History YMMV / TheClevelandshow

** When Cleveland returned to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' quite a few fans were sad none of Cleveland's friends or the shows side characters didn't come back with him.

* CreatorsPet: Donna seems capable of getting away with significantly more things than other characters are. Most notable examples include treating her husband like shit to the point of nearly killing him and not learning a damn thing over it, being angry that he's sad that someone he spent nearly 15 years of his life with died, and going out of her way to emotionally abuse Rallo, complete with song on one occasion. It's kind of amazing Cleveland never divorced her, but she still tends to be important to any given plot 80% of the time.

* BrokenBase: The show had a lot of mixed receptions that it's hard to give it a consensus. Some people think that it had the same level of watch-ability as the better modern episodes of ''Family Guy'', while some people think it's just as bad and was been turned into a Black clone of ''Family Guy'' with the same offensive humor and WorldOfJerkass.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The (mostly white and Jewish) ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' writers attempting to do a show about African-American culture, set in the American south, a location Seth [=MacFarlane=] loves to pick on. Understandably, not too many people were sold.
** When the show was cancelled and Cleveland went back to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', one of the jokes made at Cleveland's expense was exactly that.
-->''"Who was your show's audience? Who'd you make it for? Some Black guy who never met another Black guy?"''
** Despite making a cameo in one episode, Music/SnoopDogg probably put it best at Creator/ComedyCentral roast of Creator/DonaldTrump (which [=MacFarlane=] hosted).
--> "''Ey, yo Seth, ain't no nigga watch'' The Cleveland Show."

** Apart from Donna (who is mostly seen with Lois and Bonnie) none of Cleveland’s family appear to major or minor characters. They are lucky if they appear in the background, we have also yet to see Roberta and Junior attend Creator/AdamWest High with Chris and Meg.

* BrokenBase: The show has a lot of mixed reception that it's hard to give it a consensus. Some people think that it has the same level of watch-ability as the better modern episodes of ''Family Guy'', while some people think it's just as bad and has been turned into a Black clone of ''Family Guy'' with the same offensive humor and WorldOfJerkass.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Aside from having an AudienceAlienatingPremise, the Browns themselves make it even harder to stay invested in the show. Cleveland takes a [[TookALevelInJerkass level in jerkass]] compared to Family Guy. Donna is a DesignatedHero at best who emotionally and physically abuses her husband and children on a regular basis. Junior is a delusional psycho who [[spoiler: possibly murdered his Family Guy counterpart]]. Rallo is a EnfantTerrible who regularly manipulates and uses Junior on a daily basis. While Roberta can be seen as more sympathetic than the rest of the family, she fluctuates in level of {{Jerkass}} behavior. The rest of the cast is also either too stupid, too boring, or too malicious to proberly root for as well.

** Donna is this at her absolute best for getting away with a lot more bad things than most other characters, such as being an overall horrible wife to Cleveland, which includes beating him up on many occasions, attempted mariticide and threatening to divorce him just for mourning his former recently deceased wife, Loretta. She is also physically and emotionally abusive to her kids, such as insulting Rallo through song or calling Roberta a bitch just for saying that she's attractive than her. Yet many characters look up to her. It's a wonder Cleveland hasn't divorced her yet.

* CreatorsPet: Donna seems capable of getting away with significantly more things than other characters are. Most notable examples include treating her husband like shit to the point of nearly killing him and not learning a damn thing over it, being angry that he's sad that someone he spent nearly 15 years of his life with died, and going out of her way to emotionally abuse Rallo, complete with song on one occasion. It's kind of amazing Cleveland is willing to deal with her, but she still tends to be important to any given plot 80% of the time.

* DesignatedHero: Junior, due to often clinging the JerkassBall or being [[IdiotHoudini a legitimate annoyance to everyone around him]], yet a large amount of his roles he is played as the victim for being chewed out or told to act his age (usually it ''is'' unscrupulous, but more due to the family's abrasive or hypocritical methods than the act itself). "The Hurricane!" is a prime example, in which Junior declares himself an atheist, albeit a far less insufferable case than Brian. Despite this, the plot quickly becomes this show's version of "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven", with the family's moronically pious attitude going up against Junior's obnoxious mockery of religion (though "The Hurricane" doesn't smack of the same UnfortunateImplications that "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" did).

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Aside from having an AudienceAlienatingPremise, the Browns themselves make it even harder to stay invested in the show. Cleveland takes an [[TookALevelInJerkass extra level in jerkass]] compared to Family Guy. Donna is a DesignatedHero at best who emotionally abuses her husband and children on a regular basis. Junior is a delusional psycho who [[spoiler: murdered his Family Guy counterpart]]. Rallo is a EnfantTerrible who regularly manipulates and uses Junior on a daily basis. While Roberta can be seen as more sympathetic than the rest of the family, she fluctuates in level of {{Jerkass}} behavior. The rest of the cast is also either too stupid, too boring, or too malicious to proberly root for as well.

*** To add insult to injury, Dee Dee was killed off in the Family Guy episode, "Candy Quahog Marshmallow!" as a passing joke. Because of this, the potential for this premature story coming to fruition is officially dead.

** When Cleveland returned to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' quite a few fans were sad none of Cleveland’s friends or the shows side characters didn’t come back with him.
** Apart from Donna (who is mostly seen with Lois and Bonnie) none of Cleveland’s family appear to major or minor characters. They are lucky if they appear in the background, we have also yet to see Roberta and Junior attend Creator/AdamWest High with Chris and Meg.

* CriticalResearchFailure: A CutawayGag in "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Roberta?" has Creator/JackieEarleHaley describe [[Film/{{Watchmen}} Rorschach]] as a SerialKiller. While he does have his fair share of blood on his hands, calling Rorschach a serial killer is a huge stretch; an overzealous vigilante is more accurate (though that admittedly wouldn't have fit with the punchline.)

** During Cleveland's rap number "Straight Outta Stoolbend" in "Cleveland Jr. Cherry Bomb", he says "white boy's doing my voice". This is no longer the case after Mike Henry stopped voicing Cleveland in 2020 and was replaced by the black Arif Zahir.

* HilariousInHindsight: In a season one episode, there's a cutaway gag of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCAsY4MyalQ Uncle Thomas the Tank Engine.]] A few years later there were accusations of [[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/29/thomas-tank-engine-racist-british-blogger-accuses/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS subtle racism in the children's show.]]

* UnfortunateImplications: [[https://theweek.com/articles/500904/cleveland-show-family-guy-blackface Some reviewers]] wrote that having the role of Cleveland voiced by a white actor was uncomfortably reminiscent of {{Blackface}}. In response, Mike Henry [[https://www.chortle.co.uk/interviews/2010/10/07/11889/im_not_racist countered]] that Lester the white redneck was voiced by Black actor Kevin Michael Richardson, making the racial issue more ZigZagged at least.
** In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, Henry announced that he would be stepping away from voicing Cleveland, and beginning the following season, [=YouTube=] celebrity Arif Zahir would be replacing him.

* FoeYay: Cleveland and [[{{Squick}} his dad]] have some kind of tension. Cleveland dreams of having a father who would bounce him on his knee and watch him dance a ballet in front of him.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Roberta's friends have no idea that Mrs. Tubbs is her mom, even though Donna talked to her like a mom right in front of them and they share the same last name. It's not made clear whether her boyfriend Federline, who has been to their home multiple times, is aware that Donna is Roberta's mom and is just playing along with Roberta's lie or he's just that dumb.
** Cleveland and his friends starting their own roadside beer truck to sell to people stuck on the highway.

* HarsherInHindsight: The show's jokes about not being cancelled and begging FOX not to take his show away from him aren't as funny now when the show ''was'' canceled; one noticeable example being the episode "BFFs" when Cleveland heads back to Quahog to visit Peter, leading Stewie to ask if his show was cancelled already and if he was trying to come back to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.

* GrowingTheBeard: The show abandoned most of its connections to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' by season two (not many cutaways, but plenty of bizarre asides and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Big-Lipped Alligator Moments]] to remind viewers that this is a Creator/SethMacFarlane show) and grew into its own. Sadly, this was the same time that FOX fell out of love with the show and [[ExecetiveMeddling screwed it over so bad that it's now cancelled]].

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: There were a lot of jokes about the show facing cancellation, but "[=BFFs=]" might have the one that was most on the nose. Cleveland heads back to Quahog to visit Peter, leading to Stewie to ask if his show was cancelled already and if he was trying to come back to ''Family Guy''. That's exactly what happened about a year after this show ended.
* GrowingTheBeard: The show abandoned most of its connections to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' by season two (not many cutaways, but plenty of bizarre asides and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Big-Lipped Alligator Moments]] to remind viewers that this is a Creator/SethMacFarlane show) and grew into its own. Sadly, this was the same time that FOX fell out of love with the show and screwed it over so bad that it's now canceled.
* HarsherInHindsight: The show's jokes about not being cancelled and begging FOX not to take his show away from him aren't as funny now when the show ''was'' canceled.

*** In the same episode, Rallo says the Franchise/{{Tarzan}} franchise needs to be revived. [[Film/TheLegendOfTarzan Come 2016...]]

* MoralEventHorizon:
** After Rallo almost drowns and blackmails Cleveland for it, Cleveland ''dunks Rallo's head in the pool'' '''''[[AbusiveParents twice]]''''' just so Rallo would stop bossing him around.
** On the other hand, Rallo constantly treats Cleveland like crap and blackmailing him was yet another example of him acting like an obnoxious little punk and getting away with it. While Cleveland clearly went overboard in his revenge, Rallo arguably deserved his long-overdue comeuppance.
** Principal Wally nearly burning Cleveland's old jersey and calling Junior a "chubby loser". ''Everyone'' gasped!
** Rallo playing pranks on his family. He even got Junior kicked out of scouts.
** Mr. Waterman killing his sham wife so he can run off with his gay lover and leave Cleveland to be accused of murdering him as seen on "Who Done Did It?". Fortunately, he didn't get away with it, but compare that to the early episodes where Mr. Waterman was racist against Cleveland, but it was subtle (and most of the jokes centered on Mr. Waterman being a closet homosexual and hitting on Terry, with Terry not picking up on how inappropriate his advances are).