I love Cleveland. I love him as a supporting character. I love him as a main character. I will admit there is something unsettling about the concept of a “black” show where the primary character is white. Just the idea of how many black jokes it contains while knowing that the producer and most of the writers and voice actors are white is kinda… I dunno it’s a put-off. But most folks won’t know this, so lets ignore it for now.

Other than that, the formula just irks me.

Seth’s Cartoon Blueprint:

Male Protagonist: In most cases, the protagonist should be a dunce, but have absolute redeeming qualities. In this case, he is not stupid, but unfortunately boring. This is because Cleveland was originally created as a supporting character. Still, the protagonist IS male, and he is the focus of all major plots and events. The world revolves around him.

The wife: The wife must always be important, but ultimately the main supporter. The wife is the structure for the protagonist, but no matter how many problems the protagonist causes, the wife will always blindly support him. The wife is incapable of taking care of herself or her family without the protagonist and needs him even if he is completely useless (Peter Griffin). Wives are always strong characters, but never independent in a Seth McFarlane cartoon.

The oldest kid: Female and should be late highschool or early college. Teenage rebel and dealing with the “I hate my parents” phase. See… every oldest child in his series main families.

The middle child: Should be a male with redeemable qualities to the viewer, generally well liked by the audience and family, but ultimately unpopular in the cartoon’s universe. The character should have a major social flaw such as being fat or a nerd. Like all other males, he should be more important than his female counterpart (the older female child).

The comics: These should be characters in the family that provide comedy, and would otherwise not be realistic members of a normal family. Brian, Stewie, Roger, that goldfish who’s name I forget, and this new kid all fit into that category. The young children provide funny because it’s funny when a baby or child is being a wise cracking asshole or evil genius. Roger and that goldfish were never funny because they just weren’t but they were supposed to be funny because a talking goldfish was supposed to be funny, and roger’s personality was too… they just weren’t. Brian is funny because he’s a talking dog, but he’s more of a straight-man character than anyone else (save for maybe Lois) so, that provides comedy.

Anyhow, implement these features and you have a Seth McFarlane cartoon. Do not stray from the blueprint no matter what! P.S. I noticed we’re missing a second comic character so far in the Cleveland show. I would not be surprised at all if one shows up. I would suggest Kanye West’s rival soccer kid character, but that will be too rare to really count. The bears could really fit in this category but they’re not in the family and end up filling one of the buddy slots… so I’ll just sit tight and expect them to fill that slot because the formula can’t be stayed from!

What I would like to see?

Why is there not a show with a FEMALE protagonist? I’m a guy but I mean come on here. Break the mold. Why not a single mom show. Why not like… I dunno.. a single mom or a young couple with no kids or young kids at college or just after college living together or any setting other than a family with that same damn formula. I’d love to see him break that stupid mold and see what he can do.