Family Guy Spins off Cleveland

E Online is reporting that a new spinoff is currently in the works to feature Cleveland, the soft-spoken neighbor in popular animated sitcom Family Guy. "Not much is known about Cleveland other than the fact it will revolve around the Brown clan. It's unclear whether the series will remain set in the town of Quahog or whether Cleveland, along with his wife and son, will continue to appear on Family Guy, though as both series are animated, the double-billing won't so much be a logistical problem as a creative decision."

Why?

[ArcherB]

Why Cleveland? Why not Quagmire (Cleveland's wife agrees) or any of the other more interesting characters? When I hear Cleveland, I just want to go to sleep until I hear a "Diggity".

Let me be the first to say

[moderatorrater]

How is this news for nerds or stuff that matters? It's worthless drivel like this that drags the whole site down!

And, because I seriously hate people who say that shit, I'm going to point out that cartoon network's adult swim (which brought the show back from the dead) is largely viewed by nerds, and adult animation is mostly enjoyed by nerds, and dammit, it's a good show.

However, I do hope that it's not just another family guy clone like American Dad. Seriously, why not just do 3x as many family guy episodes and not have american dad or this new cleveland one?

Re:Let me be the first to say

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you've seen 5 Family Guy episodes you've seen them all... and it gets tiring, just like any other show which continuously uses the same elements (flashbacks, apparently random scenes, I'm looking at you). All of the Adult Swim lineup seem to condense a lethal dose of these types of things into the shows, which makes me wonder why people still like it?

You've gotta be kidding me

[jez9999]

Cleveland is the most tedious, annoying character in the WHOLE of Family Guy. Well, at least maybe they can take Cleveland out of Family Guy now so we can concentrate all the crap of his storyline into this one and ignore it. :-)

It worked for the Jeffersons.

[BeeBeard]

Most people familiar with their favorite couple who moved on up, to the East Side, and finally found their piece of the pie, aren't aware that the sitcom actually started as a spin-off of All in the Family, on which Family Guy is itself heavily based. Even the piano playing sequence at the beginning of Family Guy is a callback to the opening sequence of All in the Family.

Re:Why?

[spun]

Why Cleveland? Why not Quagmire (Cleveland's wife agrees) or any of the other more interesting characters? When I hear Cleveland, I just want to go to sleep until I hear a "Diggity".

I agree, almost anyone but Cleveland would be more interesting. Just as long as it's not Herbert. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Why?

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

Quagmire's too gimmicky to be a main character. As a recurring secondary character the jokes work fine, but if you had them constantly for 22 minutes per show it'd grow old fast.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[garett_spencley]

Say what you want about American Dad but when a series casts Patrick Stewart as a hooker-murdering CIA director it's impossible to not like it.

Re:Why?

[jollyreaper]

Why Cleveland? Why not Quagmire (Cleveland's wife agrees) or any of the other more interesting characters? When I hear Cleveland, I just want to go to sleep until I hear a "Diggity".

Giggity, man, giggity! Man, if this were a Star Trek reference you mucked up, you'd be eaten alive.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

the jokes work fine, but if you had them constantly for 22 minutes per show it'd grow old fast.

So, pretty much like all the other jokes on Family Guy?

What's more troubling...

[DoofusOfDeath]

... is that I actually want to do Lois. Am I alone in this?

Re:Family guy sucks

[stratjakt]

What the fuck? You don't see any racist jokes in south park or simpsons? What is Apu? What is Token? What was chef?

I guess you don't get the idea of comedy bringing socially taboo topics into the limelight, and the very fact that a joke can be offensive and funny at the same time allows us to learn a little something about society.

It's attitudes like yours that divide us along racial lines. Shows like Chappelle's show, South Park and Family Guy bring us together by mockery of stereotypes, not by reinforcing them.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Let me be the first to say

[Anonymous Coward]

The Simpsons still has its moments, but South Park hasn't been funny ever since they degenerated into making every single episode a tediously drawn out morality play. All three of these shows have been going downhill for years, but I have to say South Park went the fastest.

I'm not sure why you think that either of those shows is more sophisticated than Family Guy. They all rely on the same sorts of humor, just in slightly different proportions.

I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE

[florescent_beige]

My apologies to all, I know this is bad form but here I go anyway...

A cartoon spinoff is news for nerds? Not even a science fiction cartoon?

The reason this bugs me is the last two stories I submitted were rejected. One about DARPA's oblique flying wing called Switchblade, and one about active sonic boom suppression on Gulfstream's supersonic business jet.

But a cartoon spinoff is more news worthy? I'm sorry, but this is shenanigans.

Re:What's more troubling...

[dookiesan]

Lois
http://tv.yahoo.com/alex-borstein/contributor/198110/photos/1 [yahoo.com]

or Meg
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/4529/Events/4529/MilaKunis_Grant_8069156_400.jpg.html?path=pgallery&path_key=Kunis,%20Mila [imdb.com]

!Slashdot News

[martinmcc]

There is a lot of overlap between geek culture and pop culture, and slashdot generally hits the nail on the head. In this case however, I have to throw my lot in with the '!news' ground and say this is not a topic slashdot should be covering, and it is not a direction I want to see it go in. I like family guy, and am mildly interested in a spin-off. In fact, i have a few opinions on the matter I might be inclined to share on a comment site - but not slashdot. Slashdot is my haven of geekhood, where I read about the latest hizzy fit between RMS and theo de raadt, SCO zanyness, steve balmars latest dance moves etc. It is not where I go for the latest goings on in the realm of 'generation X', pop culture, my-face-bebo-boy land. It does overlap, but that doesn't mean there aren't boundries.

Sure, there was a few articles about futurama - futurama = sci-fi = geek. No problem. Perhaps somehow a confusion arrived thinking futurama = animated, family guy = animated, therefore it is geek! Family guy has no geek crediential. No reason to be on slashdot. This is not fox-watch, not 'animation-maniac-fans.com'. They are not using some highly clever bit of software automate production of the two shows. It is news for pop-culture, not news for nerd.

Where is it going to end - a sidebar with the top ten funniest you-tube clips? 50 different smiley characters and RTF entry text box to spice up the comments (not fogetting flashing text)?

Lets try to keep slashdot geek, and let the pop-culture sites do pop culture.

Re:You've gotta be kidding me

[Scrameustache]

Cleveland is the most tedious, annoying character in the WHOLE of Family Guy.

Yeah, it's as if they wanted to make a spin-off of Beavis and Butt Head and base it on their up-tight neighbor [wikipedia.org].
Or one based on their acerbic school mate [outpost-daria.com].

What's next, a spin-off about the tedious, annoying shrink from Cheers?

It's madness, I say. MADNESS!

Re:!Slashdot News

[diabolus_in_america]

You said: "Family guy has no geek crediential."
I disagree. The entire Blue Harvest episode is an hour's worth of "greek credential." They riff on Star Trek often. There's been TRON, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and Poltergeist segments that were not only hilarious but also very true to the originals. I've not counted, but it seems like a quarter of the jokes are references to science fiction TV shows or movies. MacFarlane comes across in many interviews as a geek. Sure, he has his political points to make, and his jokes are often no more than riffs on popular culture. But Star Wars, Star Trek, et. al. are points where geek culture intersects with pop culture.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[freeweed]

An evil santa clause, a jewish lobster that everyone hates, constant 21st century references via heads in jars.

Holy christ, I think you've seen all of 3 episodes.

Humour's a subjective thing, I'll give you that. I didn't even really like Futurama when it was fist aired. But trying to claim that it's PREDICTABLE?? Dear sweet jesus, what the hell do you watch that's less predictable than Futurama? Random snow on untuned channels??