Ripe TV is the online home of Ripe Digital, a much larger synthesis of on-demand cable television, web, and downloads for mobile devices, meant to provide the first cross-platform, schedule-free network. For such an ambitious undertaking, only the most elaborate, feature-laden websites will do, and the creators do not disappoint in this regard. Along with its sister site, the automobile-centric Octane TV, Ripe delivers content tailored to the sensibilities of the young male viewer – lots of physical comedy, scantily clad women, technology, and action. The CEO, Ryan Magnussen, was the founder of the early online advertising agency, Zentropy, and was successful as an original web designer for major companies like Fox, Warner Brothers, and Coca-Cola. With that sort of experience behind the venture, Ripe is in prime position to deliver their content, through home computers, cable providers, VOD, and iPods, to a whole world of young viewers, and investors are taking notice.

The Ripe TV site is divided into a series of channels, one for each show. While no show lasts for very long since the network’s content is constantly changing, there are usually around 10 different channels with a fairly predictable assortment of programming. With a demographic of males from adolescence to fraternity, it’s a safe bet that there are always three to seven shows here involving women getting naked and bouncy. Past examples have included Bikini TV, Supermodel TV, Trashy Lingerie, Wild Girls, and Picking Miss Ripe, where viewers get to choose the host of the site’s main feature. It changes names (it’s been called Ripe TV, Ripe Live, and Now On Ripe), but the network’s main show collects new episodes from each channel and presents them with a scantily-clad female host who changes from week to week. The other channels often feature animation, stunts inspired by “Jackass,” the music scene (there was even a channel devoted entirely to Ghostface Killah’s live performances), puppets (there’s an obvious Triumph the Insult Comic Dog rip-off right now called Ed & Red’s Night Party, where belligerent puppets harass people on the street), some profane comedy, and wrestling.

Currently, there’s a show called Stuff 4 Dudes that embodies all the trampoline-jumping braless amazement that Ripe TV believes will cause adolescent males to go contently slack-jawed. It’s worth checking out if only to see the lowest common denominator of breast-emphasis entertainment made even lower and even bustier. Seeing girls eat a series of olives as they propel themselves on skateboards, in a race to an all vodka martini is not only something you’ve probably never seen, but can almost be seen as liberating after years of male domination of the “crazy stunt” genre.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Nicholas Mosquera
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The Rest of Everest is a podcast created by filmmaker Jon Miller to fill in the gaps left behind by his film, Everest: The Other Side, which was released in May of 2005. This film documents the 2003 journey of Colorado University student Ben Clark, one of the youngest and most experienced mountaineers in world, on his climb to the summit of Mount Everest. Clark is 23 years old and has undertaken numerous international mountaineering expeditions, including the summiting of Mount Kilimanjaro, expeditions to Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, as well as many missions in the Himalayas and the Rockies. Before Miller created this film, he managed the no longer existing Northern Colorado Bureau for CNN Headline News Local Edition. Miller and his production company, Treeline Productions, based out of Fort Collins Colorado, worked with Major King, the Northern Colorado Bureau photographer for Denver’s ABC affiliate channel to produce the film. However, with over 80 hours of footage, and a film edited down to just 84 minutes, there is a lot of Everest that isn’t seen by most people. Miller, King, and Clark work together to produce this weekly podcast, which was launched in 2006.

Episodes are posted every Wednesday and can last anywhere between 10 and 40 minutes. They are not comprised of completely raw footage from the hiking trip; the segments are edited by Miller and supplemented by commentary from the team members. Some of the episodes can be pretty tedious, as I’m sure is the nature of at least some aspects of climbing Everest. You can follow the climbers through their preparatory stage, their arrival at base camp, their initial ascent, health problems, boredom, bad weather, and more. The episodes are generally well shot, revealing landscapes and intricacies of the mountain that are not often seen, and well edited, with interesting narrations by Miller. Many segments also include photographs that Clark took along the way.

One of my favorites is episode 25: Back at Base Camp. The footage for this segment was taken at about the halfway point of the trip, and it includes beautifully clear stills of the climbers on their way up the mountain. Yet the point of The Other Side of Everest is to accurately represent the long and arduous journey to the top of Everest, so the best way to view these is probably to start with the first episode and work your way through.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Kate Dundon
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According to his resume, Ben Schwartz is a writer/actor/comedian who has his fingers in several pies, including staff writing for the third season of Robot Chicken on Adult Swim, as well as freelance writing for SNL, and Letterman.  He is also a sketch (Hot Sauce) and improv perfomer at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre.

But the freelance comedy writer’s row is a hard one to hoe, and for every fruitful joke a bushel of them are left on the vine. With archives dating back to April 2006, Ben told his jokes that didn’t make the cut on Rejected Jokes for a full year until he decided to end the video portion of the site in April 2007.  Still, that was long enough to garner critical acclaim from CNBC and various blogs, and come up with at least one rejected joke that hasn’t been rejected.

Ever wonder what Weekend Update or Letterman jokes don’t make the grade?

Freelance writer Ben Schwartz is happy to rummage through the reject pile to bring you the best of the not good enough, presented in stand-up format, sometimes with graphics! Bursting onto a stage to (canned?) applause, Ben proudly delivers two-minute samples to a dead, if not absent, audience.  The humor can be a little off-color or even slightly stale, but his ‘You’ll-love-this-one’ attitude in the face of awkward silence shows that the material doesn’t always make the man.

The site is well organized, with most recent postings prominently displayed and archived material easily accessible. The jokes mostly reflect their intended venues, hovering in the recent events/pop satire genre, but every so often (once a month, generally) a guest host, like Sam Levine, Rob Corddry, and Adult Swim’s MC Chris will add a new dimension.

One rejected man can be a little bit pathetic, but two rejects can band together and proudly flip the finger- so it goes when Ben gets a guest on his show; the energy immediately increases. Plus some of them are pretty funny guys in their own right. Best joke of all, however, is in the short film ‘Cheating’, where a king-size surprise awaits a young husband coming home from work early.  

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Nathan Bock
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Jay Leno’s remarkable vehicle collection consists of over 80 cars and 70 motorcycles, including, among other rarities, a McLaren F1 (amazingly, he’s known for actually driving every car he owns around LA).

Spanning three lots and over 17,000 square feet, Jay’s Big Dog Garage is managed by Bernard Juchli and a full team of on-hand mechanics. Jay Leno’s Garage examines his collection under the auspices of NBC, on whose website the show is hosted, and with corporate backing from General Motors.

Launched in October 2006, the site covers one car each week. The first webisode, a peek into Leno’s bright red 1941 American LaFrance Fire Truck, had car enthusiasts singing Leno’s praises, and his site’s been collecting an increasingly devoted fanbase base ever since.

Each week, four sections are uploaded with video about the new car. “At the Garage” is hosted by Leno himself and features him showing off his cars with appropriate specs, details about how he obtained it, and footage of him driving the vehicle around his lot. “Under the Hood” segments are hosted by Juchli that include information about the car’s refurbishing. “GM Minute” answers viewer’s questions (usually unrelated to the weekly vehicle). And the show’s catch-all, “Extras.”

Videos last one to five minutes each and feature Leno, “the down-to-earth collector who cooks for his staff in the garage’s gourmet kitchen,” rather than Leno “the Comedian,” as he’s known by most of America. Although he does joke around a little in the segments, his focus is on sharing information and educating his viewers. He appears in jeans and a t-shirt and makes it clear that he knows his stuff. Juchli often takes over where Leno stops by talking about refurbishments that the garage is doing and by sharing interesting history, such as the origin for the phrase, “It’s a doozy” (which actually refers to a “Duesy”, or Duesenberg – and Leno owns one from 1932).

In addition to the videos, there are also photos, articles, games, forums, and a community section that allows viewers to post photos of their own cars.
Jay makes a point to get down to the bottom of one viewer’s questions about bio-diesel, which reminds me quite a bit of Daryl Hannah’s similar attempt on dhlovelife. And if you check out any of the Extras, look at the video of the Calypso water jet (steel) cutter, which carves quite an interesting picture.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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Israel Hyman considers himself a “weekend videographer.” His love for his hobby brought him to the web with Izzy Video in fall 2005.

Although it began as a weekly five-minute video podcast to teach the basics of digital video filmmaking, the site gained popularity after about 18 months and spurred Israel and his father to create their own podcast network, Glimpster, with the goal of sharing “unbloated tutorials covering a wide range of subjects.”

Approximately a third of the episodes deal with lighting, as Hyman places the importance of good lighting above even the quality of the camera itself. The rest cover topics like camera settings, sound, and editing for the internet. Viewers can, and do, comment on each episode, often thanking Hyman or asking for additional clarification. He often uses his children, Trinity and Blake, as models as when demonstrates the filming techniques, adding narration and overlaying text to introduce and explain topics. He gets information across simply, with few bells and whistles and just the slightest amount of humor.

In his first July Fourth-themed installment, Hyman talked all about shooting fireworks (or anything, really) in the dark, for those planning to record Independence Day fireworks in the U.S. Besides being timely, he’s also careful to pay attention to his viewer’s desires, using many of the later episodes to answer viewer questions like what kind of sound equipment to use and which lighting devices he prefers. There’s nothing too complicated, and there aren’t any secrets or tricks; most of his suggestions, such as using Fresnels for lighting, are basic and commonly used.

Hyman is also mindful that many of his watchers are also weekend videographers, and so he gives tips, both in the videos and online, on how to avoid going over budget—a very practical issue for a vlog supported only by donations.

In an interesting experiment, Israel combined his film-vlogging skills with his father’s digital photography weblog called Woven Shadows to create a dual episode, since many of the lighting concepts are the same for both. The audience loved the collaboration and with good reason, since he shows how photography and filmmaking merge into one another, in the attempt to achieve a good, cinematic still.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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Produced by Ozone Inc. and created by brothers Orrin and Jerry Zucker, It’s Jerry Time has been an online phenomenon since the animated show launched in November 2005, notably winning the 2006 New Media Award at the Ottawa Animation Festival, receiving the first Emmy nomination for a video podcast and winning the 2007 Broadband Emmy for the Variety category.

During their free time, the Boston-based siblings post irregular updates on the life of the serial’s unfortunate main character, Jerry. Orrin animates and directs while Jerry takes care of the music and screenwriting.

A lovable, middle-aged schmo with a lack of restraint, a surplus of deadpan, and a bevy of bipolar tendencies, Jerry is like an animated Harvey Pekar or Larry David. His 3- to 5-minute misadventures range from the absurd (like going to a hypnotist to remove his food addiction) to the mundane (like getting hit by a taxi in Manhattan), but Jerry treats both with the same amount of distance and disinterest.

Orrin’s oddball animation has a quasi-realistic, photograph-enhanced “South Park” vibe, utilizing scissor-cut images and collages of altered pictures. Once you’ve run through all of JerryTime, hit up Jerry’s Shoebox page to see his prized possessions and his Myspace profile, where you’ll discover some more personal information about the man behind that perennially bored, distorted face of his. It’s a visage that will probably linger with you longer than you expect.

One well-deserved fan favorite is Jerry Strikes Back, which recounts his not-so-climactic battle with the meal moths that invade his apartment. When he tells of his bloodlust for a large, distressed moth he encounters outdoors, following his trials with the smaller variety that drove him so insane in his own home, viewers will commiserate in the way they often do with curmudgeonly characters who just can’t seem to catch a break.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Nicholas Mosquera
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It’s All In Your Hands was launched in July of 2006 by creator Brad Winderbaum, USC Film School grad and director of the indie movie The Futurist. Brad developed the site as a forum for his interactive dramas. After each episode, viewers are invited to vote on the fate of the protagonist. When the results are tallied, the plots of the dramas change accordingly.

Surging after the success of the pilot series Satacracy 88, It’s All In Your Hands now boasts four continuous serial dramas and a dedicated and growing fan base. The creator, cast and crew, along with a band of writers and directors, won a 2007 People’s Voice Webby award for drama.

Brad Winderbaum’s experiment feels like an acid-induced Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. The site allows viewers to decide after each episode whether she takes the red or blue pill, whether he picks the hot sex kitten or the quiet girl-next-door.

Two to five-minute episodes make up the monthly installments for four ongoing plots: Satacracy 88, a 12 Monkeys-like conspiracy involving a mysterious pill; Find Me, one geek’s online dating journey; Moonshine, which feels like The Twilight Zone in LA; and Blankslate, in which a man wakes up with amnesia.

Because the episodes are only about five minutes long, waiting for more than a month for the next installment can seem like a chore, but the voting is always fun and the shows are bizarre enough to keep even the most ADD-ridden minds intrigued (case in point, see the first episode of Moonshine for a taste of this cool and trippy tale about a journalist on the trail of aliens in LA). The site is easy to navigate, with great info on the cast and crew, the history and the process of making the site, as well as the episodes. With It’s All In Your Hands, Winderbaum has given the audience a chance to influence the action, and the empowerment feels good. Think the hot heroine should kill her boyfriend when he forces her to take the evil pill? Me too. Let’s make it happen.

Though Satacracy 88 is the star of the site, as it was the first of Winderbaum’s projects, I found myself most excited about Find Me, which is like Blind Date meets American Idol without the glory of either Roger Lodge or Randy Jackson.

Each month, viewers follow Spencer, the hapless yet charming hero, on his dates with women of our choosing. From the first episode, it is clear America is not going to choose Miko (aka Kim Chee), the cure Korean, or her terrible raps about our hero. But can Spencer right the ship when he discovers that his newfound Janet is actually the sister of recently spurned Emily?

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Timothy Stanley
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Goonland is the work of Grand Rapids, Michigan Flash animator Mike Storey, one of many artists bringing his interactive animation and games to the web. He is part of a collective that includes sites like rockschool.com, killfrog.com, and bunnygrenade.com, among others. The group collaborates on cartoon series, each adding their own episodes to running story lines, and thus highlighting the versatility of the medium.  

The animation on Goonland is of the prototypical gross-out variety. Picture a large, barely clothed yellowish blob with one enlarged eye, and you’ve got Fatty, the site’s mascot. Fatty gets into various misadventures, most of them food related, along with a supporting cast which includes bike helmet-sporting Bruce, and an underdressed smokin’ clown by the name of Fritter. Some of the few interactive features on offer include a love tester, and a snowball fight, where players can get revenge on the annoying Bruce. The Experiments link will take you to a page titled “When you’ve run out of place to go…” Each element of the periodic table look-alike is a bit of surreal animation that Storey just didn’t want to throw away. Not all of the choices are live links, but take a look for some particularly artistic nonsense.

“The Most Amazing Story Ever Told!” is one of the site’s collaborative efforts. The first episode of the first series comes to us from Goonland, and begins with an unnamed, flatulent red headed man with one shoe floating listlessly on the ocean in an inner tube. He first address the camera, asking if the viewer is some sort of “mee-rage” and proceeds to beg a bored-looking pelican for a boat, some sunscreen, or lip balm, leading to a disgusting close up of his horribly chapped lips. As the other sites pick up the storyline, things becomes even more absurd, and the video begins to resemble a choose-your-own-adventure piece gone awry.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Nicholas Mosquera
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Produced by Evil Global Corporation, Goodnight Burbank is the brainchild of creator and executive producer Hayden Black. A CAA-repped writer for MTV, CNN, and other cable outlets, Black wanted to be an actor – so he wrote for himself the role of (fictional) news anchor “Gordon Winston-Smythe” and began airing his critically–acclaimed parody of the nightly news on March 16, 2006. On Goodnight Burbank, Black’s politically thoughtful, mild-mannered, English-accented “Gordon” plays opposite Shulie Cowen (previously played by Jamie Denbo, who moved onto the short-lived Fox sitcom “Happy Hour”) as the high-strung, politically conservative co-anchor “Kelly Jones.” The cast also includes third lead Angela Espinosa as ditzy weather anchor “Trisha Yakamoto,” plus John Schaffer, Wendy Rosoff and Eve Savona – actors who mostly hail from LA-based improv troupes like the Upright Citizens Brigade and Improv Olympics. GNB is just the first in a series of comedy podcasts planned by Black’s Evil Global Corp., whose mission is to “subvert with humor.”

Goodnight Burbank episodes are released roughly two to four times a month and take viewers to a fictional Burbank TV newsroom where “breaking news” is delivered by “broken reporters” in a parody of the traditional 11 o’clock newscast. GNB’s scripted comedy uses actual news headlines (and sometimes photos) to kick start Gordon and Susan’s barbed, satirical banter on current affairs. The characters’ on-air riffs are punctuated by off-air comic antics and frequent clashes. Gordon pushes Susan’s buttons with witty snipes at her home life, hormone-hyped Susan bites back, Lesbian sportscaster Sam Jenkins puts the moves on Trisha, and the Make-Up Girl gives inappropriate set direction. The result is a funny but edgy portrait of what can happen when reporters go from “pretty to pretty dysfunctional.” Fans of the show can find fictional bios of the GNB characters, GNB merchandise for sale, critics’ reviews, behind-the-scenes show photos; and links to sources for actual Burbank news.

Episode 5 includes a truly funny homage to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on first?” routine. When Susan confuses “Who?” with Chinese President Hu and “What?” with Congressman Watt, the fast-flying repartee is genuinely hilarious. Another high point is the start of Episode 1, where Susan makes Gordon blanche with (off-screen) photos of her Caesarean section and of her baby breast-feeding. This is classic shtick on sexual politics – and works better than much of GNB’s more direct political satire.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Maureen Nolan
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Good Morning World, launched in July of 2006, is an online mock morning show from Toronto improv comedians Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring. Known for working the Toronto comedy scene with The Pete and Pat Show, the duo has taken their off-kilter comedy to the Internet. Peter and Pat play Allister Coulter and Andy Peppers, the show’s silly, spastic co-hosts. Good Morning World was an official honoree in the 2007 Webby Awards.

Every morning, Allister and Andy greet the world with friendly, fake-tanned faces and sparkling, plastic smiles. This parody of wake-up talk shows is complete with oblivious, over-the-top hosts, a fake window background, cheesy theme music and segments about everything from International Hug Day, to blowing lines of orange zest, to staying healthy. Throughout, Kelly and Oldring brutally mock the banality of shows like Live with Regis and Kelly and The Today Show, overdoing the smiles and mundane banter. Three to five-minute episodes begin with the hosts examining the contents of their coffee cups. One day, Allister’s cup is filled with hot sauce and Andy’s with red snapper. Another, tar and marsupial milk. The bizarre segments and silly dialogue are reminiscent of something Kids In The Hall or Stella would’ve conceived if Viacom had given them the 9AM time slot.   Every episode, from the site’s start in July of 2006, is archived by day for easy access, complete with a viewers’ top 10 episodes. The site also contains an ironic collection of links and a shop complete with Good Morning World pins, t-shirts and, of course, coffee mugs. The production of the videos, the dead-on scenery and visuals give, and the short bursts of playful, strange jokes make this serial comedy a great site to jump-start your day.

Mondays on Good Morning World means it’s the time for my favorite segment called Pepper’s Pumpers, in which Andy, decked out in red and yellow warm-ups, shows off his latest tip for getting fit. Particularly hypnotic is the episode in which Andy demonstrates his aerobic speed-skating exercise. It’s like watching a man with no bones. Also, check out the September 11^th episode. Allister and Andy feel the pressure of addressing and avoiding the memory of the day, and ask the question of why Google Earth can’t locate Osama Bin Laden.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Timothy Stanley
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GolfNow TV gves viewers a chance to satisfy their golf addiction off the course by testing their trivia aptitude for the opportunity to win prizes that any fanatic of the game would love. The site launched in January 2007 as an addition to the widely successful online tee-time provider Golfnow.com, which was created by Cypress Golf Solutions, a marketing company founded in 2001 by e-commerce vets Brett Darrow and Frank Halpin. In addition to providing tee-times, Golfnow.com offers golf news, training techniques, a national course directory, and live weather reports for individual cities. GolfNow TV was introduced as an added bonus and conceived in part by Howard Lindzon (investor in GolfNow.com and creator of the pop finance show Wallstrip that was acquired by CBS). While topically focused, the show is similar to that of the more comprehensive trivia podcast, 88Slide, offering a daily question, a daily answer, and a daily prize. GolfNow TV is hosted by the buxom Keri Murphy, actress and owner of ABC Talent Development Studios in Portland, Oregon.

Howard Lindzon knows how to pick talent! Like Wallstrip, the show proves that a top-notch design, plus a terribly attractive host in comfortably cute attire coupled with intelligent writing makes for at least an eagle, if not a hole-in-one. Murphy is an eloquent and energetic presenter, delivering the roughly 3-minute weekday webcasts with a spunk that keeps with the spirit in which the program was designed – for just plain ole’ fun. On each episode she announces the previous day’s trivia winner, and poses a new multiple choice question to golf gurus. Think you know what golf course Sam Snead helped design in 2001 or who was the first golfer to win a PGA tournament with a PING putter? What about the official name of the Curtis Cup Match or the name of Byron Nelson’s 1993 autobiography? Answer the questions on the spot by filling out a simple online form that gains entry into a daily drawing. The range of prizes would bring a dreamy smile to any golf lover’s face – Bag Boy pushcarts, Cobra Titanium drivers, Taylor Made putters, entire sets of clubs – and keep players coming back for the show at least as often as they hit the links. Comments and feedback can be posed by individual viewers after each episode, while another entertaining site bonus are the blooper reels from previous weeks. There is also a chance for registered members to participate in the site by joining groups, contributing to the message boards or blog, and posting golf-related pictures and videos.

Past shows are archived on the main page if you want to brush up on your golf trivia, but to try for the hot prizes start watching everyday. A blooper compilation in which viewers can see the genuine Murphy poke a little fun at herself is a hoot.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Anusha Alikhan
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Fred Seibert, Eric Homan, and Larry Huber of Frederator Studios – the company behind several popular Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon shows – created the ReFrederator vintage animation podcast in April of 2006. Distributing classics like Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, and Bosko, cartoons are chosen by both the ReFrederator team and consulting cartoon scholars like Dave Kirwan, Jerry Beck, and Melissa Wolfe.

Now that iconic shorts like Bugs Bunny and Betty Boop have entered the public domain, they can be shown free to the public. ReFrederator takes both famous and relatively unknown cartoons whose copyrights have not been continued and puts them on a fast-loading, easily-maneuvered, and on-demand server. The daily updates showcase all the familiar nostalgic favorites like Tom and Jerry, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Felix the Cat, Mighty Mouse, and everything Merrie Melodies, as well as rarely found clips from Max Fleischer’s years before Disney and oddities like “Jingle Jangle Jungle” and “The Devil’s Ball”. If you can think of the name of an old cartoon you haven’t seen since you were eight years old, search for it here and you’ll undoubtedly find it. And after you’ve hit all the big names, check out some of the less beloved characters like Flip the Frog in “Spooks” for some unexpectedly absurd animation.

For an instantly gratifying late-classic, you can’t go wrong with Porky, Bugs, and Elmer in “Corny Concerto.”

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Nicholas Mosquera
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