Cleveland Brown Jr.

Cleveland Orenthal Brown Jr. is a character in the animated television series Family Guy, and its spin-off series The Cleveland Show.[2] He is the son of Cleveland Brown and his late ex-wife Loretta. On Family Guy, he was depicted as slim and hyperactive; however, on The Cleveland Show he is shown to have undergone a marked transformation, both in terms of a significant increase in weight and a newly subdued personality. He was voiced by Mike Henry in Family Guy and by Kevin Michael Richardson in The Cleveland Show and on the character's return to the former show.

Cleveland Brown Jr.
Family Guy / The Cleveland Show character
First appearance
  • Family Guy:
  • "Love Thy Trophy" (2000)
  • The Cleveland Show:
  • "Pilot" (2009)
Last appearance
Created byMike Baker
Matt Weitzman
Voiced byMike Henry (2000)
Kevin Michael Richardson (2009–present)
In-universe information
Full nameCleveland Orenthal Brown Jr. or Cleveland Roge Rerun Dwane Brown Jr.[1]
NicknameJunior
Family
  • Cleveland Brown (father)
  • Loretta Brown (deceased biological mother)
  • Donna Tubbs (stepmother)
  • Roberta Tubbs (stepsister)
  • Rallo Tubbs (stepbrother)
SpouseCecilia Brown
NationalityAmerican

At 14 years old, Junior is the only child of Cleveland and Loretta Brown, stepson of Donna Tubbs, and the stepbrother of Roberta and Rallo Tubbs. Junior's most prominent character traits are his laziness, obesity, and low social intelligence (although there are occasional references to him being academically bright). He has obtained poor eyesight over the years and now wears glasses. Since his parents' divorce, Loretta gave custody of Cleveland Jr. back to Cleveland and forced him to move. Thus, the pair left for California. However, en route, they decided to live in Stoolbend, Virginia instead, where Cleveland married Donna Tubbs, and Rallo and Roberta became his step-siblings.

Role in The Cleveland Show

Cleveland Jr. is a frequent target of weight related jokes from a variety of characters in the series, in particular Rallo, his step-brother. When Rallo met Cleveland Jr. and his father he would often call them "fat". In the second episode, Cleveland Jr. served as a door in the bathroom so that he could earn his classmates' respect, which angered Cleveland. He also exudes a nervous and overly sensitive nature, and seems to have a fear of toasters as the toaster in his house scares and taunts him (akin to Chris and the monkey in his closet).

It is revealed in "Birth of a Salesman" that Cleveland Jr. has repressed emotions from the divorce of his parents and has in fact never cried before. He has also revealed resentment towards his own mother, Loretta, for cheating on his father with Quagmire back in "The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire". Feeling bad for the way they treated him, Roberta and Rallo help Cleveland Jr. to express his sadness and at the same time the three of them accepted one another as family. In "The Hurricane!", Junior reveals that he had lost faith in God after learning from Loretta that Jesus forgave her for her affair with Glenn Quagmire that lead to her divorcing Cleveland. He also states that he does not believe in God, although he claims he is not an atheist either, which he calls atheism "a religion, too". However, in later episodes he explicitly identifies as an atheist without any such qualification. Yet in "Mr. & Mrs. Brown", he tells Rallo that he is reading Blubber by Judy Blume because they don't have the Quran, implying that he may be a Muslim.

Junior's obesity and low self-esteem makes it difficult for him to find friends. In "Da Doggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance", he seems to become friends with Derek, Laine, Reggie and Kyle, although this is solely due to his agreeing to act as a replacement bathroom door as, in later episodes, Derek, Laine and Reggie continue to bully Junior, often under the lead of Oliver Wilkerson. In "The One About Friends", Cleveland Jr. creates an actual friendship with Lester Krinklesac's son, Ernie. He shared a kiss with Laura Davis at the Stoolbend Community Church's chastity ball.

While Junior is not as active as he was in Family Guy, he has other hobbies and interests; he enjoys science, playing the tuba in the Stoolbend High School school band, and is the leader of a troop of Freedom Scouts, Stoolbend's version of the Boy Scouts. Derek nominated him for student-council president as a joke, but, after saving Oliver Wilkerson's life, he won. Additionally, while he may not know much when it comes to social situations, he is an excellent student attending Stoolbend High School along with his older sister, Roberta.

A scene in "A Rodent Like This" suggests that The Cleveland Show's Junior has a dark double life. He reveals to Rallo that he is a secret agent who killed the original Cleveland Jr. (as drawn in the first four seasons of Family Guy) in order to be placed in the Brown family. This gag is not followed up in later episodes, suggesting that it was either real or an elaborate prank on Rallo out of annoyance the latter was determined to find out what was in Jr.'s suitcase earlier in the episode that led to the top-secret organization.

Cleveland Brown Jr. is married to Cecilia, as shown in "Y Tu Junior También", to prevent her deportation.

Character

Creation

Cleveland Jr. debuted in the Family Guy season 2 episode "Love Thy Trophy", but only made a handful more appearances thereafter. He was presumably taken into Loretta's custody after she divorced Cleveland in "The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire" and has since undergone a major character reinvention upon becoming a leading character in The Cleveland Show. After Cleveland and Loretta's divorce is finalized in the pilot episode of The Cleveland Show, Junior is placed in Cleveland's custody, and they move out of Quahog, Rhode Island to Stoolbend, Virginia where Cleveland rekindles a relationship with, and subsequently marries, his high school sweetheart, Donna Tubbs.

Design
Cleveland Jr. as he appeared prior to 2009.

In Family Guy Cleveland Jr. is an active child of average size, but in The Cleveland Show he has aged, gained weight, appears potentially smarter, and wears glasses. In Family Guy, he wears a purple T-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers, but in The Cleveland Show, he wears a red T-shirt, blue shorts, sneakers and glasses. He is also notably shorter, as Family Guy shows him to be of average height for his age, while in The Cleveland Show, he appears to be no more than 5 ft. at the age of 14.

Cleveland Jr. was a minor character who had a short time with Peter Griffin in the episode, "Fore Father", where he showed a talent for playing golf. After that episode, he made short appearances later in the show, with his last on Family Guy, until 2010 at his father's supposed funeral, along with Loretta.

Voice
Kevin Michael Richardson has voiced Junior as of 2009.

Junior's voice is provided by Kevin Michael Richardson, who voices other characters on The Cleveland Show, including Lester Krinklesac, Julius, and P-Hound. In Family Guy, Junior's voice is provided by Mike Henry.

Richardson stated that he describes voicing Cleveland Jr. as "a character he did on ER named Patrick, who was mentally impaired and wore a football helmet."[3] Before the show aired in 2009, the show's panel appeared at the 2009 Comic Con International, and held a discussion about the show. When describing Junior's change in physical appearance and age, Mike Henry said "Cleveland Jr. really didn't have much to him and so he didn't appear for a while and so we sort of aged him up and made room for Rallo to be the younger one for a while."[4] The show's creators later gave an explanation of Junior's altered look in "A Rodent Like This".

References
  1. Dave Jeser, Matt Silverstein (writers) & Jack Perkins (director) (November 20, 2011). "Skip Day". The Cleveland Show. Season 3. Episode 4. Fox.
  2. Mike Barker, Matt Weitzman (writers); Jack Dyer (director) (March 14, 2000). "Love Thy Trophy". Family Guy. Season 2. Episode 5. Fox.
  3. "The Voices Behind 'Cleveland'". Entertainment Weekly. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  4. Cronan, Mark (5 August 2009). "CCI: The Cleveland Show". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
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