Taking a cue from Fimoculous and Russell Ash, Time decided to get list crazy this year with the Top 10 of Everything (instead of the 50 list that the magazine chose last year).

There are far too many sets of enumerations to click through (especially since Time puts each separate item on it’s own impression-gaming page), so I’ll just relate the most relevant parts: an installment of My Damn Channel’s You Suck at Photoshop placed tenth in Top TV Episodes and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog ranked #4 in Top TV Series. This, too, after Joss Whedon‘s online sensation took home the honor of being one of Time’s Best Inventions of the Year.

For Dr. Horrible, I think the honor at least kinda makes sense. The show has all the trappings of a quality TV series (Hollywood stars, top-notch production quality, excellent writing, etc.), just with a shorter season and on a smaller budget. In other words, it’s something you could picture actually seeing on television. You Suck at Photoshop, however, is not.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which is set to primere on NBC sometime in 2009, premieres tonight at 12:30 EST at LateNightwithJimmyFallon.com. The webshow is designed in part to “work out as many of the rough spots in [the show’s] presentation as possible,” but we expect it to become a cornerstone of audience building and engagement.

An online premiere is not exactly novel anymore, but early viewers will have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the development of this show.

As we prepare to review the new series, let us know if you think Jimmy and his team are using the new medium to its full potential.  Happy viewing.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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That Guy explores the day to day experiences of…you know, that guy. That lazy, gross, deluded, fratacular, aging bro whose sole purpose in life seems to be annoying the crap out of you. Everyone has at least one in their life (or from time to time is that guy), and that relatability is exactly what That Guy hopes will keep viewers hooked.

The series aims to illicit knowing laughs from viewers who have encountered individuals with an uncool factor that’s only trumped by their inability to pick up on social cues. The results are a mixed bag.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jacob Hentoff
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Val Verde, the new four-episode action-comedy web series from 60Frames and Elephant Larry, is a parody of those evil henchmen from just about any action movie you’ve ever seen. The ones in Val Verde are finding out slowly that they are in the movie Predator and that they are being hunted by the film’s alien monster. It should also be noted that according to the show, Val Verde is the tiny Central American nation from which all evil henchmen come (I’m going to assume this a reference over my head and if not then it’s just absurd enough to make me laugh).

I really wanted to like this and at episode three when I laughed a few times, I thought, finally, this show is funny. And then episode four came and while mildly intriguing I went back to the way I felt about eps 1 and 2, I don’t care. And so far, though they tell us there’s another season coming, this season is only four episodes long and I’m probably not coming back.

Production value on this show is absolutely stellar. Sound design, sound and dialogue coherence, music cues, etc are some of the best I’ve seen. Acting is great. Sets, great. Etc. But conceptually, eh. It’s a show about evil henchmen and the abounding henchmen clichés in movies, i.e, ways they die: sucked into large fans and pureed, impaled by steampipes, blown up; or the fact that they always die when they split up, episode two is all about when someone says a clever piss line, like “I gotta piss like a five year old” and then walks off to piss, they are sure to die; or the fact that they always die in increasingly more gruesome ways (see episode four for escalating deaths).

The clever continues with the characters: Jax, the weapons expert; Ajax, the cynic; Zaptop, the computer whiz; Caruthers, the commander, and finally, uncredited, another guy (always good for a kill). But the problem is that the facts that it’s parodying, aren’t so universal, or at least universal enough that you get all the jokes. Or, frankly, I just don’t care enough about bad guy henchmen that the humor means anything to me. So the cleverness falls on deaf ears.

A testament to this is the fact that the funniest parody moment in the entire series is when Zaptop goes for a piss in episode two and comes across a ‘hero’. This bit is pretty hilarious as the hero does his standard calm-as-cherry-pie dialogue, convincing the henchman that everything is gonna be fine if the henchmen just let’s the hero pick up his gun, calmly, easy, then point it at the henchman, then shoot him in the face. And the henchmen just about goes along with all of it. And why is this funny? Because we’ve seen Bruce Willis do this a hundred times before in an earnest action movie way. So it’s really familiar and it’s really funny and very cleverly observed. Bravo. But with henchmen? I just feel like the writers keep telling us what’s common with henchmen so we get the joke, but the fact is, it’s just not that universally known. Hence, not that funny.

There may be hope, though, as evidenced in episode three (above), when it the show takes a few absurd turns, like when Jax and Zaptop find the power gloves and turn invisible, then can’t find one another when they want to fight each other. Or when Ajax and Caruthers stumble upon a container with a man’s head and spine that tells jokes about his wife’s big pussy. And then in the end when uncredited is found hanging bloody from a tree completely skinned and screaming, ‘Has anyone seen my skin?!” This stuff is funny in and of itself and also parodies the action movie genre in a general sense and as a result works to great effect.

The creators, a five-man NY-based sketch comedy troupe called Elephant Larry (“Five bad boys with the power to rock you”) can be found at www.elephantlarry.com. And they have a good site, lots of talent and intelligence, but this show needs a little further development. They need to get away from beating us over the head with the henchmen conceit and what they tell us are the clichés and push a little harder in the direction of general action movie parody and their very funny sense of the absurd. And then they’ll have something pretty strong here. However, as of right now, it’s looking like a one note joke that might have already burnt itself out.

Filed under: 60Frames, Action, Articles, Comedy, Production Companies, Reviews, Web Series, YouTube by Jonathan Hludzinski
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TheWB.com is trying a new tactic in web series releasing, opting for an all-at-once premiere of their new irreverent medical parody web series Childrens’ Hospital today. Instead of stringing viewers along for ten weeks, we’re given one giant helping of Rob Corddry‘s comedic bounty all in one sitting.

With buzz growing for the series since the trailer hit the scene back in October, this is a bit of a early holiday gift for intellectual comedy fans. Rob Cordrry produced the series along with friends David Wain (star and creator of the Webby Award-winning series Wainy Days) and Jonathan Stern (producer of Horrible People, and Wainy Days).

And as expected of the threesome, they have assembled a powerhouse cast, headed up by Corddry (who also directed) that is essentially a who’s who of the NY comedy scene. There’s Wain along with Jason Sudeikis (SNL), Lake Bell (Boston Legal) Ken Marino (The State, Veronica Mars), Erinn Hayes (Worst Week), Rob Huebel (Human Giant, The Awful Truth), Rob’s brother Nathan Corddry (The Daily Show), Ed Helms (The Office), Nick Kroll (Cavemen) and two-time Emmy winner Megan Mullally (Will & Grace).

The story tracks the typical multi-narrative plotlines well traversed by shows like Grey’s Anatomy and ER, taking us in and out of the personal lives of this rag-tag cadre of doctors at CH. Dr. Blake Downs (Corddry) is an obvious nod to Robin Williams’ Patch Adams, though now years after the healing power of humor actually cuts it any more. Depressed but unremitting, he trods on with his clowning antics and face paint trying to make sense of a career in demise.

The humor hits all the necessary bells for edge-pushing comedy—religion, disabilities, race, anatomy, and of course, sex. There’s the will-they-or-won’t-they lesbian tension between Cat (Bell) and Lola (Hayes) to steam things up right alongside the male staff’s infatuation with the Chief Resident (Mullally).

The series is distributed by Warner Bros. Television Group’s digital arm Studio 2.0, naturally making the digital-only portal TheWB.com its home base. For bonus web features, there’s even an online take on the old game “Operation,” narrated by Corddry, where you can practice your mouse-eye coordination skills.

The all-at-once maneuver is straight out of IFC‘s playbook, which rolled out viral spoofer Get Hit with all six episodes at once back in August. It’s not clear if this actually nets more viewers or not, but it can’t hurt to try. The idea is here that the more episodes you get all at once the more invested in the characters and the more likely you are to share with friends. Now, it’s worth noting that the release of Childrens Hospital will be “a limited engagement run” meaning that it’s only available through December 31. So that means you better unwrap this holiday present while you still can.

[What are your thoughts on this release strategy? Smart move or squandered opportunity? Did you like the series?]

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Featured, News, Studios, TheWB.com, Warner Bros., Web Series by Marc Hustvedt
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Childrens’ Hospital IS the best web series. Ever.

There, I said it. It was predicted right here and let me tell you, this tidal wave of genius has no problem living up to all that hype. This show gives the McSteamys and McDreamys all a collective punch in their McPlace-where-their-catheters-go. This might be the best piece of comedy I’ve seen, in any format, all year. It’s not surprising, really. Childrens’ Hospital has one hell of a pedigree.

It is produced for TheWB.com by Rob Corddry, David Wain and Jonathan Stern. I don’t even know if these guys need an intro anymore. But I’ll break it down for you last remaining comedy neophytes out there.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joe Eddy
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Where would we be without the support of our sponsors? They deserve a special shout-out from all of us at Tubefilter. This one is all about Heavy.com, one of the Web’s leading destinations for men 21-34, and the Heavy Men’s Network, reaching over 17MM men ages 21-34 through music, urban lifestyle, gaming and comedy. The company recently launched Husky Media, the premier video monetization platform, which powers the Heavy Men’s Network, and is a platform for all video publishers to monetize their video assets at premium advertising rates.

Heavy’s original programming staples include Over the Hills, the hit parody of MTV’s The Hills, Flex and the City the popular spoof of Sex and the City, Superficial Friends, Kung Fu Jimmy Chow, and the Webby Award-winning The Burly Sports Show, as well as Behind the Music that Sucks.

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor of Tubefilter, be sure to check out our Advertising page.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Sponsor Shoutout by Tubefilter News
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If there’s one takeaway from this week it’s that the Web Television community—both in LA and around the world—is thriving. We hosted one of the best monthly Hollywood Web Television Meetups to date this week, headlined by Felicia Day, creator of The Guild and Cristian Cussen from MySpaceTV, bringing out hundreds of talented web creators and industry notables. Spotted at the Meetup was the team from After Judgment, the thriller sci-fi series we covered back in October, who announced a distribution deal with KoldCast TV. And speaking of KoldCast, we broke the news that they landed a deal with DVR service TiVo to send their growing lineup of web series into the living rooms of over 4 Million TiVo subscribers. And also at the Meetup were the YouTube star creators The Fine Bros. who landed a deal themselves for a second season of their Lost Parodies series. (The pair also had a breakout viral hit this week with their 100 Movie Spoilers in 5 Minutes.)

• KoldCast TV Inks TiVo Deal – Dozens of Web Series Heading To Your Living Room
• Big Turnout for the Hollywood Web Television Meetup at SAG
• Fine Brothers Make ‘Lost Parodies’ Sequel With Canuck Comedy Site
• ‘Overkill’ Slices Crazy With Tom Arnold and Allison Munn

And in late Friday breaking news (via TechCrunch): Facebook Introduces Embeddable Videos Only Your Friends Can See

Filed under: Articles, Friday Rewind, News by Tubefilter News
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The guys from Runaway Box take their comedy from the web to the live stage tonight in Los Angeles in a special one night only performance at IOWest at 9pm. Man In The Box star Mike Polk brings his sketch group Last Call Cleveland to help anchor the show that will also feature Woody Tondorf, creator of the Runaway Box show Elevator, and the man behind Hooking Up, HBO’s web-celeb driven vehicle.

We recently caught up with Woody to reflect on the season finale of Hooking Up, wokring with YouTube celebrities and the future direction of HBOlab’s Runaway Box.

Tubefilter: How do you feel about the first season of Hooking Up?

Woody Tondorf: I’m very pleased with how things turned out. This was a great experiment for us and I learned from it every single day. From production, the growth of our cast as actors, the little hiccups and our big screw ups, and our triumphs and accolades, the show had a profound effect on me.

People were all up in arms about view counts and such, and I could spend a good span of time talking about it if I really wanted to, but what I found interesting through the span of the season was the numbers staying pretty consistent after episode 3. Most web series lose views over time, going on a steady decline until they peter out at the end. Sadly, this is just a cross they have to bear, even the best of the bunch like Back on Topps, Viralcom, etc.

We stayed pretty consisted around 130k, with a peak number of 50k subs at the end of season one. To me, that meant either 130k people were coming in, taking a look, and then knowing our schedule and stopping in every Wednesday, OR that our 30-50k subs were coming in and watching episodes several times over. I’m pretty sure the latter was the case. As a writer and performer, that pleases me VERY much.

Tubefilter: How was working with web celebs Jessica Rose, SxePhil, and Kevjumba, who all had major roles in the show?

To see Phil and Kevin grow from being intimidated to confident comedic performers was really fulfilling and I’m incredibly proud of those guys. As early as our fifth episode, we were getting comments from some of our loudest (and least eloquent) detractors that they were impressed with the acting and now enjoying it. Considering that change in acting came in the span of an hour or two during filming says a lot to me.

Deanna (Emily Ashby) was coming from only TV to new media, which was the opposite of the rest of our cast, and she was a great performer. She definitely elevated everyone’s game. And Jessica, in short, deserves every word of praise said about her. She’s a total pro, and it was a privilege to work with her.

I’m really happy about the way the show was received and the new fans we got from it, and I was really grateful to work with and develop a relationship with some of YouTube’s best both before, during, and after filming.

Tubefilter: What’s the word on a second season?

Woody: We have contracts with the cast for a second season but haven’t yet made a decision about the next season of the series.

We don’t plan to announce a decision until after the first of the year. That said, I’ve worked out a story but I can’t tease anything until we make any announcement. All I will say is that there won’t be any orders, cults, etc. That would just be weird.

Tubefilter: Where is Runaway Box headed in the near future?

Woody: The future is nuts. We’ve got a pilot project that we’re working on with Michael Buckley and a music project in the works. There’s a LOT of stuff that’s on the horizon.

For our other shows, like Elevator, Man In The Box, and Zilchzone, we continue to make new episodes and entertain that audience and we hope to continue to build it. My Elevator fans have been with me since the beginning, so I always have a special place in my heart for them and I don’t intend to stop making Elevator any time soon. Many surprises and cool special guests are showing up as we speak.

Filed under: Articles, Comedy, Interviews, Studios, Web Series, YouTube by Lindsay Stidham
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Spoofing a sappy TV genre, in this case supersaturated teen soap dramas starring good-looking kids with too much money, is a really dangerous thing. It can be like poking fun at the fat kid or booing at the Special Olympics – you don’t come out looking good.

The problems, the holes, the bad acting, the idiotic plot twists, the over the top romances, etc. are so obvious in the originals that to parody them can leave the audience rolling their eyes as if the whole thing were one bad pun.

Valley Peaks, a web series from from Chicken Cobra (whose mascot kinda looks like Trogdor) does no such thing.  They took a chance at spoofing the obvious and pull it off with near perfection.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jake Weaver
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It takes quite an acting performance to outshine Tom Arnold on the koo-koo front, but Overkill, the new comedy web series from 60Frames debuting this week has accomplished just that. You see, it’s his daughter Carrie (Allison Munn) who takes the bonkers cake in this one, a pretty young lady with a zesty penchant for serial killers.

Allison Munn has been playing crazy so long I’m starting to wonder what’s going on there. Yes, I remember her from That ’70s Show as Fez’s’ psycho-possessive girlfriend Caroline. Apparently so do Overkill creators Jeffrey Ventimilia and Joshua Sternin who incidentally produced That 70’s Show a few years back. Her scrunchy-faced brand of crazy really got going as Cindy in ABC’s short-lived half-hour Carpoolers, and it lends a polish to this otherwise risky storyline.

The story picks up at Episode 1: “Dead Man Walking” (above) with a quiet young retail clerk Henry Graham (Brendan Brandt) thrown in the slammer as the presumed Overkiller, a sadistic serial killer with an excessive OCD murdering style. Victims are beaten, stabbed, dismembered, guillotined, poisoned, strangled, microwaved and a few other odious executions. Poor unassuming prep Henry has taken the fall for this and finds himself counting down the days to inevitable doom on the electric chair.

First however, he faces another inevitable doom, a death row marriage to his serial killer stalking inamorata, Carrie. Accompanied by her disapproving father (Arnold) and her sobbing mother (Suanne Spoke) the prison wedding is just the beginning of this twisted family comedy.

We talked to creators Ventimilia and Sternin on the phone about the series, which marks the veteran TV writing-producing duo’s first dabble in the web series world. Talking to them on the phone by the way, you can tell they have known each other for a very long time (since junior high), and distinguishing which one is which can be a bit tricky. (Apparently, I’m not the only one with this problem as they tell me even their mothers have this trouble with their conference calls.)

The duo have been busy writing mainstream family comedy films, like Tooth Fairy which is in production starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But for them the web has been their outlet to go darker, to write the more offbeat humor that they would “probably have a hard time pitching,” Sternin tells me. Originally set up by their agents at Endeavor, they went in to 60Frames pitched with just the first episode written. Once shooting began, they had to balance their dark fetish comedy with their bread and butter projects. “We were literally turning in a draft of Yogi Bear as we were shooting one of the killing scenes,” Ventimilia added.

On the casting of Allison Munn, they explained, “We cast her back on That 70’s Show as Fez’s crazy ex-girlfriend. She was so terrific we had her in our minds since then and when we wrote this series we thought it had to be Allison.” I asked about what to expect from the next few episodes, and without giving the twisting plotline away, he hinted at what’s in store. “The deaths have just started and they are going to get bigger and funnier,” Sternin promised. “It becomes something different in the next episode— and then it keeps turning on itself because we didn’t want it to stagnate at all.”

We interviewed Tom Arnold on set of another new web series coming out next year (more of this interview later) and he echoed the sentiment of his Easy to Assemble co-star Illeana Douglas who equated web series as “the new independent film.” “I think what we used to know as independent film is fading a little bit,” he told us, “but I think that collaborative spirit is what we’re seeing with web series.” And though there’s a web studio behind Overkill, in many ways its still subject to finding an audience without a massive studio marketing effort to push it out everywhere.

Four episodes is all we are slated to get from Overkill in its initial run as a weekly series. That fretful little bugger we call a mini web series (for lack of a better name) strikes again? In fact, 60Frames has been known to tease us like this, (oh Get Ripped we hardly knew ye.) Venitmilia and Sternin said they would “love to continue the series,” and in fact have written 12 episodes that fully carry the story arc through a full web season. The fate of those next eight episodes rests in the hands of web viewers. So if you like it, they ask of you, “tell your friends and get people to watch it.” That you can do with new episodes every Thursday (through Christmas Day) at 60Frames or YouTube.

Filed under: 60Frames, Articles, blip.tv, Comedy, Featured, Interviews, Web Series, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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Almost a year ago, The All-For-Nots played their first gig at Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge. Tonight, at Machless in Williamsburg, they will play what could possibly be their last. 

The band that was born from Michael Eisner’s new media studio, Vuguru and conceived by Kathleetn Grace and Thom Woodley of The Burg and Dinosaur Diorama Productions ended its self-titled web series in late August.

The “Synth-Pop Indie-Electro-Folk-Emo-Dance-Gazer-Punk-Americana-Pop Prog-Rock-Emo” fivesome of Johnny, Caleb, Paul, Shirley, and Farrah seemed to be flirting with the idea of going on tour, but sometimes life imitates art. Thom explained over email:

“In a surprising turn of events, it turned out very much like our original series – interpersonal drama, musical differences, lack of money. If people want to know what happened to the band, and how a band can fall apart at the same time it’s blowing up, they should go watch The All-For-Nots.“

The set starts at 9PM tonight at Matchless. Go if you can swing it (and bring a can of food or two – it’s part of a benefit for the the Food Bank). They put on a good show. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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