With the character and setting introductions out of the way thanks to the pilot episode, Cleveland and his new family start to get better acquainted. Along the way, though, they hit some bumps and Cleveland must do some maturing in order to make things right. Keep reading for the full review.
Episode Summary
The episode opens at breakfast, where Cleveland sits down at the table and tells the kids about a wonderful dream that he had involving him and Cleveland Jr having a great new family. He’s obviously very excited and wants nothing more than to bond with his new step-children. However, Rallo and Roberta won’t be so easily won over as we see in the next couple of scenes. Rallo is still upset that there are two new people in the house and Roberta doesn’t want to be seen with Cleveland on the way to school.
At dinner, Junior tells Cleveland that he had a bad day — he was bullied by his classmates and the gym coach. Cleveland gives his son a little pep talk and then asks Rallo and Roberta about their days. Rallo discloses that he pooped his pants at recess but when Cleveland asks Roberta about her day, she gets mad and leaves the table. Once the boys depart, Donna tells Cleveland that Roberta is upset because the Daddy Daughter Dinner Dance is coming up and Robert stood her up last year.
The next day, Cleveland brings Roberta flowers and tells her that he will be her date to the dance. Still not accepting of her new stepfather, she refuses, provoking an all out campaign to get her to accept the invitation. This includes a hilarious YouTube style video in which Cleveland ghost rides a car to a hip-hop instrumental.
At school, a girl picks on Cleveland, causing him to run frantically into the boys’ bathroom where, strangely enough, there are no doors on the stalls. A kid on the toilet asks him to stand in front of the stall and tells him he’s perfect for this job. Later, when Cleveland asks his son about his day at school, Junior responds:
“Crappy, and I mean that in a good way”
When Cleveland presents Roberta with some lovely earrings, she finally relents and decides to go to the dance with him. Excited about this turn of events, he decides to go out for some ice cream cake, but then disaster strikes as he runs over the family dog, Meadowlark Lemon. Lester sees this and promptly comes over to “get rid” of the dog for Cleveland. We then catch our first glimpse of Lester’s wife, a morbidly obese and motorized scooter-ridden woman.
The next morning, Rallo is visibly upset because the dog never came home the night before. Cleveland tries to play it cool by not mentioning the accident and so he and Rallo embark on a quest to find Meadowlark. They go to the park, the sludge pond, the chicken gizzard cannery and finally a greek restaurant slash gym.
After seeing Cleveland Jr again in the school bathroom finding his way, we meet Cleveland and his new friends at The Broken Stool. Lester shocks Cleveland by telling him he ate the dog and Cleveland doesn’t know what to do about the situation. Tim the bear steps up by telling Cleveland that he must confess because he wants to build his new life on a strong foundation, but also tells him that he must be brutally honest and pay attention to all the details.
Unfortunately, he follows this advice too closely, effectively destroying all the hard work he had put in to win over Roberta and Rallo. Roberta no longer wants to go the dance with Cleveland because, as she puts it, he would probably run her over and feed her to some rednecks.
The next day, Cleveland brings home a new dog, Kareem Abdul Jabark, but the family rejects this gesture and the dog is promptly killed by a bigger dog in a game of fetch gone awry.
When we next see Cleveland, he is very mopey and depressed, so Rallo begins insult him. This causes Cleveland to finally assert himself as Rallo’s authority figure, getting instant respect from the child. He soon realizes that it is time for him to show up at the dance, where as expected Roberta is alone — abandoned yet again by her biological father.
After he arrives at Stoolbend High School Cleveland runs into the bathroom to fix his tie. To his horror, Cleveland Jr is now a bathroom attendant! He insists that this is not the job for him and that the next day he will teach Junior how to throw a baseball. In a very funny exchange, Cleveland tells his son to boil his clothes when he gets home.
In the gym, Roberta is alone — abandoned yet again by her biological father. Mr. Brown whispers a request to the DJ and then makes his way over to Roberta, still very much upset with Cleveland. In a moment that assures us that this will be a great show, Cleveland gives a sweet speech that finally gets Roberta to forgive him. They then proceed to the dance floor and have a great time together.
Analysis
As expected, this episode was much better than the pilot, which had to go through the boring and drawn-out process of setting up the premise of the entire show. This episode made it clear that The Cleveland Show is no Family Guy rip-off as it began to set itself apart with its family sitcom feel.
Cleveland is starting to prove his doubters wrong — he does have the personality to carry an entire show. Not that he will have to do it alone, as the kids prove to be great cast members. Each of them starts to develop his or her own character right before our eyes and this is a great thing.
Roberta is a rebellious teenager for a reason: her real father isn’t there for her. Rallo isn’t just a perverted little kid, he’s sarcastic, quick-witted and cute. Cleveland Junior is a fighter because even though he gets picked on at school, he never gives up and eventually finds something he’s good at and gains him some acceptance.
The cutaway gags were absolutely spectacular in this one. There’s an aggressive toaster, a caveman and his dogs, a biting Kurt Cobain joke and a Star Trek convention rape scene — all very funny. Topping them all, however, was a great Men’s Wearhouse parody featuring Cleveland saying that he’ll like the way he’ll look, he “gurrantees” it. The writers got it right this time as the gags don’t take away from the pace of the episode but rather enhance it.
Cleveland’s speech to Roberta was a very sweet moment and scenes like this are what is going to make The Cleveland Show stand out from the other two McFarlane cartoons. He also does his best to bond with new stepson Rallo while continuing to support Cleveland Junior. He and Donna interact somewhat but this one was all about the kids and how they all interacted with their father.
The Verdict
“Da Doggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance” steps out of the shadow of Family Guy by establishing itself as a traditional family sitcom with a snappy, raunchy and comically genius edge. If the rest of the episodes this season are half as good as this one, then this is going to be the huge hit that Fox wants it to be.
Final Score: 9.0 out of 10
Related posts:
- Episode 2 “Da Doggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance” Preview
- Episode 7 “A Brown Thanksgiving” Review
- Episode 5 “Cleveland Jr. Cherry Bomb” Review
- Episode 4 “Birth of a Salesman” Review
- Episode 1 “Pilot” Review
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You’ve got to be kidding me. This show sucks ass.
While I wouldn’t rate it quite as high as you had it this was a great episode. Much better than the first, I can’t wait for next Sunday!!!!
this episode was disgusting.
I loved it when Donna was like “it was good weed”