Today, after months of delays and strategizing, Strike.TV has finally launched.
It’s been a while since the picket lines of striking WGA writers last winter where the idea of a video portal for professional writers (read: WGA writers) could have a place to showcase their original web series while also owning the rights to all content. The idea seemed simple enough. Writers would head out and rally together resources — celebrity actor friends, camera ops, editors, etc. — calling in all the favors and waivers they could manage.
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The content was the easy part. With Hollywood on strike for two months, it seemed everyone had a little time to spare and a hand to lend. In all, some fifty web series were collected for the newly formed site, loading it up with a year’s worth of star-driven series. Here are some of the web series debuting today:
* Unknown Sender, written/directed by Steven de Souza (Die Hard), starring Timothy Dalton and Joanne Whalley
* John’s Hand, starring Garret Dillahunt (No Country For Old Men) and Kali Rocha (Grey’s Anatomy)
* Global Warming, starring Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Aasif Mandvi (Jericho, The Daily Show)
* With the Angels, written by Mary Feuer (lonelygirl15)
* Daryl from OnCar, written and starring Ron Corcillo and Russ Carney of America.
* Life in General, written by Karren Harris (General Hosptial)
* Greenville General also written by Karren Harris, it’s the show-within-the-show of Life in General
* House Poor, created by The Office writer-producers Lester Lewis and Mindy Kaling
* The Challenge, starring Bob Newhart and written by sitcom veteran Lloyd Garver (Alf, Family Ties)
* 5 or Die, written/directed by horror director Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Psycho II)
* Side Effects, written/directed by Chuck Rose.
* Joe and Kate, written by and starring Joe Kelly (How I Met Your Mother, SNL) and Kate Purdy (Cold Case)
The philosophy and message were solid, that’s for sure. From our interview with Strike.TV founder Peter Hyoguchi earlier this summer:
Hyoguchi is excited about where TV on the web stands today, saying “the internet’s pre-Howdy Doody today,” referring to the 1947-debuted TV show which essentially spawned the advertising-supported television model that exists today. While he notes that there have been some early successes like lonelygirl15 and quarterlife, “we still haven’t haven’t see a true hit show yet,” the kind that reaches a true global scale. “For a show to reach that kind of mass appeal, it’s going to come from a professional team,” he notes.
