 First announced at the 2009 San Diego Comic @-@ Con International , the episode was written by series regular John Viener , and directed by Brian Iles before the conclusion of the eighth production season . The episode was produced to introduce a new fourth member to replace Cleveland Brown , after removing him from Family Guy , in order to create the spin @-@ off series The Cleveland Show , which is also executive produced by Seth MacFarlane , as well as his voice actor , Mike Henry , and writer Richard Appel . Voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson , who portrayed Jerome in the episode , based the character largely on his role as Rockefeller Butts on the short @-@ lived ABC comedy series The Knights of Prosperity . Series regulars Peter Shin and James Purdum served as supervising directors , with Danny Smith , Seth MacFarlane and David Zuckerman serving as staff writers for the episode . 
