8 Utterly Ridiculous TV Castings That Totally Rocked Anyway

5. Mike Henry As Cleveland Brown- Family Guy/The Cleveland Show

Cleveland was the best character on Family Guy. He was the good natured voice of reason in his four-man band of alcoholics, paraplegics and sex offenders and probably suffered the most repercussions from Peter's hair-brained schemes compared to the rest of his friends. Seth MacFarlane must've thought he was onto a winner when he gave Cleveland his own spin-off, as did the rest of us when it finally aired back in 2009. It's recent cancellation however would suggest otherwise. I never really put much thought into what the real face behind Cleveland looked like. His deep, elongated speech pattern and that infectious laugh suits his character so well that I just assumed the actor would pretty much look like a carbon copy of the animation. It wasn't until I randomly watched a promotional video for The Cleveland Show during one of my aimless voyages around YouTube that I heard his voice attached to a white man from Richmond, Virginia. What's more, Mike Henry also provides the raspy sounds of Rallo Tubbs and various other bit parts like Consuela the housemaid in Family Guy. I like to think of myself as having a good ear for voices, but I can't hear any of Cleveland in Consuela or anything that sounds remotely like Rallo in Herbert the paedophile (another one of Henry's characters) which is a testament to the skills of the actor himself. Unfortunately, Mike Henry's vocal artistry still didn't stop The Cleveland Show from being an unoriginal 'Family Guy in blackface', to quote John Whorter of The New Republic. How it lasted four seasons is beyond me, but it's inevitable axing means that Cleveland and his family will be returning back to Quahog where they belong.