Character Arc

I've decided on four main characters for the animated series:

A bit of a burnout, he's been working at this so long he's forgotten why he got into acting in the first place. Beneath his tired, jaded exterior he longs to re-discover meaning in what he does.





A classically trained actor who studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, he joined PBS thinking he would be doing productions of Master Piece Theatre and adaptations of Shakespeare. Now, many years later he still clings onto this unfullfilled dream.




Having achieved fame early in his career he struggles to come to terms with the disconnect between his meteoric rise and his self-professed lack of any real talent. He is haunted by the notion that he's not as talented as everyone thinks he is and although he's managed to fool everyone this long, today could be the day he's found out. Surrounded by people who conveniently overlook his drinking and womanizing.


Fresh out of college and having never worked in television she holds no pre-conceived notions of what life will be like working for PBS. A hopeful outsider, she is searching for a place to belong while everyone else sees her as just another lamb for the slaughter.

Technically Speaking

I've decided to create the animation series in Flash, render the segments as .avi files and then bring them into a non-linear editor for finishing and outputing to .wmv format. My idea is to do frame animation in Flash using still images of the characters shot at different angles with different mouth configuations to sync to voice overs and create the animations. All the character images have been masked out so I can place them in a variety of background settings. Green screen for puppets.

I want the series to have the feel of the old claymation, stop motion programs they showed on TV around Christmas time when I was a kid. I'm really trying to avoid the slick, 3d computer generated look. I look at that stuff and it just feels cold to me. So, I'm sort of doing digital stop motion with out the headache of shmooshing clay all day.

I've only just decided just now but I'm thinking I'll do 8 episodes to start.

Here's the Thing

I've been working for a local PBS station for a couple years now. The other day, I had this idea for an animated series for the web. It's a behind-the-scenes look at working for a Public Telelvision station as told by puppets. Done in mockumentary format, we get a fresh view on the furry friends who taught us how to count, spell and scream at the television when we were young. It's Spinal Tap meets Dilbert. Stripped of their on-air personalities, they're revealed as complex characters dealing with the same pressures and problems a lot of us grapple with every day: job burnout, bad relationships, jealousy, angst, accidental fame and even substance abuse.