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The Oblongs Airs: 7:30 p.m. Sundays, WB (Channel 62); episodes this Sunday only at 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Stars: Voices of Will Ferrell, Jean Smart, Randy and Jason Sklar, Jeannie Elias, Pamela Segall Adlon, Billy West, Lea DeLaria. In brief: Animated tales of a freaky family from cartoonist Angus Oblong. But is it any good? There is a certain ghoulish purity to Oblong's work. Every character is drawn in a uniquely hideous way. There are dad (Ferrell), an armless, legless Fred MacMurray type; Mom (Smart, see interview with her on today's Showtime page), a willowy chain-smoking boozer who wears ill-fitting wigs; the boys, Siamese twins joined at the buttocks (the Sklars), a problem child with the dimensions of a newborn (Adlon), and so on. The writing made me chuckle twice (I watched three episodes), but I'm not the target audience. The show's outlook is sophomoric and nihilistic - it's the old gross-out Mad magazine of the '50s, slickly packaged for TV. Is it a survivor? The WB's first animated try, "Mission Hill," sank like a stone. If this sort of thing appeals to you, catch it while you can. >>>
