Should Cleveland Show Be The Action Show?

finally

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I don't mean to bag on Seth MacFarlane and his new team's work right off the bat when it could be decent, but the idea of the staff doing three sitcoms in a row dosen't sit right with me. Yeah obviously predictable cheesy sitcom writing is they're forte and they're obviously very comfterable with the style. But I'm thinking that they're kind of going to be tapped doing a third show. Family Guy is cliche but makes up for it with more off the wall plotting and cutaway gags even if the actual stories themselves when you stare deep into them enough have pretty much been cycled before. American Dad takes the cliche and gives us richer characters and personality types then you'd find in FG. What will the Cleveland Show do? Try for a mix of the two or lean more in either FG's ridicoulsness or AD's better character balance? Don't know but when thinking about "Road To Germany" a thought crossed my mind:

What would happen if MacFalrane and co tried something more... Actiony?

The fight coregraphy on the rumbles in both American Dad and Family Guy is quite strong and the team are able to maintain a steady pacing in both. But in "Road To Germany" it was also proven that they can also do strong actual action scenes if they focus enough on them. Yes they are obvious homages to other things but still coregraphed in they're own way. In truth just trying for more of an action show instead of just another family sitcom would at least be something DIFFERENT instead of more just the same old same old from MacFarlane. Groening and his team moved to a more adventury plot structure from the Simpsons into Futurama. Butch Hartman and Staff at least tried for more action in Danny Phantom compared to Fairly Oddparents, and obviously Genndy Tartoskvey was able to go full out into fighting from more humor based affairs in Samurai Jack and Clone Wars from Dexter's Laboratory (and Maxwell Atoms Underfist compared to Billy and Mandy would of done that too if it was allowed to get off the ground). I could easily see MacFarlane and staff doing the same thing. Obviously there are a few factors that would stop this.

1. Wanting to be more comedy oriented then action oriented.

2. The fact that they're on FOX's LOL Sunday which is pretty much sitcom dominated and not action oriented at all and not going to find a place to be action oriented while keeping that same budget level.

3. The fact it could be more expensive then just the more regular sitcomy animated shows.

Still though I'm asking this more as a hypothecial question then something that could actually come into exisiting: Should the Family Guy team of tried for more of an action show instead of The Cleveland Show or should they be allowed for a third Sitcom style show instead of expirementing more? Go ahead and post your thoughts here on that.
 
An interesting thought, but I think the general assumption on prime-time is that action=kids' show, so I'm not sure if the so-called sophisticated prime-time audience would go for it, and I doubt even more that Fox execs would want such a show on their lineup. They seem to be more interested in domestic comedies and more "adult" oriented fare. (case in point: Futurama was a spoof of sorts on the sci-fi melodrama, and it was treated for the most part like a red-headed stepchild by Fox.)
 
This actually echoes something I said a few months ago, about how it would be great if Seth MacFarlane was swerving us and The Cleveland Show turned out to be a show where Cleveland goes into space to fight aliens. It doesn't have to be that drastic, but I think what you're suggesting could be a good idea. Episodes like "Road To Germany" and "Blue Harvest" are good, but they just don't feel right in Family Guy. It seems like the characters are holding their tongues and trying really hard not to do what they usually do. But with a new show, Seth can go in any direction he wants. I just hope he takes advantage of that.
 
Even if Seth were to produce an action series, I can't say how long it would last on FOX. FOX only seems to be interested in animated shows about families. As Silverstar pointed out, the closest thing to an animated action series on FOX (so far) was Futurama, which died prematurely due to the network's underhwelming support.
 
True, four seasons is a good run, but Matt and company were clearly still interested in making episodes of Futurama, which could easily have continued on FOX, but the network is only interested in animated sitcoms about dysfunctional families.
 
Even so, with Seth now supervising 2 animated shows about quirky families, I don't see how he can create a 3rd family comedy without returning to some familiar territory.
 
I dunno, I think it's a fair argument that he should avoid suburban families in the future, but asking him to make an action cartoon seems... oddly specific.

I mean, there are any number of other options he could pick. Like making a cartoon about a single mother. Or sentient windowframes.
 
I would love to see how an action series by Mcfarlane would come out... but I think it should still be a comedy. That is obviously Seth's forte, and I don't think he would do to well as the writer of a show like, say "Avatar". I'm probably stating the obvious here, but nobody else mentioned it:p
 
I'm not sure if I'm saying what the original poster was saying, but action comedy along the lines of "Road to Germany" is something that MacFarlane appears to have an interest in. There's also the chicken fight and stuff like that.
 
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