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- Why Cleveland Brown Left Family Guy
- Mike Henry Starred In The Family Guy Spin-Off The Cleveland Show
Family Guy fans have asked a few burning questions over the years, from what happened to Herbert to what the Lois death hoax meant. Viewers also wonder why Cleveland Brown left Family Guy. The character is a neighbor of the Griffin family and while he doesn’t always get major storylines, he is one of the characters on the long-running sitcom who has appeared since the pilot episode.
Mike Henry, whose background includes playing a small character on Gilmore Girls and voicing many popular animated characters, voiced Cleveland Brown on Family Guy. There’s a lot to know about the character’s trajectory on the TV series.
Why Cleveland Brown Left Family Guy
Cleveland Brown left Family Guy in 2020 because Mike Henry decided that he, as a white actor, shouldn’t voice a person of color. According to Entertainment Weekly, Henry tweeted:
“It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years. I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role.”
Cleveland Brown is introduced in the pilot episode and continues throughout all of Family Guy. When the TV show was canceled in 2002 and brought back in 2005, he was still an important part of the series. Cleveland is close to the Griffin family, and although he has a family of his own, Cleveland and Loretta get divorced and co-parent their son Cleveland Brown Jr. Cleveland continues to be a supporting Family Guy character in season 22, although he doesn’t have any memorable storylines of his own. In the episode “The Return of the King (of Queens),” Lois wants to save money so she can purchase Christmas gifts and gets rid of the TV. Cleveland is among a few characters who tells Peter to begin streaming Netflix, which turns into a disaster.
|
Family Guy Creator |
Seth MacFarlane |
|---|---|
|
Voice Actors |
Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Arif Zahir, Patrick Warburton, Mike Henry |
|
Number Of Seasons |
22 seasons |
|
Number Of Episodes |
419 episodes |
|
Airdates |
January 31st, 1999-present |
|
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
65% Average Audience Score |
In September 2020, Variety reported that Arif Zahar would begin playing Cleveland on Family Guy. Zahir explained that he was a fan of the TV series and of Cleveland. He called him “my favorite cartoon character of all time.”
Mike Henry Starred In The Family Guy Spin-Off The Cleveland Show
When wondering why Cleveland left Family Guy, the character got his own spin-off for a few seasons. Cleveland left Family Guy in season 4 and came back in season 12. After playing Cleveland Brown on Family Guy from seasons 1 to 8, Mike Henry voiced the character on the spin-off series The Cleveland Show. After four seasons of The Cleveland Show, Henry returned to voice Cleveland on Family Guy. Cleveland is in many of the best Family Guy episodes and on his spinoff series, the focus is on his family life and personal dreams. In season 1, Cleveland tries to live in California to see if he can become a baseball player. Other episodes focus on Cleveland celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, wanting his son to have a friend group, and marrying Donna Tubb-Brown.
What Other Characters Did Mike Henry Play?
- Ed in Gilmore Girls
- several characters in Robot Chicken
- Jackson and other characters in American Dad!
- Dann in The Orville
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mike Henry was asked about how the Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show stood out from the original series. He said:
“We didn’t set out to do
Family Guy
. We set out to do something in the
Family Guy
universe that was more of a family show. There are a few things we won’t do. We won’t go too hard at an abortion joke or a Jesus joke or a really mean celebrity slam, although we did a few first season. I guess it’s maybe a kinder show — or a not-as-mean-show.”
In an interview with Fan Bolt, Mike Henry said that he enjoyed being in the writer’s room at The Cleveland Show, and he talked about how the show fit into his overall career. He said, “The timing was great for me actually, because I got to do a lot of things before Family Guy as far as stand up, or sketch, or directed shorts, and commercials. Then I really got to learn this whole new world through the process of watching Seth sit down in the writers room and pitch stuff out as Stewie and Brian and whoever else.”
Henry added:
“I love being able to just sit in the
Cleveland
room and start ripping on something knowing what needs to be accomplished, and making sure that gets accomplished, and whatever is going on.”
While the tone of the animated sitcom is no doubt bitter and a little mean, with Brian doing terrible things in some Family Guy episodes, there are some heartwarming Family Guy scenes. As Mike Henry mentioned, the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show is a bit kinder and more compassionate than the original series, which makes it stand out.
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