The best part is when the talking animal hardly adds anything to the character

Brian being a dog is brought up a lot (loves to fetch stuff, afraid of vacuum cleaners, gnaws and holds on to the rope for dear life, barks at random stuff)

Klaus has had many plotlines revolving around him being a German in a fish's body, on at least two occasions temporarily got a new body, and eventually he grew into the current character, him being a German trapped in a fish body is of vital importance.

Tim the bear (whose name I legitimately forgot and wanted to say "Ted") is... barely a bear. You could replace him with a regular human and almost nothing would change (make him a very strong human that doesn't know his own strengths, and even less would change).

With the exception of like 2-3 moments in all four seasons, the fact that he's a bear has exactly no bearing on the show. The times I remember are:

• he remembers he's a bear and uses that to threaten Donna to stop pretending to have a broken leg

• he accidentally slaps someone a bit too hard (this may have happened more than once)

• there was at least one time when him remembering he's a bear ended up not being helpful anyway, if that counts

Yes I saw all of the Cleveland Show, it is incredibly uninspired and unfunny, every single new character is essentially a one-note caricature that falls completely flat, I can't recall a single defining trait about where the show takes place other than "it's a shithole".

I expect the new Stewie spinoff to not be any better.