Tubefilter News

The chatter about Next New Networks this week started with rumors of layoffs at the New York-based web studio Yesterday, came news that the studio has hired The Burg and All-For-Nots co-creator Kathleen Grace as head of programming. The studio also announced in the release that a reorganizing of the company, creating two new divisions, an Audience Development Group and a Programming division. Grace will head up programming along with Barely Political founder Ben Relles while NNN co-founder Tim Shey will be managing this new “audience development” team.

Last week, the channel launched a new series, The Reel Good Show, promoting host Bobby Miller to a more regular gig. This week marked the return of the Streamy Award-winning web series that started Indy Mogul, Backyard FX, which kicked off its third season. Indy Mogul founder Erik Beck is back as host of the indie filmmaking channel’s flagship show.

Writer/creator Chris Murray is gaining some market share in the web series world by offering folks a clever approach to comedy, in Hedge Fund. Produced by the eponymous Hedge Fund Productions, the show introduces a new, blundering “boys club” whose members aspire to be Masters of the Universe under the banner of Claude S. Dutchy, [...]

Captain Alpha Male premieres today and I haven’t seen a middle-aged man with these kind of cat-like reflexes since Patrick Roy. But woe be the peppered beards of the world without a such an icon still in the game. But at least they have this guy.

Captain Alpha Male (Jay Lutsky) is stuck in middle management at a superhero bureaucracy dubbed The Agency, full of one-off heros of dubious powers. There’s a nod to Watchmen in this series, hinting at better days for the Agency back when good was good and so forth. The aging CEO, The Lord of All Good, is plotting his retirement and grooming his successor.

The web series was created by Lutsky, Ric Serena and Dan Greenberger, who developed the scripted web series after a number of short vlog-style videos found love on Revver. The 36 low-fi videos had Lutsky in character as Captain Alpha Male ranting about his latest assignment or gripe du jour

The absence of Arrested Development means we’ve had to make due without Buster and the comedic gold of Tony Hale. Thank you NBC Digital Studio for bringing Hale back in CTRL, their new comedy web series that debuted today with the first three episodes.

This almost could be billed as a sci-fi comedy, oddly reminiscent of the Adam Sandler’s Click. Hale stars as under-appreciated office lackey Stuart who one day realizes his computer keyboard gives him time-bending powers over his office. We’re talking rewinding time, moving things, invisibility and even the ability to clone himself. Joining Hale are comedians Steve Howey as his taunting boss and Emy Coligado as Stuart’s would-be love interest.

Emmett Furey, co-creator of the ghost-hunting spoof Bumps in the Night, is at it again with another web series, a comic-book musical called Fury of Solace. So far, Furey and his team have released two episodes and one minisode.

So what is the series all about?
The main character is Emmett (continuing the creator’s tradition of naming his characters after himself), a.k.a. Fury of Solace, an anti-hero with a red mask who follows questionable ethics for what he perceives to be the greater good. Ten years ago, Emmett received a prophecy about a young girl who would become a superhero and save many lives from a catastrophic event. The caveat: for her to reach her superhero destiny, her parents must be killed. That’s where Fury of Solace comes in, and the border-line villain-slash-hero murders the girl’s parents. Flash forward. The girl is all grown-up and goes by the name The Orphan.

Does the internet need an archive for film executives’ marketing impulses gone awry? A last stop storehouse for crap movies, along with crap movies made from video games? Of course! And That Guy with the Glasses shows us that with a little deconstruction, Hollywood’s missteps can lead down a humorous and even profitable path.

Anybody who’s ever tried to put together Ikea furniture has learned that even when you start with all the right parts, sometimes they just don’t fit together in the right way.

Family Dinner is the first web series created by The Young and the Restless actress Lauralee Bell and her husband Scott Martin. The pilot begins when desperate fame-hungry, mother Karen O’Connell (Bell) has a reality show producer (Dan Cortese of 90’s MTV fame and numerous sitcoms) join her family at the dinner table to document a typical O’Connell meal. At first Karen instructs the family to act “normal” and the producer isn’t interested, but once their real dysfunction leaks out, he likes what he sees, and the dinner tapings become a weekly event.

The concept is solid. Everybody thinks their family is “a little off”, so we can all get on board with the idea of a weekly showcase of family wackiness. And the cast is rounded out with pros like Bell’s longtime Y&R costar Aaron Lustig as Karen’s boring husband Steven and iconic comedienne Phyllis Diller as a raunchy, denture-wearing grandma who says whatever the hell she wants like “young girls are getting their monthly curse earlier these days because of all the hormones being fed to chickens and cows.” Even the children, played by Zach Cumer, Makaela Johnson, and Maxim Knight already have resumes far beyond their ages.

Two days until the July Tubefilter Web TV Meetup, and it’s time to start prepping for Thursday night. First things first you should take a look at the web series from our two guest speakers – and Alex Albrecht (Diggnation,Project Lore) and Hayden Black (Goodnight Burbank, Abigail’s Teen Diary, The Cabonuats). We’re going to be starting the evening out with an open panel discussion with these two knuckleheads, so come with questions you want to ask!

Make sure to RSVP before tickets are gone as space is limited.