As promised, Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg’s Katalyst Media launched its first foray into online video programming yesterday at the Techruch50 conference in San Francisco, California.
Conceived by Kutcher and animated by Todd Goldman – of David and Goliathfame and misfortune – Blah Girls is a celebrity gossip series that draws on the perennial popularity of silly little school girls acting like silly little school girls.
In the first couple episodes, Britney, Krystle, Lili, Tiffany and Stewart (the only boy of the bunch who bears a striking resemblance to the king of Hollywood’s star-studded rumor mill) rag on celebrity adoption and celebrity ex-patriots with an innocence and pop-cultural awareness that only the fifth grade and too much People can provide:
Summer is over and September sure got busy in a hurry. With so many new shows recently we want to make sure you aren’t missing some that you should be watching. So for this week’s Tuesday picks we decided to go with actively running shows that you can still catch up on pretty quickly.
Midnight Rida – Episode 3: “Gold Mouff & The Grill”
Midnight Rida
The premise is gold – take an uptight caucasian office drone and throw him behind the wheel of an urban spin of the talking car K.I.T.T. from Knight Righter – and the delivery is even better. Instead of K.I.T.T. as the personified crime-fighting car, there’s G.A.R.I., Ghetto Artificial Replica Intelligence, inside a late model black Caddy sedan. Really the cast is what makes Rida pop. Chris Spencer as MIST scientist Tyrone Jackson, Alex Thomas as intern-turned-secret-agent Mitch McKnight and DeeRay Davis as the voice of G.A.R.I. The show is only three episodes in with plenty more on the way. For more on the show, check out the interview we did with show creators Devin Boddie and Michael Mihail.
With a modest 37,000 views on MySpaceTV but plenty of buzz for this fall tentpole series from TheWB.com, Episode 1 sets the tone of the college mystery drama. This show is making the rounds in the press and getting out of just the web series radar. Not quite a daily show, more like a week-daily, it’s putting out a steady 5 episodes a week. Today is episode 2, so the Jessica Rose-starring drama is just setting up shop.
Coma
The newest episode (#3) of Coma (Don’t forget Michael Madsen’s in it!)is up on Crackle , bringing with it the thunder of more George Hamilton. Let’s face it, the man is a cultural tan icon, so casting him as the profanity spewing Mayor is simply fun to watch. It’s like an unofficial Glengarry GlenRoss sequel set in city government. If it were up to me the whole show would just be George Hamilton shouting at various flunkies until sammiches arrive. Tubefilter News staffer Sean Casey reviewed the show last week giving it a thumbs up but mostly due to the Hamilton factor.
Brief update from Sandeep Parikh on his hit gamer-themed laugh riotTheLegend of Neil series. While he’s had a deal in place with Atom/Comedy Central from the get-go, they have now announced a date for the series to get its shot on late-night Comedy Central’s AtomTV block. So in case you’re still up next Monday (September 15) at 2AM, check it out Episode 7 of Neil along with a fresh episode of Stickman Exodus. Or you could set you DVR to handle it for you. The promo is above and Sandeep is pumped, “It’s kickass, because it’s all Neil.”
Update: Whoops, it’s Episode 1 of ‘Neil’ that will be on Episode 7 of AtomTV. Thanks Sandeep for the correction!
A mysterious trunk seems to be the center of conflict in this low-budge movie turned three-part web serial. Two assassins who are in the midst of what seems to be a rocky break-up, are on the road to nowheresville, when the trunk spews some nasty gaseous materials, sending these two lovers to sleepy town.
Once conscious again, the two find themselves facing a mysterious nemesis, that will force the bickering pair to work together.
While Trunkdoes a good job of mixing romance and action, I’m hoping the show turns up the heat, perhaps a little more Mr. and Mrs. Smith style. Let’s be honest here, put two pretty, attractive people in a show as lovers, a gal is gonna want to see some action, and explosions, and not just the kind created with weapons.
While I am intrigued by the beginning of this series, it’s gonna take a little more than a mysterious trunk to keep me watching, that is, unless the steam coming from that trunk is generated from some hot and steamy action from it’s co-stars. Seriously though, give me some meat. These two capable co-stars have managed to set-up a premise, but will they offer some kind of substantial, genuine relationship pay-off. We shall see.
Filmmakers Chris Hartwell and Brian Walton, most known for their sci-fi Cataclysmo series, created Trunk and set it up with a home on their new video site WebSerials.com, along with some other movies-gone-serial. It’s an intriguing way to present a film, but instead of asking for a donation to keep creating shows, the site is doing an obvious pitch to get the viewer to buy the film (on DVD) that they just watched online, which could backfire, as the content is already offered for free. Shows with devout fan legions like The Guild and Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog have seen this model work, but then again they built the fan base first. Unless this is simply a venture to distribute passion projects, the site, like the show, will need some more meat.
Ever have trouble with the ladies? So much that you’ve had to jump out of a window, swallow your keys, or suffer brain damage? Sure, these things may be painful to experience, but as the hit web series Casanovas demonstrates, they sure are fun to watch.
The comedy series follows the misadventures of two obviously-eligible bachelors, Kip and Geoff, doing whatever it takes to find some action. Unfortunately for their libidos, the action they find tends to be more of an ironic nature, rather than a sexual one.
These scheming men, at least fifteen years older than their maturity level, seem to have a decent understanding of the game – they just aren’t the best players. As the tagline goes, “Even when girls are easy, these guys make it hard.”
The development of the Ask A Ninja brand represents the future of the entertainment industry: narrow concept-focused brands that combine different media for an immersive set of experiences that touch different consumers at different times, in different ways and to different degrees.
Through episodes, events, social networking, forums, gadgets, shopping and now reading, Ask A Ninja fans control how and when they engage with the brand. Creators Kent Nichols and Doug Sarine deserve credit for pioneering this exploding industry.
I’m a big fan of the teen drama. Friends have speculated that it’s because I haven’t matured emotionally past the 11th grade. Whatevs. So watching the pilot of Sorority Forever, a show set in college, was a graduated step up in my scripted entertainment habits.
Also, I am entirely creeped out by Greek life. Rushing. Pledging. Bidding. Paddles. The whole thing always seemed kinda drowned in Kool-Aid.
But despitemy prejudices, I was really excited by the trailer.
Sex! Drama! Mystery! Pretty girls! Paddles! (Pretty girls with paddles?!) This is going to be really good.
Ashton Kucher’s new web series, Blah Girls, from his Katalyst Media outfit has hit the small screen, debuting yesterday at the tech powerhouse TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco.
Blah Girls, the new animated series features the pop culture/celebrity laden musings of a trio of Los Angeles tween girls. In the first episode the talk bops around from vajajays to Seth Rogen’s love of the ganja, alighting along topics as myriad as the underage Chinese Olympic gymnasts and the Branjelina clan. It’s pop mashup served up underage style, Clueless for the internet age, proving that Valley Girls can translate to any medium.
The similarities to South Park are immediate, and one has to think, intentional. These are cute kids with oversized heads who walk sideways while supporting or skewering the various issues of our times. The main difference is Blah Girls doesn’t attempt to take anything to the next level. They’re, like, totes BFFs snacking on pop lunches, right?
They are funny. Almost Talk Soup funny. And that’s my grail of trashpop comedy. Brittany, Krystle, and Tiffany know what they like, and if that’s what YOU like, then you have new BFFs forevs. But we’re supposed to like them rather than pity them. It’s appropriate for saucy, twelve year old girls to obsess over US Weekly. What’s your excuse?
Ultimately, credit must be given to Homestar Runner for beautifully skewering this subset originally with Teen Girl Squad, but let’s not get into how Homestar already did everything funny online before any of the rest of us thought of it.
Like most things Hollywood, it’s not about who did it first, it’s about who did it more famous-er-iest. So, for being the best South Park-looking, Talk Soup-sounding Teen Girl Squad backed by Ashton Kucher, Blah Girls gets a check plus. Does that sparkle with the rest of the committee?
Heavy.com teamed up with production company Blue Cow Creative to release Tiny Entourage, a TV spoof featuring popular scenes from the hit HBO show Entourage reenacted word for word by little, tiny people. The similarities are eerie–the opening sequence (featuring a Mini convertible with butterfly doors) Vince’s hair, Turtle’s outfits, Ari’s swarminess–are hilarious when scaled. The cast are no small names in Hollywood–Pancho Moler (Turtle), Mark Munoz (Eric), Joseph Griffo (Ari), Joe Childs (Drama), and Leif Manson (Vince) all have strong credits in TV and film as Tinywood staples.
Tiny Entourage is the third program in a series of popular TV spoofs created by Nick Fortunato. The show follows in the footsteps of Over the Hills, the hit parody of MTV’s The Hills in which Heidi, Lauren and Spencer are played by geriatrics, and Flex and the City, the popular spoof of HBO’s Sex and the City in which the roles of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha are played by female bodybuilders.
The attention to detail is what makes the series so loveable–the sets, costumes, and, well, the hair are spot on. And just before the joke gets old, the series cuts itself short: there are only three episodes, “Hot Tub Cougar Action,” “Roof Top Golf” and “Hug It Out B***h.” Right now, there are no plans to create any more episodes. The series was underwritten by Sparks, an orange-flavored malt beverage, which is prominently featured throughout each episode.
We’re looking forward to what Fortunato pulls out of his hat for his next spoof. Gossip “Girl” played by trannies?
HBO’s been trying to figure out the web scene for a while now. Early tries saw them signing former Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon to a development deal that ultimately has gone nowhere. More recently they threw some cash into the web comedy portal FunnyOrDie.com, the Will Ferrell-backed site made famous with its brief Landlord series. Even Goodnight Burbank creator Hayden Black has been signed.
Until now, we’ve seen nothing. Rumors were flying around town about HBO’s latest play, snatching up YouTube vlogger celebs, and we’re finally seeing some glimpses of the first actual web series to come out of all this. Launching October 1st, Hooking Up is a college-based series set on the campus of fictional Bask University, “where the guys and girls are always trying to hook up via their social networking sites, IMs and texting, but never seem to really communicate.” Sounds like a hyper-net-centric Sorority Forever starring vloggers instead of homecoming queens.
Ironically, Hooking Up actually stars the perennial college freshman Jessica Rose (lonleygirl15, Greek) who has been in demand on the web series circuit, starring in the just-launched college mystery-drama Sorority Forever and the upcoming 60Frames series Blood Cell. Rose’s character Meg has a love interest of course, who’s played by Philip DeFrano, aka sxePhil on YouTube. Then throw in Kevin Wu, aka KevJumba, as Ryan Davis, the “wingman” to sxePhil’s Nick. Kevin Nalty (Nalts), adds some slightly older viral fame to the team, and so does Cory “Mr Saftey” Williams. Rounding out the cast is the recent signing of What the Buck? host Michael Buckley to play the students’ much-loved Professor Jerry.
The 10-episode comedy series is the first from HBO’s web TV development arm, HBOlab. Adam Weissman and Jamie Nelson are Executive Producers of the series, written by The BC (2006) web series creator, Woody Tondorf, who also stars as Nick’s older brother TJ.
We’ve seen this move before, established players using attention-hungry web celebs to stir up business. Disney’s Take180.com portal just used LisaNova and the Shoes guy/girl, to capture wandering teen attention on YouTube, hoping to bring them over to the teen-focused video site. Even iJustine, who last summer broke onto the scene with her 300-page iPhone bill, is now doing an online campaign for, you guessed it, AT&T.
At the very least, they each bring a loyal and diverse following adding up to about a million combined subscribers on YouTube. So odds are that this experiment will certainly get watched. The real question that Hollywood’s waiting for an answer on – can these kids actually act? HBO is sure betting they can.
Set to premiere October 1, Hooking Up is a web series from HBOlab – a subsidiary of Home Box Office nestled in a corner of the network’s West Coast headquarters. The show is written and directed by Woody Tondorf – who’s also responsible for the Runawayboxproductions – and is a highly orchestrated attempt to capitalize on the individual popularity of its stars.
Like a small scale Ocean’s 11 for the YouTube set.
But let’s assume there’s a lot of overlap and everyone who subscribes to one of them subscribes to the others. That still means there are at least 281,000 people signed up to watch. That’s still a helluva lot of inherent viewership for a web show.
