ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel is bearish on the notion that online clips and ancillary web content for broadcast TV shows positively impact television ratings. Others know better, including NBC.

The network’s Digital Entertainment division announced Heroes, Chuck, The Office and 30 Rock will all have their own webisodes and a variety of interactive features for the upcoming summer and fall seasons. Each installment is expected to weave online and on-air storylines in order to give fans a more involved entertainment experience.

It’s about time. As I’ve said before, these television shows already have two key pieces of the production puzzle: talent and crew. For marginal costs, the networks can create web content while everyone hurries up and waits on set.

But what’s cooler is that NBC will also debut some original webisodes. 

###In Fears, Secrets, and Desires, two hosts will inspire users to share their deepest, darkest secrets on a new topic each week, and “selected posts will be adapted for an online NBC Anthology series that brings the posts to life with creative interpretation meant to tease, tantalize and possibly terrify… produced both in-house at NBC.com and by Hollywood talent.” Basically a confessional booth to the world with a little celebrity Geico ad mixed in.

Others include Gemeni Diaries – an Electirc Farm Entertainment production (they created the post-apocalyptic Afterworld) starring Rosario Dawson taking on the role of Harris Ford and battling some sort of bio-engineered replicants – set to debut this summer and Salon Confessions – a reality series revolving around hairstylists and their clients in a high-end Las Vegas resort and casino – airing Spring ’09.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

I never heard of Jon Lajoie, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t know who he was. In an ‘oh, it’s that guy!’ moment, I quickly discovered he’s the one responsible for a ubiquitous canon of comedy shorts, with a significant presence on some of the net’s most regularly–trolled video sites.

Despite his millions of views, the career of the Canada-based funnyman is in its infancy. And even though Lajoie plays a part in a French-language TV show (he says he plays ‘the English guy’), he’s best known in the U.S. for his irreverent – if not downright absurd and outrageous – homemade shorts that he’s been producing and uploading over the past ten months. Some of it’s straight sketch, but it’s his music that earns the most attention.

Getting off to a slow start (only relatively speaking, considering he’s been doing this for less than a year), Lajoie blew up when High as F#%k was featured on FunnyOrDie. In what could pass as a music video for any contemporary singer-songwriter, the 20-something Lajoie – who looks like a scruffy, 21st century Peter Tork – earnestly belts out melodic observational comedy.

The song is a beautiful little illustration of irony. Serious accompaniment, ridiculous lyrics. Solemn performances, absurd circumstances. It’s a tried and true convention, but with plenty of room for innovation, and it’s where Lajoie leaves his mark in these early vids. Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Sarah Ricard
No Comments »

Last week, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and MTV Networks unveiled a new South Park Studios, complete with full, on-demand streaming episodes of shows past, present, and future. It was something that the creators had wanted to do for a while, as Stone told BoingBoing, “Basically, we just got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time. So we gave ourselves a legal alternative.”

It’s fitting that almost immediately after the show and its controllers embrace internet distribution, one of the first episodes to air is about the new medium. In “Canada on Strike," Stone and Parker – who aren’t a member of any unions and negotiated internet rights and profit-sharing before it became an issue for the Writers Guild – poke fun at the WGA strike and the idea of making money off internet stardom. Kyle summarizes their thoughts:

While the internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn’t matured as a distribution mechanism to the extent that one should trade real and immediate opportunities for income for the promise of future online revenue. It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forego their fair value in more traditional media.

The above seems to make sense, though I’m not a member of the WGA who’s pissed because of a bum DVD deal. And while it’s true the vast majority of internet stars are making no money from the web, some are able to leverage their success into better paying gigs.

In any case, the best part about the episode was it’s depiction of various cewebrities.

And here’s a rundown…###

Tay Zonday

What What (In the Butt)

Tron Guy and Numa Numa

Star Wars Kid

Sneezing Panda 

Dramatic Gopher

Chris Crocker – Leave Britney Alone

Two Chinese Boys

Afro Ninja

and my fave…Laughing Baby

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

In what will undoubtedly be fodder for a future Nerd War, former CNETer and the internet’s reigning sexiest geek, Veronica Belmont announced she’s moving on to other projects and leaving her current gig as host of Mahalo Daily – the video accompaniment/marketing device for Jason Calacanis’ human-powered search-engine, Mahalo.

During her five-month tenure, Veronica took us on video tours ranging from awesome (how to get your pilot’s certificate, behind-the-scenes at Tesla, and interview with Stan Lee) to super-lame (how to tie a tie, how to make a grilled cheese).

Despite her talents and camera presence, the show never really seemed to flow. It always felt a touch unpolished, like an afterthought more than a main event.

And the better installments didn’t feature a host at all. Mahalo’s minute-fied versions of televised political events and entertainment spectacles are, with a few exceptions, the best episodes.

Veronica will be winding down her hosting duties over the next few weeks and is mum on what she’s up to next, but promises something exciting. As for Calacanis, he’s probably in the market for a new host. I think Maria Sansone is available.

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

After a reported 76 million visits and almost two years of near-daily shows, Yahoo!’s entrée into the online, pop culture newscast calls it quits. Any traffic to the The 9 – which featured the smiling face of child television–reporter-star, Maria Sansone counting down 9 items of must-see internet ephemera – now redirects to Primetime in No Time – Yahoo’s daily The Soup-style recap of last night’s television.

Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron never thought too highly of the show – “Yahoo 9 was really the worst online video show I have ever seen” – but it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t watch often, but when I did I appreciated Maria’s enthusiastic presentation and especially the choose-your-own news functionality.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

Less than a year after leaders of a bloodthirsty cult sacrificed her lonelygirl15 character in the name of longevity, Jessica Lee Rose is set to star in another sensationalized series.

THR reports new media studio 60Frames will produce and Eduardo Rodriguez (who’s no novice to scary) will direct the 18 episodes of Blood Cell – an online thriller about a kidnapped teen in mortal danger. Here’s the tease:

3:30am (Los Angeles): Julia is jolted awake by the howl of her cellphone; a video message from her best friend, Susan. Her eyes are swollen from crying. Her upper lip shows a painful cut. And she’s scared to death. "I’ve been kidnapped… you can’t call the police… and don’t turn off your cell phone. He’ll kill me if you do…” Susan screams and the message cuts out. Confused, Julia receives a text message from the kidnapper: "Dead Cell = Dead Friend." A peaceful night turns into a race against time. Using her cellphone as her only lifeline, Julia must rescue her friend and avoid succumbing to a similarly gruesome fate.

The helpless, good-looking girl in trouble reminds me of lonelygirl15, but there’s something else familiar about this. Oh, it’s basically the same premise as the 2004 flick, Cellular: If The Signal Dies So Does She. That’s probably it, but hopefully it will better than it’s predecessor in the Tech/Horror genre.

Check out the preview below.  The rest of the series is set to air on www.DeadCellDeadfriend.com “soon.”

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

Behind each exquisite corpse, there’s an interesting story. Some came to fruition in green clouds of absinthe fueled Surrealism. Others began life with a handful of Sharpie pens and mass quantities of alcohol. And at least one “game” of this collaborative, French parlour pastime involved Ridley Scott, a poster, a commercial production house, and five incredibly talented directors.

The story goes that Jacqueline Bosnjak and Mark Beukes – whose Idealogue studio is responsible for the awesome art-cum-advertising Adicolor vids (Aside: you must watch these, especially Green, which looks like it came out of Black Hole Sun) – approached Rhea Scott with an idea for an experimental, short-form, new media narrative.

She loved the concept and let a handful of her directors at Little Minx – an innovative offshoot of Ridley and Tony Scott’s commercial production house, RSA – have at it. The participants used David Pearson’s movie poster as a muse and established two simple rules:

1) All shorts must include a “little minx.”
2) All shorts must begin with the last line of the short that preceded it.

The result (at least so far – more additions might be in the works) is five independently beautiful stories, loosely connected by script cues and lines of dialogue that, taken as a whole, are greater than the sum of their parts. Take a look:

with the eyes of every man riveted upon her – Laurent Briet

A nonchalant, charming Lolita commands attention from all the sweaty men in a boxing gym while she wears a smile and bests an extra from Pirates of the Caribbean in a jump-rope-off. Her moves aren’t as good as Mayweather’s but she hops to a sweet soundtrack punctuated by fantastic editing that mixes up the pace.

###she turns back and faces forward at peace – Chris Nelson

A Little Miss Sunshine feel good story about an ordinary girl with mild television aspirations who defies her concerned mother and learns to feel good about herself in the process, except without all the Patch Adams cheese that my description implies.

she walked calmly disappearing into the darkness – Malik Hassan Sayeed

Scenes from an action-packed, dark, gritty street fight juxtapose a stark white hospital room where people gather around a body full of bullets, waiting to see if the boy’s gonna make it. A provocative, surreal mix of fragility and “urban-tough.”

without missing a beat, she asks, “Waffles for Breakfast?” – Josh Miller

A fun, if not predictable, story of card-game-turns-sour-and-someone-ends-up-dead.  The best part about Miller’s contribution is the dialogue. Like a David Milch production (especially Deadwood), the characters communicate with heightened diction that’s unexpected for the scenery – a smoky poker table – and refreshing.

and she stares longingly at what she has lost – Phillip Van

Van tells a fairytale fantasy of innocence lost through incredible special effects, a haunting soundtrack, and a macabre ending. The most contrived of the five (which, given the company, means it’s still great), but also the most visually appealing.

View them all in high-quality at www.LittleMinx.tv and check back to see if any other directors pick up where Van left off.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

But it doesn’t look like that’s the case. On a day when all teh internets are joking around, Maria Bamford is confronting her multiple personalities and saying goodbye.

Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask a Ninja often talk about how, given limited budgets for the web, content producers need to boil their show ideas down to the essentials and leverage whatever assets they have. In the case of Ask a Ninja, it was taking an elaborate cartoon – Kinzai Ninjas, which is supposedly still in the works – and reducing it to a Q&A featuring a dude in a $6 ski mask filmed with a broken camera.

I don’t know the genesis of The Maria Bamford Show, but it’d be difficult to compress it any further. Shot in her house, one woman, playing an ensemble cast, where different wardrobes, accents, and camera angles signify character changes. It’s fast, simple, cheap to produce, and feels tailor made for the web.  That’s part of the reason it works.  

The other parts are that Maria’s hysterical and Minnesota accents are – since no one’s really done them justice sine Martha Generic from Bobby’s World – ripe for comedy.

Break a leg with Blossom in LA, Maria, and hope to see you back on the web (or on a Comedians of Comedy tour or on old TV) sometime soon.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

I thought that video of Lala showering was the best I was gonna get, but on a day when even the proper British Broadcasting Corporation is known to pull out all the stops for a prank (not to mention the other unlikely organizations that indulge in the playday), I should have known better.

Dancing to the ’80s pop beat of the meme of the moment, YouTube has changed the Featured Video links on its homepage to redirect to Rick Astley‘s Never Gonna Give You Up.  Millions will be Rickrolled.  Who uploaded the vid?  User YTRickRollsYou.  Embeds are disabled so just be sure to give it a watch so that we all can have the same song stuck in our heads.

Happy April Fools’ Day Internet and well played, YouTube.  Well played.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

Lou Dobbs says the anti-Clinton media bias has reached an all-time high. Jeff Jarvis agrees, and is especially pissed at Slate for its egregious lack of self-awareness on the subject. The non-partisan Center for Media and Public Affairs found that since last December, 83% of mainstream media’s reports on Obama have been positive, compared to 53% on Clinton.

That’s a sizeable difference, especially considering Obama’s numbers don’t even include coverage from Obama Girl. If her obsessive praise was included, his positivity rating would surely break 90….or maybe not.

In conjunction with Media Curves, Slate conducted a real-time study. 440 voters recorded their real-time reactions to find out what happens to one’s feeling about Obama when Amber Lee Ettinger takes off her glasses and shakes that thang.

Not the most scientific survey, but interesting. This, coupled with Ettinger not voting, could mean that Obama Girl’s hurting her man more than she’s helping.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

On the other side of Mr. Deity, below Script Cops, and right next to Sands of Passion you’ll find the C-Spot – a fresh, weekly line-up of comedy series programmed and promised for all the 52 weeks in a year from Sony Pictures Television’s contest-laden, video-sharing site, Crackle.

Packaging successful, pre-existing shows with brand new ones to create a “spectrum of original web series that showcase irreverent characters and stories,” C-Spot will debut the latest installment from each series on that show’s night of the week, just like a good old fashioned broadcast TV network.

Sean Carey, Senior Executive VP at Sony Pictures Television, thinks this will attract the web video connoisseur hungry for frivolous substance: “By updating the content daily, we’re looking to engage, entertain and continue to feed the appetite of digital media users seeking more than just one-off viral videos.”

C-Spot is looking to appease not just Crackle visitors, but all “digital media users” by distributing its videos around the web (YouTube, AOL, etc.).  Will it satisfy? Yes, very much so. A look at what’s in store for the first 13-week season shows that Sony’s upped the ante and is using its resources (brand, access, and $$$) to produce high quality, engaging content, that’s better than the initial offerings I’ve seen from any other studio.

Here’s your weekly schedule:

Monday – Hot, Hot Los Angeles

From the same duo behind Getting Away with Murder (IFC’s web comedy about an unlikely hit man) Andrew Schwartz and Bennett Baker Barbakow of Test Pattern Media bring a sexy scorcher about LA that (like some other vids about Hollywood’s absurdity) is just spoofy enough to be true. Best-friends-turned-bitter-enemies ridden with Los Angeles clichés treat the city like a playground and battle for all its toys in a Horrible People meets Silk Stalkings-for-the-West-Coast kinda way.

###Tuesday – The Writers Room

Like the The Patrice O’Neal Show: Coming Soon, you can’t quite tell whether or not The Writers Room is a behind-the-scenes preview for an actual television series. A few giveaways let you in on the joke, but for the most part, the neuroses-infused banter between nervous late-night talk show writers desperate to please host and commander Kevin Pollak seems legit.

Wednesdays – Gaytown

If Chelsea were in the sunny hills of Califronia, it’d look something like Gaytown, a bizarro community where men loving men is the norm and heterosexuals are ostracized. Created, written, produced, and starring Owen Benjamin, the series follows Owen’s quest to come-out. It’s more social critique than comedy (though I’m still not convinced it succeeds at either), but thankfully doesn’t rely too heavily on inappropriate stereotypes for laughs. It also co-stars Payman Benz of Awkward Pictures. He’s hysterical.

Thursdays – The Roadents

Produced by Bix Pix, animator Justin Hilden created this 2D/3D animation delight, pitched as “The Odd Couple meets Easy Rider for the YouTube generation” starring two freakish guinea pigs roadtrippin’ in a 1983 Winnebago. Throw in a touch of the improvisational animation stylings of Dan Meth and I’d say that’s an accurate description.

Fridays – Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

Given that videos like this exist, GTCMS doesn’t seem so far-fetched. From wife-and-husband duo Kim Evey and Greg Benson of Mediocre Films (they also created Retarded Policeman) it’s Pee Wee’s Playhouse mixed with You Can Awesome and that SNL skit where Chris Farley is a contestant on that Japanese game show. Evey’s accent and the sing-a-longs make it all worthwhile.

Weekends – Best of What Penn Says

In January 2008, Crackle armed magician-cum-comedian Penn Jillette with four Sony HD cameras – one on his persoon, one on his car, one at home, and one in his dressing room at the Rio in Las Vegas – to let the impassioned man say whatever the hell he wants. This “Best of” highlight reel captures the most entertaining bits from the daily vlog.

Because of Crackle’s un-user-friendly interface, I suggest watching the clips on C-Spot’s YouTube Channel, but if you’re a purist, you can find them here.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
No Comments »

Imagine if car manufacturers commissioned exclusive freeway access.  You’re headed from Miami to NYC.  1-95 will accept Hondas and Fords only, but the 495 will have inked hot deals with Toyota and Chevrolet.  You would never be able to take the most efficient route, because a fragmented labyrinth of highways would emerge, and drivers would be left scratching their heads: which car will optimize my travel needs now and in the future?



Luckily the powers that be have recognized the importance of an open highway system unencumbered by special interests, but the media landscape that’s emerging online belies the very principles of openness that have propelled innovation on the internet (and through interstate commerce). ###

Set-top IPTV devices like XBox, AppleTV and Akimbo are creating closed-access walled-garden platforms, but the most troubling sign has just emerged: exclusive content. 



Microsoft recently announced a plan to expand offerings on its Xbox 360 console by working with a company headed by Peter Safran, a veteran Hollywood producer and talent manager, to produce original shows for distribution on the system.  Who cares?  More content is good, right? Well…



Lets say the three shows you watch are The Office, Lost and Flight of The Concords.  Guess what?  If you want to watch them all, you might just end up buying three separate set-top boxes.  That’s bullshit.  Why not make them accessible to more people all the time? It works for Next New Networks and Crackle!



Content on the internet should be open.  Where competition and innovation should rest is in a mechanism that bridges the gap between the veg-out, lean-back experience of old TV with the convenience, control and staggering variety of new TV. 



We’ll get there eventually, I’m convinced.  In the meantime, bullies like Microsoft will compete on exclusive content while the rest of us navigate a dizzying labyrinth of media extending devices.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
No Comments »