Tag Archives: clipcritics

Network Poaches Space-Comedy Web Series, But Changes Outfit Colors

The creators of ClipCritics are seeing something awfully familiar on SkyFy. The new show, “Outer Space Astronauts,” also looks so familiar to ClipCritics fans that they’ve written its creator, Chad Sahley, with congratulations.

Turns out Chad, who produced “When Standup Stood Out,” has no ties with the show. But, quite coincidentally, he and his team approached SkyFy with a show called “Webscapers, about a top-secret crew digitized into the internet to surf and protect the world wide web (think Star Trek in Cyber Space).”

ClipCritics Emergency
ClipCritics Emergency
Outer Space Astronauts Emergency
Outer Space Astronauts Emergency

“We pitched SkyFy a couple years back showing them our animation style along with our trailer,” said Chad. “They said they didn’t do comedies. Shortly after we decided to produce the show on Youtube and call it the Clip Critcs with the hopes of someday getting the money to produce the full idea of Webscapers.”

Of course, “Outer Space Astronauts” is a Star Trek spoof based on outer-space — not cyberspace. And although the animation style (see images) is unmistakably similar, SkyFy reduced its legal risk by changing the outfits from orange to blue.

This isn’t the first report that a network has poached an amateur, and a difficult thing to challenge. Remember when ABC featured promos with Lost action figures that were indisputably similar to the FineBrothers’ work?

In related news, ABC’s “Good Morning America” Host George Stephanopolous announced he’ll feature a 14-year-old sidekick who pretends to be a manic 5-year-old child that speaks in a squeaky-pitched voice. His name will be “Jed,”and he’ll have a crush on “Julie,” live with his drug-abusing mom, and scream about a bully named Levin.

The Davids vs Goliaths of Online Video

Okay. I gave myself a 15-minute “time out” to reflect on why I have a difficult time wishing success upon the Hulu.com and Strike.tv. models — and a new one I found this morning called Heavy.com. And it comes down to a “David vs. Goliath” perspective.

Online video, to me and many others, represents the opportunity for talented individuals to garner an audience (and profit) without experience, connections or specific talent in one entertainment discipline — writing, directing, acting. I’m hard on Strike.tv, when in fact the initiative is, in fact, its own David against the Goliath of the Hollywood machine.

I’d like to retain a large audience online as Nalts, but I’m quite happy when shows like “The Retarded Policeman” blast past me in views and subscribers (and I take great honor when writer/director Greg Benson refers to me as Geriatric man). I look forward to the day that “Clip Critics” garners an audience well beyond mine. Even shows like PopTub and HBO Labs “Hooking Up” take care to ingratiate themselves to the core online viewers and “stars.” The shows’ motive may be to tap into the vibrant YouTube community, but it still feels polite.

There’s another problem with the format of many online shows on Strike.tv and other sites. They are unrelated “shows” with different target audiences — trying to create another destination site. Success to date via online video is primarily driven by an individual (not a “show”) posting on an already popular video site… not by trying to invent a new network or destination. I can’t fault these guys for trying, because they want to monetize their content, and maintain control. But unless something changes, the creators of these shows will find greater profit by building a larger YouTube audience with a smaller revenue percentage — instead of trying to siphon an audience to an unknown website in hopes that the higher “CPM” advertising revenue will create profit.

This has no precedence of working, even if Hulu enjoys greater revenue (and growing audience) because all of the content is “advertising friendly.” How often does someone return to “Funny or Die” to see if anything as big as “Landlord” is worth checking out? This Stavenhagen’s Food Pawn Shop with Steve Buscemi and Will Ferrell” looks promising, but the site isn’t streaming for me to tell… did someone forget to pay the server bill?

I will continue to root for the “little guys,” like ShayCarl, who has no connections to mainstream media but still has a delicious portfolio and rabid fans. Check out Rhett and Link’s theme song for ShayCarl (due to his victory of the SuperNotes contest). Shay is a family guy who rallies his “ShayTard” viewers like the Pied Piper of YouTube, and his horrible editing and clunky branding (see his homepage banner) makes him “one of us.”

Finally, I hope that new entrants to online video appreciate is that what makes a “show” popular is the lack of a show.

The majority of top YouTube “stars” are in not shows, but individuals doing their own writing, editing, acting and promotion. Sure this may change, but it remains mostly true today. And that’s what fascinates me about online video. It’s also why many of these people — without a proficiency in one creative discipline, but rather a “mix” of many — may not “cross over” to mainstream media. But they are undeniably building a new medium that I quite like — and I’m not alone.