Ravi Jain used to host an online video talk show shot from the dashboard of his motor vehicle. The Boston-based artist, teacher, and early adopter of new media picked up friends, colleagues, and neighbors on his way to work and proceeded to talk local and global shop with those friends, colleagues, and neighbors while capturing the conversations on film. DriveTime, gained traction from its inception in 2005 before the days of YouTube prominence and sputtered out in 2008 before the online video industry transitioned from nascent into burgeoning.
Jain’s series (which he filmed from Studio A – his Audi – and Studio V – his Volvo) didn’t last for a number of reasons, most of which were beyond Jain’s control. Like the fact that he wasn’t Jerry Seinfeld.
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The world-famous actor and comedian is going to figure out what’s the deal with web series and pick up where Jain (and Jeannie Tate) left off come Thursday, July 9 at 9PM Eastern. That’s when Seinfeld’s original web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee will make its debut.
The program features all the action as seen through a fisheye lens of the Seinfeld star sitting in the driver’s seat of a number of things that belong in Jay Leno’s Garage ars with a variety of celebrity actors and comedians (like Larry David, Michael Richards, Ricky Gervais, and Alec Baldwin) riding shotgun.
Comedian’s in Cars Getting Coffee is brought to the web by Sony Pictures Television’s Crackle, which used to be quite the destination for online original series. And, like his web series’ distributor, this isn’t Seinfeld’s first foray into online video. The funny man released selects from his personal archives to the online masses under the banner of Jerry Seinfeld Personal Archives in early 2011.
