane.

In the beginning of the series, Cleveland Brown and his son move from Rhode Island to the fictional town of Stoolbend, Virginia.[4][5]

Cleveland has kind of had enough in Quahog – he kind of realizes that he wants his own friends, his own sidekicks, his own stories. So he sets out to California to make it in a way that we’ll have to keep a secret until the show starts, and then he ends up somewhere else, which we’ll also keep a secret until the show starts. But he basically goes home – he goes to his hometown in Virginia and rekindles an old high school flame.
— Mike Henry[6]

In the closing scene of the season seven Family Guy episode “Baby Not on Board”, Cleveland breaks the fourth wall by mentioning to Quagmire that he is getting a spin-off.[7]

The theme song originally contained a line referring to Cleveland’s “happy black-guy face,” but this was replaced with “happy mustached face” to make the song more racially sensitive.[8]
Characters

Family

His newly introduced family includes his new wife in her late thirties, Donna Tubbs (Sanaa Lathan);[9] Donna’s teenage daughter, Roberta Tubbs (Reagan Gomez-Preston);[9]) and Donna’s five year-old son, Rallo (Mike Henry).[10][11] Cleveland Jr., who also appears in the show, is now fourteen and is more obese than in his previous appearances on Family Guy,[12] and is now voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.[11]

Neighbours

Cleveland’s neighbors also include a family of anthropomorphic bears (the husband, Tim, voiced by MacFarlane,[11] and the wife, Arianna, voiced by Arianna Huffington),[11][13] a “hipster” wannabe named Holt (voiced by Jason Sudeikis[11][13]), a redneck couple (the husband Lester voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson[9]) and a Victorian English family,[5] with the husband to be voiced by Seth MacFarlane.

Guests

There will also be an episode in 2010 which features rapper Kanye West playing a character named Kenny West.[14] The producers stated working with West was a very good experience and a reason they chose him was that they knew he was a fan of Family Guy.

Main cast

Main cast members
Mike Henry	Sanaa Lathan	Reagan Gomez-Preston	Kevin Michael Richardson	Seth MacFarlane	Jamie Kennedy
Cleveland, Rallo	Donna	Roberta	Cleveland Jr., Lester the Redneck	Tim the Bear, English Father	Federline Jones

Debut

Cleveland officially left Family Guy, but MacFarlane has hinted that he may come back for occasional visits if necessary, and has also hinted Family Guy characters will visit Cleveland in Virginia.^[15] The show, which was scheduled to debut in the beginning of 2009,^[11] premiered on September 27, 2009.^[2] Due to cancellations of Mike Judge’s King of the Hill^[16] and the low rated American adaptation of Sit Down, Shut Up,^[17] along with the renewal of American Dad!, The Simpsons is now the only cartoon on FOX’s “Animation Domination” line-up that was not created by Seth MacFarlane.

Whilst both Family Guy and American Dad! air in the UK on BBC Three, The Cleveland Show will instead air on E4.^[18]

Episodes

The show, which was picked up to air a first season consisting of 22 episodes,^[19] was picked up by Fox for a second season, consisting of 13 episodes, bringing the total number to 35 episodes. The announcement was made on May 3, 2009 before the first season even premiered.^[3]