Don’t you just love This American Life? Oh quiet. You do so. Anyway, Chris Ware has apparently been working on completely awesome opening animations for the upcoming TAL TV show, which will debut Thursday on Showtime. Boing Boing has some details about the cartoon:
This cartoon is about schoolkids who started making fake video cameras out of cardboard boxes and toilet paper tubes to “film” incidents around the schoolyard. Because they had these phony cameras to hide behind, they distanced themselves from each other, losing their concern for the wellbeing of their fellow students. The school administration responded by banning the cameras. It’s a perfect story for Ware to animate.
I had no idea this show was coming to television, but now I’m psyched. The inclusion of Ware just sweetens the pot.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Yeah, the first episode is available to watch on Showtime On-Demand, and it is a worthy adaptation.
The first episode deals with three stories from the radio show: a brief intro about a girl riding on a schoolbus; Second Chance, about a cloned bull; and Best Gig Ever, a story about a project by guerilla theater group Improv Everywhere.
The show is just as affecting as the radio versions of these stories. And we finally get to see Ira, even if it is only for a brief time.
The crazy part of the show is that it is paired in its time-slot with Penn & Teller’s Bullshit. I’m not sure they could have found an odder pair, but they are both shows I enjoy.