CBS, whose last attempts at animated series were the quickly euthanized "Fish Police" and "Family Dog," is taking another swing at the genre.

The network has ordered seven half-hour episodes of "Creature Comforts" from Aardman Animation, the company behind "Wallace & Gromit" and "Chicken Run." The show, a success on the United Kingdom's ITV, features Aardman's animated animals speaking words gathered in man-on-the-street interviews about life, love, work and other topics.

Because of the long lead time required to produce the labor-intensive stop-motion animation, "Creature Comforts" probably won't debut on CBS until midway through the 2006-07 season, the showbiz trade papers report. Kit Boss, a writer and executive producer on "King of the Hill," will executive produce the U.S. show.

"As a longtime fan of Aardman's work, I'm painfully aware that no matter what I say, it would be funnier coming out of the mouth of a plasticine dog with an overbite," Boss says. "I'm thrilled to be given the chance to bring their creatures across the Atlantic and help them to speak American."

"Creature Comforts" is based on Aardman principal Nick Park's Oscar-winning animated short of the same name. It debuted on ITV in 2003 and airs on BBC America in this country.

Park will join Boss as an executive producer of the CBS show, along with Miles Bullough, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Peter Lord and David Sproxton.