The odd thing, however, is that the character is very different on FG then on his own show. On FG he was something of a level headed milquetoast. On "the Cleveland Show," he's basically black Peter Griffin: stupid and insensitive. So which version would return to Quahog?
As it stands, Peter, Cleveland and Stan are all basically the same character now anyway. No problems losing one. Or even two. Mark
This show's always been mediocre to bad. I get the impression Seth MacFarlane doesn't even like doing these shows anymore, but Fox demands them and it's nice to have income. Can't really blame him for not saying "no." I would agree that the only FG episodes worth watching are the Brian/Stewie ones. The rest tend to be out-and-out trash.
This is an opportunity for the FG franchise. One spinoff dies another takes its place. Mort the Jew anyone!?
Not that I watch the show anyway, but that would be a cool way to reintroduce him. Have his house destroyed and his bathtub falls. Then Peter walks over and says "when did you move back" and he can say "last week" or something like that.
Thing is, when you get down to it, Quagmire is a rapist. Having him as a prominent character on a show is ballsy enough, Fox risks backlash giving him his own show. Although the show has tried to show a decent side to him, like the episode where he defends his sister from her abusive boyfriend, he's still a pretty horrible person in general. Of course, if you really want backlash, a show where Quagmire moves in with Herbert the pedophile ought to set everyone off.
Yeah, that is one of the strangest aspects of the show. One moment, Quagmire is roofie-ing some woman and the next he's the gang's voice of reason. Of course on this show, he's not the only rapist or attempted rapist. Lois had sex with Meg's underaged boyfriend once and there was the time that Peter decided he was a redneck and tried to have sex with Meg. And even Herbert is portrayed as kind of a benign fellow for a child molester. In short, on this show, Quagmire's not exactly an outlier.
Although, I do like it when they focus on Quagmire's hatred of Brian, mainly because Quagmire's grievances really do accurately sum Brian up perfectly. Particularly when they first started it with Brian spending an entire episode trying to get Quagmire to like him, then in the end asking Quagmire what his problem is and Quagmire launches into a minute long rant venting his frustrations on Brian.
Yes, that was actually the moment where I first saw the whole "Quagmire paradox" and quite enjoyed it, for the reasons you mentioned. The writers of FG are neither as smart nor as self aware as they would like to think they are.
Oh, I am sure they are extremely well educated but they don't seem to understand that their occasional forays into "very special episode" territory are neither funny nor insightful and, in fact, on a show like this, are even more off putting than on something like "Blossom" or "Different Strokes."
The rub is, most black people didn't like The Cleavland Show, from what I can gather. I once came across a comment in an article about the show Daria that was focused on the one black character in it wishing that she had her own show, instead of something like The Cleavland Show (the article in question is here: On Race, Feminism, and Jodie Landon). For myself, I've only seen one episode of The Cleavland Show, and all I can say is 'meh'. The Facts Of Life wasn't the first to do this at all; the very first ones of this type of episode were in the 1960's, one of them being 'The Shark Affair' from The Man From UNCLE, a few episodes of All In The Family, the abortion episode of Maude, and the episode 'Elegy For A Pig' of Adam 12.
All I meant when I called The Cleveland Show "Black Family Guy" was that it's Family Guy but with a black lead character. It's actually a common joke, along with calling American Dad "CIA Agent Family Guy" or "Republican Family Guy."