| "Your Show of Shows" | |||
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| The Cleveland Show episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 21 |
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| Directed by | Oreste Canestrelli | ||
| Teleplay by | Matt Murray Aseem Batra |
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| Story by | Carl Reiner | ||
| Production code | 2APS21 | ||
| Original air date | May 8, 2011[1] | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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T-Pain as Theodore |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| The Cleveland Show (season 2) List of The Cleveland Show episodes |
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Your Show of Shows is the twenty-first episode of the second season of The Cleveland Show. It aired May 8, 2011 on Fox in the United States. In this episode, When Rallo and his pals Bernard and Theodore perform in the school talent show, their rap about fiscal responsibility is not well-received by their classmates. Meanwhile, after Cleveland gets his own Public-access television cable TV show, the reviews are less than positive so he takes some tips from the most successful daytime talk shows that appeal to women.
This episode was directed by Oreste Canestrelli and written by Matt Murray, Aseem Batra and Carl Reiner. It received critical acclaim from many television critics, with much of the praise stemming from the main storyline and the cultural references. According to the Nielson ratings, the episode was viewed by 5.31 million viewers and garnered a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic during its initial airing. It featured guest appearances from Will.i.am and T-Pain, as well as several recurring voice actors and actresses for the series.
"Your Show of Shows" was originally intended to air as the twenty second episode of the second season of The Cleveland Show, airing a week after the third part of a fictional crossover event between American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, and Family Guy. However just two days before its planned airing, it was announced by the executive of the entertainment division of the Fox Broadcasting Company that the event was pushed back until next season, due to a series of tornadoes that killed nearly 300 people in the Southern United States.
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When Rallo and his pals Bernard and Theodore try to come up with an act for the school performance show, their idea for a karate act fails, the open up to Murray who writes them a song about fiscal responsibility that bombs with the kids at school.
Meanwhile, after Cleveland impresses his co-workers with his impressions, they suggest he take over when an opening of Waterman Cable's Public-access television opens up. However, his show idea fizzles badly. Struggling to come up with a new show concept, Cleveland and the guys decide to make a show to appeal to women which becomes a success.
Despite Rallo, Bernard and Theodore's song striking out with the other students, the parents love it and Cleveland books them on his show. Backstage, Murray arrives with a new song to make amends for making Rallo and his friends outcasts with their classmates that shocks the audience with its obscene lyrics but does result in getting the respect of their friends back. Cleveland is fired from the show by Mr. Waterman but Donna auditions to be his replacement by playing her recorder.
"Your Show of Shows" was directed by series regular Oreste Canestrelli, in his third episode of the season. This would be the first episode that Canestrelli would direct since the season two episode "The Blue, The Gray and The Brown". This episode's teleplay was written by series regulars Matt Murray and Aseem Batra. This would be the second time Matt Murray and Aseem Batra have written an episode. The episode's storyline was written by actor Carl Reiner. This would be the first time Reiner wrote an episode on The Cleveland Show. He previously guest starred in the season two episode "Murray Christmas". Seth MacFarlane, the creator and executive producer of The Cleveland Show, as well as its sister shows Family Guy and American Dad!, served as the executive producer for the episode, along with series veterans Mike Henry and Richard Appel. This episode featured guest appearances from Will.i.am and T-Pain, as well as several recurring voice actors and actresses for the series.
"Your Show of Shows" was originally intended to air as the twenty second episode of the second season of The Cleveland Show, airing a week after the third part of a fictional crossover event between American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, and Family Guy.[2] However just two days before its planned airing, it was announced by the executive of the entertainment division of the Fox Broadcasting Company that the event was pushed back until next season, due to a series of tornadoes that killed nearly 300 people in the Southern United States.[3][4][5][6][7]
"Your Show of Shows" was first broadcast on May 8, 2011 as part of the animation television night on Fox. The episode aired on the second spot of the line-up, a spot generally taken by Bob's Burgers. It was preceded by a rerun of The Simpsons, and succeeded by its sister show Family Guy and American Dad!. It was viewed by 5.31 million viewers upon its original airing. The total viewership of the episode was on par with that of American Dad!, but significantly lower than than that of Family Guy. It achieved a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, according to the Nielson ratings. Ratings for the episode were slightly above that of American Dad!, while significantly lower than that of Family Guy. The episode's total viewership and ratings were significantly up from the previous episode, "Ship'rect", which was viewed by 3.35 million viewers upon its initial airing, and garnered a 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
On reviewing this episode Demon TV said:
The opening from tonight’s episode of The Cleveland Show will probably give me nightmares about raccoons for a little while. I can’t seem to get the image of a raccoon holding the skinned off face of Harv Williams out of my head and it was definitely darker humor than I’ve seen on The Cleveland Show in a while. The demise of “Picking on Raccoons” host, Harv Williams, meant that Cleveland got to try his hand at being a Public-access television star. When Cleveland is trying to be funny, he tells terrible jokes and does horrible impressions, I’m not even sure how his friends find him funny, but he gets a chance to be a daytime talk show host. After his first attempt was received with terrible reviews and he has a mental breakdown in the bathroom, he realizes the best way to succeed in daytime television is to make a hit “chick talk show.” Cleveland shows up on set wearing a pink suit and pink shoes and lists off topics women supposedly love talking about: “kids, mothers, shopping, chocolate, white wine, loneliness, bulimia, drinks” and then has Roberta come on as his first guest to talk about periods and tampons followed by Kendra for the makeover segment. My first thought after watching this bit was that The Cleveland Show was being totally sexist in it’s portrayal of the kind of television women like. Then again, I don’t really watch daytime television so for all I know, Cleveland was right on the mark about what daytime talk shows are like so if that’s the case, that’s some disappointing TV. At the same time Rallo, Bernard and Theodore enlisted the help of Murray to write them a winning hip hop song for the talent show. This storyline wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t quite as funny as I expected it to be with the characters involved. They took advantage of some obvious jokes and I’d say the best part was in the actual performance of the songs that Murray wrote for them. I cracked up when they finally came onto Cleveland’s show and performed their updated version of the rap and got Cleveland canceled to the tune of censor bleeps. I loved some of the little gags that were scattered throughout the episode especially, Cleveland being a Mister Potato Head with Rallo changing his expressions for him. The pacing of the episode overall was done well and for as bad as Cleveland’s jokes were at the beginning, this turned out to be a pretty good episode of The Cleveland Show.[8]