This season, Fox added The Cleveland Show to its block of animation on Sunday nights. This Family Guy spin-off has already earned solid ratings and a second season pick-up.
For the November 22, 2009 episode titled "A Brown Thanksgiving," Daryl Hall and John Oates guest star in what will be recurring roles. Mike Henry, executive producer and star, and Daryl Hall answered questions about the holiday episode of The Cleveland Show.
Mike Henry described the episode, "Basically [Hall and Oates] play an angel and a devil over Cleveland's shoulders, and they give Cleveland conflicting advice on what to do about kind of a touchy situation, if you will, in this episode."
"There's a relative of Cleveland's wife, Donna, who has come to town, Auntie Mamma, who is voiced by Kym Whitley," Henry continued. Apparently Cleveland's father, Freight Train, "is immediately enamored with Auntie Mamma. And Cleveland finds out a secret about Auntie Mamma, and he's having a dilemma as to whether or not he should tell his dad about it."
This is where Daryl Hall and John Oates make their appearances. Henry says, "I believe Daryl tells him to go ahead and tell his dad and stick to honesty in the relationship, and his dad will respect him. And John goes ahead and tells him to let his dad go ahead and get into some trouble."
"I'm glad to have been asked to do it," said Daryl Hall. "It's been a great experience. I hope we do more of them, and it's a great show, and John and I are both having a lot of fun doing it." Though Hall did add, "I think I've been totally miscast as an angel."
When asked why the character Cleveland was chosen for a Family Guy spin-off, Mike Henry explained, "Cleveland really is kind of a step removed from all of the other characters on Family Guy. He's a little more thoughtful and kind of a nice guy. So we figured we could kind of easily make it more of a family show.
Family show? I pointed out to Mike Henry that in "Ladies' Night," Cleveland has dinner with a blow-up doll in addition to hiring two hookers, under the guise of getting his wife out of a jam. Henry responded, "Well, let me just say that you can often take liberty with what we call a show blow or an act blow, which doesn't really, you know. In our minds, he's not really going to go do that."
He continued to explain how The Cleveland Show is different from Family Guy, "Well, I think it's just, for a lack of a better term, it's a little bit sweeter of a show, and Rich Appel is my creative partner in this. Rich and I both have kids and, frankly, we're both divorced and remarried, so we have empathy for a blended family or for this type of situation. It's a mixed blessing coming off a show that the standard of comedy is so high with Family Guy that expectations are high. Frankly, I think we're meeting them and surpassing them."
So how is The Cleveland Show different in specific ways? "There's no lacking comedy, but you'll just see - we won't tell a rape joke. We won't tell an abortion joke. We won't have Cleveland punch his daughter or stepdaughter. We won't do the things that Family Guy will do just because we don't need it. That's kind of where we're different, and we won't take an awfully mean shot at a celebrity like Family Guy will."
