NBC throws its hat in the prime time animated ring

Through the last 20 years or so, FOX has been the #1 network to get your favorite animated series. Today, FOX rules Sunday nights with football-alternative television such as Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad, and the surprise hit Bob’s Burgers(I think the judgment is still out on Cleveland Show and Allen Gregory).

But, it’s not like other networks haven’t tried. Way back when FOX found its surprise hit in a small-time animated series called “The Simpsons”, EVERY network jumped on the bandwagon including CBS(Family Dog/Fish Police), ABC(Capitol Critters, The Critic), NBC( Stressed Eric),WB( The PJ’s), and  CW(formerly known as UPN, had the Emmy award nominated Dilbert). That’s a TON of shit (ok, I liked The Critic and Dilbert).

With this in mind, its scary to believe that NBC is trying again with TWO new animated series being produced by Greg Daniels(The Simpsons, King of the Hill) . The first one is being written and produced by “The Office”‘s Mindy Kaling of whom will also be voicing one of the actors. The other series is being exec-produced by Alan Yang(writer and producer for Parks & Rec) and that deals with a bunch of young adults sharing a house in Los Angeles.

I love Greg Daniels, and I think he might be the one guy who could make this work, my worry is if NBC is going to have the balls to stand up to any and all controversy that either show might bring on. Back in 2000, NBC actually had a good show and was well received, it was called “God, the Devil, and Bob”, the only issue was religious zealots got all bent out of shape, and started sending letters to NBC to cancel it. As a result of these complaints, it did get cancelled but aired on Adult Swim last spring in its entirety. Does NBC FINALLY have the balls to face these critics? Judging from the way they handled the Jimmy Fallon/Michelle Bachman fiasco, probably not.

So, in closing I hope these shows could be the start of something sweet for NBC, and hopefully they won’t pull another “Father of the Pride” because if done right, I might have to start pressing the “Channel Down” arrow on my remote control more often.