First thoughts: "Ugly Americans"

Chances are you've been eagerly awaiting to see a new, original animated series for some time. After all, just about everything coming out now is simply a new season of an established series (South Park, Family Guy, etc). Let's face it, there's not that many good original animated shows right now...And no, The Cleveland Show hardly counts. Fortunately, the wait could be over.

I'm happy to report that after viewing the pilot episode of Comedy Central's new animated series "Ugly Americans", I'm convinced this show has the possibility of becoming another cult-like hit in the vein of Futurama!

Let's take a look at why this show has the ability to be great:

• The series was written by David Stern, a former "Simpsons" writer.
• The series takes place in an alternate version of New York City, where normal humans coexist with zombies, monsters, and other freaks of nature / fantasy / science fiction. Just about anything you can think of. Actually, now that I think about it, this is pretty similar to Futurama.
• The main character, Mark Lilly, is a social worker with a zombie for a roommate. Has any series ever had a zombie as one of the main characters? I think not. Yeah, they're kind of riding the zombie bandwagon, what with all the pop culture of it in the mainstream lately (Think World War Z, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, etc) but hey, it's still cool, damnit!
• Many of the voices in this series are done by stand-up comedians such as Natasha Leggero and Pete Holmes. I'm hoping that for future episodes they will get cameos by greats such as Phil LaMarr.
• Lastly, the animation is good. You won't have to worry about it looking like South Park, there's plenty of detail in the scenes.

"Ugly Americans" premiered a week ago on Comedy Central, and comes on every Wednesday at 9:30 P.M. central time. You can watch the pilot online as well. View, be impressed by Randall Skeffington, the best zombie roommate ever, and see what you think.