tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5408368436169661319.post1937579036950276229..comments2024-03-28T18:49:48.571-04:00Comments on Joe Torcivia's The Issue At Hand Blog: “Not” in Cleveland! Joe Torciviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421096229407174474noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5408368436169661319.post-57236660635606424052013-05-01T17:00:33.382-04:002013-05-01T17:00:33.382-04:00‘Rehab:
You may be right about THE CLEVELAND SHOW...‘Rehab:<br /><br />You may be right about THE CLEVELAND SHOW filing to find “the right hook”. <br /><br />When it started out, it seemed to be aiming to be raunchier than the average prime-time animated series. See, especially, the First Season “Thanksgiving” show for an example of what I mean. I don’t think a made-for-network-TV animated product has EVER gotten raunchier than THAT one! …And, for what it’s worth, I liked it. I might not have wanted to see something like that EVERY WEEK, but I DID like it! <br /><br />But, this was probably an approach that could not be sustained week-to-week, year-to-year, so it began becoming something of a clone of FAMILY GUY. Particularly, as you note, in the de-evolution of Cleveland himself. <br /><br />On FAMILY GUY, Peter was the annoying dumbass, Quagmire was the sex-maniac, and Joe was the disabled cop with severe anger-management issues – but Cleveland (though “low-key”) was the “normal guy”. He lent an air of “normalcy” to the over-the-top on-goings of FAMILY GUY.<br /><br />But, more recently, he’s become as annoying and dumb-assed as Peter, to where you can almost substitute one for the other, plot-wise. Perhaps he did become “funnier”, but he also became much harder to take. And, maybe we don’t need a second FAMILY GUY, while we still have the original. <br /><br />That’s my theory, anyway. Sad to see it go.Joe Torciviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00421096229407174474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5408368436169661319.post-52771654971177782682013-05-01T13:19:59.372-04:002013-05-01T13:19:59.372-04:00I recall a popular theory that the only reason why...I recall a popular theory that the only reason why Cleveland got a spinoff (and not Quagmire) was because Seth would have not been able to give enough time to oversee it without leaving "Family Guy" in other hands; "American Dad" is supervised by Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, "Cleveland" by Mike Henry and Richard Appel. "Cleveland" was quite a gamble - there were some amusing moments in there, but a LOT of clunkers, too. It needed to find the right hook and didn't. I didn't like a lot of the supporting cast, and Cleveland himself had devolved a lot in order to try to make him "funnier". For a prime-time cartoon, it's done remarkably well for itself.Comicbookrehabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09363501054869978524noreply@blogger.com