by Marc Hustvedt on July 14th, 2009
Streamy-winning web series Back on Topps returns for its second season this week with twin brothers Jason and Randy Sklar back as the bungling heads of Topps baseball card company, Leyland and Leif Topps. Created by the Sklar brothers and produced by Michael Eisner’s web studio Vuguru, the return of this show is just the second of the company’s web series, counting Prom Queen, to get a second season.
At the end of last season a Christian dating service, “Cross My Heart” (wasn’t this the name of the band in Jesus People?) rented space at the Topps offices, and now further economic pressures force cutbacks at the company. That means the brothers need to come up with something big to win back over the office, with the usual help (cameos) from MLB and NBA stars. Web series regular Jason Nash (The Shaman) is back as Stalker Guy and Brian Huskey is back as bigheaded office boss Gaylen Briggs.
by Joshua Cohen on July 14th, 2009
Out of touch with 4chan’s /b/ board? Lost in friendly conversations about LOLcats? Not in tune with your social circle’s references to online epherma? Join the New York Web Television Meetup, Tilzy.TV, Urlesque, and the Know Your Meme crew for some serious internet pop culture edification.
by Lindsay Stidham on July 14th, 2009
The Junior League of Superheroes has all the right ingredients for the making of a fun web series experience. It just needs a little more spice. Launched last week, the show undoubtedly has studied the success of its Comic-Con worthy, nerd-friendly predecessors, ala The Guild and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. If history proves true, web series fans like their shows rife with costume-clad heroes and heroines who enjoy video games and fantasy. So far, Junior League of Superheroes has all of this—including cute girls in dressed like Princess Leia and R2D2.
The show’s mission statement is also admirable–”Imagine we live in a world of good and evil…where ordinary people strive to leave their mundane lives and accomplish extraordinary things. And within that world are six bumbling, wannabe superheroes who have no idea what they are getting themselves into.”
Writer Brian Leahy stars in the series, along with director Justin Fair, Teresa Reilly, Julie Gearheard, Foster Wilson and Justin Davidson.
by Pat Miller on July 13th, 2009
Matt and Nat fans, rejoice: the co-hosts of Your Geek News are one step closer to becoming the Siskel & Ebert of geekdom by landing a partnership with UK-based Babelgum. Their new branded channel is immediately available for consumption and it contains dozens of YGN clips covering everything from The Watchmen to Wolverine.
For those of you unfamiliar with Your Geek News, now is as good a time as any to hop on the bandwagon. The show is hosted by Matt Campagna and Anastasia “Nat” Tubanos, two dedicated geek journalists who pride themselves on their nerd culture cred, shameless inner children, and their connections, who hook them up with the advance clips and interviews that keep Transformers fans up at night. Comic book movies, science fiction, fantasy, Harry Potters and Twilights – they’ve got ‘em all.
by Marc Hustvedt on July 13th, 2009
Crackle loves the hapless hopeful comedy. Today they rolled out another would-be hero trapped in a cloud of delusion with the launch of daredevil comedy Dusty Peacock. The 8-episode web series stars Gary Valentine, brother of King of Queens star Kevin James, as the eponymous and talentless daredevil trying to take his act to the big time.
As is often the case with celebrity-backed web series, the production is kept in the family. It’s touted on site as produced by Kevin James, and the writer (Rock Reuben) and cast all share some connection with James.
I chatted with Valentine who plays Peacock, to get his take on the colorful character. “Dusty Peacock is a man who consdiers himself an icon,” said Valentine. “He doesn’t have much talent but he has a lot of drive—this Criss Angel guy who thinks he’s a rock star, but doesn’t have the talent.”
Rounding out the James-fest is Melissa Peterman as Naomi Flood, Dusty’s money-hungry girlfriend; Nick Turturro (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry) as Dusty’s brother and pseudo-lawyer Stu Peacock, Nick Bakay (The King of Queens) as his manager and UFC champ Bas Rutten as Dusty’s hyped-up trainer.
by Alex Crowley on July 13th, 2009
I learned something today: kids still hang out at malls and somebody finds it compelling enough to produce a webseries based on the concept. We haven’t moved past this yet? How about instead of creating shows that revolve around the vapid, whorey lives of wealthy teens somebody, god forbid, engage the creative centers of their [...]
by Jacob Nahin on July 13th, 2009
What’s the best way to hype your product? A contest? A viral ad campaign? How about a web series?
Random House, through its Bantam Dell imprint have put together a web series of their own to bring the web-buzz to Fragment, a thriller by Warren Fahy about a mysterious place where prehistoric animals thrive called Hender’s Island.
The web series, which is divided into three parts and shares the same name, is a prequel to the novel and tells the story of a scientist who comes into possession of one of those animals.The creature resembles those face-suckers seen in the Alien Quadrilogy so naturally chaos ensues.
The idea drawing readers in with a web series’ is relatively new. We covered a similar attempt by Alloy Marketing, which put together a web series based on the teen-mystery novels, Private. That series is set to launch sometime this month. And last summer saw the arduous Foreign Body prequel to Robin Cook’s novel. But what about Fragment?
by Marc Hustvedt on July 12th, 2009
Shooting has just wrapped for season 2 of IKEA-backed Easy to Assemble from creator-star Illeana Douglas. Word is that IKEA was quite happy with the show’s debut season and prompted a renewal for a second helping. The new season which launches this September, will add comedians Cheri Oteri, Ricki Lake and Tim Meadows to the already impressive cast.
Returning for the second go-round is of course Douglas herself along with web regulars Ed Begley Jr., Justine Bateman, Tom Arnold and Kevin Pollack. Where the first season was shot exclusively in the IKEA store, complete with hundreds of conveniently pre-made sets, the new season is said to be only half in-store. We’ll see the home live series regulars like Douglas and Bateman.
