Cartoons were the name of the game this afternoon. Family Guy and its offspring The Cleveland Show were first. Seth MacFarlane showed us a ton of clips, beginning with “I have a bad feeling about this,” the Family Guy spoof of The Empire Strikes Back. Though only a small segment was shown, the opening crawl was more than enough to watch it. I laughed until tears fell down my face.
The Cleveland Show follows the adventures of the Family Guy‘s token black man Cleveland and his son, Cleveland Jr., as they return to their hometown. Once there, Cleveland reunites with his old high school girlfriend and her two children. While the show definitely had its moments, I really can’t see it being all that funny after a few episodes. Ironically, within the show, it poked fun at “shows white people make, that they think black people will find funny,” which strikes me as the perfect description of Seth MacFarlane’s new project.
The Futurama and The Simpsons panels were surprisingly stale. Due to some type of conflict between Fox and the voice actors, none of them were able to come to the panel. The writers tried valiantly to be funny, and were by and large successful, but they lacked the kind of excitement that some of the other panels had. Matt Groening was entertaining as always, but seemed more focused on handing out prizes to get people to ask questions.
Then once it was over, and people started shuffling out, the best part happened. The moderator came rushing back out onstage and told everyone to sit back down. An Official Representative of the Guinness Book of World Records was here to present Groening with several plaques commemorating the success of Simpsons. It now holds the world record for most Emmys won by a show, and wrested the record for longest running sitcom from Ozzie and Harriet. Groening seemed genuinely moved and, after praising all the people who have worked on The Simpsons over the years, ended with this quote:
“I see no end in sight, Simpsons forever!”
Joel Champagne
