viral video-related stories
Posted Sep 5th 2009 7:04PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Video, Children, Reality-Free
WARNING: The following post contains images of a shocking nature and despite its source material, is not appropriate for anyone under the age of 18. And before you get all excited, no, it does not contain naked boobies.
We all remember lovable ol' Fred Rogers, aka TV's Mister Rogers, as a warm, cuddly and caring neighbor who never wore a frown and always had a smile for someone smaller than him.
But what if all those cheerful hellos, colorful sweater jackets and speeches about being special on
Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood were just a mask hiding something very dark and sinister? Specifically, a clown mask?
Continue reading Everything floats down in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Posted Jun 11th 2009 10:03AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Web, Game Show
Just because
one network's venture into viral video greatness went belly up like so many silver leotard wearing contestants before them doesn't mean the craze has ended.
Next week marks the premiere of MTV's newest reality game show
Silent Library, based on the game of the same name from the Japanese variety show
Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!For those who don't spend time watching videos forwarded to them by their friends and are therefore productive members of society, the game is played by six dunderheads in a "library." They each draw a card, five reading safe and one with a skull and crossbones on it. The player who draws the Jolly Roger has to do an uncomfortable or painful stunt, but must resist the urge to scream. It's the least intelligent use of a library since
The Da Vinci Code hit the shelves.
Continue reading Silent Library video goes from viral to cable
Posted Mar 9th 2007 10:05AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: NBC, Video, Web, Heroes
Did you see the
Heroes spoof on YouTube? It's called
Zeroes, and it features a familiar voice talking about regular people with "Pointless Abilities". For example, one guy can ripple his stomach and a girl can put her entire fist in her mouth. You get the idea. It's worth a chuckle or two.
It turns out, the 2-minute spoof was an NBC creation. Marketing guru Vince Manze admitted
to Variety that he created the spoof without any fanfare or even a tease to the real series, just as an experiment. He didn't even tell
Heroes creator Tim Kring about it. The video short got more than 1.5 million views on YouTube. Minze seems to be one of the few marketing guys who "get it". He knows that people aren't going to YouTube to watch advertisements or promos (unless they're exceptionally creative).
How do you guys feel about this? The network is getting buzz for its show by spoofing it. Is it sneaky or is it creative marketing?
Zeroes is after the jump:
Continue reading Zeroes was an NBC creation - VIDEO
Posted Nov 28th 2006 8:31AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: ABC, Industry, Ugly Betty
According to this morning's edition of
The Hollywood Reporter, YouTube will announce a deal today to put viral videos on Verizon mobile phones. YouTube will become one of the channels on Verizon's VCast service, which costs subscribers $15/month. But that's not all. The deal also allows Verizon cell phone users to send videos from their phones directly to YouTube.
In addition, VCast will also have mini-episodes of the telenovela featured on
Ugly Betty, called
Vidas de Fuego.
Posted Nov 21st 2006 9:04AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, VH1
A little bit of late news for you: Jim Breuer is the new host of
Web Junk 20. He actually premiered on Friday, but I'm a little slow this week.
Web Junk 20 is a weekly countdown-type show on VH1 that airs all the biggest viral videos of the week. You may remember Jim Breuer as 'Goat Boy' for four years on
Saturday Night Live. He also has a hilarious comedy special that occasionally airs on Comedy Central, and he's currently hosting the second most popular radio show on Sirius (behind Howard Stern) called
Jim Breuer Unleashed.
Best Week Ever has a
clip of Breuer here. While it's great to see Breuer again, I don't like the show's format where the host interrupts video clips to make remarks that aren't all that funny.
Posted Nov 10th 2006 3:25PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, HBO, Industry, Web, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals
Amanda Congdon, co-founder and former host of comedy video blog
Rocketboom.com, is
working with HBO to develop a multiplatform comedy series with televised and online components.
In addition to owning Rocketboom, Congdon has appeared on stage and in commercials. She intends on both writing and starring in the new HBO series. Most networks are exploring working online and on television simultaneously thanks in part to YouTube, iTunes and the online success of show's like
The Office whose public service announcements and deleted scenes have become popular virals driving traffic to NBC's website.
Between this and the blogger who went on to become a non-unionized writer for
America's Next Top Model, which path from the internet to television industry fame would you choose? It pays to be cute, blonde and videocast.
Posted Sep 28th 2006 1:04PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, Industry, Video
Viral video stars Luke Barats and Joe Bereta were just the subject of a bidding war that ended with a victory for NBC. The two fellas are recent graduates from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington and now they have a one year production deal with NBC, with an option for a second year. No pressure, boys!
The two met in an improv class in 2003, which is when they started creating comedy skits, improv, and music videos for the internet. NBC, and the rest of the world, found them on YouTube and CollegeHumor.com. Their most popular sketches are
Mother's Day and
Cubicle War, which is embedded after the jump.
I'm going to go ahead and predict an ironic future ala Andy Samburg for these two. Something they do on NBC will become popular on YouTube, but NBC will insist the video gets taken down
Continue reading Viral video stars headed to NBC -- VIDEO
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