TheGuild
Top TV Stories of 2009: The continued rise of online video

When Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Emmys, Dr. Horrible conveniently invaded for a moment, spreading webseries fear throughout the TV industry audience. It was a funny bit, serving mainly as a vehicle for some jokes about buffering and tiny screen sizes. Hopefully that made the TV people feel better, if only for a little while, because online video is showing no signs of stopping.
The Twelve Days of Festivus: Four webby series
On the fourth day of Festivus, TV gave to me... four webby series.There's probably more original content being created for the internet than there even is for television. A lot of that is your neighbor sitting in his basement in front of his webcam seeing how many croutons he can shove in his mouth in thirty seconds, but there are places to find great original content, many times on par with what you'll see on television.
Syfy's Sanctuary is a show that began as a web series and has since become a successful TV series. But many web series live and thrive on the web, and belong only there.
A lot of our favorite celebrities have turned to this unrestricted format to create gems, like Will Ferrell's modern classic "The Landlord" from a few years back, or even last year's sensational Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog that brought Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Simon Helberg and Felicia Day into a mad scientist musical world created by Joss Whedon. Even the networks have gotten in on the action, creating original content for their own websites.
Felicia Day ... the next American Idol?
Felicia Day has already proven herself a terrific singer through her role on Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. Now she's extending her talent resumé via her own project, The Guild, by having the cast of that show appear in a pop video for a song called "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?"; she's also the lead singer. Ms. Day may very well be the next Kylie Minogue.It's rare for a U.S. production to release a music single in conjunction with a show, however Felicia herself created this show and if she wants to use it to launch her singing career, then more power to her. Why do I envision this group doing a live concert at the next San Diego Comic Con?
How soon before Ms. Day is the star of her own television drama or comedy? Nerd boys: she's hot, she sings and she plays MMORPGs. Admit that you want her. Video is after the jump.
FX making a comedy about fantasy football
Usually, when one network or channel has a good idea, other networks try to copy it. FX is doing it from a few sources with its new comedy The League, a comedy about a bunch of suburbanites participating in a fantasy football league.Since the creative talent behind the show is also behind Curb Your Enthusiasm, it's pretty obvious where the "semi-scripted" nature of this program is coming from. However, when I hear the premise of this show I can't help but think of it as a variation of The Guild, a web series about online gamers starring Felicia Day from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog.
This new program has enough talent and an interesting premise that it could wind up a winner. It's amazing how FX is branching itself out with different kinds of shows. First animation, now this. And to think fX (note the lowercase "f") started as an experiment by Fox in interactive television in 1994.
Top TV Stories of 2008: Web TV goes big time - VIDEOS
As I look back at the posts TV Squad did this year, a certain topic popped up quite a bit: "Hey, folks, take a look at [Name of big star] in this [funny/quirky/dramatic] web series you can only find at [Name of web site]!" While the quality of and star power behind web-exclusive programming has been building for a couple of years now, 2008 saw an explosion of web series that attracted enough buzz to make one wonder if Jeff Zucker wasn't thinking of this a little bit when he offered Jay Leno the 10:00 slot on NBC.What caused this explosion? Well, we can thank one of 2008's other big stories -- the writers' strike -- for a lot of it.
Felicia Day lands another internet gig - VIDEO
More fallout from Dr. Horrible, as machinima.com has hired Felicia Day to write a new sit-com. Of course, her work on The Guild probably had a lot to do with it as well. This is not just any sit-com though. It takes place inside a video game. Kind of implied by her employer, I know, but I think the fact that I recognize Gus Sorola on sight probably puts me in the minority.
Anyway... Lon over at Tubefilter got a chance to talk with Felicia about the new project. The short version is that she's still in the writing stage, so there is no cast at the moment. She wanted to take "archetypal characters from sit-coms and place them in a fantastical world." So long as that doesn't mean a fat stupid guy with a really hot wife, I like it as a starting point. The show is set to launch in the fall with five short episodes that will combine into one half hour pilot. Audience feedback will influence four more possible half hour segments.
Is Dr Horrible the One? - VIDEO

Technically it is Buffy/Angel week, but all things Whedon have a way of just melding together into one big stew. So it's a fortuitous bit of timing that a trailer for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was released this week. For those still unaware of just what Dr. Horrible is, I think it was summed up best by Nathan Fillion in a recent interview. It's about a super-villain (Neil Patrick Harris) who falls in love with a girl (Felicia Day), and the super-hero (Nathan Fillion) who blows it for him. The super-hero is kind of a dick. And... it's a musical. I think it could be very much more than that. More on that, and the new trailer, after the jump.
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