"It’s the Great Pancake, Cleveland Brown" is the first Halloween episode of the animated sitcom The Cleveland Show, produced for the show's second season. The episode was written by Aseem Batra and directed by series regular Ron Rubio before the conclusion of the second production season. Ironically, it originally aired a full week after Halloween.
Plot[]
Cleveland Jr. dresses up as a pancake for Halloween and wants to go out trick-or-treating. But Cleveland says that he is too old for trick-or-treating. So he leaves Cleveland Brown Jr. home to pass out candy. Meanwhile, Cleveland goes trick-or-treating with Donna, Rallo, and Roberta.
After giving candy to a trick-or-treater, Cleveland Jr. decides to go trick-or-treating anyway. He puts on his pancake suit and goes out, only for the popular bullies from his school, football team captain Oliver Wilkerson and his gang of thugs: Derek, Laine, and Reggie, to egg him and vandalize the outside of the Browns' house and Halloween decorations. The Browns get back from trick-or-treating, they see that their house vandalized. A battered pumpkin told them that Cleveland Jr. left. Later on, Cleveland discusses to Cleveland Brown Jr. about what happened. Cleveland and Donna go into Jr's room and sees that he is giving away all of his childhood toys. Donna suggests that he should stop Jr. from getting rid of what defines him. Later on, Cleveland changes Jr's personality and appearance to make him like a rapper. He acts differently, which makes Donna believe that Jr. is not happy. In bed, Jr. looks at his old pictures of him and his stuffed animals, and says that he missed his old self. When Roberta announces she is attending Oliver Wilkerson's party, Cleveland Jr. goes too in an effort to launch his new personality as a cool kid. However, when Cleveland drives to the party to check on Jr. he sees Oliver and his friends still bullying him. Donna says that Cleveland has created a monster out of Cleveland Jr. and Cleveland decides to change him back. He brings Jr's stuffed leopard back so he can get Cleveland Jr. figure out who he really is. Cleveland and his son go trick-or-treating with Cleveland's friends. They start throwing toilet paper at his house and throwing eggs at him and his gang in retaliation for their cruelty towards Cleveland Jr. and start walking away.
Meanwhile, Rallo decides on eating too much candy, without listening to what his mother said about not overdoing it. He grows to have a big stomach full of candy. Then, he decided to eat one last piece of candy, which causes his tooth to break off. Rallo figures that Donna was right about his teeth rotting out. Rallo is trying to figure out where to hide his broken tooth so Donna would not find out about it. He hides it under his pillow and finds a quarter under it the next day. He ends up telling Donna about what happened and she explains what happened when Rallo's tooth was taken, inspiring Rallo to try to gain further visits after newly discovering the Tooth Fairy.
Cast[]
| Voice actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Mike Henry | Cleveland Brown Rallo Tubbs John Herbert |
| Sanaa Lathan | Donna Tubbs-Brown |
| Kevin Michael Richardson | Cleveland Brown Jr. Lester Krinklesac |
| Reagan Gomez-Preston | Roberta Tubbs |
| Jason Sudeikis | Holt Richter |
| Seth MacFarlane | Tim the Bear |
| Max Burkholder | |
| Aseem Batra | Kendra Krinklesac |
| Glenn Howerton | Ernie Krinklesac |
| Clarence Livingston | Reggie |
| David Lynch | Gus |
| Julius Sharpe | Derek |
| Alec Sulkin | Laine |
| Fred Tatasciore | |
| Al Thompson | Walt |
Cultural references[]
- Donna dresses up as Michelle Obama.
- While watching TV, there is a scene that shows Ronald McDonald, as a reference to the McDonalds fast-food restaurant and the show Undercover Boss.
- The title is a reference to the 1966 Peanuts Halloween special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
- The song that Oliver is singing at the party is Closer by industrial band Nine Inch Nails.
- When Cleveland finds his home wrecked he says the chorus of Our House by Madness.
- The funeral scene in which Cleveland is laughing is a direct parody of the funeral scene of the Chuckles Bites the Dust episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.