Series title: The Non-Terrible News Pilot: https://cantina.com/i/f63mj

Character: https://cantina.com/i/7r2do Meet Crumb, a fluffy, apple-pear-shaped little creature with mostly a grumpy face (but a cute attitude) and a mission: to make the world feel a tiny bit less terrible.

Crumb has spent enough time hearing about everything going wrong in the world that he is increasingly convinced it might actually be terrible. So he has given himself a job: searching for evidence that it is not!

Welcome to The Non-Terrible News, Crumb's tiny, slightly chaotic mini newsroom dedicated exclusively to the strange, funny, unexpectedly cheerful and occasionally educational things happening around the world.

Crumb approaches his role with the seriousness of a professional news guy. The more absurd the story, the more seriously Crumb reports it.

In the pilot, he delivers his first collection of Non-Terrible News: sheep crossing the Thames on Southwark Bridge in London, an unusually chicken-heavy World Record, and the revelation that orcas have been observed wearing dead fish as hats. As the stories get stranger, his miniature newsroom gets playful, while Crumb does his best to maintain journalistic style.

Having worked with news organisations, I wanted something funny and a bit educational. News often feel overwhelmingly serious, negative or just exhausting to be honest, so I liked the idea of creating the opposite: something offbeat, weird and cute, but where there is still something to learn. And the stories and facts are real! Search them!

Where I would take the series next

The Non-Terrible News is designed to continue beyond the pilot. Every week (or can get up to daily), Crumb can return with a fresh collection of real stories, strange discoveries, animal adventures, human achievements and completely unnecessary facts.

I would also gradually expand Crumb's world beyond the newsroom. He could report from his kitchen, investigate stories outdoors, interview other characters or attempt his own experiments and field reports. A story about an unusual food might send him into the kitchen; an animal story might send him outside; a strange scientific discovery might result in Crumb attempting to demonstrate it himself, probably with mixed results.

The locations, stories and visual jokes can keep changing, while Crumb remains the same very serious, slightly grumpy little reporter at the centre of it all.

There is also a small character journey underneath the format: Crumb started searching because he suspected the world might actually be terrible. The longer the series continues, the more evidence he collects that perhaps it is not!

Ultimately, I want each episode to give people a minute away from the heavier side of the news while still leaving them knowing something they did not know before.

And next time the world feels terrible, Crumb will be back to investigate and share more non-terrible news.

-- Happy days :)