The Animated Series from Hell

Cable network TBS has ordered ten half-hour episodes of its first animated series, a comedy called Neighbors from Hell. It sounds like yet another reality series (an animated reality series – what a great idea!), but the title is, in fact, literal.

The show is about the Hellmans, a typical all-American suburban family with a twist: dad (Balthazor), mom (Tina), and their two kids (Mandy and Josh) – even the dog (Pazuzu) – come from Hell. The family is sent to Earth with a mission to keep humans from finding their way to Hell. So, it's sort of Reaper in reverse, crossed with The Charmings.

Pam Brady, a veteran producer from South Park and the writer of Hot Rod, wrote the pilot episode and will also executive produce along with Mireille Soria (Madagascar). No voice talent casting has been announced.

The project, TBS' first original animation series, is a joint project from Fox TV Animation (Family Guy), DreamWorks Animation SKG, and Jeffrey Katzenberg (Shrek), who originated the concept as a vehicle for Brady.

The network's motivation is clear: they want more stuff like Family Guy. "When you look at the TBS schedule, one of the things that performs well for us night in and night out is Family Guy," Michael Wright, TBS's executive vice president and head of programming, told Variety. "Our strategy has always been to try to develop programming that's compatible with what's already there and working."

Traditionally the Fox broadcast network, with airs Family Guy and The Simpsons, has been the only one of the five major networks interesting in keeping animation on its prime-time schedule – and that in limited quantities. If it's not going to run on Fox, cable's the natural alternative. The problem is, licensing fees are lower on cable, and the lower revenue is only partially compensated by DVD and overseas sales.

The upshot is, a cable animated series like Neighbors From Hell will have a significantly lower budget than a Fox series like Family Guy. Will it look cheaper? Not necessarily. While there's less room for mistake fixes during production, most cable series cut costs by having smaller writing staffs.

"Necessity is the mother of invention," said Twentieth Century Fox TV chairman Gary Newman. "We challenged our production people to come up with an animation process that will allow us to produce this at a lower cost."