Draft:Nightmare on Grace Street

"Nightmare on Grace Street" is the third episode of the third season of the animated comedy series The Cleveland Show. It is the shows second Halloween themed episode. The episode first aired on Fox in the United States on October 30th, 2011. In this episode, when Cleveland and Rallo get scared at a slumber party, Donna makes them spend the night in a haunted house to prove their bravery. Meanwhile, Roberta is caught in a love triangle between a werewolf and a vampire. The episode received mixed reviews from critics, with some calling it a "predictable" outing.

"Nightmare on Grace Street"
The Cleveland Show episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 3
Directed by	Phil Allora
Written by	Jonathan Green Gabe Miller
Production code	3APS04
Original air date	October 30, 2011 (2011-10-30)
Guest appearance
Jill Latiano as Anna

The episodes title is a reference to Nightmare on Elm Street. The episode parodies many horror movies, like the shows first Halloween episode.

Plot

After an introduction by Gus while he retrieves ingredients for his hairy turkey sandwiches, Donny stops by the guy's table at The Broken Stool where he annoys them with his sense of humor. Back at the house, Rallo is preparing for his first sleepover at his friend Walt's house but Cleveland Brown Jr. is disappointed as he isn't allowed to come. At school, Roberta is taking a break from Federline Jones while he takes his SATs prep classes when she catches a glimpse of Edwin Mullins, a new student. Noticing his pale, dark looks and a trickle of pizza sauce dribbling from his lips, Roberta gets the idea that Edwin could be a vampire. Introducing herself, Roberta ignores hints from Edwin that he isn't interested in her. At the sleepover, Rallo gets frightened and calls up Cleveland to come get him. Cleveland tries to pass the task off to Donna but she orders him out to get Rallo himself. Cleveland teases Rallo about being scared and picks up a hitch-hiker to scare Rallo further. But kicks the hitch-hiker out of the car when he tickles Rallo without paying any attention to Cleveland. Later at The Stool, the guys win a jack-o-lantern contest by being the only ones Gus knows and Terry Kimple invites everyone except Donny back to his house. At the house, Cleveland gets scared by being in a strange place and calls Donna. When she picks him up, she makes him get in the back of the car where he gets frightened by Rallo and they continue to argue over who is the bigger chicken. The arguing continues into trick-or-treat where, thanks to Donny's annoying jokes, they fail to get candy from Wally's house.

When the kids get on to Cleveland for Donny ruining their fun, Cleveland tells him to take a hike. The arguing over who is braver starts again with Cleveland and Rallo darting into traffic until Donna grabs them and forces them to call it a night. Roberta tries to attract Edwin by jumping off of a cliff into a lake like she saw in the movies, but is rescued by a moonlight swimmer named Caleb. Roberta gets the idea that he is a werewolf and has to think over who she wants to be with. Donna drives Rallo and Cleveland to the abandoned McCafferty House and forces them to be brave by spending the night in the house together. As they try to settle in for the night, Cleveland and Rallo hear noises and investigate, discovering spooky surprises that Donna and Jr. planted as traps while they watch on a web cam at home, unaware that Donny is slipping into the house with an ax to extract revenge for being snubbed. When Donna gets up for some snacks, Donny bursts in looking for Cleveland. When they tell him that Cleveland isn't there, Donny decides to start by killing Donna and Jr. instead. Back at the McCafferty house, Cleveland and Rallo decide to call a truce and leave together. Pausing briefly at a driving range while stalling for time, Cleveland and Rallo decide to face the music together and head for home. At a Halloween party, while trying to decide if either Caleb or Edwin should become her lover, she has them go into a room to fight it out over her. Nervous about what is going on, Roberta has her friend Anna look in on them and finds out that the two of them are having sex together.

Back at the house, Cleveland and Rallo arrive to find Donny disguised as Donna who he has tied up with Jr. Donny attacks Cleveland with his ax. While they struggle, Rallo sprays the fluid from Cleveland Jr.'s "WD-40" costume onto the floor, enabling Cleveland to force Donny out the window to his death as he screams about hating black people. Cleveland ends by noting that they were pretty brave after all. Things come to a close with a musical number as Gus hauls away Donny's body.

Production

The original title of the episode included the parenthetical "(That's the Name of Cleveland's Street)", because the name of the street where Cleveland lives was never mentioned on the show before.

Cultural References

The episode features many references to many famous horror movies. When the family dresses up for trick-or-treat, Donna is dressed as Michelle Obama, wife of US President Barack Obama. Cleveland is dressed as the University of Notre Dame's fighting Irish leprechaun. Jr. is dressed as a can of WD-40, a popular lubricant and Rallo is dressed as Phil Specter.

Reception

“Nightmare on Grace Street” first aired in the United States on October 30th, 2011 as part of the Animation Domination block on Fox. The episode aired last in the Animation Domination block and aired after the Family Guy episode Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.

The episode finished last in the Animation Domination block, gaining 4.70 million viewers with a share of 5, the worst rated episode of the night. The episode got 16% less viewers than the previous episode, which got 5.56 million viewers in total.

BubbleBlabber gave the episode a negative review, saying the episode was “kinda lame” and the gay story line was tired and “predictable”.

The episode is considered to be just okay by fans, with it ending up near the middle of the series' ranking on IMDb as of March 2024.