TVSquad

The Fox network cannot risk pissing off Seth MacFarlane. If they do, they run a good chance of suddenly finding most of their entire Sunday night line-up sucking eggs. At least, that's one possible reason for the renewal of American Dad for a sixth season. That pickup gives MacFarlane the renewal trifecta for Sunday nights.

Actually, of MacFarlane's three series, American Dad is the best one (although I'm finding The Cleveland Show inching closer to first place). As opposed to Family Guy, the storytelling is more linear than the other two and the jokes actually have some relevance to the plot or characters (I'm on Team South Park regarding that "feud").

The Cleveland Show is also better at linear storytelling and jokes than its predecessor, but it's still not up to the standards of American Dad. Sadly, American Dad will likely live in the shadow of Family Guy and The Cleveland Show for years to come. At least MacFarlane has three chances with Fox to keep on working.

Well, it seemed like an unusual pairing when it was announced. Kind of like oil and water. Well, the oil slick has hit the proverbial fan. Microsoft has withdrawn its sole sponsorship of Fox's Seth MacFarlane comedy special. That's the special that Fox was promoting like crazy yesterday all during the NFL games, the special called Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show.

In the grand tradition of show business, though, the special will go on November 8, just without Microsoft commercials. Fox is looking for alternate sponsors. Here's my first call if I'm at Fox -- Apple. Don't you think those Mac/PC ads would send a message to viewers who might still think Microsoft is behind this?

It would also be a brilliant PR move by Steve Jobs and Apple. After all, they could say, "Hey, we're not afraid of the content in Seth MacFarlane's show. We have a sense of humor."

Not that the future of this series was ever in doubt, but Fox has extended its original season-and-a-half order of The Cleveland Show to a full two seasons. Given the strong premiere ratings for the show, seasons beyond number two will likely be in the bag. If Fox didn't extend, they'd have to deal with an irate Seth MacFarlane who currently controls most of their Sunday night line-up.

Is The Cleveland Show going to end up being more popular than its progenitor Family Guy? Do these ratings simply represent a high initial interest in the new show that will wane over time? I have used the analogy of The Jeffersons spinning off from All In The Family, but did The Jeffersons ever beat All In The Family in the ratings?

Whatever the case, Seth MacFarlane doesn't have to worry about it for at least two seasons, and probably longer.

[Watch clips and free episodes of The Cleveland Show at SlashControl]

The man who virtually owns Fox Sunday nights, Seth MacFarlane, will be joining Carrie Underwood in what is seemingly Fox's attempt to revive the variety show genre. Didn't anybody learn the lesson of Rosie O'Donnell?

The show is called Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show. It'll be broadcast on November 8th and be commercial-free thanks to Microsoft (who will be promoting Windows 7). The special will be a mix of animated and live performances. I've seen Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein (the voice of Lois Griffin) perform together in Family Guy Live and they're certainly better together than anything Rosie could produce.

It's interesting how retro these planned variety shows are going. It used to be that shows like The Colgate Comedy Hour would have live sketches about their sponsors sprinkled throughout the show. I wonder how MacFarlane and company will handle shilling Windows 7. Do they even like Windows 7? MacFarlane strikes me more as a Mac guy. "Mac" is even part of his last name.

This is the third week of the new FOX Sunday night, so it's time to check in and see how the lineup is shaping up. I wanted to give The Cleveland Show a few weeks to settle down and start to figure out what kind of show it wants to be. The pilot wasn't the strongest, but there was so much set-up involved, you couldn't tell anything about what future episodes would be like.

With Seth MacFarlane now providing a full hour-and-a-half of FOX's Sunday programming, we decided to take a look at all of his shows in a single post each week. At first, I wasn't sure if I was even going to like The Cleveland Show enough to do this, but it's already grown on me. And that's much faster than American Dad, which took more than a year of sampling here and there before I tuned in regularly.

• TBS has Baseball Playoffs all night.
• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by new episodes of The Amazing Race, Three Rivers, and Cold Case.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, then the Colts vs. the Titans.
• FOX has a new Brothers at 7.
• At 7:30, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos (30 minutes), followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
• At 8, FOX has a new episode of The Simpsons, then new episodes of The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.
• Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, followed by new episodes of Next Iron Chef and Iron Chef America.
• At 8:30, Disney has a new Jonas.
• At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Mystery!
• HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm at 9, then a new Bored To Death.
• Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Californication.
• Lifetime has the season finale of Drop Dead Diva at 9, followed by the season finale of Army Wives.
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Titan Maximum.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S01E01) The Cleveland Show begins with the Family Guy crew in Quahog. After his divorce papers with Loretta are finalized and the prerequisite destruction of his house by Peter occurs, Cleveland decides to abandon his deli (you know, the one he never seems to be at anyway) and move to California. On an out-of-the-way detour, he stops in his old hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia and reconnects with an old flame.

Based on the pilot episode, the analogy that can be made is this: Family Guy is to All In The Family what The Cleveland Show is to The Jeffersons (with a little What's Happening!! and Good Times thrown in). Even the theme music is reminiscent of a 70's black sitcom, plus a few visual cues from Soul Train. The theme is catchy and even better than the Family Guy theme.

• At 7, ABC has the two-hour season premiere of Extreme Makeover, followed by the season premieres of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.
• CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then the two-hour season premiere of The Amazing Race and the season premiere of Cold Case.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Colts vs. the Cardinals.
• At 8, FOX has the season premiere of The Simpsons, then the series premiere of The Cleveland Show and the season premieres of Family Guy and American Dad.
• TBS has The Wizard of Oz at 8.
• Nickelodeon has a new Nick News Special Edition at 8.
• Also at 8: Food Network has a new Challenge, followed by a new Iron Chef America.
• At 8:30, ESPN has the Red Sox/Yankees game.
• At 9, HBO has a new Curb Your Enthusiasm, then a new Bored To Death.
• Showtime has the season premiere of Dexter at 9, followed by the season premiere of Californication.
• Cartoon Network has a new Total Drama Action at 9.
• Hallmark has the movie Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith at 9.
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• At 10:30, HBO has a new Entourage.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Having watched the first three episodes of The Cleveland Show, I find it's a bit like a 70's black sitcom such as Good Times or What's Happening, but more demented. The standard Family Guy humor and asides are still there, but generally the plots feel a little more linear and directed towards a goal. Of course, going forward that could be an exception and not the general rule. The show could end up being a complete Family Guy copy, but with a black family.

The first episode (airing Sunday at 8:30 ET on FOX) begins in Quahog with the cast of Family Guy. The entire circumstance behind Cleveland's departure from that show is explained before the opening theme song. And what a theme song! It's better than Family Guy's. Very catchy. It's the sort that sticks in your mind like Fun Tac.

You've heard it before. The character of Cleveland Brown is the last person in the cast you'd expect to get a spin-off from Family Guy (well, except maybe Herbert, the pedophile down the street). Well, he did in the form of The Cleveland Show. Fox is trying to promote the hell out of this program and as a result, members of the press got a cute press kit to go along with a DVD containing the first three episodes of the show.

This particular press kit contained a body brush (for scrubbing those hard to reach places while in the bath or shower) as well as a plastic bag that contained a towel and some bubble bath . The only thing I can conclude from this particular batch of items is that watching The Cleveland Show will somehow make one feel unclean. This is a nice continuation from the same feeling one would get from watching any given episode of Family Guy.

Actually, the kit is a bit contradictory. The bag is obviously to keep a wet towel from dripping on anything, but who brings such a thing to the bath? That sort of item is usually reserved for the beach. I guess they were afraid the towel would get wet in transit or something.

Like most people in this world, I often turn to master geek musician Jonathan Coulton when I'm trying to figure out how I should feel about something (you can smell hair burning when I try to think for myself).

So imagine my horror when the Fall schedule started filling out and Mr. Coulton was still dealing with strictly music-related matters. Well, I can finally have a restful night of sleep, because John Sellers of True Slant has gotten Jonathan Coulton's take on Fall TV.

The networks have had a quiet summer, quietly introducing scripted bomb after scripted bomb, so they're certainly ready to jump into the new fall season. And It looks to be an interesting one. ABC is scheduling a two-hour block of new comedies on Wednesdays as the sitcom tries to make a comeback.

Even more risky is NBC handing 10:00 to Jay Leno every night of the week. Everyone's waiting to see how that one plays out. FOX is banking on huge positive buzz for Glee to make it a hit, while ABC is hoping FlashForward can pick up where Lost is leaving off when it wraps its run this season.

To help you with it all, TV Squad has put together a handy calendar of all the premieres so you can schedule responsibly in this busy time of TV watching. Some nights have as many as twelve premieres scheduled, so you might need to invest in a few more DVRs to catch all your favorites; Monday's still look grim. Bookmark this page and you'll have it handy to help see you through.

We've been hearing about it for an eternity, the premiere was delayed until this past spring until fall, and for the longest time, the only thing we knew about FOX's upcoming Family Guy spin-off, The Cleveland Show, was this here picture. Heck, it's been over a year since that pseudo-promo for the show started floating around, but at least we were told how and when Cleveland actually left Quahog via this Family Guy clip.

However, now we have real proof that the new cartoon, which premieres on FOX on Sunday, September 27th, is actually real. Check out the new clip from the premiere episode below and tell us what you think. Personally, and I've said this before, but American Dad killed my faith in Seth MacFarlane's ability to make another animated hit. That being said, I'm willing to give anything a shot that has a bear who sounds like the voice you hear over the loudspeaker in an Ikea. Oh, and if you're wondering who the voice behind Mrs. Bear is, it's Arianna Huffington.

[via NCM]

While it was a little odd that the "screener" of Glee we got was the exact same episode that FOX aired after American Idol in the spring, the rest of these shows were truly new. Dramatic offerings included FOX's loose adaptation of the DC Comics property Human Target and Past Life. On the comedy side they offered us screeners for The Cleveland Show, Brothers, Sons of Tucson and the aforementioned Glee.

After enduring the screener for Do Not Disturb last season on FOX, I could only hope that these offerings were at least better than that offense to the senses. And they were. Well, most of them. Unfortunately, it seems that FOX has at least one Do Not Disturb in them every season. Other than that, one of these shows was far better than I expected, another a bit worse, and a third one stands as one of the better pilots I've ever seen.

It seems like a no-brainer that television and Comic-Con would go together like peanut butter and jelly. But TV has actually been a bit slow to the game and viewed their presence at Comic-Con as something that goes together like peanut butter and regular butter (trust me, I've tried peanut butter and butter, and it's not good).

This year, studios have recognized the importance of the annual geek con-fab and are presenting more shows and panels than ever before. There is going to be more TV at the Con than you can shake a stick at, so don't forgot your shaking sticks.

Why so many? Variety reports that studios and networks are recognizing the buzz they can generate at the convention through electronic social networking and good ol' word-of-mouth by showcasing and premiering exclusive screenings of their shows.