In a story from Variety, Ricky Gervais and HBO are teaming up for the animated series, The Ricky Gervais Show,

The show is based on a popular series of podcasts that Gervais made with his longtime creative partner, Stephen Merchant. It is based on their friend Karl Pilkington.

Originally, the show was on the radio in London. In 2005 it became a podcast and that's when Karl Pilkington got involved. Soon, the show was revolving around him.

According to Gervais and Merchant, "Karl is a man who believes that a sea lion is a cross between a fish and a dog. Hopefully, Karl will enter the pantheon of animated greats."

The podcasts were so popular that they picked up "a Guinness World Record in 2007 for being the most-downloaded podcast on the Internet."

The format of the show will have audio from the podcasts and begin each week with an animated version of the three men. Once Pilkington starts telling a story, the animation will showcase that and follow that story.

HBO picked up 13 half-hour episodes. The plan is for them to run in 2010.