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Web Television
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The Spot: The First Web-Tv Series
Producer Scott Zakarin launched the first-ever online television series, “The Spot," that ran from 1995-1997. The episodic series, based off the tv drama, "Melrose Place," was completely revolutionary. It depended entirely on advertising to subsidize production costs breaking through conventional television theory by blurring the lines between "exhibition" and "distribution." The series captured a new and “interactive audience," that were able to engage with cast and productiion via thespot.com -
Behind the Music that Sucks
An animated web miniseries that parodies VH1’s Behind the Music. It was created in 1998, and became so popular that it made the jump from the Internet to traditional TV. -
WhirlGirl
WhirlGirl is an animated sci-fi web series. Aired by Showtime, it was the first independently produced web series licensed by a national television network. -
Dayton Beach Live
The Raven, which started as an internet radio website, launched Daytona Beach Live, a promotional series about the daily life and events of Daytona Beach. This promotional campaign was revolutionary at its time. Creator Harold Kionka was able to lucratively sell advertising on the site. -
Red vs. Blue
Why Are We Here? Comic science fiction web series. Red vs. Blue is based off these Red and Blue Teams who are two groups of soldiers engaged in a supposed civil war. As the audience it seems as though we are watching video game simulation but there are voiceovers involved. -
Salad Fingers
Salad Fingers is an animated web series originally created by David Firth. It was released in the UK in July of 2004. It went on to gain internet popularity in 2005. Each episode is about 6 minutes long. -
Soup of the Day
Episode 1 Web series based on man dating three women at the same time. It consisted of 19 episodes varying in length from 3-8 minutes and were posted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on YouTube and Break.com. It was later released on DVD as a full-length movie on February 2007. -
Prom Queen
Series first premiered on MySpace. The series consists of 80 episodes, 90 seconds each and is one of the best-funded web television series. The series is now available to watch on the CW online. The plot revolves around a text message about someone who is going to kill the prom queen, the series then unfolds from there. -
The Guild
The Guild Episode 1The Guild is a web television series written and created by Felicia Day. The show is based off of a group of gamers, mostly shot from the video cameras off each individual computer as they play countless hours on their online guild. Originally started and circulated through YouTube to gain visibilty and was soon after underwritten by Microsoft. This web series is significant because it really implemented social media and marketing in a different way than other web series previously. -
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Dr. Horrible Trailer During the Writers Guild Strike of 2007-2008, Joss Whedon created this web television series. Starring Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog consists of three acts of approximately 14 minutes each. They were first released online as individual episodes, with two-day intervals between each release. This series created a path that web television would be seen as a legitamate format. -
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Children's Hospital Picked Up By Adult Swim
Children's Hospital Episode 1 One of the first web television shows picked up by a television network to distribute new episodes. -
Hulu Plus
Hulu announces a premium service that will stream a larger library of content. In the future this could be the platform for Hulu's original web television series. -
The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl
Comedy web series created in 2011 by Issa Rae that features her as the main character "J". The series follows J as she navigates love, friendship, and office politics. -
College Humor Releases Star Wars Themed Web Series "Troopers"
Episode 1 High production value for a comedy, with weekly episodes. -
Crackle Releases Issues
Sony's online streaming service, Crackle, offers a variety of Sony films and television shows as well as crackle original series. In 2011 Crackle started to shift their focus to long form web television, offering a product similar to more traditional television. -
The Walking Dead Webisodes
AMC produced this original content exclusively for the internet, as a way to promote their show the Walking Dead. -
House of Cards
This was the first Netflix original series House of Card, beginning a trend of original content produced by strictly online platforms. House of Cards was so significant for many of the close similarities it shared with traditional television. With David Fincher and Kevin Spacey the show could have easily been aired on a channel like HBO or AMC. -
Amazon Releases 18 Original Pilots
Inspired by Netflix’s original content, Amazon green-lit 18 original pilots that they aired exclusively through Amazon. Amazon created a completely different campaign from Netflix though in the way that cheaply produced a variety pilots and let it’s users rate and determine which would ultimately be funded.
