By Curt Schleier

I wish I was at the pitch meeting for CREATURE COMFORTS, the new animated CBS series.  It must have gone something like this:

Producer: I have a great idea. Let’s survey average people on a variety of subjects and then — now get this, because this is the fun part — why not take what they say and put it into the mouths of animals?
Network Exec: I don’t know.  I don’t get it.
Producer: But it’s a hit in England.
Network exec: Oh, then it must be good. We’ll take it.

How else to explain how this only intermittently amusing (that’s amusing, not funny) show made it to the air of what once was known as the "Tiffany Network?"  As you read this, William Paley is not turning over in his grave, he’s spinning on a rotisserie.
   
Consider an early moment, when two dogs are sniffing — let me put this in a British way — another dog’s arse and describing the bouquet as one would a fine wine.  Sure, you may smile, but not without feeling guilty.

In a segment on medicine, a hippo says, “They call you in the office and then it’s some skinny girl that weighs you. It’s always an Ally McBeal-looking girl.”

A porcupine says, “I’m not afraid of needles, but she is,” pointing to a friend.

And then there’s a polar bear who doesn’t know how to swim and a fish with dry skin.

It seems so junior high schoolish. The show has won several awards, most recently the Audience Award at the New York International Children’s Film Festival.  No surprise there. The creative force behind the show is Nick Park (the creator of WALLACE & GROMIT).  It is based on an Academy Award-winning short of the same name.  Before it became what CBS calls “appointment television” in the U.K., the animals — animated in stop-motion — appeared in a series of successful commercials. 

Typically, when you prepare a show, you put your best foot forward.  The goal is to make people want to come back. But how do you follow sniffing dogs?