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"A Brown Thanksgiving" is the seventh episode of The Cleveland Show. The episode aired on November 22, 2009 on Fox in the United States. In this episode Cleveland Brown celebrates his first Thanksgiving with his new family, including his own parents and Donna's Auntie Momma.

Plot

Cleveland celebrates Thanksgiving with his new family and his parents, Cookie and LeVar "Freight Train" Brown. Things become hostile until Donna's Auntie Momma arrives. Cleveland soon discovers that Auntie Momma is a trans woman after he sees her urinating while standing. He tries to tell Donna but refrains because she would be crushed to learn the truth. LeVar becomes smitten with Auntie Momma. Cleveland tries to tell his father about her but refrains, believing it is best that his father find out the hard way. Cleveland also learns from Rallo that he had known all along from sitting on Auntie Momma's lap. When LeVar and Auntie Momma come back down from having sex, they start teasing each other at dinner by subtly acting out their antics with the food. Cleveland becomes so disgusted and surprised that his father did not notice that he vomits all over the table. Later he confronts Auntie Momma and learns that she is actually Uncle Kevin, who was acting as a strong, female influence for Donna in place of her parents. He disguised his physical sex from LeVar. Since she sees that Cleveland will take good care of Donna, "Auntie Momma" decides that it is time to leave. Soon after, Cleveland tells his father the truth, causing him to vomit over the front porch before convincing him to reconcile with Cookie.

Meanwhile, Roberta decides to spend a romantic Thanksgiving together with Federline, but Donna refuses to let her. Only Auntie Momma's influence convinces Donna to let her leave. As the couple kiss by a river, Federline's car is stolen by two homeless men. They track the car to a mission where the poor (including Lester's family) are eating, being served by the Bear family. The homeless man who stole the car gives back the keys. Roberta notices the unity around her and realizes that family is more important. She returns home and apologizes to her mother.

Production

The episode also introduces Cleveland's father, Freight Train, who is portrayed by Craig Robinson, Cleveland's mother, Cookie, who is portrayed by Frances Callier, and Auntie Momma, who is portrayed by Kym Whitley.

Reception

The episode was viewed by 6.32 million people being the third most viewed episode in its time slot. The A.V. Club graded the episode a C+, stating "It's not a big deal if these shows don't want to do complicated character development (Lord knows Family Guy didn't need it), but Cleveland Show has headed in this direction so often that I was a bit disappointed the episode didn't tie all of this together better".

"A Brown Thanksgiving" came under fire from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) after Bil Browning of the LGBT blog The Bilerico Project expressed shock at the organization's lack of response to the portrayal of a transgender character. GLAAD released a statement that it had already been in contact with Fox and the show's producers as "part of an ongoing discussion that GLAAD is having with Fox regarding consistent homophobic and transphobic jokes in some of its animated programming. The problematic transgender episode Bilerico points to is one of several instances that the Entertainment Team will be discussing with them, as well as advocating for more fair LGBT inclusion." Speaking with LGBT media website AfterElton.com in January 2010, series creator Seth MacFarlane said "It always distresses me when I hear that the gay community is upset with us, because that's one group of people I hope would know we're on their side." However, in May 2010 MacFarlane again drew GLAAD's ire when, in the Family Guy episode "Quagmire's Dad", another character (Brian) also reacts to learning he had sex with a trans woman by vomiting for close to 30 seconds.

Cultural references

• The dish detergent Cascade was mentioned twice.
• Auntie Mamma compliments Cleveland's moustache by saying "moustache all, putting Wilt Chamberlain to shame!", referencing Wilt Chamberlain's moustache. She also references Wilt Chamberlain's sexual exploits, more specifically the 20,000 women claim when she says that she should know, because she was number 8,433 and 11,760.

References

1. ^ "Fox Primetime". Fox Flash. 2009-10-15. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
2. Gorman, Bill. "TV Ratings Sunday: American Music Awards Rivals Football; Cold Case No Better At 9pm". Zap2it. TV by the Numbers.
3. VanDerWerff, Todd (2009-11-23). ""Pranks and Greens"/"A Brown Thanksgiving"/"Jerome Is the New Black"/"My Morning Straitjacket"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
4. Browning, Bil (2009-11-29). "The Cleveland Show goes transphobic: GLAAD goes silent". The Bilerico Project. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
5. "GLAAD Responds to Bilerico and The Cleveland Show" (Press release). Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. 2009-11-30. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
6. Hartinger, Brent (2010-05-10). "Is Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane a Complete Idiot?". AfterElton.com. Archived from the original on 13 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
7. Rosales, Jonathan (2010-05-10). "GLAAD Shares Community Concerns About Last Night's Family Guy". Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Archived from the original on 14 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

• 2009 television episodes
• The Cleveland Show episodes
• LGBT-related television episodes