CLEVELAND Brown is going solo.
Peter Griffin’s soft-spoken, deli-owning neighbor on “Family Guy” is getting his own Show.
“I felt he was a natural Bob Newhart – at the center of the storm, just trying to keep everyone else in line,” says Mike Henry, the voice of Cleveland who created “The Cleveland Show” with Rich Appel with help from “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarland. “He’s basically a sweet, well-intentioned guy.”
VIDEO: Watch a preview clip of “The Cleveland Show”
“The Cleveland Show,” scheduled to debut in 2009, is the first series to come from McFarland’s new $100-million, blockbuster deal with Fox.
The show’s setup finds Cleveland losing his wife and his house in a divorce, and leaving Quahog, R.I. with his son, Cleveland Jr. (who’ll be “aged-up” in the new show to around 14 years old).
Cleveland thinks he’s on his way to California to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a minor league baseball scout – but ends up in his Virginia hometown, instead.
“His intention is to pass through town . . . but he runs into a woman named Donna whom he carried a torch for in high school. But she never returned his love,” Henry explains.
“She has a 16-year-old daughter, Roberta, who runs in the fast lane, and a 5-year-old son named Rollo, who’s streetwise and savvy to the ways of the world.
“At the end of the pilot, Cleveland and Donna are together and have combined their kids – like ‘The Brady Bunch.’ ”
Like Peter Griffin in “Family Guy,” Cleveland will be surrounded by eccentric characters.
“His next-door-neighbors on one side are the Pennyapple family from Great Britain, with Seth doing the voice of the father, Barrington Pennyapple,” Henry says.
“They’re basically extremely stuffy and elitist, even though they have no right to be.
“Across the street will be a family of rednecks – the dad is quite open about the fact he’s not quite comfortable with black people – and on the other side is a family of bears.
“They’re similar to [the talking dog] Brian in ‘Family Guy’ in that it’s not really questioned as to why [the bears] are living in human society,” Henry says.
“But they do have bear tendencies – and speak in mildly foreign accents.
“Cleveland’s constant quest is to have everyone at the dinner table every night,” says Henry. “And at the end of the day, he and Donna have a true love connection.”