Good Luck, Cleveland.

Tom Shales of the Washington Post has written a scathing review of the new Family Guy spinoff, The Cleveland Show, and its creator Seth MacFarlane. Somehow I doubt he'll be on MacFarlane's Christmas card list this year. Personally I haven't been waiting with baited breath for the new show, and am in no hurry to see it now that it has hit the air. Fox has been pushing it for months with ads, but I wonder if it will have much of a run. Was anyone waiting for a spinoff of one of the lesser characters in the series? Most folks would expect the obvious, a spinoff featuring terrifying tot Stewie and Brian the talking dog, who frankly are the ones who lead to my occasional viewing of the show. Even Peter's lascivious buddy Glen Quagmire seems like a more likely choice of spinoff lead. The series did pull a credible 9.4 millon viewers for its debut, but it remains to be seen if that will hold up in the long run.

The Man Behind The Voices.

As a followup to my Stewie and Superman's baby post here's an article from Fast Company magazine about Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Seems he's building up quite the empire. And it's an empire that still requires a good chunk of direct involvement from him, since he does the voices of several of the main Family Guy, its soon to hit the air spinoff The Cleveland Show, and American Dad characters along with taking part in other areas of production such as writing music.