Planet Family Guy

This week's EW magazine has exclusive details of Kanye West's first appearance on The Cleveland Show.  The rapper/singer will first appear in the May 2nd episode as Kenny West, a 19-year-old local hero.  The episode is about the rhythming battle between Kenny and Cleveland Jr. to gain the affections of a woman (voiced by Taraji P. Henson).

The team behind The Cleveland Show were so impressed by Kanye that they've brought him back in for further episodes of the Family Guy spin-off.  "You know, I’ve worked on The Simpsons and Family Guy and King of the Hill," co-creator of The Cleveland Show Rich Appel told EW. "We’ve had a lot of guest stars. It’s very rare that a guest star is eager and willing to come to the table read. He showed up 15 minutes early."  Appel went on to suggest that West was becoming Cleveland's Sideshow Bob!

There's no new Family Guy tonight on Fox (a repeat of Road to the Multiverse instead); however, there is new Cleveland Show with The Curious Case Of Jr. Working At The Stool at 8.30pm:-

"Cleveland teaches Junior responsibility by challenging him to get a job, and to his own delight, Cleveland Jr. lands a job working at The Stool. However, when Cleveland Jr. starts commenting on the number of beers his father consumes and sets limits on the guys' time at the bar, a feud erupts between father and son. Meanwhile, Roberta competes with Lacey (guest voice Tisdale), the rich girl in school, and gets more than she bargained."

Ashley Tisdale, David Lynch, Ed Asner and Kristen Wiig all guest voice on tonight's episode.

The first season of The Cleveland Show continues tonight at 8.30pm ET on Fox with the new episode Buried Pleasure:-

"Holt admits to Cleveland that he wishes he had a special someone in his life. Determined to help his lonely friend, Cleveland introduces Holt to Jill (guest voice Fergie), a cat-loving redhead who ends up being more than a handful. Meanwhile, Cleveland Jr. and Rallo anticipate the “birth” of Rallo’s pet fish."

U2's Larry Mullen Jr. is to be joining the cast of The Cleveland Show for a couple of episodes next season reports Spinner UK.

"He came in and we hung out for a couple of hours," said Mike Henry. "We just recorded him doing a couple of different parts and he was very funny. It's a thrill for me to do all this. U2 is my favourite band of all time ... He's got his own studio so we just record it from Dublin. You don't have to record at a certain time. It's an easy gig and one that people like to do."

According to a recent report from The Hollywood Reporter Carl Reiner and rappers will.i.am and T-Pain are joining the cast of The Cleveland Show as recurring characters. They will join in the second season as part of Rallo's entourage.

Other upcoming guest stars include will.i.am's Black Eyed Peas bandmate Fergie (in Sunday's new episode) and Kanye West who also has a recurring part in the show.

"Veteran comedy writer-producer Rich Appel has inked a new three-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV," reports The Hollywood Reporter; therefore extending his 15-year relationship with the studio enabling him to continue as executive producer of The Cleveland Show.

This is great news for the Family Guy spin-off which has already been renewed for a second season. Coming out of a table read for episode 16 of season 2 Appel jokingly said, "I'm excited to be working at 20th for the next couple of years or at least until I'm replaced by Jay Leno."

New Cleveland Show tonight at 8.30pm ET/PT with Our Gang:-

“Coach Cleveland comes to the rescue of frustrated parents by taking a group of delinquent teens under his wing. With the help of Cleveland Jr., he creates a new club dubbed ‘The Crazy Eights,’ and hopes that it will keep the kids on the straight and narrow. However, he is soon mixed up in bad business, and only the ‘Crazy Eights’ can help him out.”

Talking about why he developed the idea for The Cleveland Show Seth MacFarlane has said: “I get bored pretty quickly … The Cleveland Show, just getting that off the ground was very stimulating, it was a lot of fun to kind of build something new and to see if it could be done.”

“I guess what motivates me is that I can’t ever really be content with the status quo. I was sort of – for good or for bad – driven to seek out whatever’s next, what’s the next level, what’s the next step, whether that be creatively or career-wise.”

The Cleveland Show starts on E4 in the UK from 10pm Monday.

Source: UK Press Association

The Cleveland Show starts on E4 from Monday 1st February at 10pm. It will be shown as a double-bill with Pilot and Da Daggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance on the first night. Both episodes can be caught again from 11pm on the Wednesday, or an hour later on the time-shift channel E4+1.

No Family Guy or American Dad tonight due to a The Simpsons special to celebrate 20 years on the air (8.30pm ET/PT on Fox); however, there is new The Cleveland Show at the special time of 9.30pm ET/PT with the episode Love Rollercoaster:-

“Roberta’s new teacher, Ms. Eck, encourages Roberta to alter her appearance to teach her an important lesson, and Cleveland Jr. befriends the disguised Roberta only to fall in love with her. Meanwhile, Cleveland and the guys set out to invent the next infomercial product.”

The episode features the guest voice Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester in Glee) as Ms. Eck. In an interview with EW.com she described her character as possibly having “the largest, most disproportionate butt in cartoon history.” She also talked of her love of Family Guy and how her young children love it too!

Check out the picture gallery for this episode!