Television
Writers Take Their Talents to the World Wide Web
When
the 2007-2008 strike by the Writers Guild of America began last November,
many observers wondered if the slew of unemployed scribes would lead
to an onslaught of original web content. Compensation for online product
was one of the major issues the strike centered around after all, and
the idea of writers embarking onto Internet terrain was not out of the
question; the Divided
Hollywood blog even reported in mid-December
that the WGA was considering launching a website featuring new, original
web video created by the union’s members. While at least two workshops
were held for interested writers in the Los Angeles area—as well
as various blurbs appearing on entertainment websites like TV
Squad announcing the project—nothing
ever materialized. When the strike ended, it was assumed the plans had
died with it.
As it turns
out, such assumptions were premature: StrikeTV
officially launched on July 4, 2008, with a “coming soon”
video clip spotlighting the over forty webseries exclusively produced
by Los Angeles-area union members. “Basically, StrikeTV is original
content created by Hollywood professionals,” Peter Hyoguchi, a
WGA member and conceiver of the project, told Variety.
“The content we have ranges from comedy, drama, sci-fi, horror,
game shows, soap operas to family films and animation... this is an
opportunity for Hollywood professionals to experience and try something
new with a very low risk factor.”
The collective
resume of StrikeTV contributors is impressive; the “coming soon”
clip voice-over mentions writers from The Daily Show, General
Hospital, Friends, Frasier, Star Trek,
thirtysomething, The L Word, Farscape and
The Six Million Dollar Man amongst the lined-up talent. According
to Variety, specific projects include Global Warming,
starring Kirsten Wiig of Saturday Night Live and The Daily
Show’s Aasif Mandvi; House Poor by Office
writer/producer Lester Lewis; and The Challenge, written by
sitcom veteran Lloyd Garver—who’s credits include Family
Ties, Happy Days and Alice—and starring
Bob Newhart.
StrikeTV
will follow the basic business model of generating revenue through advertising
and sponsorships. The initial start-up cost, reportedly less than ten
thousand dollars, was paid by Hyoguchi and others, while content creators
were responsible for acquiring their own funding for each project. Although
the online network does not offer licensing fees for the programming,
the writers do retain ownership and copyright control over their projects.
Proceeds generated by StrikeTV during the first three months of operation
will be donated to the Entertainment Assistance Program of the Actor’s
Fund, which supports non-WGA members who were adversely affected by
the strike.
Hyoguchi
and company are not the only television scribes to use the WGA work
stoppage as a catalyst to exploit the World Wide Web as a media outlet.
Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, spent the
time developing—with assistance from his two brothers, Jed and
Zack, and sister-in-law-to-be Maurissa Tancharoen—a forty minute
webseries musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. The
story of a “low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating
him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to
talk to,” the series features Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible),
Nathan Fillion (Captain Hammer) and Felicia Day (Penny) and will likewise
premier this month (July 2008), although in a drastically different
fashion than StrikeTV. The first of the three installments will be available
for viewing on the Dr.
Horrible website beginning Tuesday,
July 15th, followed by the next two segments on July 17th and 19th.
They will only be online, however, for a short period of time—through
Sunday, July 20th—before being removed. Plans are currently in
the works to then make the project available for download (more than
likely for a nominal fee) with a DVD release following at some point
thereafter.
“When
the strike happened, everything was about making online content,”
Whedon recently explained to Matt Roush of TV
Guide. “But everything was very
overblown. Or underblown. It was either me and my video camera in my
backyard or let’s partner up and get millions of dollars. Neither
of these things was gonna fit the paradigm that will make me a musical,
so I finally decided to do it myself.” He added that the idea
“was to show that you can do this (original Internet content)
on a very different scale than people are thinking about. I felt like
we stretched our dollars just as far as they will go. It’s a pretty
extraordinary piece even at the price tag it would cost to normally
produce it if you couldn’t call in any favors.”
While Dr.
Horrible and the upcoming shows on StrikeTV were all independently
funded by their creators, other television writers have found financing
for online projects through partnerships with the overabundance of entertainment
production companies sprouting up on the Internet landscape. 60Frames,
for instance, enlisted Brent Forrester, a consulting producer for The
Office, to create Erik the Librarian Mysteries—a
webseries about a “reclusive librarian who falls in love with
a mysterious stranger”—as one of its initial productions;
it was announced last month that Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah of the CW’s
new 90210 spin-off, as well as OZ/Homicide
scribe Tom Fontana, have likewise been tapped by 60Frames for new projects.
The
O.C. creator Josh Schwartz, meanwhile, is developing an as-of-yet
untitled series for the new TheWB.com
online network that “takes viewers to the front of the line and
behind the soundboard of a fictional Hollywood rock club,” while
Seth MacFarlane, the genius behind Family Guy, will be unveiling
Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy this fall
in conjunction with Google and Media Rights Capital. And Stun
Creative, a marketing and production
company in Los Angeles, not only has partnered with a group of television
writers to create a new webseries but has even cast the actual writers
in the acting parts. According to Broadcasting
& Cable, The Writers Room—as
the show is entitled—takes place in the writers’ room of
a fictional late-night talk show and will feature Bruce Kirschbaum (Seinfeld),
Ed Crasnick (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Evan Mann (How I Met
Your Mother), Jeff Kahn (The Larry Sanders Show) and Rose
Abdoo (Gilmore Girls).
On November
8, 2007, just mere days after the strike by the WGA commenced, Entertainment
Weekly wrote, “It’ll be interesting to see what 12,000
unemployed screenwriters can do on the Internet.” With the launch
of StrikeTV, the premier of a Joss Whedon webseries and scores of other
projects by other writers, it looks like the magazine’s question
is about to be answered.
July 7,
2008
