TVSquad

Let it be known that my son knows a good thing when he sees it. He's 14 now, but between the ages of six and 10, he was obsessed with Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, a Cartoon Network show that just earned an Emmy. Character designer Ben Balistreri won in the juried award category for individual achievement in animation for the "Mondo Coco" episode.

I would see the show in passing and think, what the heck is this? It just looked so weird, and the animation is practically primitive compared to today's CG standards. But the concept is somewhat more complicated.

In the Foster's universe, imaginary friends become physical beings the instant a child imagines them. An Imaginary Friend is completely real and can be seen, heard, and felt by all under most circumstances. The only problem is that children outgrow them, and they're left to fend for themselves.

Did you get attached to the cute animation and humor of the new CBS summer series Creature Comforts? Sorry!

The network has pulled the summer series effective immediately. The most recent episode came in fourth place in its time slot. It will be replaced Monday at 8pm with reruns of The New Adventures of Old Christine.

No word on whether or not they'll show the other episodes online, but you can go to the CBS site and watch previous episodes, read the show's blog, check out other info, and remember what used to be (for now anyway). This show - a summer replacement - must have really been a disappointment to the network for it to be pulled so quickly.

[via BuzzSugar]

I'm actually looking forward to summer television this year as a break from all the hype and mania surrounding shows like Lost, 24, and American Idol. I get a little burned out on all the talk as the mainstream media outlets (Today, Good Morning America, all cable news channels) try to get their grubby hands on a fraction of the ratings for each show by covering them... heavily.

This summer, I'm taking it easy. I'm watching a few intense dramas that I enjoy and picking up a few more new programs that look light-hearted. No reality programming here. And, unlike Bob and Jonathan, I don't feel any allegiance to Studio 60. It's just not good.

As I said in my early review of the new CBS animated series Creature Comforts, I never saw the original Channel 4 version from the UK, so I couldn't compare and contrast, but I loved the pilot episode of the American version, which creator Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit) is also involved with.

Luckily, I found a video preview of the pilot episode via Animation Magazine, and I've placed it below for your viewing pleasure. I absolutely love the idea of putting the words of regular folks into the mouths of these animals, because in doing so, it makes the stories seem less personal and gives them a more universal appeal. It's one of the smartest and cleverest ideas for an animated series I've seen in a long time, and it's nice to see another animated series that, not unlike King of the Hill, doesn't rely heavily on random weirdness to be funny (not that I have a problem with "random weirdness," I just like variety).

Creature Comforts debuts on CBS this Monday at 8:00 p.m.

I have never seen the original Creature Comforts, neither the Oscar-winning short film by Nick Park and Aardman Animation, nor the British TV series, so I can't compare the new American version to them, but I can say that the upcoming CBS animated series Creature Comforts is one of the most engaging and charming things I've seen in a long time.

Don't expect something goofy and fast-paced like The Simpsons or Family Guy, because that's not the kind of laughs this series is going for. Instead, the series takes interviews with regular people and then sticks their words into the mouths of cartoon animals. For example: two men sniffing wine become two dogs sniffing another dog's butt.

I am totally getting a kick out of the claymation Creature Comforts on BBC America, so it's nice to see that we're getting our own version in America. The show pairs real-life interviews with claymation animals. So, you get some pretty funny audio about everything from relationships to movies, placed in the mouths of everything from pigs to birds. Just like the British version, the American show will be produced by Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman Animations. CBS ordered 7 half-hour episodes for midseason 2006-2007.

I wonder if they will change the look of the characters for the American version? Specifically, the toothy overbite. For some reason, that works really well with the British accent. Hopefully they'll find a way to make these characters distinctly American.