stored procedures

Re: this example page ( http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/stored_procs.html) it seems that with a stored procedure (sql server 2000)

a.) the cf function returntype must be set to any -- what are the implications vis a vis other return types (array etc) and/or is something I am missing

b.) I can output the returned data via cfdump but not via cfoutput -- why and how to workaround???

I'm (as can be inferred from this post I'm sure) a newbie so any help is appreciated.