By Chris Bonshor (Copy Editor) – Email
Fox, in what seems to be an attempt to fish for more viewers, has once again switched up its Sunday night line-up. The Simpsons and Family Guy retain their spots at eight and nine p.m., respectively, with The Cleveland Show moving to 9:30, taking the spot of American Dad!, with the 8:30 slot being filled by Bob’s Burgers, Fox’s newest cartoon comedy. American Dad! slipped to 7:30 p.m., which made me think that it had been cancelled at first (I had to go look up what happened to it on Fox’s website).
Unfortunately, adjusting to this new schedule will be interrupted for the next two Sundays in favour of (barf) football. However, after a week or two of this new set-up, I can comment on some of the particulars.
First of all, why does Fox continue to push The Cleveland Show? Is it because of the enormous contract they signed with Seth MacFarlane? Probably. What I don’t like is that they put it in the slot of American Dad!, which is still a funny show. As far as I’m concerned, once Cleveland left Spooner Street he quickly stopped being funny. His character just can’t carry a show all by himself, and his supporting cast does little to help him.
That said, Family Guy continues to be funny, with Seth MacFarlane really going for the darker comedy recently – for example, “Road to the North Pole” from this season and “Brian and Stewie” from last one.
I don’t think The Simpsons requires commentary, but what the heck. If you have watched it in the past, you will probably continue to. Topical comedy has dominated much of the past few seasons and still does.
However, also appearing on Sunday nights, or ANIMATION DOMINATION, is small bits of the cartoon, spy comedy Archer, which is being ported over to Fox’s FX cartoon network from Adult Swim, and the new cartoon comedy Bob’s Burgers coming to Sunday night. Ratings for Archer have been high, and it was recently given the green light for a second season. In a series of hilarious, short sketches, Sterling Archer and company ‘hosted’ Fox’s Sunday night in between regular programming, making comments on the upcoming shows, calling Stewie on the phone, and generally introducing the new characters.
I suppose that this show and Bob’s Burgers, both starring the voice talents of H. Jon Benjamen, are Fox’s attempt to inject some new comedy into the MacFarlane dominated Sunday night line-up. The comedy style of Bob’s is definitely different than Family Guy and The Simpsons. The majority of the humour in Fox’s newest show can probably be termed ‘toilet homour,’ though I think this does the show an injustice. Random comments and silly characters is closer to a correct definition: the eldest daughter talks about her bra chafing in a boy’s voice, for example.
In any case, regardless of whether the new line-up works out, Sunday night cartoons are a great way to get away from all of the dramas of the week (on TV and in your life) and have some laughs.
