With Cleveland Jr. running for class president, and Rallo as his campaign manager and Donna trying to hold on to her single friends as long as she can, you’d think there would be more than enough hijinks in this past Sunday’s episode of “The Cleveland Show†to get a few laughs, right?
While it’s not as terrible as some of the earlier episodes in the series, it fails to deliver a knockout dose of laughter and instead induces yawns at every turn.
Seeing Donna try to relive her single days and come home and take advantage of Cleveland physically and hear him sing in delight is smirk-inducing, but only because its been done in countless movies and television shows over the years.
“Young Frankenstein†anyone?
Later, seeing the Tubbs-Brown family toobin’ is strange and the missing footage that leads them to an encounter with Mr. Flippers is even stranger. Overall, it’s not quality TV and a complete departure from what makes shows like “Family Guy†and American Dad†so funny.
The same thing goes for Cleveland Jr.’s little political run. While Rallo is beginning to hit his comedic stride and is as good a spinster as Karl Rove, [seeing him get his step brother ready for the first hurdle of his political life is easily the best part of the episode] Cleveland Jr.’s role in this episode wasn’t strong enough to make these two an effective duo. Seeing him work his magic on the podium before saving his deaf opponents life, isn’t the least bit enjoyable. It’s bland TV with the type of writing that is more bizarre than anything else.
In the end, that’s what “The Cleveland Show†will be remembered as. Bizarre and something that pays homage to the things in life that are truly hilarious All without being funny themselves.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
With Cleveland Jr. running for class president, and Rallo as his campaign manager and Donna trying to hold on to her single friends as long as she can, you’d think there would be more than enough hijinks in this past Sunday’s episode of “The Cleveland Show†to get a few laughs, right?
Made me laugh. Grow a sense of humor.