This election year has been undoubtedly vicious, tough and strange. From the still puzzling pick of Palin to the highly dividing endorsement by Colin Powell, and now John McCain’s robo-call campaign informing middle America about Obama’s “terrorist associations.” With just two weeks left, and with many already voting, there is no doubt America is in a full-on election frenzy.

The election has also been a catalyst for a flood of web video commentary, Palin impersonations, and the launch of countless new web series. The internet most definitely proves you don’t have to be Tina Fey to get attention for your political satire, no matter how off the wall. Funny or Die is currently the hosting portal-of-choice for many comedic voices commenting on the election.

Here’s a brief look at some virals and new series sprouting from election countdown.

Return of Terry Tate (The Most Awesome Office Linebacker The World Has Ever Known)

Terry Tate Office Linebacker was initially a popular viral campaign created for Reebok back in the year 2000 when the nation was still engrossed with hanging chads. Tate’s now back to remind you there are serious consequences if you don’t vote. He’s also back with a full-on series, Return of Terry Tate (above). In other election specials, Tate tackles Sarah Palin.

Roberts 2028

Six episodes of Roberts 2028 will be posted for before the election, with the series continuing after the nation’s fate is decided. Roberts 2028 follows the presidential campaign of a truly honest presidential candidate, fifteen-year-old Jason Roberts who has agreed to have his life followed so Americans can truly judge for themselves if he grows up into a fit candidate for office. Roberts 2028 is the brain child of Joe Ross, who in 2004 felt that if he had 20 years to prepare for the highest office, he could do a better job than all the candidates running. Ross confirms this show will not go away, hoping Roberts 2028 may inspire other young Americans to get involved in politics.

Your Ex Girlfriend for Sarah Palin

Comediennes Susan Burke and Hari Leigh have come up with this very funny, self-explanatory video on why they are voting for Sarah Palin to get back at their ex-boyfriends of course. The comediennes have also put out a series entitled Unfit Mothers for Sarah Palin–fitting for the month of October, it’s scary funny.

UPDATE: Yesterday Ron Howard joined the political party (above) by skwering his most famous television characters, Ritchie Cunningham from Happy Days and, of course, Opie from The Andy Griffith Show. Howard dons a wig in each tribute sketch, all in the name of getting out the vote.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Featured, Funny Or Die, Reviews, Web Series by Lindsay Stidham
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The Onion News Network, the video offshoot of the beloved satirical news publication The Onion, just inked an exclusive deal with digital distributor MyVideoRights.com to reach viewers across the U.K., Europe and Asia. International audiences will now be able to partake in the political satire ramping up to the November 4 presidential election during what the Onion partners call “the unprecedented interest that the U.K. and Europe have shown in the U.S. presidential election to date.” And with the recent crop of Sarah Palin impersonators, we won’t have to worry about running out of things to make fun of before Bush leaves office.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Onion’s Sean Mills said, “Our partnership with MyVideoRights.com offers us the chance to bring the Onion News Network’s coverage of America’s flawless and vastly superior political process to customers in the U.K. and Europe.” I hope they know he’s joking.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Web Series by Drew Baldwin
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Longtime online sketch comedy impresarios Dave Beeler and Tom Konkle (professionally known as “Dave & Tom”) know what’s funny. When they’re not winning the Edinburgh Fringe or working with Monty Python they’re busy sticking it to the History Channel. According to Dave & Tom, Tubemogul puts their current views at about 12 million. Their latest and greatest project utterly skewers that most holy (or maybe ‘milkable’) of cows, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It’s called Is It Safe? and while they tell us they are still in discussions with Crackle, they’re still open to taking meetings.

Is It Safe? is anything but. On the surface it’s a parody of CSI and other police procedurals, but it’s so much…odder. Yes, the backgrounds are actually miniature sets blown up to normal proportions and, yes, the same guy who worked on Starship Troopers and Predator created them. Yes, it’s reminiscent of a Peter Sellers Pink Panther film, and, yes, it carries that unique mix of high and low brow humor for which British comics are so well known. It’s a green screen powered frolic through the unfettered imaginations of a lightly unhinged mind. It’s the type of web show that’s helping define what is possible online while smashing through what we thought was permissible. Think Adult Swim with less non-sequitor and a little more pun.

Currently the show exists as one well produced pilot presentation created in conjunction with Pith-E Productions. Shot in HD, Is It Safe? was originally meant for cable network pitching, especially as a counter-programming option for Spike, which already runs CSI reruns in heavy rotation. Dismissed as “too smart for the demo,” Dave & Tom pitched a few more places, eventually brightening on the idea of offering Is It Safe? as a web series.

“We wanted to do something different. We knew we were tired of The Office-style mockumentary,” said Tom, “and nobody has completely mapped out what you can do in comedy with a green screen.”

Dave added, “We’re professional actors who can offer turnkey production. We’re finding out that’s very attractive.” With a possible Crackle deal still on the table, Is It Safe? could still become someone else’s baby—but don’t worry, you can always buy a little piece of Dave & Tom right here.

UPDATE: We heard from Dave & Tom who called to clarify that the show is still in discussions with Crackle amongst other parties and no deal has been made at this point.

Filed under: Articles, Crackle (Sony Pictures Television), Featured, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Sean Casey
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Over a year ago, founding Monty Python member John Cleese announced he’d star in a series of online videos under the banner of Headcast. Produced by the Australia-based The Podcast Network, the dry English comedian that helped to define ‘irreverence’ said the installments would be sometimes humorous and sometimes thoughtful, “giving me a chance to sound off in my old age.”

Unfortunately, it seems as though Cleese hasn’t fully realized his Headcast, but he has discovered Seesmic (and Twitter).

Cleese is a fan of the micro-video-blogging application (“He likes Seesmic because of its frank and unmoderated style.”) and earlier this month went live on the site to talk politics and take questions from viewers. He’s ignorant about the technology, but wonderfully giddy about the conversations. It’s not something completely different, but a good watch for any fan of Monty Python or British accents.

Check out the entire conversation at Seesmic.com/JohnCleese.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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It wasn’t until the latest episode of Ocean’s 7-11, a new show from Paisano Pictures, that I laughed out loud at a joke in the show, and it was one of the only moments that wasn’t a spoof of Ocean’s 11, an observation that defines the show pretty well.

The title Ocean’s 7-11 explains the premise of the show; it takes the jokes from the original movie, and applies them to a group of ragtag criminals (led by ‘Clooney Ocean’) who are set on stepping up their game in the field of robbing convenience stores. I recently spoke to co-creators Heath Centazzo (who also plays Ocean) and Tim Calandrello, who explained, “The project started when Centazzo was making his daily stop at a 7-11 store in 2007 after watching Soderberg’s 2001 remake of Ocean’s 11 and – just like that – he had the idea for the series.”

Centazzo and Calandrello have both been around in the entertainment business since 2000, but this is their first project in which they exercise full creative control. They are still in the process of securing funding. “Our hope is that we will find an investor/distributor to help finance us into the mainstream. We have vigorously been developing several new show concepts that we hope will extend beyond the web and into network or cable televisions, and/or films. But for the moment, we are concentrating on new web series… We are actively pursuing funding from several different avenues, and are in the process of setting up and taking meetings.”

The press release for their show notes that Centazzo and Calandrello worked in Hollywood, “until they realized they could let the Internet’s instant audience of millions judge the duo’s creative ideas for themselves.” The audience for Ocean’s 7-11 hasn’t exactly brought “millions” of viewers, however, something that the co-creators acknowledged. They were featured in an episode of the (now defunct) show Viral, which has garnered just under 700,000 views, but the episodes themselves have barely garnered 50,000 hits combined through Veoh and YouTube, with the majority of those (34,000) from the first part of episode 1, which was featured on YouTube’s front page.

The ultimate problem is that the premise is original, but the jokes aren’t. Ocean’s 11 was a popular movie, so people know it pretty well and can get the subtle references from the web series. At the same time, after the first part of episode 1, when Clooney Ocean discusses his past history of small time crime, the 7-11 joke stops being funny. It’s only the latest episode, part 4 of episode 2, when I laughed at a joke, one which I noted wasn’t from the movie.

Calandrello and Centazzo certainly have potential, and the show is produced and edited pretty well, especially with such a low budget. They would benefit, however, from writing a lot more of their own original material. If they don’t, my guess is that the final product, which will be 60 parts, could be edited down to maybe 10 or 15 minutes of funny material. I will keep watching the show as new episodes come out (although there’s currently no regular schedule, another fact that doesn’t help garner views), more out of the hope that the show will live up to its potential than on the merits of the content already produced.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Production Companies, Reviews, Web Series by Arjun Sharma
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Can you imagine an animated parody where Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and their brood of adopted kids were somehow like the Brady Bunch? Eight individuals trying to live (and walk through Manhattan) in harmony while weathering sibling rivalries and dispensing life lessons through unpoetic comedy? Now throw in a raunchy overtone and mix in a little Super News and Blah Girls celebrity panning. Can you imagine all the high-fives at the end of brainstorming meetings? All the producers’ confident expectations of huge viral potential from satirizing the life of famous celebrities?

Yeah, I can too. Unfortunately, what I can’t imagine is the show being funny.

Created by Dee Robertson, The Brangelina Bunch is brought to us from the folks at Red Band Industries – an outpost of 60Frames that allows the new media studio to experiment with vulgar programming (like Private High Musical) a safe distance away from its more mainstream brand.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Harmon Leon
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If you spend your weekdays like an awesome person (me!) and go to New York City Technology Meetups, you know Will Carlough as the creator of Double Feature Finder (a sweet resource if you’re a teenager without access to transportation) and Question Party (some hoity-toity, pre-Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle developers’ game that Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman loves, I don’t really get, and Carlough can’t explain).

If you spend your days consuming copious amounts of online video (me again!), you know Will Carlough as a prominent member of The Red-Headed League (they make great short films) and especially for his Paraphrase Theater (movie scene spoofs in which Carlough plays all the characters and paraphrases dialogue in a quaint nonchalance – my favorite is Tommy).

And if you haven’t heard of Will Carlough, now you’ll know him as the guy who played Jon Togo from CSI Miami‘s best friend / penis in that one (surprisingly SFW) web show.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Our presidential election should be decided by a human chess match. It would be so much more effective than the electoral college (damn you, Alexander Hamilton!). I was nine years old when I witnessed such an event (a human chess match, not Alexander Hamilton defending the electoral college). It was at the Renaissance Faire being held on the John Ringling property in Sarasota, Fla.

There they were: a real king and a real queen (not Freddie Mercury, unfortunately) sending their human “pieces” around the board. The players had actual weapons and they would fight to the “death.” They used squibs and everything. I took a look around and noticed everyone was in period dress, the men carried swords, and the women had breasts pushed up to their chins. I decided right then: I’m gonna live here.

This was before I realized that these costumed adults were all still living with their parents and incessantly quoting Monty Python movies. It was cool to me, once…and then I turned ten.

These emotions all came flooding back as I watched all’s faire, a new web series (previewed right here) from Thom Woodley of Dinosaur Diorama and Bob McClure based on their feature screenplay of the same name.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joe Eddy
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Non-fiction web series American Buffalo: Backstage gives fans a peek behind the scenes of the upcoming Broadway revival of David Mamet masterpiece American Buffalo. The play was originally produced in Chicago in 1976 and it won the Obie award as well as the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. This production stars stage stage veteran and cult hero John Leguizamo, and features the Broadway debuts of Cedric the Entertainer and Haley Joel Osment. American Buffalo opens on Broadway on Halloween, and the web series will release new videos daily chronicling the rehearsal process.

On Day 1, watch a very candid interview with Leguizamo, and some inside Equity jokes from Cedric the Entertainer. The show will have particular appeal for those curious about the rehearsal process for a Broadway play.

You can hear director Robert Falls working with Haley Joel Osment, which is a rare window into the actor’s work. It should be interesting to watch the series progress with such a capable cast lending their efforts to Mamet’s signature work.

Filed under: Articles, Documentary, News, Web Series by A. M. Mebane
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If Meet the Beckers sometimes seems like a car commercial, that’s because it is—kind of. Audi is behind the series, which is an attempt at a viral marketing campaign for the German automaker. While the show may primarily be about the Becker family and their unusual relationships, the pilot focuses on stereotyping the drivers of luxury cars. Old curmudgeons drive Mercedes, douche bags drive BMWs, Lexus drivers are sad sacks, but normal (read: rich) folk can be seen behind the wheel of an Audi (in your face, Saab! You’re not even getting a mention!)

Jason Becker brings his lady home for the holidays to meet the family. He warns her, his family is weird. No, really weird. I mean, they don’t drive Audis, for crying out loud. While product placement in a web series is certainly nothing new, it seems Beckers focuses more about branding Audi and its competitors than delivering a great episodic web show.

A nice normal guy heading home for Thanksgiving with his embarrassingly odd family clan is well worn premise, and the problems of the rich have been explored at great length on mainstream network television from Dynasty to Dirty Sexy Money. Even so, Beckers does deliver a few laughs. The stereotypes are fairly accurate. Bluetooth wearing, BMW driving Billy is comically jaggy, while the patriarch of the family, Mercedes Marcus, gets a lot of “mileage” out of his moments on screen (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

While many of the characters are played-out archetypes, there are a few unexpected choices. Lexus Lewis has Satanic twin daughters—creepy ringers for the twins in The Shining, and BMW Billy’s hot girlfriend is only pretending to be dumb. In fact, the entire cast has great timing, and like Lexus’ new L Studio series, the production value is high. Even if pilot feels overly expositional, the extra features on the website promise comically “rich” series on the horizon.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Reviews, Web Series by A. M. Mebane
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Following up on their two 30 Days of Night web series, Blood Trails and Dust to Dust, FEARnet and Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures are producing another horror series together, The Dark Path Chronicles, set to debut on November 6th. The seven episodes, ranging from 3 to 5 minutes each, will air weekly on the FEARnet.

Starring Elena Caruso (Cloverfield, Moonlight) and newcomers Carson Aune and Amanda Bauer, the show follows a young vampire and a psychic teenage girl as they trek through an alternate dimension known as The Dark Path. According to the show’s synopsis, “The Dark Path is a parallel reality, like the 5th dimension or the Astral Plane. The physical world and the Dark Path are alternate realities separated by vibrational frequencies. Aspects of the physical world have their counterparts on the Dark Path.”

Considering genre vet Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary I and II, Urban Legends 3: Bloody Mary, The Attic) is writing and directing the series, we expect a decent amount of sex and gore. She’s also behind a number of racy music videos including Janet Jackson’s “Nasty Boys” and Madonna’s controversial “Like a Prayer.”

Music in fact looks to play a large part in The Dark Path Chronicles, as the series is executive produced by Jim Burns, the co-creator of MTV Unplugged, and will feature music from several goth and horror influenced bands such as Pittsburgh based prog-rockers Zombi and the metal/electronica outfit Jesu along with Junius, Watch Me Burn and Prophet 7:13.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Horror, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Andrew Schwarz
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No need to be be scared, it’s only the Reel Deal with Movie Mon.…Arrrrrrrgh!!!

Secret Fun Timer Barry Holiday dresses up in his Friday night furry costume (secret fun time is right!), slaps on a bit of brown makeup, and lo and behold, hosts his very own kinda-but-not-really movie review show.

Each edition of Reel Deal focuses on a current cinematic release as Movie Monster interacts with stills from the film to the tune of cheesy, midi infomercial music against a hypercolor, hippy backdrop.

“Boobs. Butts. Bongs. Belly Laughs Barf Jokes. Nothing safe from these guys,” is Movie Monster’s take on Harold and Kumar Escape From Gantanamo Bay. And that’s the extent of his critique. The rest is just him being silly. The show has a feel of a guy with way too much free time on his hands, but in a good way.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Harmon Leon
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