Recap / The Cleveland Show S 1 E 1 Pilot

Stewie: What the Hell!? He's getting his own show!?

Cleveland and Junior move out of Quahog, after Loretta wins custody over the house. On their way to California, they stop by Cleveland's hometown, Stoolbend, Virginia for a couple of days. There, Cleveland starts a reconnecting a old love, who also happens to be divorced now...

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Tropes:

• A Day in the Limelight: The Cleveland Show as a whole, does this for Cleveland, to make up for Cleveland's lack of screen time in Family Guy. But this episode, is notable for being the first of many, as well as the one, that is portrayed as an episode of Family Guy, to start with.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: At the time, Family Guy was still being broadcast in 4:3. It's not until Cleveland leaves Quahog that the show switches to HD.
• Blatant Lies: Roberta's excuse for being home late, was because she was attacked by Al Qaeda.
• Brick Joke: A couple, mostly in the form of quotes. "Touch ... Touch Boobs", "Goodbye Chocolate People", and of course "Dat's What I Was Tellin' You Befo'" were funny quotes, said once, and later on, repeated again coming from different, more unexpected places.
  • Also, done with Peter and Lester. In the very first scene, Peter comments on how he never knew Black people could cry, and that he always thought they just got more pissed off. Later on, Cleveland breaks down at The Broken Stool, and a surprised Lester comments, saying the same thing.
• The Bus Came Back: This pilot episode marks Junior's first appearance in the Seth MacFarlane Universe, since his cameo in "The Perfect Castaway".
• Calling the Old Man Out: When Donna decides to reconnect with Robert, Cleveland reluctantly resumes the trip to California. Junior then calls him out on giving up on Donna so easy.
• Continuity Nod: Cleveland mentions the events of the Family Guy episodes, "Brian Goes Back to College", "One if by Clam, Two if by Sea", and the entire Star Wars parody trilogy. Not to mention, this episode obviously continues the story arc of Loretta dumping Cleveland, which started in "The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire".
  Cleveland: See? This is why I'm leavin'. Nobody asks what Cleveland wants. No one asks what Cleveland's got goin' on. But if Peter wants to start a new A-Team, overthrow a British pub, or recreate the whole damn Star Wars movies, I'm supposed to jump on, no questions asked.
  (Cut to Peter, Joe, and Quagmire dressed as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.)
  Peter: (sadly) Well, then I guess we're gonna need a new Ringo.
• Creator Thumbprint: This episode, along with a few other season one episodes, is rather Family Guy-y, with a handful of pointless cutaway gags. Like with American Dad!, however, this stuff stops after season one, and the show officially finds its niche and becomes its own thing.
• Deep South: Cleveland realizes he's here, when meeting Lester.
• Establishing Character Moment: Everyone got their little introduction scene, when Cleveland moved in.
• Fantastic Racism: Cleveland learns a lesson about racism against bears, upon first meeting Tim.
  Cleveland: Aaaah, A bear!
  Tim: Aaaah, A Black guy! See, doesn't feel so good, when it happens to you, does it?
• First-Episode Twist: It's supposed to be a major third act plot twist, for Cleveland to change his mind about moving to California, and instead marry Donna and move into Virginia. However, not only does every future episode spoil this, but so does the theme song, which plays in this episode, far before Donna is even introduced.
• Flashback: A couple of these are shown, to give some insight into who Donna and Robert are.
• Foreshadowing: After Cleveland says "Except I'm not a gay architect, and my wife's not sleeping with my son!" in response to Rallo saying they are the Black Brady Bunch, Cleveland Jr. follows up with "Not yet!". In the episode "Dancing With The Stools", Cleveland Jr. falls in love with Donna and kisses her(though he doesn't actually sleep with her).
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Cleveland points out that he's this to his old friend group.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: When Cleveland was leaving Quahog, Lois asked if she could get him anything, before he left. Cleveland was rather quick to ask if she and Bonnie could kiss for them. Lois and Bonnie nervously chuckled, and they stated that they'd need some wine first. Cleveland instantly popped a champagne bottle, and the two got down to business.
  Quagmire: Touch ... touch boobs.
• Glamorous Single Mother: Donna Tubbs.
• High-School Sweethearts: Cleveland and Donna were these, and although it may have taken a few years apart, with them both marrying other people and having kids with them, they finally get married here.
• "Knock Knock" Joke: Cleveland and Junior get into a bit of one.
  Cleveland: Your mama wants this house, by tomorrow, at sundown.
  Junior: Where are we gunna go?
  Cleveland: Exactly.
  Junior: Exactly, who?
  Cleveland: This ain't no knock-knock joke.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The fourth wall was leaned on, more than it was broken, and these jokes were used to make fun of Family Guy, and point out details about the show, especially in regards to its character of Cleveland Brown. For example, Cleveland's rant about how nobody pays attention to him, is a jab at the Out of Focus trope, and Lois mentioning how Cleveland never goes to his deli is a joke on the One-Hour Work Week trope.
• Meaningful Echo: At the start of the road trip to California, Cleveland tells his son that sometimes in life you have to take risks. Junior later repeats this back to his dad to encourage him to win Donna over.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Peter didn’t do the bathtub gag in this episode, none of this would’ve happened.
• One-Hour Work Week: Lois leans on the fact that Cleveland's job at Cleveland's Deli hasn't been very prominent, in recent seasons.
• Orbital Kiss: Cleveland and Donna do this, transitioning into their wedding.
• Orphaned Punchline: Right at the start of the episode.
  Peter: And that is how I got Liza Minnelli's poop on my shoe.
• Out of Focus: Cleveland mentions how he never got any attention back in Quahog.
• Road Runner vs. Coyote: Peter tries to catch Road Runner, by strapping himself to a giant firework, and having Brian light the fuse. Of course, this fails.
• Running Gag: Cleveland's house is destroyed, while he takes a bath, and he falls out of the bathtub, once again. This finally gets Cleveland to decide.
  Cleveland: Doggone it! That's it! No more! I'm tired of being kicked around by this world!
  Brian: (offscreen) I'm really sorry, Cleveland!
  Cleveland: It's all right.
  Brian: I tried to stop him [Peter].
  Cleveland: I don't blame you, Brian. You're a dog! A DOG!
• Spinoff Sendoff: This episode starts off like an episode of Family Guy, and it's not until Cleveland officially leaves town, that the series officially becomes The Cleveland Show.
• Struggling Single Mother: After Robert dumped her, Donna had been going through Hell, taking care of Rallo and Roberta all on her own.
• Talking Animal: Tim's human like attributes and lifestyle are accentuated, through his establishing character moment.
  Cleveland: Aren't you supposed to live in the woods?
  Tim: [sigh] Yeah, I suppose, uh, it's not the best way to make a buck in today's, uh, you know, the rat race. [chuckles] I know, right?
• You Just Had to Say It: When Cleveland thought he had hit rock bottom, he said "At least it can't get any worse." This was immediately followed by Junior asking him to wipe his butt for him.