TVSquad

Allison told you a couple of months ago about the possibility of Family Guy's Cleveland getting his own spinoff show. Well now it looks like that's going to be a reality (not a reality show, but a cartoon ... oh, you know what I mean).

The show, titled Cleveland, is expected to get a 13 episode order when FOX announces its fall schedule at its upfront in a couple of weeks (TV Squad will have complete coverage of all of the upfronts, of course). No word on whether or not the character will stay on Family Guy too. I wonder if the show will be set in the same town as Family Guy? Maybe they'll even have epic two part shows, with each part on a different show.

In other FOX news, the network could also pick up two other animated shows: Sit Down, Shut Up and The Pitts. Wait, wasn't The Pitts a live action show that FOX had a few years ago?

Yes. Yes it was.

(S06E10) Lois, Peter and Brian take a vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Peter drinks up a storm and Brian confesses his love for Lois. Hilarity ensues.

Seth McFarlane shows his Massachusetts background in this episode (his parents are from there). I saw references to Boston Harbor (the John Hancock building was in the background) and Six Flags New England (which is very close to Connecticut, the state where he was raised).

The show continues to explore Brian's artistic tendencies as he wins a writing award (we later learn the piece he wrote was mostly plagiarized). It's debatable if this is better or worse than the time he was a porn director.

Oh, Peter. They're breaking up that old gang of ours! There's a spin-off of Family Guy in the works at Fox. Peter's drinking buddy, Cleveland Brown, might be getting his own show. Oh no, does this mean he may be leaving Quahog? What, no more get-togethers at The Drunken Clam? (Note to self: He's an animated character; he could still be part of Family Guy.)

Cleveland is perhaps the most down to earth of Peter's pals on Family Guy, which could make him the perfect centerpiece of a new cartoon series. Zany new characters could be built around him. If history repeats itself, he could be the George Jefferson to Peter Griffin's Archie Bunker, i.e., The Jeffersons spinning off from All in the Family.

(S01E20) Poor Liz Lemon. Things were going so well for her over the last two episodes: She had snagged a boyfriend by pretending to be an alcoholic! This week, everything is crumbling for dear Liz and I really hated to see it. I know one of the basic points of humor in the show is the way Lemon is perceived as a loser by her co-workers, but the humor also worked when she was doing well and everyone else was in a frenzy.

I didn't find "Cleveland" nearly as funny as the super-sized "Fireworks" episode two weeks ago, but it was still pretty good. The best sources of humor in this show are Kenneth the Page and Tracy Jordan, neither of which had a very prominent role this week. In "Cleveland", 30 Rock struck a slightly more serious note with Liz facing two major dilemmas: 1) Her boyfriend is moving, and 2) Her boss is marrying a gold-digger with a fake British accent. By the end of the episode, she faces a third dilemma: Tracy Jordan is missing.

The Family Guy episode titled "The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire," which was re-aired recently, has caught flak from some AIDS groups for a little barber shop ditty performed by Peter for the benefit of a dying AIDS patient. Using song, Peter tells the man, quite frankly, that he has AIDS and is definitely going to die. Seen in context, the joke is that Peter is having a flashback about his impeccable knack for breaking bad news to people. Nevertheless, AIDS groups aren't amused.