Written by Copy and Pastry is a comedy web series that stars the show’s creators Scott McCabe and Tory Stanton as themselves, a couple of roommates in Berkeley who are trying to break into the online pastry delivery business. The episodes, each under ten minutes, follow the antics of Scott and Tory as they navigate the challenges of starting a small business. They deal with characters such as Patty Plumbopple (Rana Weber), the city health administrator, a spaced out hippie whose office is decorated with naked drawings of he 10-year-old son and a cranky priest played by David Weise who chastises the duo for trying to sell their baked goods on his church property.. The episodes all end with a Saturday Night Live style parody television commercial of a fictional business or product like Pud’s Pizza or the ePhone 3H. The show features a unique mix of clever dialogue and slapstick physical comedy.
The Annoying Orange
The Annoying Orange (Dane Boedigheimer) is one of the most popular web series on the internet. The show displays a talking orange with a funny-looking face that has a humorous take on making fun of other fruits and vegetables. The other characters in the show also enjoy annoying Orange. Orange and his other friends all live in the kitchen together. The Annoying Orange has more friends such as a small apple, two bananas, Bartlett pear, marshmallow, kiwi, and grandpa lemon (all voiced by Dane Boedigheimer). More of Annoying Orange’s friends are grapefruit, Liam the Leprechaun (Robert Jennings), female passion fruit (Justine Ezarik), and the Knife (Kevin Nalty). The character Knife is kitchen tool and he appears when Annoying Orange announces his presence. Several popular guest stars on the show include the musical group Weezer, and actor James Caan. All of the characters have their own Facebook page and Twitter accounts for their fans to visit, follow and comment which has helped to continue the social media buzz about the show.
China
China takes audiences inside the secluded Asian country and presents Chinese culture in a web show for curious viewers. The Explore multimedia team goes beyond China’s great wall, recording educational and documentary clips about the land with the help from a Annenberg Foundation grant. Explore got permission from the Chinese government to film cities like Shanghai, documenting society from the people who live there. The web show also investigates environmental and human rights issues within the communist nation in its “Closer Look” series. Buddhism and other Chinese religions come into focuses when explore travels along the great wall to film a secluded Buddhist master who believes that all the world’s problems can be solved with simplicity. Asian philosophy, art and education come into view, when the Explore media team heads to China’s rural countryside, exposing viewers to the country’s simple traditions. The country’s animal and wildlife appear in series, which covers the Panda and its struggles to survive extinction. The web show also provides viewers with photos taken by Explore as they went on tour.
T.J. Hooker Minisode
T.J. Hooker minisodes is a webseries that shows episodes of the 1980s cop drama T.J. Hooker. The show features William Shatner, Adrian Zmed, Heather Locklear and James Darren. Hooker (William Shatner) is a sergeant and 15 year police department veteran. Street-wise and savvy, hooker is a no-nonsense cop that dances to his own tune. When trouble arises, he can always count on his partner Vince Romano (Adrian Zmed) as well as a rookie officer he mentors, Stacey Sheridan and veteran Officer Jim Corrigan. Due to his tough demeanor, he often clashed with his station chief Captain Sheridan (Richard Herd). Several stars made guest appearances on the show including Shatner’s Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy, Nichole Eggert, Jim Brown, James Hong, Jerry Lee Lewis, Alex Rocco, Robert Davi and David Caruso. Unlike more of the stylized cop shows of the day, T.J. Hooker depicted a more hands on approach to police work.
The World of Cory & Sid
The World of Cory and Sid is a web series, created in 2009, directed by Caryn K. Hayes. In this web series, Sid (Pearce Akpata) and Cory (David Taylor-Sharp) are immature best friends and roommates who are not equipped to handle the responsibilities of being grown-ups. Their grown-up task they have the most difficulty with is to pay their monthly rent. Instead of budgeting their money, the pals often create elaborate scenarios that, in their mind, will raise enough money to meet their monthly need. Some of the situations the two have created include, opening a restaurant in their living room, taking in borders to cover the rent, picking on neighborhood kids, attempting to fight off curses and talking a walk on the dangerous side by experimenting with drug dealing. The elaborate schemes to raise the monthly rent often land the duo in difficult situations where they must rely on each other and the strength of their friendship.
Marzipan’s Answering Machine
Marzipan’s Answering Machine is a flash animated comedy web series that is shown on the popular website, Homestar Runner, which was created by Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel in 2000. The two graduates from the University of Georgia were disappointed by the state of the children’s books available and aspired to create their own, out of which Homestar Runnner was born. The cartoons mix a combination of humor and pop culture references, such as pop songs, TV programs and video games. Marzipan’s Answering Machine allows viewers to listen to one of the main character’s answering machine and the messages she receives, such as prank phone calls, messages regarding her personal life and other unusual and often confusing messages. Some of the callers include a detective, a cable man, Marzipan’s friends, an intoxicated gentleman and man with an indecipherable foreign accent. The show is directed at a female audience, but wasn’t very popular compared to the other animations on Homestar Runner.
Andy Milonakis on My Damn Channel
Andy Milonakis on My Damn Channel is a web show that features the American/Greek comedian, writer, actor and rapper Andy Milonakis. Although he is in his 30s, Milonakis still has the appearance and voice of an adolescent, due to a congenital growth hormone condition. This did not hold him back however, and he has had a successful career in acting and comedy and is best known for the Andy Milonakis Show which aired on MTV. In this web series, Andy Milonakis steals the show once again with his humorous comedy sketches, raps, short films and more. The show was written by Andy Milonakis himself and stars David Wain on the Drums, Don Was as the bassist and Jamie Huhoberac on the keyboard. My Damn Channel is a media platform and entertainment studio where up and coming actors, musicians, comedians and filmmakers are able to showcase their talents and gain valuable exposure.
Munchies
Munchies is a food web series on VBS.TV, which is one of the worlds’s leading 24 hour online broadcasting networks. The show features top chefs like Andrew Carmellini, David Chang, Huge Dufour, Sarah Obraitis and Wylie Dufresne. Munchies gives mundane daytime food shows a run for their money with upbeat, fast paced and energetic scenes in which the chefs answer questions about a wide variety of food and drink. After questions have been answered, the chef of the week will teach viewers the art of making delicious snacks and treats for in-between meals with ordinary ingredients that everyone has in their kitchen cupboards. Throughout the series, viewers are also taken through various parts of New York and its wide range of eateries, as the chefs sample food and offer valuable insight into the places they visit. From traditional Italian pasta and spicy Indian curry to sophisticated caviar, nothing is left out of the picture.
The Junior League of Superheroes
The Junior League of Superheroes is a web show that skews the ever-growing nerd culture in a rather humours way. The show follows the lives of its various characters who are in fact not superheroes just your typical dorks, geeks and nerds as they interact in a world populated by people who are simply not them. Imagine taking The Whitest Kids You Know and locking them in a room with an all-purpose geek and they would produce a show like this. Funny, irreverent and an accurate portrayal of the nerd culture’s humor and sensibility. The Junior league of Superheroes is by far a much more entertaining web show than compared to the typical dirty joke and Star Wars reference spectacles that populate the internet. Along with a YouTube channel and website that makes you wonder if there’s more behind its minimalist design, tJLoS is a welcome change from your average web show as they attempt to pass off what they think is funny. Well written and surprisingly well acted by a cast of geeks, this is a show worth watching for those who want more than a touch of nerd in their comedy.
NBC Fall Preview 2010-2011
The NBC Fall Preview 2010-2011 is a web video that features the upcoming nighttime sitcoms that will premier on NBC this fall. NBC has a total of 13 new series, which include 7 dramas, 5 comdies and a reality show. This falls line up includes “The Event,” a high octane conspiracy thriller, starring Sarah Roemer, Scott Ritter and Blair Underwood; “Harry’s Law” features Kathy Bates as a disillusioned patent attorney looking for a fresh start; “Outlaw” is about a U.S. Supreme Court judge (Jimmy Smits) who returns to private practice; “The Cape” is a drama series starring David Lyons as an honest police officer, who takes on the persona to fight crime and clear his name; “Outsourced” is comedy, which features Todd Dempsey as a man sent to manage a call center in India and “Law and Order: Los Angeles” is a crime drama that follows the same themes of the “Law and Order” series. Other shows include “The Paul Reiser Show,” “Friends With Benefits,” “Perfect Couples,” “Love Bites,” “School Pride,” “Undercovers” and “Chase.”