Don’t forget, Kanye West will reprise his role as Kenny West on Sunday’s season premiere of ‘The Cleveland Show.’ West is the superstar rapper bully who challenges Cleveland Jr. to a rap battle over a girl. But by season two, Kenny’s career isn’t going so well and ironically, his savior is Cleveland Brown Sr, who helps Kenny write a hit single called, “Be-Cleve in Yourself.” Check out the preview:

In addition to Kanye West, other guest appearances throughout the season will be T-Pain, Will.i.am and Justin Timberlake.

The Cleveland Show will return to Fox this fall with the help of several well known artists, according to this week’s Entertainment Weekly (September 17/24). Kanye West will reprise his role as Kenny West, the bully who challenged Cleveland Jr. to a  rap battle over a girl, in the season premiere. The rest of the season has some interesting plots in store as well, one of which will be helmed by Justin Timberlake. Timberlake will play the gay fiance of Cleveland’s friend and co-worker Henry. Timberlake will also lend his vocals and production skills to a ballad as the last booger that Rahlo ever plans to eat. Despite the song’s goofy content, the show’s producers are pleased.

“As I was listening to the lyrics I said, ‘I don’t think we deserve this level of production and musicality,’” says Rich Appel, executive producer.

Clearly, musicians dig the show enough to give it their all. Last year Earth Wind and Fire lent their talents to the Christmas special and other artists who will appear this season include T-Pain and Will.i.am. The latter pair will play Rahlo’s entourage.

Fox’s Sunday night animation domination is so far so good. The Cleveland Show has already been given the green light for a third season. I’m excited to see what’s in store.

Is it possible that The Cleveland Show could overshadow The Family Guy?

Season two of The Cleveland Show premieres on September 26 (check your local listings for times).

In news that’s too easy to make fun of, a former boy bander is going gay — for a role anyway.

Indeed, Usmagazine.com reports that Justin Timberlake has been tapped to lend his voice to The Cleveland Show.

Previously, Kanye West lent his voice to the animated series.

On his upcoming episode, Timberlake will play a gay character. Co-creator, Rich Appel, says the character “Terry” will fall in love with a guy voiced by Justin.

On the singer-actor, Appel said, “Justin is just hysterical!”

The episode will air in February.

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See previous before you continue.

20. Cleveland Brown (Mike Henry) – The Cleveland Show

Sure he’s animated but he’s the unlikely break out star of The Family Guy. No one thought “the black guy” from The Family Guy would get a spin off show because Cleveland’s character was too passive. However, once he decided to move on from his wife after she cheated, he gained new confidence, moved back to his hometown and started over. He still has the same heart of gold as the original Cleveland fans fell in love with, but his newfound cojones makes him more interesting.

19. JJ Evans (Jimmie Walker) – Good Times

He was loud and obnoxious but also drove the comedy of Good Times, usually either delivering punch lines or by being the butt of jokes. Nearly 40 years later, people still remember the phrase, “Dynomite!”

18. Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) – A Different World

Anyone who attended an HBCU definitely knew a girl like Whitley. She was the quintessential Southern Bell who grew up with all the money a girl could want but also live a sheltered life, which lead to narrow minded views. She was a snob because she just didn’t know any better. But with kids like Denise, Julissa and Kimberly around, she learned quickly that being stuck up didn’t fly. Her evolution throughout the series is what made her real.

17. Gina Waters (Tisha Campbell) - Martin

Gina was Martin’s refined, dignified girlfriend whom he loved to death and vice versa. Despite the fact that they were opposites in a lot of ways, they still worked well together. The best thing about Gina was that although she was prissy, she wasn’t afraid to unleash her inner hood rat and put people in check.

16. Wanda (Jamie Foxx) – In Living Color

Wanda is the ugliest “woman” ever played by a man in drag so far. Her delusions of grandeur about her fineness as she insists on attempting to rock some poor man’s world is the stuff that laughs are made of.

15. Kadeja (Queen Latifah) – Living Single

Kadeja was young, down-to-Earth and owned her own magazine. She and her girlfriends lived the single life in Brooklyn were the epitome of young black professionals. Without Kadeja, there would be no Carrie Bradshaw or Joan Clayton.

14. Roc Emerson (Charles S. Dutton) – Roc

Roc was a blue-collar man who loved his family. He represented that money didn’t always make the man and that if you wanted something enough it was attainable through honest hard work…and sifting through the garbage for treasure (if that’s your thing).

13. Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) – The Cosby Show

Denise was the free spirited wild child who often struggled to find her way because she didn’t fit in to her parent’s expetations. She eventually dropped out of college?to her parents’ chagrin?but she still turned out OK and blacksheep everywhere had someone they could relate to.

12. Joan Clayton (Tracee Ellis Ross) – Girlfriends

Joan is an obsessive-compulsive lawyer with control issues. She has a personal set of rules for everything but often broke them inadvertently, which was part of her growth process and also what made her likeable. Plus, she was the voice of reason for her crazy friends, who knew that they could rely on her no matter what.

11. Christie Love (Teresa Graves) – Get Christie Love

Pam Grier’s 1970s film career paved the way for Black tough chicks to find a place on TV. Officer Christy Love became one of the most sought after detectives on her unit. She was a tough talking, sexy diva who had no qualms about taking the bad guys in and roughing them up in the process. The show didn’t last very long but without the character female officers on TV might still be playing a lot more catch up as far as roles are concerned.

The Cleveland Show is doing so well that it will be returning to Fox for a third season. Kanye West will return for a voice over and Snoop Dogg will get in on the action, as well as some of the cast of Glee.

The Family Guy spinoff already features  Sanaa Lathan, Reagan Gomez, and show creator Seth McFarlane.  It will return to Fox this fall. Justin Timberlake and Tony Hawk will also lend their voices to characters. At this point it’s safe to say that The Cleveland Show is probably going to have a long run. It ranks as the highest rated half hour series among teens and adults (18-34).

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Last month we mentioned that Kanye West will guest star in a May 2 episode of The Cleveland Show. Guess what? That’s this Sunday! Time flies right?

The hip-hop super star will voice a 19-year-old rapper named Kenny West, who gets into a rap battle with Cleveland Brown Jr over the affections of a young woman who will be voiced by Taraji P Henson.

Watch this snippet of the forthcoming episode:

It looks good. I’m rooting for Cleveland Jr because he’s the under dog.

Victor Willis, the original cop from The Village People is threatening to sue producers of The Cleveland Show.

A spokesperson for Willis says:

“Victor was offended by the episode and says he would never have agreed to do a voiceover for such an offensive portrayal of the Village People police character originally created by him. Victor is appalled by the show’s portrayal. He never wore shorts as the original Village People lead singer and cop. So how does Fox justify such an outright false portrayal, while publishing to the world that Victor Willis did the voiceover – and now it’s all over the internet, clearly suggesting to the public that the cop character portrayed in the show is Victor Willis. He does not endorse the show or its portrayal. Moreover, he did not do that insulting and effeminate Cleveland Show voiceover.”

Willis has sent producers a cease and desist letter of intent to sue, and demands an apology from FOX, immediate correction of the press release, suspension of further broadcast of the episode in question, pending corrections, and an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

Dang. It sounds like someone is sensitive. It’s not cool if the show’s producers actually did falsely advertise that Willis did the voiceover but I find that hard to believe that veteran producers would be that foolish. But as far as Willis is concerned, it’s just one of the many Village People parodies out there, you can’t sue everyone.

What do you think, is Willis blowing this out of proportion?

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Kanye West will guest star in a May 2 episode of The Cleveland Show. The hip-hop super star will voice a 19-year-old rapper named Kenny West, who gets into a rap battle with Cleveland Brown Jr over the affections of a young woman who will be voiced by Taraji P Henson.

“We knew that Kanye was a Family Guy fan,” Cleveland Show co-creator Rich Appel tells the Music Mix. “He’s made reference to it on his website and stuff. In the writers’ room, we just thought it would be great to have him as a character on the town. So we came up with the story. He really liked it and said, ‘Sure!’” One year ago, West came in for a table read at the L.A. building where Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show are all produced. “You know, I’ve worked on The Simpsons and Family Guy and King of the Hill,” says Appel. “We’ve had a lot of guest stars. It’s very rare that a guest star is eager and willing to come to the table read. He showed up 15 minutes early.” West went on to record his part last March. About a month ago, when the time came to re-record a few lines for the final cut, Appel says the star obligingly stepped into a booth at the studio where he’s working on his next album and sent the new dialogue over. —Entertainment Weekly

The experience with West went so well that he recorded for an additional episode, and the show’s producers are looking forward to more collaborations.

Good for Kanye. He had been keeping such a low profile in the last couple of months since Taylor-Gate, that folks were wondering what was up. It’s good to see that he got to work with a cartoon and not be made fun of by one—ie South Park’s infamous “Gay Fish” episode.

The episode already sounds funny. I can’t imagine Cleveland Jr rapping. He’ll probably get some help from Roberta’s boyfriend Federline. But anyway, I can’t wait.

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It’s official, The Cleveland Show has grown on me. I was starting to be sold by the Thanksgiving special, which was a Madea spoof, but yesterday’s Christmas Special was the first episode I watched where the laughs were consistent. When Cleveland first started, I didn’t chuckle as much as I did at The Family Guy. I never should have compared the two because they’re different shows but it was easy because both shows come from the mind of the same creator (Seth MacFarlane), so you can’t expect anything less—especially if you like that vulgar, raunchy and offensive brand of humor. The show seemed to get progressively better with some hot and cold spells in between but now it’s safe to say that it’s on a roll. Either way, other viewers have been appreciating it because Fox ordered 13 more episodes, meaning the show will air through 2011. In case you forgot, Cleveland is fall’s top-rated new series among adults 18-49 according to Variety.

Last night’s episode was the Christmas special, which featured a song by Earth Wind & Fire. The premise was that a visit to Santa Claus, who was really a disguised drunken Cleveland, made his stepson Rahlo become bitter about Christmas as a result of “Santa” blurting out the truth about the child’s father. Rahlo’s biological dad was really a deadbeat and not the FBI agent that he was initially told. Cleveland felt bad about destroying his stepson’s Christmas spirit and forced the little boy’s real father to show up on the holiday. All seemed well until Mr. Deadbeat dad lied to Rahlo, once again, telling him that he wasn’t around because he was the real Santa Claus. It was a mess, a hot funny mess.

Viewers got treated during the commercial break, to a snippet of “Get Your Hump on This Christmas,” the tune with  Earth Wind & Fire. You had to go online to watch the whole thing so I posted it below. Enjoy:

Fun Fact: Cleveland creators originally wanted to do a Christmas album but Earth Wind & Fire’s label suggested a single because the group was really busy. EWF ended up composing most of the song while on the road.

Fox has committed to airing The Cleveland Show through at least mid-2011. According to Variety, the network ordered 13 episodes of Cleveland’s second season, which is already being produced even though season one is only three episodes in (animated shows are a lot more demanding to create).

Cleveland is fall’s top-rated new series among adults 18-49, even trumping NCIS: Los Angeles. Since its Sept. 27 debut, the animated series has averaged a 4.5 rating and 9 million viewers overall, proving to be a solid bridge between The Simpsons and Family Guy.

It’s good to see that The Cleveland Show is being well-received but I’m still waiting for it to get better. I was amused by the first episode (and laughed out loud a couple of times), and thought it had promise but the following episodes have been boring. There’s still a whole season’s worth of material to get through so I’m not giving up just yet.  Plus, any show with offensive no-holds-barred, random humor gets preferential treatment ie. it will take me longer to stop watching if I’m not feeling it (because I want to see how raunchy it will get).

One thing I’m looking forward to is a forthcoming collaboration with Earth, Wind & Fire. Executive producer Mike Henry said he’s finishing up a holiday-themed single performed by Cleveland with the iconic band entitled, “Get Your Hump on This Christmas.” The song will be released on iTunes and sent to radio stations later this fall. I’m happier about that than the idea of more episodes. Seriously, Earth, Wind & Fire? My extreme affinity for that band is grounds for another blog (in another genre of blogging) but I won’t ramble. I’m glad that good things are in the works for Cleveland.

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