"A Cleveland Brown Christmas" (originally titled "It's a Wonderful Lie") is the first Christmas-themed episode of the animated series The Cleveland Show.
Synopsis
Cleveland and the family go to pick out a Christmas tree at Lester's lot. Cleveland has his eye on a nice large tree but Rallo insists on a smaller tree. Cleveland finds out that Donna and the family have been lying to Rallo, telling him the reason Robert can't come around during the holidays is that he is an FBI agent. When Cleveland fills in as Santa Claus at his office holiday party, he has one too many egg nogs and lets the truth slip about Rallo’s father. Rallo fails to connect that it was Cleveland posing as Santa and takes out his hostility on figures of Santa. With Rallo’s admiration for his dad destroyed, Cleveland tries to reconnect father and son in an attempt to save Rallo's Christmas spirit. He finds Robert at SKANXXX a strip club. Robert doesn't care at first but later has a change of heart. He shows up at the house dressed as Santa and tells Rallo another lie...he hasn't been around because he is the real Santa, making Rallo's Christmas a happy one.
Meanwhile, Roberta becomes an animal rights activist and tries to save a reindeer. When she sets it free, it goes on a rampage.
Cast
| Voice actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Mike Henry | Cleveland Brown Rallo Tubbs Herbert the Pervert Additional Voices |
| Sanaa Lathan | Donna Tubbs-Brown |
| Kevin Michael Richardson | Cleveland Brown Jr. Lester Krinklesac |
| Reagan Gomez-Preston | Roberta Tubbs |
| Corey Holcomb | Roberta Tubbs |
| Seth MacFarlane | Tim the Bear |
| Jason Sudekis | Holt Richter |
| David Lynch | Gus |
| Bruce McGill | Lloyd Waterman |
| Stockard Channing | Lydia Waterman |
| Arianna Huffington | Arianna the Bear |
| Aseem Batra | Kendra Krinklesac |
| Glenn Howerton | Ernie Krinklesac |
| Will Forte | Principal Farquhare |
Songs
- Here Comes Santa Claus
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Silent Night
- Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
Trivia
- This episode's title is a pun on the other famous Christmas special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
- This episode was originally titled "It's a Wonderful Lie", a pun on yet another christmas classic, "It's a Wonderful Life".
- Meg Griffin and Herbert the Pervert from Family Guy make cameos in this special. Meg only appears as a picture in the intro, getting pelted by snowballs and Herbert appears in a cutaway gag, where he sang Silent Night to Cleveland and a bunch of kids last Christmas in Quahog.
