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Mike Henry will no longer play Cleveland Brown (Family Guy, Cleveland Show)
- Thread starter NSA
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Slightly unrelated, but I've been going through King of the Hill for the past few months as it was something I only watched off and on during in its initial run. It's a largely great show, but I was really disappointed when I found out recently that this is the guy who plays Kahn:
I'm probably super late to the party on this one, but it makes it a lot harder to watch when his character appears now.
Yeah, it was definitely just a big blindspot for the show. They can make the excuse that Hank and Kahn are the same guy (down to their names being anagrams), but then you'd really want both of them voiced by Mike Judge.
Ultimately this show isn't airing anymore, so it'll never be rectified.
I love that the official line on this character is that she's not supposed to be asian and her ethnicity is a *mystery*Voiced by Alex Borstein who gave us such classics as the Asian Nail Salon Lady.
who did they think they were fooling
still a step up from Dana Carvey as Ching Chang, I guess
I love that the official line on this character is that she's not supposed to be asian and her ethnicity is a *mystery*
who did they think they were fooling
still a step up from Dana Carvey as Ching Chang, I guess
Yeah, found an article while looking for that pic, and apparently the original name of the character was Ms. Kwan before they changed it to Ms. Swan. Even as a dumb teenager in college who thought it was funny at the time, it was so obviously coded as an Asian immigrant stereotype.
I'm wrapping my head around Family Guy having 20 years of shows. Did they forget to cancel it a while back or something?
Slightly unrelated, but I've been going through King of the Hill for the past few months as it was something I only watched off and on during in its initial run. It's a largely great show, but I was really disappointed when I found out recently that this is the guy who plays Kahn:
I'm probably super late to the party on this one, but it makes it a lot harder to watch when his character appears now.
He also voiced Cotton. He'll always be Artie: The Strongest Man In The World to me.
As for him voicing Kahn, it's going to end up being a mark against many older shows because it seems like it wasn't uncommon. Weird thing about King of the Hill though is they were generally ahead of the curve on casting. Minh and Connie were both voiced by Lauren Tom. John Redcorn was voiced by Johnathan Joss. I mean, the show was very white overall, but Kahn seems to be the big outlier for the show when casting non-white characters.
It's good that it's being addressed in shows still airing. I saw people bring up Apu on the Simpsons, but does anyone know if Azaria still voices Carl?
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Good move. All voice acting going forward need to be portrayed by appropriate voice actors. The past is the past. And I understand there may be contracts in force. But going forward there needs to be better representation. And if not, I hope people call that shit out so that networks, studios, etc. HAVE to act.
Do you see a single negative to finally putting an end to this shit?
I can understand the good behind decision like this. Hopefully this'll lead to kids playing child characters and other more realistic casting as well. However, I don't think sexual preference should play a role in casting, however, and I say that as a gay man. Straight actors aren't in love with the people they kiss on set - hence the acting, part. That doesn't bother me, so it doesn't bother me if they portray themselves different than in real life.
It was cancelled for a couple years. Great DVD sales and ratings on Adult Swim convinced Fox to reconsider; that was 15 years ago now.
MY NAME IS CLEVELAND BROWN
AND I AM PROUD TO BE
NO LONGER VOICED BY A
WHITE GUY NAMED MIKE HENRY
AND I AM PROUD TO BE
NO LONGER VOICED BY A
WHITE GUY NAMED MIKE HENRY
He'd be a fitting replacement... and a funny one at that given the naming similarities.I read that as Mark Henry and thought ....why not get Mark Henry to voice him?
In retrospect saying "near-zero point to this" change was too strong. More black and brown actors seeing more opportunities in this apparent sweeping industry change is a good thing.
Still, Cleveland, as a character, will still continue to be exemplary as to why writer rooms need more people of color. That won't change regardless of who he's voiced by
Always wondered about how Mike Henry was allowed to play Cleveland, but mcFarlane wouldn't allow Cree (Elmira Dunn) Summer to play Meg when she auditioned for the role.
Whatever... show is trash anyways. Can't wait for another modern classic episode like "Brian gave Stewie herpies".
Whatever... show is trash anyways. Can't wait for another modern classic episode like "Brian gave Stewie herpies".
Im sure removing the one black lead after they remove the man voicing him will go over well. Pretty sure there was backlash when Cleveland was originally removed from the show, it'd be even worse to remove him after he's no longer voiced by the original actor.
Voiced by Alex Borstein who gave us such classics as the Asian Nail Salon Lady.
I caught a few episodes of MadTV on HBO Max last night and boy, so many characters and skits have NOT aged well...
What part of "get a new black character" in that post was missed?
The Problems is people didn't want a new character that replace the old.
They try to replace brian with a new dog and get backlash.
I understand why he's stepping down and respect his choice, will miss him though. I wonder who will take over the role.
That's probably true. But let's be honest, this bit was never good.
I'm glad that more and more actors and productions are going this route. It's obviously a great step forward that should've been rectified ages ago, but alas.
Sorry for the slight derail but WHAT?! It's the same actor? My mind is blown.He also voiced Cotton. He'll always be Artie: The Strongest Man In The World to me.
User banned (1 month): Inflammatory false equivalence around representation
If that's what he wants to do because he's sees something good from it then go ahead. I firmly disagree with the notion that only white VA can play white characters and only black VA can play black characters. Samurai jack was played by a black guy, and no one noticed because that's what a voice actor does. They are paid to act as all kinds of people. And there isn't some "voice" that applies to a specific ethnicity unless they are really playing it up in which case you call that out as a racist caricature
Huh? They cancelled it after the first couple seasons but popularity after death brought it back in 2005. It's remained popular and thus renewed ever since.
If that's his choice then I respect it. However, I don't support making it a hard rule going forward that only people of colour can play their respective races. That's too strict.
I completely get this and it's the right choice but I had a startling thought. Imagine if James Earl Jones never voiced Darth Vader. In his word.... "Nooooooooooo!"
If SW was made today I can't imagine a black actor being cast to voice a white character since the inverse is of course not right either. I know the dynamic between the two is wildly different for POC roles but surely a black actor wouldn't be a voice actor for a white character as well.
JEJ is the voice of Vader because Lucas wanted a deep, booming voice coming out of the robo suit.
Also, Vader isn't revealed as a "white" man until Return of the Jedi (which you can actually find several dissertations about how Vader is actually a racist creation, which I don't agree with, but that's beside the point).
For anyone surprised by this, it is worth noting that, as offensive and anti-PC as Family Guy usually is, the current showrunners have attempted to cast POC for nonwhite tertiary characters since they took over (around the time the show went HD a decade ago), because, according to some of the DVD commentaries, it's how they show they're just goofing around. You can read one of them talk about it in this article from 2018 about Diane from BoJack: https://www.indiewire.com/2018/01/r...ns-producers-cartoon-whitewashing-1201921109/
It's not that strict. People of color should still be able to voice white characters.
