Sneak Peek: 'The Cleveland Show' Season Finale Guest Starring Robert Rodriguez

[Brian Damage]

The Cleveland Show geeks out for its Season 2 finale when the Brown/Tubbs family heads to Comic-Con (Sunday, 9:30/8:30c, Fox). Tired of being overshadowed by his wife, Donna, Cleveland wants to "find my thing, something that makes me utterly unique." In typical random fashion, he comes up with the idea to write his own comic book and peddle it at the annual pop-culture gathering in San Diego. His creation, Waderman (named for the rubber wading boots he wears), is described by The Simpsons' caustic übernerd Comic Book Guy (in the Best. Cameo. Ever.) as "an aquatic superhero who lacks the ability to swim — apparently he also has a superhuman tolerance for irony."

Meanwhile, Donna is horrified to learn that Machete director Robert Rodriguez (guest starring as himself) is at the Con to screen Hot Cocoa Bang Bang, a blaxploitation film they made years ago. "He was so great to work with, and so funny," executive producer Mike Henry (who also voices Cleveland) says of Rodriquez. "He got all the jokes immediately. We have 15 writers [on the Cleveland staff] and it just came up in the room that I think nine of us own his book about independent film, Rebel Without a Crew, detailing how he made El Mariachi for $7000."

The episode — which had a well-received table read by the cast at last year's Comic-Con — is crammed with fanboy Easter eggs. Eliza Dushku, Katee Sackhoff and Emily Deschanel make blink-and-you-miss-it cameos, and one attendee dares suggest that Firefly, Joss Whedon's short-lived space western, is — gasp! — overrated. And in a nod to Hollywood's increasing encroachment on the event with non-genre fare, a (fictional) version of David Schwimmer (who declined an offer to guest star) shows up to promote Schwim Team, a (barely fictional) NBC sitcom about a swim coach from Kalamazoo. This incites a rebellion of hardcore fanboys (led by Cleveland Jr.) that will ring true for any longtime Con-goer.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Clevelan...ileid=breaking