FX minisodes and a TNT microseries

FX’s Rescue Me was a major casualty in the recent strike by the Writer Guild of America: a summer regular for four years now, the work-stoppage prevented the series from filming this year and pushed season five into Spring 2009. To hold fans over until then, producers Denis Leary and Peter Tolan have created a series of ten minisodes, five minutes each and airing Tuesdays at 10 pm on FX beginning June 24th. While having no connection to next year’s episodes, the minisodes are more comedic in tone in order to appease fans who were unhappy with a sub-par season four. “One involves a flashback that explains something that goes all the way back to the beginning of the series, and another is a dream sequence tied into Tommy’s psyche,” Leary told USA Today. “It starts out as a really sexy dream and ends up as a nightmare.” For viewers unwilling to tune in to FX simply to watch five minutes worth of footage, the minisodes will also be made available on YouTube, Hulu and Crackle.

While it may seem odd to air what basically amounts to a series of webisodes on an actual television, FX is not alone in the experiment. TNT has contracted Dean Devlin, the man behind Independence Day and the Godzilla remake, to produce what they are referring to as a “microseries” about an FBI project to solve murders by implanting the memories of victims into the living. “What we’re doing is drastically segmenting a TV movie so that instead of a three-act structure, we’ve created a 20-act structure,” Devlin told Variety about the plans to edit the eighty-minute Blank Slate, as the series is called, into twenty four-minutes mini(micro)sodes. TNT will air episodes of the “microseries” on two consecutive Tuesdays and Wednesdays beginning September 8th during blocks of five back-to-back episodes of Law & Order. (Just like the Rescue Me minisodes, Blank Slate will also be available online at TNT.tv.) Devlin plans on recouping any losses for the project by editing the 20 minis back together into a Made-for-TV movie to sell overseas, echoing Sony’s recently announced Web-to-DVD business model.

Webseries and microseries, webisodes and minisodes, Made-for-TV and Web-to-DVD movies: all this experimentation with new forms of media is starting to become complicated. Hopefully it leads to something entertaining as well.

—Anthony Letizia (June 24, 2008)

 

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For NBC Universal, the Times They Are a-Changin' Article discussing CEO Jeff Zucker’s recent speech at the NATPE convention and the changes NBC Universal has implemented since (February 25, 2008).

'Missing Pieces' Adds to the Groundbreaking Legacy of Lost Article spotlighting the recently released Lost: Missing Pieces webisodes and how they compliment the groundbreaking efforts of the ABC drama (December 3, 2007).

The Television Will Be Revolutionized, and Vice Versa Book review of The Television Will Be Revolutionized by Amanda Lotz, analyzing her assertions that changes in the industry will result in more creative television content (January 28, 2008).

The Online Webseries: Cure for the Writers Strike Blues? Article discussing the webseries in general, and shows like Chad Vader, The Guild, quarterlife and Something to Be Desired specifically, while examining how the WGA strike could benefit them (November 12, 2007).

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ALTERNA-TV.COM BLOG ENTRIES OF INTEREST:

StrikeTV to launch on July 4th The online network of original video content first proposed during the strike by the Writers Guild of America is set to launch on Independence Day. (June 19, 2008).

Sony's new web-to-DVD business model Sony plans on launching new online webseries next year and then releasing them as DVD movies (June 17, 2008).

Television webisodes on the rise FOX launches a 24 spin-off called Rookie while NBC plans webisodes for Chuck, Heroes and The Office (May 1, 2008).

NBC acquires two more webseries Despite the failure of quarterlife, NBC Universal partners with Electric Farm Entertainment for new online endeavors (April 17, 2008).