Keep It Green’s journey from web to television is one of those internet fairy tales you hear about but wonder if they ever really happen. Creators Sarah Norton, Shelly Pack, and Paul Vato had a concept. They went out and shot it, just the three of them. Then they started putting their low-fi eco-comedy on YouTube to so-so views, and Discovery Channel noticed. The show was picked up for a segment on G-Word for the Discovery off-shoot Planet Green.
The slogan of the show is, “healing the world with laughter,” and the girls have certainly embraced that. For them, everything is an adventure, whether it’s cleaning green, going to the Farmer’s Market, or even just riding public transportation. “Sarah has always been an environmentalist,” says producer of the show, Vato.
“She was head of her environmental society in high school and college, and she’s always been pro-active. With the show, we really wanted to do something to make environmental activism watchable. The revolution is being digitized!”
When you talk to Vato more about the group’s productions you realize the attention the group has received may not be as chance as at first glance. Vato and Norton both have roles in David Faustino’s upcoming Crackle show Star-ving, and they’re actively producing content constantly under the production banner, BarrioSpeedwagon.tv.
One series produced under that banner is The House Sitter. Norton and Vato gathered all their famous friends who were game, and Norton visited each of their homes as a haphazard house sitter who only house sits to the celebrities (Mo Collins, and Wendi McClendon-Covey amongst them.) After setting up the premise, they pretty much just let the cameras roll allowing the celebs to pimp themselves in their own home. Notably, Faustino refers to himself in the third person, and works hard to impress Norton, even after she swings him easily in the air, embracing his tiny stature.
For the Barriospeedwagon and Keep it Green crew the answer to what’s next is simple–produce more content, and they’re doing just that. They’re currently working on Enemies Closer which they describe as a female Entourage meets Californication. They’re planning a thirteen episode series, with the first episode already up. Execs scanning YouTube take note.
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