TV gets animated

It's pilot season, and prime time television is in a bit of a panic. Sitcom successes - "Friends" and "Frasier" - have retired. Others are on their last legs. Reality shows are digging for ideas.

Competing against video games, iPods, and DVDs, shows that will capture Americans' attention are in demand by TV executives. Ratings are being examined, spin-offs are in the works, and big names are being thrown about.

This year, however, a dark horse has charged onto the TV scene: animation, a genre that to date has provided some of the edgiest and most sophisticated shows on TV. NBC, Fox, the SciFi Channel, and Comedy Central - to name a few - plan to add animated fare to their menu next season. Just as "The Simpsons" essentially saved Fox Network 15 years ago, animated cartoons could become the small screen's pinch hitters, even if they've been benched for a while.

"To a large degree, network programming has quit taking risks and is becoming the same thing over and over again," says Mike Lazzo, a senior vice president at Cartoon Network. "And I think that animation is just something different."

While different, cartoons have also become more accepted, no longer sandwiched between Lucky Charms and Barbie advertisements on Saturday mornings. That generation has grown up - and they constitute a large chunk of the prime-time audience. "The Muppet Babies" may now seem infantile to them, but an animated version of Aaron McGruder's subversive comic strip could spark interest.

"The Boondocks" is just one of five animated shows on Fox's shortlist for next season. Also in the running is "American Dad," created by Seth MacFarlane ("Family Guy") about a suburban CIA employee who is on constant alert for terrorist activity; and "The Phil Hendrie Show," based on the nationally syndicated radio program, about the married life of a once-notorious bachelor.

Fox has had undeniable success with cartoons over the years, first with "The Simpsons" and then with "King of the Hill." Its "Family Guy," which was canceled in 2002, has generated impressive DVD sales, prompting a possible return to network TV.

NBC hasn't had the same level of success. In 2000, when "God, the Devil, and Bob" was canceled after four episodes and "Sammy" after two, the network shied away from animation. But it's now investing millions of dollars in the most ambitious animated show the small screen has ever seen - DreamWorks' computer-generated "Father of the Pride" about a family of lions who star in Siegfried & Roy's act. Scheduled to air in September, the show promises edgy humor and advanced animation.

"Everybody is trying to find a new take on the half-hour comedy. It seems pretty stagnant," says Justin Falvey, who heads DreamWorks TV with Darryl Frank. "Our dream is that this will be the show that reinvents half-hour comedy."

Few comedies earned a spot in Nielson Media Research's top 25 this season, and NBC is hoping the lions will claw their way onto the list. It's a huge gamble, with huge upfront costs to assemble the first 13 episodes - equivalent to making three or four productions of "Shrek."

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