t’s 2010, and Fox kicked off the new year with new episodes of “The Cleveland

Show,” “Family Guy,” and “American Dad!” When other shows are waiting until

mid-January or even April before they return (poor Glee), the Sunday night animation

was already back to work. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. I could have sworn it

was next week. No rest forcartoon the wicked.

“The Cleveland Show” started us off with a flashback to 1984. Cleveland’s living

the life of the typical high school senior, drinking beers with his buddies and

making explicit references to the year. Then nerdstrum Wally Farquhare threatens to

turn them in. When will jocks ever be free from the constant torment of the computer

kids? Cleveland stands up to nerd tyranny and threatens Wally until he falls over

and pees himself.

Cut to the present day, when Cleveland’s drinking beers with his buddies and

fighting with old ladies wearing red hats. Cleveland learns that his actions in the

past have caused Wally, now Principal Farquhare, to cut the baseball team. Cleveland

raises the money to restart the team, only to find out Cleveland Jr. would rather

join the math club.

Of course, this becomes a lesson for Cleveland, learning to love his son even though

he is so horribly, horribly bad at baseball. Eat-a-butterfly-and-then-act-like-a-

butterfly-level bad at baseball.cartoon But there were some other lessons

learned tonight. That overweight divorcees are easy pickings, that men use the word

pride and love for the ladies, and most important, never bring up Phylicia Rashad in

front of Donna. She hates that woman.

Then “Family Guy” starts off the new decade with the Griffins getting on “Family

Feud.” This might possibly be one of my favorite “Family Guy” sequences ever.

Every part of it made me laugh, from Peter’s audition story of the stitching needed

after Chris’ birth, through Richard Dawson's and Lois’ make-out session, up to

Peter unable to score one point in the final round. It was a set-up so perfect for

“Family Guy” that I’m surprised it hadn’t happened up until now.

The “Family Feud” appearancecartoon ends with Peter kicked through the

set and losing his memory, and we’re off on the story of the episode. Peter can’t

remember anything, and as his family tries to reintroduce him to his former life,

Peter doesn’t seem interested. He’d rather invite people over and then wait for

them all to leave, like bachelors do. Unbeknownst to him, Quagmire takes this

opportunity to sneak in on Lois with his strangely phallic-looking groceries. It

seems like Quagmire takes every opportunity to hone in on Lois. Between him and

Brian, Peter can’t turn his back on his wife for two minutes.

My favorite moments of this week’s “Family Guy” came from outside the story,

though. The first being the fake Adult Swim bumpers. I’ll admit, I was fooled for a

second. I watch “Family Guy” on Adult Swim so much, that I’m used to seeing those

white on black cards. Then there was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's wonderful

reenactment of Peter's and Lois' sex scene (complete with awkward glances at the

end). And don't forget Meg’s attempt at a joke. He came out so dark and bleak that

the whole family reacted strongly. Chris literally kicked her out of the kitchen.

Poor Meg, but that might be a sign of why everyone’s so uncomfortable around her.

Finally, “American Dad” worked through the recession. The Smith clan tightens the

purse strings: Francine rolls her own tampons, Steve does odd jobs for the neighbor

for video game money, and Stan gambles on horses in order to save his gas-guzzling

SUV. Maybe God is indeed still mad at human beings for casting Whoopi Goldberg as

him/her in the made-for-television Muppet Movie, because the horse Stan bets on

loses. Turns out Roger has been acting as jockey (like Davy Jones was going to be),

and Stan ends up buying the horse as part of a complicated scheme to pay for his

SUV.

Roger is horrible in this episode.cartoon By horrible, of course, I mean

incredible. He spends every conversation about saving money wasting huge amounts of

food, he constantly rats out Stan to Francine, and he convinces Stan that he needs

to give the horse a “full release” before bedtime. The last one ends up

traumatizing the horse so much that Stan has to transfer his brain into the horse’s

body to make the final race. Zany enough for you?

It’s nothing new. The CIA had already transferred Klaus’ brain into the fish body.

In fact, Stan got the idea when Klaus offered to get a job if Stan would transfer

him back into a human body. Klaus is quickly becoming the Meg of “American Dad.”

He takes the constant beating of being forgotten. Better this than spending the

entire episode stuffed and mounted on the wall, like in “Rapture’s Delight.”

Through lines – Besides having stories about messed-up brains, both “Family Guy”

and “American Dad” had references to Lawrence of Arabia. “Family Guy” showed the

extreme widescreen panoramic version of the movie, and Roger dressed up as Lawrence

in the horse-riding sequence (after his awesome pink and purple cowboy outfit). And

not to be left out, “The Cleveland Show” featured Oliver “I Can’t Hear You”

Wilkerson, the deaf kid who lead a pep rally in an old episode of “Family Guy.”

Connections all around.

Most obscure reference – In the beginning of the Griffin’s appearance on “Family

Feud,” Richard Dawson compares the crowd’s reaction to the premier of Bob Crane’s

movies in his closet. Crane was notorious for filming his conquests with the help of

a buddy named John Carpenter (who was tried and acquitted in Crane's murder).

Apparently Dawson originally introduced Crane to Carpenter. Yep, obscure. That’s

why only Peter laughed.

Most possibly offensive joke – Light night for the offensive. Better night for the

absurd. But “Family Guy” probably got closest to the offensive line. I’m going to

have to go with the ending of a Mexican wedding as the most possibly offensive joke

of the night. If you have better cartoonchoice, let me know.