Black Family Guy stirs up melting pot

The Cleveland Show. Photo / Supplied

Cleveland Brown (the lead character, voiced by Family Guy's Mike Henry), taken from Seth McFarlane's original animated comedy, moves to Virginia where we see his day-to-day struggles as father and head of a dysfunctional African American family.

"It's something we joked about for a long time," said Henry. " There wasn't enough air time for Cleveland and it was frustrating. My sensibility is a little different from Seth's, but it felt like it was similar enough, yet different enough, to work."

So, who is Cleveland? "There's some mystery to him on Family Guy. You weren't exactly sure who he was, other than being 'the black guy', and that was often the joke. But I figured there was a lot more to him.

"He's an honest, well-intended person who, out of being kind of dumb, will stumble into a situation he can't get out of, and digs himself into a hole."

Like any fledgling show, it's important to build its own audience but retain some of the fans from its origins. "We have celebrity jokes, fart jokes and TV cutaways that Family Guy has, but at the end of the day, it's a little sweeter," says Henry. "It's stories The Brady Bunch never told about a blended family. And it's funky. I got to sing with Earth, Wind & Fire in an episode."

Some of the celebrities who are the victim of pot-shots include John Mayer, Jennifer Aniston, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and Halle Berry.

Unsurprisingly, there has been some noise about the fact Henry is a white guy voicing a black character.

"I do have a responsibility not to be Amos and Andy. But the thing is, I started pitching his voice in the writer's room of Family Guy, based on a guy I met on the basketball court. So, he was drawn to look like the voice," he says.

"You should also know that we have Lester, the redneck neighbour across the street, and he is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, who is black. And Indian actress, Aseem Batra, who plays Kenra, Lester's wife, is white. We're not singling out African American culture as a punching bag. We're making fun of everyone across the board.

Adds Richardson: "I voice so many characters on the show, I've lost count." One of his more memorable imitations is President Obama. "His voice was definitely one of the most difficult to get right. The guy is so original, unique, handsome and slim. I can't be this guy. So he took a while."

Not giving away too much about this particular plot point, he says: "What I can say is that he and Cleveland knew each other as kids, but Cleveland knew him as Barry, not realising that Barry was Barack."

He grins. "He finds that out later."

Lowdown

What: The Cleveland Show
When & where: Screens Thursdays, 8pm, C4Not all spinoffs are created equal. However, Cleveland (C4, Thursdays, 8pm) does a smart job of being the son of Family Guy.