The problem was that when Cleveland was on Family Guy, his schtick was that he was a boring guy. That didn't really change on his own show, although now that he's a lead he has to suddenly become the same kind of imbecile that Peter Griffin and Stan Smith are.
Speaking of Stan Smith, am I the only one who finds the rare moments where he's competent at his job, but kind of a dick, the best ones? I'm thinking of the Bond parodies they've done, as well as a scene here or there on the show where he actually remembers being a CIA agent/assassin and the humor comes from a dad/husband who is literally willing to kill for his family? Maybe it's just that those moments remind me of two better shows: Archer and the Venture Brothers.
On the issue of American Dad, I really don't see the point to making Roger an alien. At this point, the character could eaily have been a shut-in human with some sort of mental problem (to account for his frequent disguises) and you'd have the same show. Maybe this was more a result of how things developed, Roger's disguise schtick didn't really start until the second season, if I'm remmebering correctly.
And what's the point of Klaus? He never does anything and stories never revolve around him. They should have kept him in the human body in that one episode in the early seasons.
Both true, yet I still enjoy AD the most out of the three. FG has become quiet boring and I never really got into The Cleveland show, I actually dumped it after two episodes into the current season...
I don't mind Klaus as sort of a greek chorus/voice of reason who gets ignored because he's a fish. That being said, again, my favorite Klaus thing is in the Bond parodies and he's a human named "Tchotchke Schmear." That name cracks me up for some reason.
I gave up on Family Guy about a year after it was uncancelled. You can only do the whole "Republicans are evil!" stick for so long before it becomes tired and now it's just annoying. The only good things left are the Star Wars parodies as they come and even them are littered with horrible jokes American Dad, Cleveland Show, Bob's Burgers: gave them all a chance and left after an episode or two. Come to think of it, only thing I watch on FOX now is NASCAR.
Even though I'm one of the board republicans I don't get too worked up over the "republicans are evil" stuff on FG. My only real complaint about it is that AD was supposed to be the political show and that was even how it was pitched: MacFarlane promised an animated Norman Lear style sitcom about a republican CIA agent who clashed with his liberal daughter. Instead it just became a FG ripoff.
Well, that would presume that manatees are are talented as Norman Lear. In any event, as I touched on before, if there were going to end up a ripoff I would much have preferred a Venture Brothers or, later, Archer ripoff. For example, that time that Hailey went psycho because it turned out her preschool was actually a CIA sleeper agent program was another one of the series' hight points.