The Cleveland Show, the spin-off of popular Fox animated series Family Guy, is starting off with quite an ensemble, with Sanaa Lathan (Alien vs. Predator), Nia Long (Soul Food, Are We There Yet?), and Kevin Michael Richardson (The Knights of Prosperity, The Flintstones).  The new series will revolve around the soft-spoken Griffin family neighbor Cleveland Brown, as he moves out of Quahog, Rhode Island, to Virginia.

The Cleveland Show, which is set to debut in 2009, will introduce the hitherto unknown Brown family.  Lathan will be voicing Cleveland's wife, Donna, Long will do Roberta, his 16-year-old daughter, while Richardson will voice one of the neighbors, Lester, a redneck.

Cleveland will also have talking bears as neighbors, as well as an uptight British Family.  “You'll love the talking bear, believe me," assures Family Guy executive producer Seth MacFarlane.  Moreover, he said he is often asked why it was Cleveland who was given a spin-off, and not, to the dismay of others, funny pervert Glenn Quagmire.

"This is not a guy you want to invite into your hone on a weekly basis," he says, referring to Quagmire.  On the other hand, he felt an abundance of heartfelt moments for Cleveland as he is "so complex and tortured and introspective."

Sometimes accused of plagiarizing The Simpsons, Family Guy was the first canceled show to be resurrected based on strong DVD sales, and the only one to have done so twice.  First run on January, 1999 it was first canceled in 2000, then again in 2002.  It's about the dysfunctional family of Peter, Lois, Chris, Meg, Stewie, and Bryan, their dog.


-Glenn Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Fox, The Hollywood Reporter
(Image Courtesy of Fox)