A TV Pilot That Never Aired Gets Viral

by Karl on June 28, 2006

I love this story and hope i’m not the last person in the world to blog about it, I would hate to become totally redundant. So there’s this TV pilot that was filmed last year titled, ironically enough “Nobody’s Watching”, and it’s kind of a show within a show about two friends who want to create a sitcom and the WB is making a reality show about them making the show. Anyway, it got axed, never aired. Except someone uploaded it in three parts to YouTube.

These are the stats for the first 10 minute segment:
Views: 291,600
Comments: 645
Favorited: 2249 times
Awards:
#49 – Most Viewed (This Month)
#34 – Most Discussed (This Month)

So this is what? the long tail effect for TV pilots?

Youtube the new “focus group”?

A venue for niche shows that only 1/4 of a million people want to watch?

In the end there has always been a tension in the Creativity & Distribution relationship, the music business knows this, the movie business knows this, and the TV and Ad business is getting to know this. As distribution becomes cheaper, and the tools used to create becomes cheaper more innovations in the way we experience and participate in media will become possible.

BTW funniest line in the show was in reference to show related clothing.

“But no-one wants a pair of boxer shorts with “Smallville” written across the front”

“No, but i’d buy the pair that said Everwood”

Go take a look this is the first 10 minute segment

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July 4, 2006 at 5:45 am
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

zekesneaker June 29, 2006 at 7:53 am

Or perhaps this is simply ushering in “the age of the dabbler”. Well, actually Wired calls it “the age of peer production”.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/people.html

In any event, if you are anything of an art historian you will remember that the Renaissance was the age of the dabbler also.

Hey, should be fun!

karl long June 29, 2006 at 8:45 am

Holy cow, that’s an appropriate article. It seems to me that Ideas are the currency here, and dabbling is a great term. Dabbling is like prototyping, experimenting, innovating, and being able to distribute virtually for free.

Karl

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