Family Guy fans will have to wait a while to see the animated show’s African American character get his own show. Daily Variety reports that Fox has moved the premiere of The Cleveland Show from late spring of this season to fall of 2009. The trade speculates that the announcement of a spring start date was a ploy to get advertisers excited about the 2008-2009 season.
In The Cleveland Show, the central character (voiced by Mike Henry) has taken his son moved from Quahog, Rhode Island to Stoolbend, Virginia, where he shacks up with his high school sweetheart, a single mother named Donna (Sanaa Lathan). Nia Long will play one of Donna’s two children, a rebellious teen named Roberta, and Kevin Richardson voices the role of a redneck neighbor. Strangely enough, political pundit and blogger Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post has also joined the cast in a recurring role.
In addition to voicing Cleveland, Henry serves as a writer and exec producer on the animated show. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is also exec producing, along with veteran toon writer and producer Rich Appel (The Simpsons, King of the Hill).
FOX has ordered another nine episodes of the 20th Century Fox TV series, bringing the first season total to 22. The show will fill the hole in the network’s Sunday-night Animation Domination block left by long-running comedy King of the Hill, which hasn’t been renewed for a 14th season.
