Whoopi Goldberg and FEARnet Will 'Stream' Horror

Before Whoopi Goldberg was in the profession of making Elisabeth Hasselbeck cry, the Academy, Emmy, Golden Globe, and many other awards-winning actor played a good listener. Her role on Star Trek the Next Generation as wise Guinan marked the culmination of a childhood infatuation with Lt. Uhura from the equal-opportunity, original Star Trek

series. It also gave Goldberg a status of niche, sci-fi celebrity to accompany her mainstream success.

It’s that kind of pedigree that makes for a wildly successful online series (see Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible), and come early next year we’ll see if Goldberg’s popularity on daytime TV and in the science fiction genre can translate to a big audience for a horror/thriller on the web.

On January 15, viewers can watch Goldberg star in FEARnet‘s latest online original series, Stream. The action unfolds over six, five-minute episodes.

Here’s the premise:

“Stream hauntingly chronicles the struggles of a woman who spends her lifetime wrestling with her personal demons and trying to gather the strength to face her first fears. Whoopi Goldberg is Jodi Quinn. Thanks to a drug she took when she was seventeen, moments from various points in Jodi’s life become intertwined, effectively letting her experience two moments at once. Jodi has spoken with her future husband; she’s visited the psychiatric ward where she will reside in her twenties, and she has come face to face with a vision that will haunt her throughout her life.”

On paper, sounds like it’s entertainment factor will be somewhere between Made in America and Sister Act (a big range, I know). But I’m predicting it’ll top FEARnet’s previous online series. The network has brought on some big name horror talent – Sam Raimi, Mary Lambert – but the results thus far have been been less than frighteningly good.