Love it, hate it, or feel indifferent about it, reality television is a staple of American television. It has been since The Real World and Road Rules premiered on MTV back in the 1990s, which started a chain reaction in the broadcast world. Eventually, the network and cable landscapes would be full of shows like Survivor, American Idol, Trading Spaces, and Big Brother. Since then, a season hasn't gone by without a show that emulated those shows, or any of the hundreds of other reality shows that were spurred by these originators.

So, what happened? How could we television viewers have lived with scripted fare for decades without a whiff of "reality" except for what was shown on the network news each night? Well, technically we didn't. Reality programming was there, except it wasn't called "reality programming" at the time. In addition, it was placed amidst a slew of scripted programming so it was considered a rarity. Nevertheless, these show were there and they were the impetus for some of the reality shows that we see today.

So where did reality programming begin? Actually, it didn't begin on television at all, but on the radio.

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I have never seen the original Creature Comforts, neither the Oscar-winning short film by Nick Park and Aardman Animation, nor the British TV series, so I can't compare the new American version to them, but I can say that the upcoming CBS animated series Creature Comforts is one of the most engaging and charming things I've seen in a long time.

Don't expect something goofy and fast-paced like The Simpsons or Family Guy, because that's not the kind of laughs this series is going for. Instead, the series takes interviews with regular people and then sticks their words into the mouths of cartoon animals. For example: two men sniffing wine become two dogs sniffing another dog's butt.

(S01E01)

Kevin Beekin (interviewing a bodybuilder at Gold's Gym): Statistics have shown that high percentage of bodybuilders are bisexual.

Bodybuilder: I've heard that, yeah.

Beekin: Most bodybuilders are bisexual, which you just agreed to. What do you spend most of your time doing?

Bodybuilder: First of all, I didn't agree that most bodybuilders are bisexual. I've heard through the grapevine, and the world --

Beekin: Is the "Grapevine" the name of a gay bar?

Comedy Central's new improv series, Dog Bites Man, premiered last night. While it's comparable to Reno 911! in it's use of improv, there is one significant difference. Rather than having comedians riff off one another, the "KHBX news team" actually goes out among regular people, leading to some hilarious moments like the one above.

Eliot over at Hackaday found this super cool clip on YouTube. It's the opening sequence of The Simpsons, but done entirely in live action. Before I clicked over to it I wondered, 'how in the world are they going to pull that off?' Actually, they pull it off quite well, using some awesome editing techniques to maintain the frantic pace of the animated sequence. Also, notice the keen attention to detail, such as the real-life versions of the twins Sherri and Terri in the bandroom sequence.

(Embedded player after the jump)

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post here about what animated characters would look like as real people (and showed you a hilarious example from South Park.) Fark.com is known for its Photoshop contests, and one from last night has taken the animated/reality theme to the readers. So far, the above image by oddlife is winning, and I have to say he deserves it, no matter how frightening that concept may be.