36 AMERICANWAY
DECEMBER 1 2008
I N T E R N E T
M
Will
WebShows
Showthe
Money?
BYMARKHENRICKS
MILESBECKETT
wanted tomake television
shows, but asaHollywoodoutsider, the for-
merphysician lacked thecontactsand fund-
inghisdreamrequired.SoBeckettanda few
cohorts picked up a handheld camcorder
and created a series of short episodes of a
teen coming-of-agedrama,which they then
postedonan Internet video-sharing site.
The rest is still abit too fresh tobe called
history, but
lonelygirl15
, the online show
they created in 2006, will likely go down
in the archives as the first really successful
episodic web show. It and Beckett’s team’s
second series set in the LG15 universe,
KateModern
, have been viewed on the web
a collective 150million times, Beckett says.
That makes the shows created by him and
his chief colleague, Greg Goodfried, eas-
ily the most popular web shows yet.
Also,
lonelygirl15
landedkudos for itsqualityand
popularity from theWebby Awards, online
video’s equivalent of television’sEmmys.
If you’ve never watched
lonelygirl15
,
you’re missing two-to-six-minute episodes
that follow a group of California teens bat-
tling amysterious foe called theOrder. The
star, Bree, kicked off the series with a set
of ostensibly candid videos filmed in her
bedroom. Viewers latched onto the epi-
sodes almost immediately, believing they
represented a girl’s real-life video diary. In
September 2006, an investigation by fans
uncovered the truth:The showwasa staged
production, and Bree was actress Jessica
LeeRose.
Unveiling thehoaxdidn’thurt the show’s
popularity. Itscreatorswentontotapemore
than 550 episodes over the course of three
seasons, adding multiple video posts each
week,until the seriesfinale inAugust2008.
Rose became themedium’s first star, land-
ing television andmovie roles. AndBeckett
and Goodfried went on to found Eqal, the
industry’smost successful and best-funded
online-show studio todate.
THEREASON
Beckettwasattractedtoonline
drama is clear: The combination of quality,
low-cost recording technology and easydis-
tribution through video sites like YouTube
meant therewas a real alternative to televi-
sion. “For the first time ever, you couldfilm
yourownthingsandput itonlineandmaybe
makeaname foryourself,” saysBeckett,who
works in Sherman Oaks, California. Web
shows also offer something new to viewers,
screenwriters, actors, advertisers, and even
old-lineTV insiders, likeRobBarnett.
A veteran executive of MTV and VH1,
Barnett is the founder and CEO of My
Damn Channel, a New York–based online
video site that features a variety of original
content. One of the site’s most popular of-
ferings is
WainyDays
,whichchronicles the
love-seeking adventures of a nerdy comic
in New York City who Barnett describes
as “kind of an edgy Seinfeld.” Barnett says
the web world is a ferment of innovation.
“There’s a tremendous amount of creativity
here,” he says. “You don’t have a lot of Big
Brother stuff going on.” By that, he means
it’s possible to get things done without
