Tubefilter News

Josh Weinberg’s viral sensation The Website is Down is back, and as the new teaser (above) demonstrates, we’re in for a completely different take on the same humor that made TWID such a massive hit the first two times around.

The new video is a hilarious techno remix of footage from the upcoming episode, shot security cam style a la the popular office freakout videos. In it, the poor ’sales guy’ (you have to feel sorry for this guy’s level of technical ineptitude) freaks out on his computer while a very soothing Indian IT guy helps him out on the phone.

Tubefilter also got a sneak peek at an almost-final version of the new episode, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. I don’t want to give away any of the details, but I will say that I hope ‘yoga dude’ remains a character on the show.

On a rainy day in early March, I stopped by the West Hollywood offices of FM78.tv, the original online content production company headed up by Justine Bateman, Jill Kushner, Peter Murrieta, and Alan Sereboff. The company’s first project, The Molls Show, which is written and directed by Molly McAleer and executive produced by FM78, is out now at TheMollsShow.com with the release of their third episode today. They’ve also announced their second project, Candy Inc., which will star Bateman along with comedians Jeff Garlin, Judd Nelson, Buck Henry, Wallace Langham, Beverly D’Angelo, Suzi Nakamura, and Doug Stanhope, with Steve Pink as director.

To say that the trailer for upcoming Calico Arts series The Clinic intrigued me is an understatement. From beginning to end, the trailer is tight, entertaining, fresh, and it had me begging for more. Created by Danny Lee, the series provides a mockumentary look at the people behind one of California’s many medical marijuana clinics.

This isn’t completely fantastical, however; the way Lee describes it, he was inspired by a real club.

“One of my friends happened to own a local medicinal marijuana dispensary in Hollywood, so out of pure curiosity I decided to pay a visit. Within 5 minutes, I knew right away this world would provide great material for a series…however, my objective was to make a show about the people who try to make a living there. The owner Marty (played by Joe Hursley) is morally conflicted about his career choice, but does everything he can to justify why he’s there, while trying to keep a rickety ship together.”

As web productions go, The Clinic appears to have a robust cast — Hursley along with Caroline D’Amore, Luke Massy, and Gabbriella Gatto — which means it will have some long term potential.

It’s finally here—the second episode of The Website is Down has been released, and we had a chance to get a sneak peek at the long-awaited continuation of the techie-comedy web series. The debut of “Excel Hell,” a full 9 months after the first episode, “Sales Guy vs Web Dude,” hit the internet and went wildly viral, may have been a long time in the making, but the wait was well worth it.

The new episode (see trailer above), from creator-star Josh Weinberg, is an 8 minute, 54 second epic look at the computer habits of Chip Morehead, the sales guy from the first episode. To accurately describe the episode is nearly impossible; this is one of those things where you have to watch it 3 or 4 times to accurately take in all the little jokes.

NBC is throwing just about everything on the web and seeing what sticks. With the network’s blitz approach towards web spinoffs, we’re left a smattering of short one-joke bits, mixed with a few more complete storyline additions. They have two things in common- first is their medium budget look, by which I mean that they look professionally done, but you can tell that they aren’t the main event. The other is that they are heavy on the ad deals—from Target to Nissan to Sprint. I’m not the biggest fan of the current NBC shows (I’m more into House and Fringe), but these web series are important both for their entertainment value (of which they aren’t lacking) and for their significance as entries in the web series realm by one of the top networks on TV. A roundup of the web stepchildren of The Office, Psych, Chuck, Heroes, and Battlestar Galactica.

The Murder of Dirk Snowglobe, a new comedy web series slated to debut in April of 2009, promises a lot of things. As creator Jon Fairhurst explained to Tubefilter, “The story is a comedy set in Borderton, a corrupt noir-esqe city where murders are common.” Dirk Snowglobe is a delusional detective who seems to think he’s actually dead too, and is trying to solve his own murder while his partner Chet Candles (Jeff Drovdahl) leads him along as they “investigate murders as a series of twists and turns lead them to the ridiculous.

Plenty of cheaply made web series (in Fairhurst’s words, “our budget for each episode is the cost of pizza”) tend to have one shortcoming – they look cheap. One of the biggest tell-tale signs that you’re watching a series made for little or no money is that the camera quality is bad, sometimes worse than YouTube quality, the sound is barely audible, and you can tell it was filmed on a street corner with pedestrians staring at the camera quizzically.

On the internet, we have learned to accept that anything goes: behind an innocent-looking link could lie a “shock site” (or some other unexpected destination). We’ve also learned to accept that we’ll end up seeing ads for everything from Bibles to iPods to Rick Astley. It’s easy to forget just how unpredictable the internet can be, and companies that focus on children must be vigilant about protecting their audiences.

Sesame Street has tackled all of these problems head on, and has done very well in securing its place in children’s entertainment on the web. Sesame Street has been on the air since 1969, airs in over a hundred countries, and has had over 4,000 episodes so far in its run. The show mainly features puppets teaching basic words and numbers, oftentimes alongside celebrities ranging from the Goo Goo Dolls and Anderson Cooper to Busta Rhymes and Robert De Niro.

To keep up with the changing times, Sesame Street has gone online, with one of the best designed websites I’ve seen in terms of simplicity and organization. The main sections include games, videos, playlists (for dynamic lessons), profiles of the characters, and “My Street” where parents can bookmark their child’s favorite videos and games. The videos are also available on Hulu, completely free of advertising . All over the site text is minimized where possible, and buttons are large, colorful, and require minimal reading skills. In some places, the arrow disappears and turns into a large star, making it easier for children to see what they’re clicking on.

I spoke to a few parents about Sesame Street online, and checked out various forums to see what their reaction has been. One comment on Hulu summed up the majority of responses: “We’re huge Sesame Street fans but don’t have TV, so we’d catch some clips on YouTube. Problem? My kids could accidentally wind up watching objectionable stuff if they clicked on other links after their clip was done. Enter the Hulu Queue to the rescue! I feel this is a safer place for them to watch and I hope more PBS programming follows.”

Sesame Street is one of the biggest names in children’s entertainment, so it was no surprise to me to see that they’ve gone online—the surprise was in how well they’ve done it. As someone who has their computer plugged into their TV more often than the cable box, I can easily see using Hulu to watch Sesame Street with my children some day. I hope that other shows follow suit, and make at least a tiny part of the internet safe for children.

The only puppet show I ever watched regularly on TV was Crank Yankers, which was quite possibly one of Comedy Central’s most juvenile original series. The show featured puppets making prank phone calls to various stores, featuring the voices of celebrities such as Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel, Dane Cook, and David Alan Grier.

Considering that I could only remember one puppet show that isn’t aimed at young children, I was surprised to see the number of puppet shows online. Even more surprising was that they all had the exact same problem- they’re not very funny. If I had to guess, I would say the average age of a person who finds them entertaining is probably 14, which is unfortunate considering how much work has gone into some of these series.

Apollo’s Pad, from Galleon Holdings PLC, is the truly disgusting tale of two guys, Apollo and Mickey, and all the weird stuff that goes on in their life. It’s difficult to be more specific than that without going into the vulgar details. Here’s the description for one episode: “Apollo indulges Mickey in some serious pampering. Don’t watch this episode whilst eating breakfast. Hmm. Y’know, I’ve been working too hard. Maybe I deserve a spa day too…I don’t want any motherf***ing seaweed wraps though! Tank me up on battery acid, vanilla ice cream and shot of raspberry rat poison, then smother me in Vaseline and put me in a cage with Margaret Thatcher … paradise baby. Paradise.”

This show truly exemplifies the internet tradition of “WTF.” You’ll spend the entire time wondering who the twisted people are behind this show (that honor goes to Len Dunne and Stephen Green), and you may lose your lunch. My recommendation? Skip it; Apollo’s Pad makes Crank Yankers look like Meet the Press, and not in a good way.