Arts

You grew up both inside and outside the culture of “old Virginia.” What kind of perspective did that give you?

Personally, I always felt a bit of an outsider, with artistic parents and not much money and going to Collegiate with a lot of people who had money. That gave me an ability to see things from the outside, if you will. Frankly, I could also see the artistic community from the outside because I found myself looking through the eyes of a West Ender. I think, having a diverse background, you see things from a number of different angles.

Your voices on this show and on Family Guy are almost disturbingly familiar.

That’s because you have heard them. I’ve told this story many times … I was once on the Thompson Street playground, by the fire station right off of [Interstate] 195. I was playing basketball with this guy who said he was from “Murrilund.” That voice just stuck in my head. That was kind of the jumping-off point for Cleveland’s character. Herbert, the creepy old man on Family Guy … his voice and whistle were lifted directly from a sweet old man I worked with at Ukrop’s back in the day. And, of course, he was not a pedophile or a pervert. That was my twist on him.

I think the last TV show centered on a family and expressly set in Virginia was The Waltons. Does that mean Rallo’s the new John-Boy?

[Laughs.] Yes. “Good night, Rallo.” Rallo was born from prank phone calls [I used to do] on cable access there—The Pet Line and The Sonny Smith VCU sports talk line. I would prank-call those shows back when I worked at The Martin Agency. After work, I would be hanging out with my friends, and I would just start calling in, and we would just take those guys for a ride. Rallo’s a contemporary John-Boy—let’s just call him that.

Isn’t it funny, or odd, that Richmonders are always coming back?

You can leave Virginia physically, but you’re [still] always there …. My wife and I are quite literally bicoastal—we’re [in Richmond] all the time. My future is there. There’s certainly a flavor of the town. I’m absolutely working toward being able to live there in the near future and doing a lot of the work on the show from there, because it adds authenticity. I’ve been lucky enough to live in a lot of big cities, and nothing beats Richmond.

The Cleveland Show airs on Fox at 8:30 on Sunday nights.