Daytime soap operas were originally designed to market household goods to their largely female audiences. Kraft Canada’s new soap is no exception – only this time it’s been produced exclusively for the web, at a time when an increasing number of women are viewing television online. Slated for an eight episode run ending November 6, and released every Thursday, As the Cookie Crumbles is a deliciously campy take on the tired but true genre of daytime drama.

Set in the fictional Glamora County, the first two episodes take place at the Casa di Tea – billed by the narrator as “‘the local hangout for everyone that is anyone.” The characters are straight out of your favorite soap town – there’s local patriarch Ansel Hailstorm, his former-exotic-dancing wife Carmen, Chaz, a deadbeat musician, and everyone’s favorite waiter Cameron, who just can’t keep his shirt on. There’s also a few cops, and a whole host of additional players.

Kraft and the agencies behind the serial, Draft/FCB and MacLaren McCann (whose subsidiary Universal McCann had a hand in WIMO’s Coma), aren’t shy about the fact that their new soap is essentially an advertisement for their 150 year-old line of fancy biscuits, Peek Freans Lifestyle Collection. The characters seem to have no problem saying absurd things like “I’ll have some Peek Freans Lifestyle Selections Lime Cocunut Cookies” or “Can I get three Peek Freans Lifestyle Collection Blueberry Brown Sugar Cookies with Flax?”

But, oddly enough, the unapologetic commercialism doesn’t bother me – probably because it is so fully embraced. As a viewer, I know that As the Cookie Crumbles is a vehicle for advertising Peek Freans Lifestyle Selections cookies, but I don’t really seem to mind. This is soap satire and the commercialism just further hits the joke home.

The team at Kraft launched a standalone website for the series, asthecookiecrumbles.ca, and has also distributed the series on a variety of platforms like DailyMotion, Revver, Blip, Funny or Die, and iTunes – although YouTube is conspiciously missing from the list. They’re building in interactive elements, with MySpace pages for the show’s characters, as well as an opportunity for the audience to choose one of three possible endings for the series after the seventh episode. Kraft has also built up an extensive print campaign for the show, complete with direct mail cookies.

This isn’t the first time Kraft has experimented with new media as an advertising medium, and the concept of building an entire show around a food product isn’t new either – Unilever is in production on a fourth season of its show Spraychel, also modeled after a soap, with season names like “Sprays of Her Life” and “Sprays in the City.”

As the Cookie Crumbles is only in its second episode – but we’re excited to see how this soapy experiment plays out. Catch new episodes every Thursday at 3pm ET. “And so, like a tornado in a trailer park, this is As the Cookie Crumbles…”

Update: From series creator Cass Enright: “The series was solely developed by MacLaren Momentum, which is part of the Canadian office of MacLaren McCann, where I work. Draft/FCB developed the original creative line of “Cookies so good, you’ll have to find another way to be bad”, but did not work on the series. Also, the videos are in fact on YouTube, but perhaps not very well indexed.”

Filed under: Articles, blip.tv, Comedy, Featured, Funny Or Die, Production Companies, Web Series by Brady Brim-DeForest
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February will bring about another show of good-looking kids behaving oh so badly. Miss Behave will present kids learning some tough lessons, in other words “real consequences, and real issues, for real teens.” Albeit, these “real teens” live in a Malibu mansion, and look darn good in their bikinis, and probably don’t worry about the current state of the economy when they do their back to school shopping.

Nonetheless, real teens are already in a real frenzy for the show with a fan video already posted on YouTube five months before its debut. The fact that the show stars some actors with serious teen appeal probably helps. Jillian Clare of Days of our Lives fame, and Matthew Underwood of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 helm the cast as brother and sister Tori and Billy – perhaps a rich, Malibu version Brandon and Brenda?

If you’re curious, you can already make all the cast members your friend on MySpace by checking out Miss Behave TV.

Filed under: Articles, Drama, News, Web Series by Lindsay Stidham
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When an unemployed ladies man, Geoff Bunch, lets his newly-dumped, best friend Kip Madsen crash on his balcony, the first season of Casanovas starts off with a bang.  Right away, we are in their world of women, kitten-lovers, and Carson Daly.

Episodes titled “Hot and Bothered”, “Sex Machines”, and “DILF” give you some idea of what you’re in for.  Geoff, who doesn’t work and Kip, a menu writer, are two bachelors that take on cougars, bar fights and sex tapes without skipping a beat.  Some might think the dialogue is a little off color, I’d say it’s brightly colored!  Sexist, tactless, and oftentimes downright rude, it’ll be hard not to watch the whole season in one sitting.

Kip Madsen, in my opinion is the true scene-stealer of the season.  His amphibious, Ian Ziering looks give him a quirky-ness that’s hard not to like. He has written for shows such as, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly, SpikeTV’s Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC), and The MTV Movie Awards. Director Casey Casseday (Punk’d, Scare Tactics), Bunch’s production partner at Bunch Casseday, crafts some impressive shots with Merc Boyan (Prom Queen) stitching them together with a stellar editing job.

As for Geoff Bunch, it must be hard for him to be funnier than his name, but he does it. With some less than eye-popping credits to his name including Sci-Fi’s Scare Tactics, Nickelodeon’s Hi-Jinks, and Playboy’s Totally Busted, Bunch pulls it off.  It’s about mid-season that you start to pick up what Geoff is laying down. His brash, egotistic, misogynistic ways somehow implore you to really care for his character, even when his shirt is on.

These Casanovas really give us thirteen great episodes, and I look forward to more…more Creepy Gene, more John McClain jokes, and more Jessica Rose! Yes, lonelygirl Jessica seems to be popping up all over the web these days, with a cameo in the season finale (above) to cap it off.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Reviews, Web Series by Micah Schifman
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Nirvana the Band the Show may be a bit of an unusual name for a web series, but then again, it’s not your usual show. Episodes run a long ten to eleven minutes each, but the wandering journey following two guys endlessly pursuing stardom for their haphazard band is well worth it. (Think the a super-indie version of The All-for-Nots, that let it all hang out all the time.)

The honesty between the characters who continuously find themselves in ridiculous situations pings of The Office or The Gary Shadling Show. But the guys are in that joyous state between web anonymity and stardom, allowing them to pull of such stunts as Matt playing a blind man, getting hit by a car, and the Toronto public buying into it.

The show stars Jay McCarrol and Matt Johnson, lifelong friends in real life, and on the show, they have been making each other laugh, and messing around on the piano since the age of nine.

Tubefilter caught up with the Canuck natives via phone to talk about the show, the band, and fame in Canada.

Tubefilter: What is your background?

Matt: You mean our ethnic background, or what we did before this?

Tubefilter: (laughing) What you did before this?

Matt: Well, we all just pretty much got out school, like right before we started the show. Jay and I, we’re from Mississauga, and we met when we were really young, like about nine. We did a bunch of stupid projects together as kids, and then he went to school in America, and I went to school in Canada, and then when we were both out of school we moved in together, and thought it would be funny to make a show like this. And then Jared, our producer, he went to the same film school as me, and saw the first few episodes of our show, and was like, man, “you guys are the best, you guys are the best,” and he came on to produce the rest of the series. But in terms of what we did before this, nothing really… we worked on small projects.

Jay: But when we did work on small projects, when we were writing we always had this piano performance thing with me just joking around on the piano, and Matt just being silly. We’ve always done that since we were really young, but we’ve never done anything like this before.

Tubefilter: So what inspired you to do it?

Jay: It sort of dawned up that we should take some of our half-written ideas and do something with them, and we thought, we could do it all if we had a series with an ending in site, we could do it all. Read On…

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Web Series by Lindsay Stidham
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Trends in web television work pretty much like they do in the rest of Hollywood, albeit a bit faster. We were all blown away by the musical summer sitebuster Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, whose lyrical melodies won over millions, and introduced a whole new genre to the web. It’s soundtrack even belted its way to #2 on the iTunes music download charts and the Billboard Top40 earlier this month.

Now looking to follow in Dr. H’s musical footsteps comes the raunchy Private High Musical, a new series created by and starring Sorority Forever star Taryn Southern (Senior Skip Day).  It’s being billed as a racy spoof of Disney’s High School Musical franchise, as “America’s most beloved musical gets a real life makeover in this unapologetic series of what really goes down in high school.”

Southern stars as Sandra Smith, a shy but intelligent transfer student whose only goal for the year is to lose her virginity. No surprise, but this one definitely isn’t for family viewing, with the episode titles making no secret about where this one is heading: “First Period,” “Locker Room Lovin'” and “Smokin’ Weed” to name a few. Rounding out the teen cast are a mix of up-and-coming actors and musicians including Robert Adamson (Lincoln Heights), Lauren Mayhew (Raise Your Voice), Mark Hapka (Ghost Whisperer), Universal Music artist Marisa Lauren, and The Perfect Victim frontman Jeff D’Agostino. Oh, and what high school comedy would be complete without Mr. Belding himself, Dennis Haskins?

Produced by Redband Industries, the trailer (above) to the series was just released, with Episode 1 set to debut October 2nd. New episodes will come out every Thursday, coinciding halfway through with the heavily hyped film release of the show’s inspiration, High School Musical 3 on October 24th. Distribution partners for the show are said to be YouTube, Heavy, Break, blip.tv and MySpaceTV.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, News, Web Series, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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Web television is gaining more and more traction by the day–and this was the week of deals, deals, deals. CBS picks up Illeana Douglas’ Easy to Assemble, Latin Heat taps Ruth Livier’s Ylse, Lisa Kudrow tentpoles Lexus’ newest web endeavor, and the indefatigable Marshall Herskovitz gets down with ICN on a new project.

This week’s rewind:

• CBS Picks Up ‘Easy to Assemble’ for Exclusive Run on TV.com
• ‘Ylse’ Continues to Spice Up the Web, Signs Deal with Latin Heat
• Lisa Kudrow’s ‘Web Therapy’ Headlines Lexus’ L Studio Launch
• ICN and Herskovitz Teaming Up For ‘Your Name Here’

[Photo courtesy of sugar cookie]

Filed under: Action, Articles, News, Web Series by Tubefilter News
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The way to make things happen in the real world via the internet is to simply say that they’re happening.  It’s like The Secret, but more effective and less Oprahy.

It worked for the guys behind Title of Show, whose webseries about getting their show to Broadway got their show to Broadway. It worked for Corey Delaney, who said his sunglasses were famous, and thus, they became famous.  It kind of worked for Katie Danger, who said she was a web celebrity and then was one.  Kind of.

But will this tried and true technique work for the girls of Whatever Hollywood, and their quest to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live?

The Whatever Hollywood girls are a team of three BFFs in Los Angeles who write, edit, and produce internet shorts and their own semi-weekly webshow, thus saying to Hollywood a hearty “whatever!”.  Their videos are about…well…anything really, but mostly themselves and their quest to become as famous as possible.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Ana Hurka-Robles
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That was fast. After just five days on YouTube, Easy to Assemble has been picked up by CBS in a deal that will have new episodes of the show running exclusively on TV.com for a week after each release, starting Monday the 29th. The IKEA-backed show created by and starring Illeana Douglas racked up over 300,000 views since its debut Monday. This will mark TV.com’s first foray into original scripted content.

Downside to this, the TV.com player doesn’t allow for embedding the videos. That means for one week the only place to view it is at the site itself, which of course is probably why they signed the deal in the first place. CBS picked up the TV.com property as part of its recent $1.8B acquisition of CNET back in May. Speculation arose over how it planned to integrate the easy-to-remember-domain into its web TV strategy. Looks like we are now getting a glimpse of their plan.

The question is whether CBS will start pushing its original content out through the site or stick to snatch-and-grab route taken by sites ike MySpaceTV. My guess, we may start seeing some web originals coming from CBS as it warms to the idea of launching content on the web. Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, emphasized CBS’s new initiative of creating original web content at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mixx Conference saying “the future of internet content is as a lab for the network”. [Thanks to Maria Russo at the LA Times for first picking up this story.]

Filed under: Articles, CBS, Channels, Comedy, Drama, ESPN, Industry, News, Production Companies, Thriller, Web Series, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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When we first covered StrikeTV, the WGA writer-founded web portal for professionally written web series, they were in full gear for an “early August” launch date. Now, in the final week of September, the site is still not open to the public, despite being functionally ready with select users being part of their private beta. Word is they are trying to figure out how to make some money off the stockpile of well-produced, celebrity-laden content they have built up.

Apparently, from what we’re hearing, they have delayed launching until they have secured advertisers for each of the shows. In a change of strategy from their initial idea to exclusively host the content on the StrikeTV site, now they will be distributing on multiple video hosts and platforms. They will however, be selling premium ad space on Strike.TV site. Word from the StrikeTV camp is that “mid-October” is the best guess for launch.

I think letting the shows out there is a much smarter move. The value of exclusivity in the web video world is debatable at best, with most of such deals now favoring short exclusivity windows on major portals in exchange for some decent amount of compensation. Savvy independent producers, and even a number of corporates, are opting to strategically distribute their shows out there with services like TubeMogul, which allows one central command center for rapid deployment. The idea being of course, that the audience is already out there, don’t make them come to you – let your content go where they already are.

The move to snag ad deals before the shows are old news is also probably the right move since Strike.TV and all of the show creators will be donating profits for the first three months from ad revenue to the The Actor’s Fund Entertainment Program. This bodes well for the ambitous young site’s longevity plan, as they face a highly competitive web video landscape much more developed than even 10 months ago when the project was hatched during the 100-day WGA Writer’s strike. Building a video portal from scratch and maintaining audience after the initial buzz is something even the Will Ferrell-backed Funny or Die knows all too well.

Filed under: Articles, Drama, News, Strike.TV, Web Series by Marc Hustvedt
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Ylse has landed a new distribution deal with Latinheat.com. The Latin-focused web portal has recently added video, bumping up site hits in the last two months. Ylse will be the first web series on the site, and will feature lots of bonuses like behind the scenes interviews and teasers for each new episode.

Until now, Ylse producer Ruth Livier has been independently producing and distributing the show on her YouTube channel, ITunes, and her own site, ylse.net. A self-professed Ally McBeal, Ylse gives an inside look into the world of a Spanish-language talk show. Its title character is herself bilingual, jumping between English and Spanish with an ease so well-written, English-only audience members won’t even notice.

“Ylse is about action not complacency, said series director Joe Camareno. “It’s about finding the power in your own voice and of course realizing that, in acting on it, there are repercussions, positive or negative. It’s about discovering that we can make a difference regardless of how insignificant we may think that contribution might be.”

Of the new deal, Publisher and CEO of Latin Heat, Bel Hernandez says, “I am proud to see Ruth creating her own opportunities. This web series stands out for the strong and positive portrayal of Latinas of all ages. Latin Heat is honored to be able to partner with Livier Productions to introduce our viewers to a series where not only is the lead character a Latina but someone who stands up for what she believes.” Epsiode 4 was released last week, with two more slated for this season.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Lindsay Stidham
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Thanks to all who came out last night for the second monthly Hollywood Web Television Meetup.  Nearly one hundred web tv creators, distributors, buyers, and agents filled the American Film Institute’s Marc Goodson Screening Room pavilion to network and share their experiences in the world of web television.

Kim Evey, producer of the web hits The Guild and Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show and husband Greg Benson of Mediocre Films (the #27 All-Time Most Subscribed channel at YouTube) gave a tag-team talk about getting into the game early, the importance of connecting to your audience, and the ups and downs of dealing with a major studio.

George Ruiz, Head of New Media / SVP of International Creative Management (ICM), a self-proclaimed geek (the guy builds his own computers in his spare time) gave an inspiring presentation on the bright future of web television and internet video while parrying jabs from Tim Street and tough questions from the audience.

Tyler Malin, co-organizer of the meetup and an attorney representing the web tv space, introduced the advertising standards project for web television. Please email the News Desk if you’re interested in participating in the project.

Other faces in the crowd included Doug Spice from Psychic Bunny, Alec McNayr from Space Shank Media, Bobby Jennings from Wicked Awesome Films, and Mahalo Daily host Leah D’Emilio, along with creators from web shows FEED, Tomboys In Fishnets, Luke 11:17, and Life From The Inside who were mingling about; the boys from Abrams Artists Agency compared notes with ICM’s George Ruiz about representation on the web; Elisabeth Flack from the WGA and Brian Rodda from StrikeTV chatted up with Matt Enlow about his new web series Engaged; Ilsa Berg from Fox Television Studios hinted at some exciting projects on the horizon; and Shira Lazar of NBC’s 1st Look LA stopped by to scope us out.

Thanks again to the folks at AFI for letting us use your space. Stay tuned for next month’s meetup, and please email us if you would like to be included on the mailing list.

Filed under: Articles, Hollywood Web Video Meetup, News, Tubefilter, Web Series by Tubefilter News
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Adorers of Joss Whedon‘s online sensation, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog now have an official avenue of creative fanboy expression.  The Evil League of Evil is accepting applications.

For a shot to sit alongside Bad Horse, Snake Bite, Fury Leika, Dead Bowie, Professor Normal, Tie-Die, and Fake Thomas Jefferson at the most morally objectionable table around (and be featured in the upcoming Dr. Horrible DVD), follow the rules and guidelines below.

My advice: Start with a super-sweet name and go from there, preferably something punny but not too punny.  And make sure your video is of way better production quality than The Parasite or The Allergen.  He gets an “E” for effort but flunks in watchability.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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