Archive for September, 2011:

‘Mortal Kombat’ Web Series, Kevin Tancharoen Get a Movie Deal

How many views does a web series based on one of the most popular video game titles of all time need in order to convince executives at a major motion picture studio to revitalize an all but defunct, decade-and-a-half old film franchise based on the same video game? I have no idea! But in the case of Kevin Tancharoen, Mortal Kombat, and Warner Bros. the answer is roughly 50,000,000 views across nine episodes for an average of about 5.5 million views per installment.

New Line Cinemas announced plans to make a live-action, big screen reboot of the fatality-fueled movie franchise thanks to the wild success of Tancharoen’s nine-part Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series, which was initially ordered by Warner Premiere thanks thanks to the wild success of Tancharoen’s “leaked” proof of concept for a Mortal Kombat film. The studio tapped Tancharoen to direct and Legacy writer Oren Uziel to write the feature, which is expected to be produced for well under $100 million.

Much like the web series, the flick is expected to premiere around the debut of the next installment of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise. Legacy debuted on April 18, 2011, while Mortal Kombat (aka Mortal Kombat 9) hit game store shelves a day later on April 19 and has sold over three million copies to date.

How To Increase Klout Score With Online Video

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This past Thursday over 250 of online video’s top creators, producers, talent, executives, agents, distributors, and technologists packed into theStream.tv’s Hollywood Studios for Tubefilter’s Social Media Week LA panel, Social Video On Steroids.

This time around we pulled together a panel of social media experts with a focus on online video: Greg Goodfried, Founder and President of EQAL, which now builds influencer networks around celebrities and brands since its hit lonelygirl15 took YouTube by storm and and defined “viral series”; Garret Law, Co-Founder and COO of Attention Span Media, an audience development agency that created Dorm Life, the most watched series on Hulu, and supported Simon Fuller’s If I Can Dream and CJP’ Digital’s Leap Year; and Amber Buhl, Director of Sales at Klout, whose social influence metric is now included on the resumes of prospective job applicants.

Our panelists highlighted best practices in social video marketing, discussing the best places to socialize video to maximize click-throughs and increase viewership.

We kicked off the discussion with a question from a member of the audience, who asked about the tactic of hyper-distribution: should you publish your videos everywhere in multiple locations, or focus on a single network and build and audience there?

Among the panel there was consensus that marketers’ attention should be focused on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, where the biggest audiences live. Buhl noted that although Klout actually collects data from over 11 sources in computing the Klout score, the relative importance of the “Big 3” cannot be ignored. Or as Goodfried put it, “YouTube is the beast.” Klout is already tracking YouTube, and Buhl noted that YouTube will be integrated into the Klout score in early November.

Marketing online video with the standard social media tools isn’t enough, however, and our panelists  have developed new ways to maximize social media to put social video on steroids. Law announced Attention Span Media’s new product, Fanatical, that segments audiences on social networks so that marketers can target communications with greater relevance. According to Law, Fanatical enables marketers to turn down the fire hose and focus on “sub-audiences” that will be most receptive to the message, which cuts down on noise.

Goodfried explained how EQAL’s Umbrella platform coordinates social media tools to present more cohesive and robust offerings to audiences, providing a more engaging presentation of the content that doesn’t simply replicate itself in the social media echo chamber.

“Engagement needs to be personal, especially on social media,” said Law. “We don’t think robots and auto-follows are effective. There should be a human on that last mile of connectivity with the audience, because it really is about a relationship.”

By focusing attention on influence and less on gross audience numbers, Buhl noted, Klout addresses the problem of “dead matter,” subscribers and followers who are no longer engaging with content but are still “on the roster” so to speak. Klout’s true reach, amplification, and network impact measurements make it difficult to cheat.

Our Q&A produced a lot of stimulating responses, and you’ll just have to watch the program to make sure get all the good stuff.

Special thanks to our Meetup Sponsor theStream.tv, our Community Sponsors blip.tv, SAG New Media, and PlaceVine, and to our Media Partners Stickam and the PGA New Media Council.

Meetup photos on Facebook

George Watsky’s ‘Ultimate YouTube Video’ (You Have to Watch This)

George Watsky’s mind moves fast, almost as fast as his mouth. So when YouTube’s breakout rapper-poet dreams up something as profound as the “Ultimate YouTube Video,” then it would behove you to take notice.

This all began with a challenge, one of Watsky’s mythical live performances, the time in question being back in April on The Ellen Show where he dared, or really provoked the video community to : to help him create the perfect YouTube video. Word for word, one very talented such video creator, Jorge Farfan took him up on it.

Farfan’s CyberToons channel had already won over fans on YouTube with his cartoonified renditions of life inside the land of the video creators. (For a crash course watch his “Secret Life” and “Shane Dawson and Friends” videos to catch up.)

There’s a lot in here, even cameos from The Annoying Orange and Ray William Johnson, plus plenty of flash mob features of Shay Carl & Katilette, Kassem G, Charles & Alli Trippy, Ian and Anthony of SMOSH, Mystery Guitar Man and Dave Days.

“You expect people to sit through a whole 15 MINUTES of fame these days?” -Watsky

Like most people, Farfan discovered Watsky from ‘Pale Kid Raps Fast‘ “I looked at his previous videos and thought why hasn’t this guy blown up earlier?,” he told us. “I sent him an e-mail saying how amazingly talented I thought he is and if he ever wanted to collab on something.”

This led to Farfan jumping all over the Ultimate YouTube Video challenge, which essentially became a collab with the challenger himself. “I would send images of the cartoon to Watsky during the whole process,” he added. “The whole cartoon took roughly 4 months to make. George was involved with providing the music bed during the whole cartoon—he felt it needed some music behind it. I didn’t think so, but hearing it with the music made the cartoon sound a lot better!”

“Jorge is super talented,” added Watsky, “and I’m honored he went to the extent he did to bring the video to life. I’m thrilled by it, and I hope to work with him on something else in the future. I actually met him on person at VidCon this year (in addition to many of the cameo stars of the video) in another sign to me that at a certain level, this massive de-centralized internet community is actually pretty small.”

So who’s next up for Farfan’s CyberToons treatment? “I would love to work with SMOSH which you can see in the flash mob. Those guys are one of the first people I’ve ever seen on YouTube.”

The original Watsky challenge (from The Ellen Show):

Cambio Re-Launches: ‘Aim High’, ‘CliffsNotes’ Headline $10-12M Original Slate

cambioCelebrities these days get roped into side projects, or really ‘joint ventures’, about as often as they get asked to do a Funny or Die video. Some transcend the noise and work out swimmingly—see: Will Ferrell and, well Funny or Die—while others make us all wonder who got fired over that brain fart—see: The Kardashian Kard.

So back in June of 2010 when teen-pop rockers The Jonas Brothers jumped head first into the original online content game, launching Cambio, there was reason to be skeptical. Licensing your name to a clothing line is one thing, but feeding the round-the-clock daily content beast against entrenched incumbents like Yahoo, MSN, Teen.com, MTV and, well YouTube, was a whole other league.

Luckily Jonas Group honcho Kevin Jonas Sr. (the father of the pop stars), had AOL jointly invested in the venture, and that brought a solid ad sales team and cross-network integration into teen-slanted network of sites like Just Jared Jr., JSYK and Celebuzz. But even AOL sites need to hold their own in terms of audience, and after a strong start, traffic dipped on Cambio to less than half of its first few months.

To break out of the just-another-teen-site rut, Cambio needed to win in original entertainment content, not just eek out margins on SEO-friendly headlines. The move was to hire Nathan Coyle out of CAA, the digital agent behind many higher profile branded entertainment deals like Ford-Snickers-Sprint backed ControlTV, Mattel in Hulu’s Genuine Ken, and even the Neutrogena integration back in lonelygirl15.

Coyle, now five months into the GM post at Cambio, spearheaded its re-launch today with a complete facelift, deep social features, and, probably most important a major commitment from several new partners including Dolphin Digital Media to spend between $10 to 12 million on original series as Cambio 2.0 shifts into a full-on teen network. Dolphin Digital and Cambio will jointly develop 4-6 original series per year to produce, with Cambio getting exclusive rights to distribute the content in the United States.

The first two new original series that will live exclusively on Cambio are the much-anticipated Aim High from exec-producer McG and Warner Brothers, and CliffsNotes Films from Mark Burnett. The latter is a series of humorous animated shorts based on the popular CliffsNotes® Literature Guides—back when I was in school you actually had to READ CliffsNotes, welcome to the future, kids.

Aim High is set to bow October 18th on Cambio and Facebook, and stars Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone and Friday Night Lights’ Aimee Teegarden.

Aim High trailer:

The thrust of the re-launch is about building a community site around the new content slate, and user profiles come with deep integration into the requisite Facebook and Twitter. There is also a gamification at hand too, with points that can be earned and badges for activity like sharing and connecting with other users.

Part of the mission we’re setting out here is creating universe that really combines content with community,” Coyle told us on the phone. “That’s what makes the web unique—the value of a lean-in versus the lean-back experience of TV is that fans can connect with each other.”

In effect, they are not conceding social activity around video to the powerhouse that is YouTube, instead opting to craft its own experience. While there is a CambioConnect YouTube channel, it won’t be the primary video host, instead with a white-labeled Brightcove player serving video on site. In the case of Aim High, Coyle tells us, the series will be live on Facebook as well as Cambio with a co-exclusive ad-sharing partnership on AOL inventory.

That said, Cambio isn’t ruling out a broader YouTube move, especially as the new channels roll out early next year. “We do see an opportunity down the road to improve and enhance what we’re doing on the YouTube platform,” added Coyle.

Also as part of the re-launch news, is word that sponsor AT&T is back on board for another round, and plenty of the brand’s banners and pre-rolls are visible already.

And despite the site’s assuredly teen focus, there are some decent topical content gems in there that made me not regret clicking, like this one: “The New Facebook Timeline Presented by Mad Men’s Don Draper:”

CliffsNotes Films trailer:

NBC to Launch New Digital Studio Under UCP

Universal Cable Productions is a growing part of the NBC Universal family best known for creating popular shows for Syfy and USA Network (including Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Psych, Royal Pains, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and more). This particular arm of NBCU is looking to expand into short-form content in the near future. More specifically, Universal Cable Productions is launching a digital studio which will create both original web series and digital content derivative of its pre-existing TV properties.

A television network/studio entering the digital marketplace isn’t anything new, but Comcast shuttered the NBC Universal Digital Studio (which was behind online originals like FCU: Fact Checkers Unit and CTRL) earlier this year. That makes this story particularly interesting.

In an Ad Age article from last July, an NBC Universal spokeswoman explained Comcast’s decision to close the digital studio in the following terms: “Going forward we plan to focus our digital efforts and investment on content that’s supportive of our on-air programs, providing our audience with additional content that further engages them in our shows.”

The forthcoming UCP Digital Studio will create derivative content, but according to this job posting, the new entity will also create original web series, which appears to go against the rationale for shutting down the original NBC Universal Digital Studio in the first place.

So, what gives? I’m not sure. But, given the NBC powers that be want to focus more on derivative programming, it is possible they simply tapped a division within the company with a good track record in the genre (after all, UCP was responsible for the Streamy Award-winning series Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy and has a history of creating programming with a cult following) and the development of original web series will be far less of a focus. It’s also possible NBC Universal wants to give the whole digital studio business another go with a brand new team.

Regardless of the reasoning, details are scarce. It will be interesting to see how Universal Cable Productions moves forward. Will the derivative content be used to keep audiences interested between hiatuses and help create a flow of constant content? Will they be as good as The Office‘s companion web series? Will original series be used as backdoor pilots? Stay tuned.

Why are NBC’s ‘Up All Night,’ ‘Whitney’ Airing Early on Yahoo?

The practice of broadcast, cable, and paid television networks releasing installments of series on the internet to generate marketing buzz and whet consumers’ entertainment appetites before their broadcast, cable, or paid television network premieres is nothing new. HBO was doing it with Funny or Die way back in 2008 and, at the time, it still was only something relatively new.

So, it’s nothing new but good to know if you’re looking to get a head start on your self-prescribed regimen of primetime television consumption this fall that a number of installments of a number of shows were or will be first available online.

Viewers could catch the premiere of Fox’s New Girl with Zooey Deschanel (unfortunately it’s not this Zooey Deschanel) on Hulu, iTunes, Fox On Demand and on Deschanel’s “ultimate entertainment destination for smart, independent and creative females” HelloGiggles.com. Meanwhile, ABC’s Facebook fans had an opportunity to see Revenge before the rest of the Western world and The CW released Hart of Dixie and Secret Circle on iTunes before TV.

Now, NBC will release the third installment of Christina Applegate and Will Arnett’s comedy Up All Night and the second installment of Whitney Cumming’s eponymous Whitney before their Wednesday and Thursday night broadcast premieres. Where can you watch them? Yahoo.

Instead of bowing the episodes early on a premium, on demand streaming video service in which NBC has an ownership stake, the powers that be opted to show the shows early on one of the most highly trafficked destination sites on the internet. Why? There are a couple obvious answers.

  1. Maybe it’s just marketing. Maybe NBC didn’t debut episodes early on Hulu because the network execs wanted to try leverage Yahoo’s massive traffic to expose the programs to as many would-be viewers as possible. It’s certainly a tactic Yahoo uses for its own shows.
  2. Or maybe it’s more telling than that. Maybe it’s a sign of what’s to come. With a Hulu sale seemingly imminent, maybe this is NBC’s way of testing how promotional and distribution initiatives for its programs will work with other, more established online destinations.

Yahoo’s already incorporating Hollywood talent into its upcoming programming slate of original web series. It’s not too much of a stretch to think it could add an NBC show or two to the lineup. Regardless, you should watch Up all Night. I love me some Will Arnett.

Mark Cuban Supports Indie Drama, ‘The Vault’

Last week, Mark Cuban posted a web series link on his Google+ page with no kind of info beyond the following: “And here is eps 2 of The Vault.” That begs the questions, how did Cuban become involved with this original web series and what exactly is The Vault?

I’ll answer the second question first. The Vault is a online original program about a fictional TV game show. Not much of the story has been revealed (there’s only two full episodes live and online, along with a handful of teasers on Youtube and the show’s website), but perhaps the level of mystery is what makes this show so appealing to Cuban and viewers.

In the pilot, we follow contestant Henry as he conference calls with the other nine players in the Vault to help them solve puzzles. However, Henry and the players quickly discover the Vault is a bigger challenge than anyone expected. By the end of the pilot, we know there are at least 150 rooms in the Vault – each with a character and a puzzle to solve.

The program is a product of co-creators Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione, who met through a mutual friend. The pair bonded over their love of LOST. When the show ended they decided to fill the void with a project of their own. “There’s a lot of comedy on the web and not much drama,” Hann said in an interview. “We want to make a show we want to watch. And we know there’s an interest.” The Vault was born.

For two guys creating a show about questions, Hann and Miscione easily answered how Mark Cuban invested in their project. “We always had respect for Cuban. I was watching him on Jimmy Kimmel one night. He gave out his personal email. We were really proud of the pilot, so I sent it to him around 2AM. Later that morning at 9AM I checked my email and he responded! We had a back and forth and next thing we knew we were partners. It was pretty fast.”

Now that the deal is finalized with Cuban and HDNet’s blessing, Episode 2 is online and Episode 3 is in production with an air-date set for October. It’s possible that an integration into HDNet’s programming schedule will settle into place soon, too.

Easily the most impressive part of The Vault is that the production team consists of only Hann and Miscione. The set of The Vault’s “contestant room” is Miscione’s living room. “Actors first come [to set] and are shocked,” said Hann. With the high level of production no one would expect the two person production team.

Hann reads lines with actors, Miscione works the camera, and they co-direct. “We have to do more than the average director,” explained Hann, “You look at the water room [in Episode 2] and someone had to go to Costco to pick it up.” While the small team allows Hann and Miscione to have complete control over the project, it does make the process slower than the average web series (but the release between the pilot and second episode was abnormally long during the negotiations with Cuban).

So, what’s been the biggest change since the pair signed their partnership with Cuban and HDNet? “More support from our parents,” said Miscione with a laugh. Hann added, “We definitely have mom approval now. They love [Cuban] from Dancing with the Stars.”

But what about the production of the show? “Our goal was to see if two people could commit and make a show they loved,” Miscione said, “We won’t change just because the deal happened.” In fact, the only major change to production since the duo inked the deal is the acquisition of a new camera accessory. “We bought a spare battery for $50 bucks,” joked Hann. The pair still makes their prop trips to Costco and Home Depot, but find the experience necessary to maintain full control on their project and keep the mysteries of The Vault secret.

Speaking of those mysteries, Hann and Miscione were very tight lipped. “People think they’ve solved it already, but we haven’t even asked the questions yet,” laughed Hann. It’s clear that Hann and Miscione have no intention of spilling the secrets of the show too early. However, they do promise that everything in The Vault has a purpose and plays a part in the overall puzzle (unlike the show that inspired them).

Miscione gave a final bit of reassurance for those playing along at home: “Sooner rather than later you’ll get the questions that you’ll get the answers to in the finale.” If you want to solve the mysteries on your own, be sure to check out The Vault.

Blip.tv Adds Subscriptions

Blip.tv, the online video platform of choice for the creators of more than 50,000 original web series, recently gave its destination site a major overhaul. The blip.tv team’s intent with the new diggs was to provide a more easily navigable home for its featured programming, encourage more viewers to watch more of that featured programming by marketing it on site with more enticing artwork and better editorial decisions, and basically modernize its previously mid-2000’s aesthetic.

Now, to go along with its new site that was a few years in the wanting, blip.tv’s added a feature the website always should’ve had since its inception. Subscriptions. Viewers will now see big blue “Subscribe” buttons “just about everywhere on blip.tv.” Click, allow blip.tv to integrate with your Facebook profile, and you’ll be notified via e-mail whenever new episodes of your subscribed-to shows are available.

It’s obviously nothing novel, but the subscriptions feature is kinda like replacing a mediocre website with one that’s most definitely way better than mediocre. You don’t need to be an online video analyst to know it can only positively effect views, consumption, and users’ overall satisfaction with the service.

To market its new subscription option and get consumers of video content to use the feature, blip.tv’s very own Director of Network Programming / Online Video Content Guru Eric Mortensen will be making personalized recommendations all day today. If you’re in need of one, simply send a tweet with #ILoveBlip, mention the name of your favorite TV show, and Eric will hit you back with at least one web series you should most definitely watch.

Odessa, Kevin Sorbo, Josh Jennings Big Winners at NYTVF

The seventh annual New York Television Festival recently wrapped up its week-long showcase of independently produced programming and entertainment industry panels and presentations. The creators of the festival’s featured content were hoping to gain exposure for and find a home for their ware by way of the festival’s “innovative path of program development.”

Hundreds of individuals with aspirations to add a few more television credits to their resumes or secure a budget for their original web series submitted creative briefs and/or pilots to one of the NYTVF’s many sponsored competitions. Here are a few of the winners.

Bing Audience Choice Award Winner – I Hate Being Single

Hipster, Brooklyn’s Rob Michael Hugel created this post-college, twenty-something lovelorn story about a guy in Kings County who struggles with employment, a mature sense of fashion, and especially the ladies.

FX ‘There is No Box’ Comedy Award – Josh Jennings for Congress

Nathan Gotsch took home the honor of winning FX’s ‘There is No Box’ Comedy Award, along with its accompanying $25,000 development deal with the cable network for his hometown-slacker-turns-political-candidate-running-against-insurmountable-odds-and-plasticy-looking-opponents story.

IFC Out of the Box Award – St. James St. James Presents: Delirium Cinema

Ross Paterson put together and all-star cast – including Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys), Danny Trejo (Machete), Bryan Callen (MADtv), and Alanna Ubach (Legally Blonde) – to act in his anthology series of terribly awesome films from the world’s most famous, fictional and youngest child director St. James St. James. The effort won Paterson IFC’s ‘Out of the Box’ Award and a $25,000 development deal with the network.

MTV ‘Voice and Vision’ Animation Awards for Writing and Animation – Pound Dogs

MTV’s ‘Voice and Vision’ Animation Awards, along with their accompanying $5,000 checks for both the award-winning writer and animator, both went to Mike Salva for his claymation interpretation of what life is like for pound dogs.

Syfy Digital Studio ‘Imagine Greater’ Award –  Odessa

The hardest working man in online video, Al Thompson, took home not only the Independent Pilot Competition’s Award for Best Actor in a Drama or Dramedy, but also Syfy Digital Studio’s ‘Imagine Greater’ Award for his sci-fi drama about a migratory father and daughter on the run from a mysterious “program” that likes to perform obscure experiments on the both of them.

A big congrats to all the New York Television Festival honorees, finalists, and winners. Check out the full list here.

NASA UARS Satellite Crash Videos Emerge on YouTube

Videos from the breakup of NASA’s 6.5-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) are starting to pop up online, as debris from the old satellite have been spotted crashing down to over North America and in the Pacific Ocean, “sometime between 11:23 p.m. EDT on Friday and 1:09 a.m. EDT on Saturday” according to NASA.

The early videos have mostly been fakes and hoaxes, like this one and this one, that were both widely passed around on Twitter. Some early photos on SpaceWeather.com are up, like this one from David Bainbridge in Northern Minnesota.

UARS was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1991, and served until 2005 when it was decommissioned. Some reports are citing a 1-in-3,200 chance of a piece of debris hitting someone, even with NASA saying up to 90% of it would have burned up upon re-entry.

Latest update from NASA:

NASA’s decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24. The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California said the satellite penetrated the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty.

BaratsAndBereta Skewer Netflix’s Qwickster Bomb

All the hullaballoo surrounding Netflix’s rate increase and its subsequent DVD-only offering Qwickster has provided some great fodder for parody on YouTube.

Luke Barats from BaratsAndBereta produced Netflix Fail Song for the Break Originals channel on YouTube.

In the most memorable line from the vid, Barats forecasts Qwickster fate: “I want to use Qwickster about as much as Friendster,” though a more telling comment comes from user cherilyndria: “I wanna use quickster about as much as friendster—was what he was referencing?” Exactly. WTF was Freindster, again?

The parody vid, which also stars, Syd Wilder, plays off the song “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People, with the Soundalike Song performed and mixed by Sean Motley.

The complete lyrics, for your enjoyment:

They hooked me with their Free Trial
Spent my whole weekend, watching hours of The Wire
Then the cool picks started drying up,
And all the new movies, just started taking a while
I was paying every month,
For a dumb DVD, that just lived on my TV.
I couldn’t have them sent to work
Afraid someone could see, I got “Big Momma’s House 3”

All the stupid pics I get from Netflix
“Who’s Harry Crumb”, “The Good Son”
Why’d I get em?
All the stupid pics I get from Netflix
They just get lost, under stuff
Or used as coasters

Then they sent that email
Bout this new Qwikster site , which will obviously fail
Can’t justify separate queues
just to skim “Swordfish” for, Halle Berry’s boobs
Their streaming choices really suck
How can they charge ten bucks when they don’t have 3 Ninjas
Why cant things be the way they were?
Cause I wanna use Qwikster, ’bout as much as Friendster

All the stupid pics I get from Netflix
ALF: Season One, Midnight Run
I don’t need em!
I’d be super pissed, at my Qwikster pics
If I got mailed some of em
that Netflix had on Instant

All the stupid pics I get from Netflix
Eighteen bucks, is a ton
When Redbox costs one
Of all the stupid things, you could have done Netflix
this time I’m done, I am done
Until you get Porno

Chris McCaleb: ‘ShayCarl is Creating a New Kind of Sitcom

chrisChris McCaleb his team at Big Fantastic have been making shows on the internet even before anyone called them web series or channels. Those pre-YouTube days were ruled by the video podcasters, with iTunes one of the main funnels for distribution.

Their early standout series like Sam Has 7 Friends and Prom Queen for Vurguru, and later Sorority Forever for Warner Bros. and live-streaming experiment ControlTV, gave him and his team a unique perspective on the shifting ebbs and flows of the online entertainment.

Now, as the internet medium of transforms into its next iteration, we thought we would solicit some of that perspective. In our recent interview with Chris at VidCon, he talks about the early days of television they were just filming radio, but then I Love Lucy came around and changed everything, citing fellow video peers Tim Street and Steve Woolf. He cites YouTube family man ShayCarl as having basically reinvented the sitcom for a new generation. Have a look: