Pilot (The Cleveland Show)

"Pilot"
The Cleveland Show episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Anthony Lioi
Written by	Seth MacFarlane Mike Henry Richard Appel
Production code	1APS01
Original air date	September 27, 2009
Guest actors
Alex Borstein as Lois Griffin Stacy Ferguson as Holt's mother Seth Green as Chris Griffin Mila Kunis as Meg Griffin Jennifer Tilly as Bonnie Swanson Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson

"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season of the animated comedy series The Cleveland Show. Directed by Anthony Lioi and written by series creators Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry and Richard Appel, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on September 27, 2009, along with the season 8 premiere of Family Guy. The episode follows Cleveland Brown, and his son, Cleveland, Jr., as they begin their journey across the country, with a final destination of California. The two give a final farewell to their friends in Quahog, Rhode Island, but along the way to their destination, they decide to stop in Cleveland's hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia. While there, Cleveland reconnects with an old crush he had in high school, named Donna Tubbs, and immediately finds love, and eventually a new family. Cleveland and Donna ultimately decide to get married, and the two families begin to accept each other into their new lives.

The series is a spin-off of the animated comedy series Family Guy, which was created by executive producer Seth MacFarlane in 1999. Cleveland Brown, voiced by Mike Henry, was a recurring characters on Family Guy, and served as a neighbor to the Griffin family in Quahog. Prior to the pilot of The Cleveland Show, Cleveland last appeared in the seventh season Family Guy episode "Peter's Progress"; he made infrequent guest appearances during the run of the show.

Critical responses to the episode were mixed; critics praised its storyline and numerous cultural references. According to Nielsen ratings, it was viewed in 9.42 million viewers in its original airing. The episode featured guest performances by Alex Borstein, Stacy Ferguson, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Jennifer Tilly and Patrick Warburton, along with several recurring guest voice actors for the series. "Pilot" was released on DVD along with all twenty other episodes from the first season on September 28, 2010. The Pilot episode was leaked to the Internet the last week of June 2009.

Plot

At The Drunken Clam, Peter, Joe, Quagmire and Cleveland sit at a table. Cleveland tells the guys that he has lost his house to Loretta due to their divorce settlement. He also tells the guys that he now has custody of Cleveland Jr. (it revealed that Cleveland, Jr. is now 14 years old and has become incredibly overweight). After having his house damaged by Peter once again, Cleveland decides to leave Quahog and head to California to pursue his dream of being a minor league scout for a professional baseball organization. Before he leaves, Cleveland asks if Lois and Bonnie will kiss each other. They do a simple one at first, but then passionately start to make out. Peter, Joe, Quagmire and Brian all gaze in shock while Cleveland is happy, and he says it is the first time he has ever asked for something he really wanted. Later, after saying goodbye to all his friends, Cleveland and Cleveland, Jr, leave Quahog.

While passing through his old home town of Stoolbend, Virginia, Cleveland sees his old school and heads inside. There, he bumps into his old flame Donna Tubbs. She invites him to stay at her house for a couple of days, where Donna relays to Cleveland how she needs a father figure around for her kids after splitting with her husband, Robert. While at Donna's house, Cleveland is introduced to Donna's kids, Rallo and Roberta, and the neighbors, which include the local redneck and his obese wife, and the family of bears, which include Tim, his wife Ariana, and their son Raymond.

Donna experiences problems with her two kids, and Cleveland agrees to help; this results in him becoming the very person Donna needs around. The inevitable happens, and Cleveland sticks around – after a complication involving the return of her delinquent of an ex-husband, Robert. After a romantic montage, followed by the dismissal of Robert, Cleveland and Donna get married.

Reception

Reaction to the pilot was mixed. According to Nielsen, the episode's premiere was watched by 9.42 million viewers and earned a 4.9/12 rating in the 18-49 demographics.^[1] Ahsan Haque from IGN gave the premiere 8.3/10.^[2] However, it currently has a rating of 57/100 on Metacritic.^[3]

The A.V. Club graded the episode a C-, stating "There are a lot of elements that make The Cleveland Show seem like it should work better than it does, but as a whole, it hasn’t quite managed to stand up and differentiate itself enough from its parent show to be taken as its own thing".^[4]

References

↑ "TV Ratings Sunday, September 27, 2009". TVbytheNumbers.com. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
↑ Haque, Ahsan. "IGN: Pilot Review". Tv.ign.com. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
↑ "The Cleveland Show reviews at". Metacritic.com. 2009-09-27. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
↑ VanDerWerff, Todd (2009-09-27). "The Cleveland Show". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2011-10-03.

External links

"Pilot" at the Internet Movie Database
"Pilot" at TV.com

Preceded by —	The Cleveland Show (season 1)	Succeeded by Da Doggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance

The Cleveland Show episodes

Season 1	"Pilot" "Da Doggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance" "The One About Friends" "Birth of a Salesman" "Cleveland Jr.'s Cherry Bomb" "Ladies' Night" "A Brown Thanksgiving" "From Bed to Worse" "A Cleveland Brown Christmas" "Field of Streams" "Love Rollercoaster" "Our Gang" "Buried Pleasure" "The Curious Case of Jr. Working at The Stool" "Once Upon a Tyne in New York" "The Brown Knight" "Gone with the Wind" "Brotherly Love" "Brown History Month" "Cleveland's Angels" "You're the Best Man, Cleveland Brown"

Season 2	"Harder, Better, Faster, Browner" "Cleveland Live!" "How Cleveland Got His Groove Back" "It's the Great Pancake, Cleveland Brown" "Little Man on Campus" "Fat and Wet" "Another Bad Thanksgiving" "Murray Christmas" "Beer Walk!" "Ain't Nothin' But Mutton Bustin'" "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Roberta?" "Like a Boss" "A Short Story and a Tall Tale" "Terry Unmarried" "The Blue, The Gray and The Brown" "The Way the Cookie Crumbles" "To Live and Die in VA" "The Essence of Cleveland" "Ship'rect" "Back to Cool" "Your Show of Shows" "Hot Cocoa Bang Bang"

Season 3	"BFFs" "The Hurricane!" "Nightmare on Grace Street" "Skip Day" "Yemen Party" "Sex and the Biddy" "Die Semi-Hard" "Y Tu Junior Tambien" "There Goes El Neighborhood" "Dirty Dancing 3" "Brown Magic" "'Til Deaf" "Das Shrimp Boot" "March Dadness" "The Men in Me" "Frapp Attack!" "American Prankster" "B.M.O.C." "Jesus Walks" "Flush of Genius" "Mama Drama" "All You Can Eat"

Season 4	"Escape from Goochland" "Menace II Secret Society" "A General Thanksgiving Episode" "Turkey Pot Die" "A Vas Deferens Between Men & Women" "'Tis the Cleveland to Be Sorry" "Hustle 'N' Bros" "Wide World of Cleveland Show" "Here Comes the Bribe" "When a Man (or a Freight Train) Loves His Cookie" "Brownsized" "Pins, Spins and Fins! (Shark Story Cut for Time)" "A Rodent Like This" "The Hangover: Part Tubbs" "California Dreamin' (All the Cleves are Brown)" "Who Done Did It?" "Fist and the Furious" "Squirt's Honor" "Grave Danger" "Of Lice and Men" "Mr. & Mrs. Brown" "Crazy Train" "Wheel! Of! Family!"

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