Tubefilter got some off-the-cuff reactions from Neil Patrick Harris, star of Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, about his experiences on the new hit web series.

Tubefilter: So, um, how do you feel about being back in the role of a doctor?

Neil Patrick Harris: It was horrible.

TF: Has has this experience doing a web show differed from TV or film?

NPH: There was no structure we had to fit into. And no higher-ups breathing down our necks. Plus, it’s JOSS. I deeply dig his sensibilities.

TF: What great things did Joss have to promise you to convince you to do Dr. Horrible?

NPH: Nothing. He said internet musical, and I said yes. Then he said ‘super villian’, and I regretted saying yes before because I sounded redundant saying yes again. Then he said ‘You’ll play Dr. Horrible’ and I wet myself a bit.

TF: How has Dr. Horrible allowed you to interact with your audience in a way that traditional media can’t?

NPH: Well, seeing as it just came out today, I haven’t really noticed a difference. I’m glad people get to see me sing. Doing a TV show doesn’t allow a lengthy theatre run. So it was nice to get to do that again.

TF: What was the most bizarre thing you had to do on set (no spoilers, of course)?

NPH: Hard to say without spoiling. But I had a green screen, Godzilla moment that was very strange to film. Wish I could elaborate.

Filed under: Comedy, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Interviews by Drew Baldwin
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The first episode of The Mary Van Note Show, which premiered July 7, includes cucumbers, lemonade, and conversational training. Filled with seemingly random plots and a dry sense of humor, this new show in IFC’s summer lineup baffles as much as it entertains. The episodes center on Mary Van Note, a girl who is in love with the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, and will do anything to win him over. The episodes each run about three to four minutes long, and in that time viewers see Mary do everything from selling conversation for five cents to creating a restaurant in her home as a makeshift setting for dates. Seven episodes into the ten-episode series, new ones air every day on IFC.com.

The show is certainly far-fetched in that its creators are not afraid to stretch the boundaries—one scene shows Mary’s roommate, Moshe, sticking a tampon in his mouth while dressed as a woman. One thing The Mary Van Note Show never fails to do, however, is to entertain. Written and directed by Mary Van Note and edited by herself and Alex Koll, the show constantly intrigues. Whether she is on a quest to find a boyfriend to make Gavin jealous or standing on the steps of City Hall with a cross-dressed Moshe, Mary makes the episodes snap by in a flash with quirky plots and one-liners. No matter how implausible the scenes seem to be, they keep you watching just to see the next outrageous or over-the-top thing the characters will do.

The type of show where you will either love it or hate it in the first ten seconds, The Mary Van Note Show is fearless in its execution and is a brave new foray into comedy. Sprinkled with lighthearted jabs at society as a whole (“It’s been five minutes already and no one’s responded to my ad,” Mary says after advertising for a girlfriend to go out with), the show creates laughs in its truthfulness. “Gavin really wants me,” Mary says at the start of each episode, and, as an audience, we can’t help but watch her attempts at attracting the elusive Gavin.

Filed under: Comedy, IFC, Reviews, Web Series by Allie Siraco
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You might have some difficulty seeing the first installment of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on it’s website.  It hasn’t loaded for me all day, presumably because rabid Joss Whedon fans have crashed a sizeable portion of the internet, which is a touch ironic considering the show is being distributed for free for a limited time (until midnight on July 20, when the whole series will turn into a pumpkin and then only be available for purchase).  I guess you get what you pay for.

But, fortunately for me and other said Joss Whedon fans, Act I is also available on iTunes for $1.99 and downloads swimmingly.  I guess you get what you pay for.  Either way – free with frustration or frustration free with a cost – it’s well worth it. 

The highly anticipated internet short begins with an unassuming vlog entry by Dr. Horrible (played by Neill Patrick Harris, whose awesome rating is bumping 11).  He’s an up-and-coming super villain who responds to some fan/nemesis mail before receiving a letter from the Evil League of Evil’s “Bad Horse,” concerning his application.  That and a song and dance number about a laundromat crush named Penny (played by Felicia Day) provide the plot – Doc Horrible wants to be a superbad evil overlord to impress a girl. 

His vlogging gets interrupted for a Wonderflonium heist – the chemical with which he plans to finish his freeze gun, with which he’ll somehow win Penny – and regular action-adventure hijinkx ensue.  Horrible’s scheme almost gets foiled, he flubs his chance with Penny, and she falls for a good superhero, mostly to musical acompaniment. 

So far, it’s fantastic.  Harris was born to deliver Whedon’s lines, which have an uncanny combination of both mocking and revelry for genre, both superhero and musical.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Owen Roberts
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Nearly every weekday since February 27, 2006, Steve Tatham drives home from his job as a Disney Imagineer to his Glendale, California home, hangs out with his two children and Groundling wife, and, after the kids go to bed, he steps into his brightly lighted living-room-cum-broadcast studio, walks in front of a poster board depicting LA’s skyline, and delivers his topical commentary of the daily news headlines.

From start to finish, inception to upload, each video takes Steve, a one-man cast/crew, 3 to 4 hours a day.

While his supportive family ponders what kind of compulsive disorder Steve’s suffering from, The Ointment (cutely named because “ you spread and apply it daily”) is his respite from a politically correct day job designing child safe “theme parks, attractions, and interactive experiences.” It’s a soap box for the writer and stand-up comic in Steve to stand on, delivering his political biases and point of view with a wry wit that barely hints at cynicism and is just a touch tongue in cheek.

But after two-and-a-half-years and 562 smiling episodes, Steve is taking The Ointment off the air.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Web TV already has a share of respectable politically-oriented interviewers… Mark Molaro, Robert Millis and Lindsay Campbell, to name a few, but nothing speaks clearer to the power of open television than the ability to access an archive of interviews from one of America’s most earnest and respected journalists. 

Bill Moyers Digital Archive accompanies Mr. Moyers re-emergence on PBS with Bill Moyers Journal intended, not surprisingly, to “enrich the conversation of democracy with fresh and original voices-perspectives seldom available anywhere else on television-that reflect a diversity of wisdom, experience, and insight.”

Our access to Moyers’ time-tested interviews enables an almost uncanny reflection on the path that led us to our current reality.  A 1990 interview with Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, explores the prospects of achieving regional peace in the Middle East.

In the interview, shot against rubmlings of the first Gulf War, Nasr warns against Western intervention on Muslim world for which he says America will have to “pay a very very high price.”  Nasr describes the complexities of a conflict we still apparently do not understand.

Too bad more Americans weren’t watching Bill Moyers in 1990.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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What is it that makes rock stars want to be actors? Perhaps it’s the theatrical quality common to both professions that provides a natural bridge. But for every Frank Sinatra or Tom Waits there’s a Madonna or Jennifer Lopez casting a permanent shadow on any fellow musician with aspirations for crossing over from one medium to another.

Carrie Brownstein’s move from strumming power chords during her days with legendary band Sleater-Kinney to perfecting deadpan in the modest comedy duo ThunderAnt (with another rocker-thespian, Fred Armisen) probably won’t invite much scrutiny – her star power is intentionally modest and her celebrity unassuming – but watching the handful of short video sketches from the group’s website would cause even the pettiest critics pause. She and Armisen are quite funny.  Perhaps not all the way there in terms of timing and execution, but their best material displays veritable comic chops.

Armisen seems to be the anchor of the group – he’s a regular Saturday Night Live cast member, and SNL’s particular brand of parodic humor also seems to be ThunderAnt’s modus operandi. This is a blessing and a curse, since SNL’s Achilles heel has always been dragging a joke for far too long. That’s what happens in ThunderAnt clips like Feminist Bookstore when the two passive-aggressive, politically correct satiric characters played by Brownstein and Armisen spend most of the video’s runtime commenting on potential flyers to be put up on their wall  – without interaction with “straight” characters the tension that could have come from this sketch flags, making the ongoing commentary monotonous.

It’s difficult to come up with scenarios for only two performers, though, and it says something that most of ThunderAnt’s ideas succeed. Katchenza features Brownstein and Armisen as co-owners of a horrible, disgusting restaurant who answer letters from angry customers: Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Michael Joshua Rowin
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Tubefilter had the chance to sit down and talk with Joss Whedon, creator-writer-director of the highly anticipated Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris about his new ‘net venture, its beginnings, his experience during production, and his hopes for the future.

It might seem odd that Whedon, a successful and well-established presence in the tv and movie andustry (credits include Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Fox’s upcoming Dollhouse) would choose to make his foray into the new and seemingly unstable realm of web entertainment. But as he explains, “I’ve been leaning towards doing lower budget stuff for a while. I’ve been writing big budget movies that among other things weren’t getting made. And I had some ideas for some smaller things. I’ve always liked the littler movies–I love big movies, too, I love movies, I love TV, I’m a junkie–but I love the scrappy, ‘we just did this’ kind of aesthetic.”

In trying to accomplish this, Whedon explored the direct-to-DVD market, where “you can make movies that don’t have to have any giant opening weekend,” but can grow an audience organically. But even in the DVD market there were several hurdles to overcome to make something that Whedon could do his own way. “I was having meetings with a lot of people about how low does the budget have to be…and they were explaining the tiers of how many millions before you needed a star, and how many millions before you needed a studio.”

When the writer’s strike hit, it became clear that the web presented Whedon “a chance to make things more simply, more quickly, to use the people that I love and trust.” And although it was conceived during the strike (just like Strike.TV) Dr. Horrible was “always meant to be a project of love that was just, ‘What could we do that’s gonna really make us excited, that’s gonna be our passion, and our ridiculousness?’ It was never meant to be the ‘bold experiment that will change Hollywood.’ It was meant to be, ‘we made a musical!’”

Whedon funded the project himself, and enjoyed the independence of acting as his own studio. “Freedom is glorious,” he comments. “And the fact is, I’ve had very good relationships with studios, and I’ve worked with a lot of smart executives. But there is a difference when you can just go ahead and do something.” As a web show, there were fewer constraints imposed on the project, and Whedon had the “freedom to just let the dictates of the story say how long it’s gonna be. We didn’t have to cram everything in–there is a lot in there–but we put in the amount of story that we wanted to and let the time work around that. We aimed for thirty minutes, we came out at forty two, and that’s not a problem.”

Whether we can count on seeing more Dr. Horrible or another Whedon web event in the near future, remains to be seen. “What we accomplished I do not believe I could accomplish again,” Whedon says. “I absolutely want to continue to work in [web] as a venue particularly. There are things I think that are absolutely made just for the internet and I’m excited by that I would love to continue to work at that level…with maybe one extra day of shooting.” The writer’s strike played an important role in getting Dr. Horrible off the ground–many favors were called in to help get it done–and Whedon intends to pay everyone back should the show make money off sales of the DVD (which will include special features not shown on the limited web release). “I obviously can’t afford to just to do this all the time and throw money down a sink but if it’s at all viable economically, it doesn’t have to be a cash cow for it to be worshiped by me.”

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog will be Whedon’s first foray into the web, though he had the help of web TV vet Felicia Day (The Guild), who also plays Dr. Horrible’s love interest. Still, he doesn’t yet consider himself savvy when it comes to the internet. “I’m only really just getting to know it, which is kind of how I kind of do everything–I didn’t actually watch that much TV before I started making it. And which means I often repeated a lot of other people’s cliches and think they’re really original but apart from that it’s kind of fresh and fun. And Dr. Horrible was really my first shot at doing something that was walking between two worlds: a longer format slightly more professional and glossy than what’s typically put on the internet but very much made for that medium and honoring the different experience.”

Although it was never his intention to make big bucks off of Dr. Horrible, Whedon does have high hopes for the project: “We would love to show that yes you can monetize the internet without being beholden to the Big Six. If it has success and it actually makes money or becomes a cult phenomenon at all or just finds devotees, then I’m thrilled, and I really do want to be able to send that message to the community.”

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog will release Act I of III tomorrow, July 15 at DrHorrible.com

UPDATE: The debut of the show was a server crashing success.

Filed under: Comedy, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Interviews, Web Series by Drew Baldwin
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If you made a video lampooning some of the 1984-esque aspects of Google, and the company contacted you about it after it had garnered over a million hits on YouTube (itself a Google property), you would probably expect a lawsuit, or at the very least some sort of cease-and-desist request. If you’re Jeff Grace and The Vacationeers, however, you would find out that instead, the company whose first line in their code of conduct is “Don’t be evil” will invite you to their campus for a day, even treating you to a meal in the fabled Google cafeteria.

“I wrote the first video over the holiday break when a friend of mine told me there was a picture of him smoking a cigarette on Google Street View,” explained Grace. “The video did really well… it has over a million views on YouTube alone. It was the biggest hit we had at the time. Google called us and told us they found it really funny. [They even] invited us to come visit their campus. We got to hang out with the Google Geo team. They told us, ‘We’ll be here to help you guys.’ They showed us stuff we didn’t even know about. We thought they would be freaked out and paranoid, but they were like, ‘Make more!’ They also helped us out a lot for the final episode.”

When asked about how the first video became so big, Grace told me, “We put [the video] online, and showed it to a few people. It had been up for a couple of days, and our friends really liked it. After about four or five days, a guy on digg, arbiterofcool, dugg it, and it became the most dugg comedy video of the year. Also, when the first episode came out, Google Maps was on the news, there were privacy concerns, the new street view feature was being talked about. That had a lot to do with [the video’s] popularity.”

Grace was tight-lipped when asked about the series finale- “All I’ll say is that you will get to see ‘Google.’ It’ll come out in a couple of weeks, we don’t have an exact date yet. We’re waiting to see how the latest episode does, and then we’ll go from there.”

Filed under: Comedy, Interviews, Production Companies, Web Series by Arjun Sharma
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Eden Riegel’s well received web series, Imaginary Bitches, returned to the web with an all-new episode on Friday. The show is about a young, single girl who copes with the fact that all of her friends have serious boyfriends by creating imaginary friends to talk to. Problem is, her imaginary friends are even more neurotic than she is – plus they’re bitches. Each episode is five to seven minutes long and plays out as a sort of condensed, lower-budget, schizophrenic version of Sex And The City. The series has garnered over 4 million YouTube views since debuting in May of this year.

After spending nearly five years on the daytime drama All My Children, Riegel left the show with a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Young Actress and her own small place in television history: she locked lips with costar Olga Sosnovska for American daytime’s first ever girl-on-girl kiss. Imaginary Bitches was conceived during the WGA writers strike by show creator Andrew Miller, Riegel’s husband. In fact, Bitches is very much a family affair. Miller’s sister in-law Quyen Tran handles the cinematography, Riegel’s sister Tatiana Riegel (Lars and the Real Girl) edits, and her brother Sam has written several episodes. New episodes air every Friday at 8:00pm PST.

Filed under: Comedy, News, Web Series by Bobby Bender
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Flashback: June 16, 2006… Bree, a shy teenage video blogger under the eponym “lonelygirl15” posts her first (seemingly authentic) diary dubbed “First Blog / Dorkiness Prevails,” on her YouTube channel. The videos of course, prove to be a hoax (of sorts), after igniting a well-publicized search for the truth behind the show. Five hundred fifty four episodes after its conspicuous beginnings, the series is finally throwing in the towel after three successful seasons. The series finale will be posted August 1st, as the show’s creators, Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, turn their focus on what they call “a new LG15 Universe show based in the US.”

The show will feature characters from the lonelygirl15 series and Brit spin-off KateModern, which should comfort the distraught loyal fanbase. As one LG15 viewer mused:

“this is a sad day.
a very sad day.
i hope the new show is good.
’cause losing KM was enough.
but not lg15. it’s been too long
so many questions… still so many answers.”

The LG15 team tried to soften the blow by pointing out that “it will feel less like a new show and more like another chapter in the LG15 storyline that picks up where lonelygirl15 and KateModern left off.” The obvious upside meaning that we all can start from the beginning “without the need to watch over 500 videos,” they noted.

Arguably one of the biggest successes in scripted episodic video so far, the show has mastered the art of fan interaction through its highly popular LG15.com site. The show even asked fans for input on how it all should end, though it doesn’t look like they’ll actually be using those ideas for the final episode.

“With lonelygirl15 coming to a close there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Where did Lucy come from? How did Jonas’s parents make all that money? Whatever happened to that teddy bear Thor? Now is your chance to tell us what you’d like to see happen in the series finale. Do you have two characters you ever wanted to see hook up? Who should live and who should die?”

August 1st will hopefully give fans a little of that much-needed closure. If not, well, there’s always the next show.

Filed under: Drama, EQAL, lonelygirl15, News, Production Companies by Marc Hustvedt
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In case you missed it, a couple days ago Jesse Jackson turned to the host of the Fox News program on which he had offered political commentary and said — referring to the presumed Democratic presidential nominee — “I wanna cut his nuts off.” 

What Jackson didn’t realize is that he was being taped…even though he was in a TV studio, but that’s another story.  Apparently, Jackson is upset because Obama, in his opinion, talks down to black people.  Fair enough.  I understand the expression.  I don’t think Jackson has any intent or desire to actually disfigure the most hopeful politician in a generation.  He’s pissed, but we already knew that.

What’s amazing is the media hype that followed, and the apparent discomfort felt by veteran journalists in conveying Jackson’s sentiments.  23/6.com, a “progressive news hub where outraged people go in order to get more outraged before going to have dinner at Nobu” highlights the absurdity of the media blitz surrounding this stupid statement and, more so, the stiff, puritanical, and out-of-touch approach of traditional media. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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Interesting find by Tim Street, creator of French Maid TV.

Imaginary Bitches is a web-series created and starred in by All My Children actress Eden Riegel who plays a single girl who’s forced to imagine friends because all her real friends are in serious relationships.

The show is well produced, and sort of entertaining, if you like that sort of whiny insipid girltalk.

And as Tim notes, the Webshow has gotten some significant attention from mainstream media. I’m particularly struck by Ms. Riegel’s interview with Fox Business News in which she describes the emerging entertainment economy. Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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