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There’s a new interview with Mike Henry, the voice of Cleveland Brown and the head go-to guy (right under Seth MacFarlane) over at The Cleveland Show. Here’s a snipped from the interview:

How do decide on how your characters’ (Cleveland, Greased-Up Deaf Guy and Herbert) voices should sound?
I based Cleveland off of a guy I met playing basketball who pronounced Maryland like “Merlin.” He had a funny voice, and I started mimicing him. The voices are generally based on people I’ve met. Herbert is based on an old man I used to see at a grocery store. I turned him into a pedophile and tried to get Chris into his basement. Greased-Up Deaf Guy was always a nerdy character. We had to come up with a funny picnic gag and “how about catch the Greased-Up Deaf Guy” came from that. You have your bank of life experiences and when you’re assigned a character, you just start pitching ideas.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

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iF: Which roles are you providing the voice for?

HENRY: I play Cleveland, I play Rilo, his five year old stepson who is basically kind of jacked up and can’t wait to start puberty so that he can start getting laid. I’ll play Wally who used to be a nerd in high school, but is now the principal of the high school so he’s in charge. I also play Terry who’s Cleveland’s sidekick on his job which is being a cable repair man and Terry can’t keep his dick in his pants and so he gets himself in a lot of trouble and Cleveland has to just be responsible for him.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Post from: Stewie's Playground

There’s a great interview with Mike Henry over at IGN; here’s a brief snippet:

IGN: Can you give us an idea of some of the episodes that you might be doing?

Henry: Yeah, it’s like a black Brady Bunch. We make that joke in the pilot. We explore a lot of the territory that the Brady Bunch would never touch. Which is basically combining families and the comedy that comes out of step-families. It really is a family-oriented show. It’ll have crude jokes – the s*** jokes, p**** jokes, whatever you need to do – but at the end of the day it’s all about the family and their connection.

IGN: Can you give us a release date, yet?

Henry: It’s still unclear, but I think some time in 09. Probably next fall.

You can read the rest of this interview here. In addition, here’s a quick video of the Mike Henry interview:

Post from: Stewie's Playground

• That fat kid in the screenshot? That’s Cleveland Brown Jr., redesigned. I’m thinking that they put him on meds for his ADD and he got fat? Maybe?
• From ign.com: “Many years ago, Cleveland Brown (voiced by Mike Henry) was a high school student madly in love with a beautiful girl named Donna. Much to his dismay, his love went unrequited, and Donna wound up marrying another man. Cleveland once told Donna he would always love her, and if this man ever done her wrong, he’d be there when she called. Well, this man done her wrong. Donna’s husband skipped town with another woman, leaving Donna with a daughter and a baby. Now she’s come to Cleveland and offered him another chance at love. Unattached after the Loretta-Quagmire debacle and true to his word, Cleveland joyously accepts and he and Cleveland JR. move to Stoolbend, VA, to join their new family.”
• Talking Bears live next door that have some kind of Eastern European accent.
• Tentatively scheduled to be released in September 2009.

That’s all I have for now. One question I have for you – why do you think that Seth chose Cleveland Brown as his spinoff character? Why not Adam West, or Joe Swanson, or even Glen Quagmire?

UPDATED: May 27, 2008

OK! Here are some new tidbits about the Cleveland spinoff:

• The voice of Cleveland, Mike Henry, is comparing Cleveland to Bob Newhart. Which makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
• Cleveland thinks he’s on his way to California to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a minor league baseball scout – but ends up in his Virginia hometown, instead.
• The woman who Cleveland falls in love with is Donna, an old high school flame. She has a 16-year-old daughter, Roberta, who runs in the fast lane, and a 5-year-old son named Rollo, who’s streetwise and savvy to the ways of the world. Somewhat like Stewie.
• His next-door-neighbors on one side are the Pennyapple family from Great Britain, with Seth MacFarlane doing the voice of the father, Barrington Pennyapple.
• Across the street will be a family of rednecks – the dad is quite open about the fact he’s not quite comfortable with black people. Which should be both uncomfortable and funny, something that Family Guy is quite expert at.

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The only clip I saw in there that wasn’t from Family Guy was the one of three Clevelands dancing, although that one looks familiar too. Here’s the lyrics for the song you hear Cleveland singing:

The Cleveland Show Song

“My name is Cleveland Brown
And I am proud to be
Right back in my home town
With my new family

There’s old friends and new friends
And even a bear
Through good times and bad times
It’s good times we share

And so I found a place
Where everyone will know
My happy black guy face
This is the Cleveland Show!”

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©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: FOX

I’m definitely going to give this a try, but honestly, spinoffs don’t usually fare that well. Look at how many horrific trainwrecks came out of “Friends” and “Cheers”, for example. If anyone has a chance to make this actually good, it’s Seth MacFarlane. We’ll see. What do you think?

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“The Cleveland Show,” based on the popular “Family Guy,” follows the adventures of the Cleveland Brown character as he moves to Virginia to reunite with a lost love and encounters strange neighbors.

Okay, this sounds lame, but I’m confident that Seth MacFarlane can turn it into comic gold. Or at least something that will be better than that horrible piece of dung “American Dad.”

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©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: FOX

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