This December, the TheWB.com will release Rob Corddry’s Childrens’ Hospital. Sight unseen, it’s the best web show. Ever. Written and directed by Corddry and produced by Corddry along with Wainy Days‘ Jon Stern and David Wain, the series has a star-studded cast filled with Naked Babies and other notable names in UCB comedy working in a “Grey’s Anatomy with all of its sexual inappropriateness.” But the most satisfying aspect of the series might not be its actors or premise. When Childrens’ Hospital launches this holiday season, you maybe be able to watch all 10 episodes at once.
In an interview with Billy Parker at Gothamist, Corddry explains why he hopes to avoid the traditional, weekly release schedule:
“My goal is for all ten to come out at once. Because I really believe that people have less of an attention span than they do with television. Statistically, the first episode gets the most hits and the last episode gets the least hits. So I think people have the attention span for four or five episodes at once. They can watch the whole season in one or two sittings.”
Corddry’s convincing argument goes against conventional wisdom. Consensus says, “Make your online series short because the web is comprised of inconstant, ADD-ridden individuals,” but Corddry says, “BECAUSE the web is comprised of inconstant, ADD-ridden individuals, we need to give them MORE programming from the get-go.” Good idea!
Could so-called web serials be the new, uh, serials? Not just in format, of course, but in content? Take Web Serials.com’s episodic series Cataclysmo and the Time Boys, a self-deprecating, C-grade sci-fi adventure that harkens back to Buck Rogers-level corniness: it displays few signs of taking itself seriously, and the bite-sized installments seems perfect for junk food-like consumption.
A loose compilation of ideas taken from The Time Machine, Planet of the Apes, and The Terminator, Cataclysmo concerns an endless war 500 years in the sepia-toned future (the sky is all fire and ash) fought between a ragtag army of surviving humans and their mutated gorilla oppressors, with Johnny Zanzibar (Brian Walton) leading the homo sapiens in a catastrophic raid on enemy territory.
Only the heroic Zanzibar and goofy military chef Bucky Stallion (Chris Hartwell) make it out alive, and soon encounter an eye-patched, dying Zanzibar from another time and a century-hopping H.G. Welles (Nate Bell). Welles has come to tell Johnny and Bucky about Cataclysmo, an apocalyptic event in the past that has caused the horrific world of 2508. And so Johnny and Bucky travel through a warp to our present time to prevent Cataclysmo with the help, of course, of a beautiful young 21st Century woman, Samantha (Erin Sullivan).
B&C is reporting that Comedy Central has ordered an 11-minute pilot based on the Secret Girlfriend web series from FremantleMedia’s AtomicWedgieTV. Created by Rondovie Industries — Jay Rondot and Ross Novie, the creators of The Rascal and Space is the Place, the series features an adorable and possibly “unstable” girl gabbing to the camera about her relationship. There’s a new girl every few videos, letting you break up with one and move on to another, so to speak.
The TV pilot will grab from the original series, though apparently more from the male perspective following the “a twentysomething guy and his slacker friends, ‘living the dream’ in the pursuit of sex, beer and more sex.”
If it’s picked up, it will be the first time Comedy Central has ventured into the 11-minute program length, taking a nod from competitor Adult Swim’s shorter-form time blocks. Comedy Central’s Atom TV block on Monday nights, which features web content sourced through Atom site, still stands at the half-hour length despite being a collection of short web videos and series.
Can a man marry a web series? I want to marry Water and Power. Maybe after you vote no on Prop 8, you can do a write-in ballot that will allow me to wed this show. Water and Power is about the plight of the office worker. Taking The Office one step further into the surreal, sublime and superlatively dry, creators Dan Harmon and Ryan Ridley approach the DWP with the gravitas and a little bit of the structure of Law and Order to give us three acts in what looks like under five minutes. Finally, a successful translation of TV format to the web.
Also starring, writing and directing, this is Ryan and Dan’s first collaboration and I’m so glad they did it. Ryan, plays a man of the people in Power, a kind of good cop to Dan’s bad cop on the Water side. Ryan is bright-eyed and wants to believe that people are inherently honest and good, and gets drunk to drown his pain when he is forced to chastise an old woman and holocaust survivor for using too much water. Dan is jaded, sometimes scruffy and takes a tough stance on the abuse of power. Even insofar as making racial stereotypes in episode one that on the water side leads to tragedy and on the power side, to a revelation about Armenians and the fact that they, ‘suck power like fleas in a barnyard’. I had no idea.
Dan is one of the founders of Channel 101, the brilliantly conceived site where the viewer decides the fate of each show. Every month, a live audience screens a crop of shows old and new and votes on what will air that month. The shows chosen then have to come up with another episode for the next month so they can be voted back on. W&P has been voted back six times and as Ryan tells me, to keep it fresh, “Every month, we try to involve a guest star, engineer a clever cast change, or turn the format on its head.”
This innovating has led to a cast change in the brilliant ‘fecal riot’ episode (ep 4) a la Law and Order, with Scottie Thompson guest starring as a new female Power worker having to earn her stripes with the help of a special cork her father gave her; then again with another guest spot by none other than Channel 101 alum, and current Saturday Night Live star, Andy Samberg (among others) as an Important Cases Unit officer for Power in episode five; and finally with a genius jump-the-shark episode six, Wade Through Darkness, where office clerk Wade, played by Wade Randolph, commits suicide and has a Freud inspired dream sequence that eventually leads him back to life (incidentally the mock The Thin Red Line voiceover here is hilarious).
The work put into this innovation raises the quality significantly in my mind. These guys have a clear point of view and style and work hard at maintaining the integrity, while constantly trying to change it up. The acting is spot on, a kind of bad earnest character acting that’s restrained from hitting any jokes too hard. In fact, in a way there are no jokes, and that’s what makes it so funny. As Ryan describes it, in the beginning, “We threw a bunch of different ideas around and finally settled on doing a drama about the Department of Water & Power. We decided that we would try to find the humor in how serious we took the subject matter as opposed to the ironic use of monsters and action sequences.” Now, even he admits, they’ve veered from this a bit (see the aforementioned fecal riot episode), but the spirit remains.
I hope this show gets voted on again and again on Channel 101, but no matter its fate, other web series makers should watch this show to see a perfect translation of the television format into the web series format. Structure, theme, character, tone, and concept intact. Hell, there are some tv creators that could watch this show for a few lessons. Bravo guys. I love it. And I don’t just say that, you can ask my editors.
[Ed. Note: He’s right. And the next Channel 101 LA Screening is tonight at 7:30 PM at Cinespace.]
As one of the most watched web series of all time on Hulu, fans of Dorm Life will be happy to know the season is about to return. After a Christmas break before second semester, things are looking up for the forlorn, and love sick bunch. Tubefilter caught up with show creators Jessie Gaskell, Jim Brandon, and Brian Singelton to get the low down on all the upcoming hook-ups, heartbreaks, and life in the dorm.
Tubefilter: How did you guys come together to make this show? I get the sense you guys are college buddies for real.
Jessie Gaskell: We all went to college together! The seven creators – Jim, Jack, Jessie, Jordan, Brian, Chris, and Mark all met through our involvement in a comedy/sketch group that emcees a show at UCLA called Spring Sing. So we worked together writing sketches and making comedy videos and eventually some of us were approached by ASM (Attention Span Media) to develop this series. Pretty amazingly most of the cast and crew from both seasons are current and former UCLA students also, plus we based nearly every story line off of something that actually happened to one of us while living in the dorms at UCLA, so there is a lot of community there. But when I say “based on” real experiences, that might mean “exaggerated from” real experiences. Just as a disclaimer.
Jim Brandon: I guess we just liked making each other laugh so much that we decided to keep going.
Republicrats, the political satire web series from web studio Generate has landed Unilever as its first sponsor. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter will not only get featured ad placement across the show’s MSN site, but also in the form of a new animated character Spraychel who makes her debut in this week’s episode (above).
Sean Masterson created and stars in the series as a struggling third-party candidate taking on his far better funded rivals John McCain and Barack Obama in the race for the White House. With recent polls showing his Republicrat ticket dismally behind heading in to the home stretch of the race, Masterson falls asleep after a junk food binge and awakes inside his animated dream world of “The Fridge.” That’s where he runs in to Spraychel, the golden blond beauty who just won her tough Vote for Spraychel campaign for fridge president. The two hit it off, and Masterson finds a renewed enthusiasm for his fledgling campaign.
Jordan Levin, CEO of Generate, says that the fit made sense for the series with the animated Vote for Spraychel series. “The thematic similarities between Republicrats and the Vote for Spraychel series (below) presented an ideal opportunity to seamlessly pair an innovative brand with Generate’s own brand of digital storytelling and MSN’s reach.” Better late than never, as the series has just a few more weeks before its ship has sailed.
Since its launch on August 19th, the series is holding its own throughout the election season, with episodes averaging over 400,000 views a piece. New episodes of Republicrats come out twice weekly through November 10th. (See the Web TV Schedule for more.)
Another week of badass female stars dominating the headlines. New Zealand’s darling stuntwoman-turned-actress Zoe Bell chatted it up with us on set of Sony/Crackle’s new action series Angel of Death, even posing for some killer photos along with her former Xena co-star Lucy Lawless. Brady got to the bottom of what’s going on with lonelygirl Jessica Rose’s new 60Frames series Blood Cell that’s racked up over 5 million views for its sultry trailer. And SNL star Kristen Wiig hits the web series scene on Monday with the premiere of her StrikeTV series Global Warming. Famke Janssen loves her Boston Terrier and somehow this scares off the sad sacks she takes home on her quest for love in the city. We don’t get it either, but the show is terrific.
Fox Television Studios (FtvS) recently announced the first project to come out of its top-secret “think-tank:” a new comedy web series called The Skinny: Fat-Free News starring comedians Natasha Leggero (MTV’s The 70s House) and Nadine Rajabi (National Lampoon Radio). The Skinny is a satirical “news” show reporting straight from the front lines of pop culture. The show’s sassy (and sexy) comics-turned-correspondents provide their unique takes on slightly absurd (but completely real) news stories—taking them from bar mitzvahs to convalescent homes in search for the truth.
FtvS has been quietly cultivating a forum developed for up-and-coming writers, producers, and on-camera talent to pitch new projects—a throwback to the original Hollywood studios that mandated the pursuit and nurturing of promising new talent. The studio describes the FtvS think-tank as a “souped-up round-table, and a safe haven for all kinds of ideas—from comedy to drama, from reality to the surreal.” The Skinny marks the evolution of the studio’s digital brand “15 Gigs.”
Executive-produced by Mike Gibbons (FOX’s Talkshow with Spike Feresten), The Skinny is shot on location and via field remotes, where hosts Rajabi (who developed the original idea) and Leggero offer Hollywood-infused perspectives on current events, trends and news of the day.
Gibbons tells us that the show “is all about the content, with very little dressing it up.” Achieving recent mastery of short form online content (see viral hits Cable PSA and Lil’ Bill O’Reilly) Gibbons has made sure to keep The Skinny episodes down to a slim two-to-three minutes. “In variety and late night it’s as much about the internet as it is about TV. People don’t want SNL, they want clips of SNL’s best sketches. TV is learning from the web, which has become a more democratic way to discover what is funny and what audiences are responding to.” Gibbons expressed his enthusiasm for the creative freedom web television allows—but, he warns, “even though it is the internet, it’s getting more corporate, so everyone should have fun before all the TV pantsuits and lawyers ruin it.”
The Skinny was able to snag a few deals with distribution partners. Jason Kirk, Vice President of MySpaceTV, told us that he’s “happy to have The Skinny join our growing list of licensed content partnerships.” Along with Hulu, MySpaceTV gets to run episodes for a week before wide distribution on other channels Dailymotion, Blip, Metacafe, YouTube, facebook, and Funny Or Die.
Chock-full of sass, the irreverent 13-episode series releases new eps every Thursday on MySpaceTV and Hulu and the following Wednesdays on syndicated sites. Be on the lookout for new episodes lampooning parking lot petitioners, the current worldwide rice shortage, and extra-marital affair agency Ashley Madison.
Lone Wolf is a joy ride of non-sequitor, bizarro humor for anyone who loves cheesy 80s television. Born from the creative throws of Channel 101 and show creator Bennie Arthur, Lone Wolf follows a Hollywood stunt man who was in search of the perfect stunt until a stunt-gone-bad gave him a wicked case of amnesia. Now Lone Wolf is roaming greater Los Angeles in search of his own identity.
Come November Lone Wolf will be releasing an episode a week on MySpace TV, Hulu, Dailymotion, and Break to promote the January debut of Clearwire’s new original content platform. In the meantime, the first two episodes are up on Funny Or Die giving the audience an enjoyable throw back to simpler times when The A-Team and Knight Rider ruled entertainment.
For any geek who enjoys a Mr. T- or David Hasselhoff-type hero, Matt Peters will not disappoint as the reluctant hero of the Lone Wolf’s journey, which usually involves travel between on foot in the greater San Fernando Valley. Arthur explains, he liked the idea of the wolf swooping in to save the day, but always being forced to walk off into the sunset every time a pesky reporter grew hot on his trail. “It just made me laugh to have him roam these little areas of Los Angeles,” Arthur said. “But he never travels more than a few miles between episodes.”
Arthur also threw out a teaser for upcoming episodes. “You find out that Lone Wolf has a wife named Boo Boo Bear which is the B story line of most of the new episodes. I really wanted to have each episode have an A story line and a B story line, with the A story being the plot of the episode, and the B story being Long Wolf trying to figure out his past life.”
Arthur also promised a continued homage to 80s television with one episode focusing on “saying no to drugs,” and another episode taking place at a youth center. As for the Lone Wolf’s true past life, stay tuned.
You know you’re in for some comedy (or at least an attempt at comedy) when the theme song for the web show you’re watching is a dead ringer cross between Wayne’s World and Team America. That’s like a pre-laugh track. Or a big blinking sign above the embedded viewing window that reads, “Get Ready for Funny!” In this instance it’s kinda an accurate preface, at least some of the time.
Clad in a workout attire that would make Rocky III jeaous and a Walker Texas Ranger getup supported by a Lonestar beltbuckle, Sitara Falcon (yes, that’s his real name) channels Chuck Norris (you know it’s Chuck Norris because of the beard, occasional kung-fu moves, and because he says so) as he hosts a rambling parody of your average daytime television talk show.
Nick James is a 47-year-old stay-at-home dad. He lives with his wife and son in Santa Monica, California. He’s been a member of the YouTube community since September 12, 2006 and posts videos to the site under the handle “nickynic.” So far he’s uploaded 47. Here’s one:
This video elicits MANY questions. Too many. Close to a paralysis inducing number, but one stands out: Why? Why nickynic? Why do you and thousands of others like you spend so much time creating videos? Why is YouTube filled with years and years worth of footage from talking head videobloggers, neighborhood documentarians, and markedly amateur comedians and filmmakers?
Before there was Defenders of Stan, the longest running Channel 101 NY show ever, there was…Jesus Christ, Supercop. Both series were created by and star the same mastermind: Austin Bragg. If you read the title of the series, you have the premise. It’s Jesus Christ. Super. Cop.
As far as the show’s legacy, the Channel 101 NY website put it best: “It proved once and for all that Jesus doesn’t have to be hack…as long as you’re damn good at it.”
Truer words were never spoken. Jesus rates slightly below Hitler and slightly above Pirates, Pimps, Ninjas and Robots in the world of all-time overused comedy tropes. It even comes close to the most abused comedy trope of the aughts: Superheros. Wait, Austin Bragg did that, too. How does this guy take tired ideas and breathe new life into them? Maybe he is Jesus.
Six fine episodes of Supercop ran in the Spring of ’05. This is back when people were still watching Peanut Butter Jelly Time on YouTube and GI Joe PSAs on Ebaumsworld. Were we ever so young? Even Channel 101 NY was ‘Channel 102’ back then. But like all Channel 101 shows, you can never leave on top, and the series met its demise after airing an episode including a fight with God. And with a final “Yabble Dabble!” it was over.
The series starts hitting all the numbers: the neglected spouse, the angry Chief (“I’m going to nail you!”), disposable henchmen (“I thought you were dead!”), but it took some turns as the series progressed. Jaded NYC live audiences, voting on the life of the show, demanded surprises, which could explain the series’ quick departure from formula. Stigmata & Starsky jokes only play so long ‘afore the Williamsburg crowd will boot you.
Thus, by Episode 3, Bragg and his team (Meredith Bragg and Hunter Christy) at The Big Honkin’ introduced Nietzsche, the Matrix, and some lighthearted elements which broke the 70s cop show drama shtick like a brittle twig. Maybe it’s for the best, as D.C. resident Bragg turned to DC comics to create his next series, the impeccable Defenders of Stan. Either way, comedy is easy, Jesus is hard, and Jesus Christ, Supercop was the hardest of them all.
This December, the TheWB.com will release Rob Corddry’s Childrens’ Hospital. Sight unseen, it’s the best web show. Ever. Written and directed by Corddry and produced by Corddry along with Wainy Days‘ Jon Stern and David Wain, the series has a star-studded cast filled with Naked Babies and other notable names in UCB comedy working in a “Grey’s Anatomy with all of its sexual inappropriateness.” But the most satisfying aspect of the series might not be its actors or premise. When Childrens’ Hospital launches this holiday season, you maybe be able to watch all 10 episodes at once.
