Webheads surfing 'Net for series
TV exex woo auds with adaptations of online hits
At the end of last year, there were 34.3 million U.S. broadband households, meaning roughly that number are frequent users of the Internet. Networks have been trying to tap into the brand-name recognition of the Internet and translate Web sites into a series.
It sounds like a foolproof plan. It isn't.
The current TV season will be remembered as the year the nets finally started experimenting with new means of distribution: series downloads for iPods, online channels and posting original content to their Web sites.
They hope it will be a two-way street. The TV world has recruited people from magazines, newspapers, academia, etc.
But it has a mixed track record at turning brand names into series: For every bigscreen hit like "MASH" there is a "Dot.Comedy."
As the digital and online worlds clamor for more TV-based content, the feeling isn't mutual.
But while Internet users download episodes of "Lost" and stream Web programming recapping reality skeins like "Survivor," the pipe isn't flowing the other way.
Few Web-based titles have found their way to the small screen. And the Internet hasn't yet proven to be a training ground for TV talent. Beyond a basic acknowledgement that it's there, original online content isn't on most network execs' radar.
"I don't think people have figured it out yet," says CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler.
That's not to say they haven't been trying.
DreamWorks TV signed a deal earlier this year with twentysomething blogger Jason Mulgrew to develop a show based on his online musings as a college grad navigating life in New York.
And last month, the brains behind the Web site Fark.com, which compiles links to bizarre stories and sites across the globe, partnered with producers Vic Dunlop and Dean Crescenzi to develop a TV version.
"There's a benefit to reaching into mediums and finding different voices," Tassler says. "And I think as the platform matures and as more and more talent does migrate to the Web, it will become more sophisticated."
In one instance of a Web franchise failing in translation, Sony attempted in vain for several years to get a syndicated TV version of the auction site eBay off the ground.
The plan would have involved local stations hosting their own auction sites and sharing in eBay revenue. But the show fizzled as execs got scared off by an untested business model.
A TV version of Web site the Smoking Gun found its way to Court TV, but its first incarnation -- starring "The Daily Show" alum Mo Rocca -- flopped. A new, all-puppets edition later launched.
That's right: Puppets.
This version worked slightly better and still airs as a series of specials.
The list goes on.
The Drudge Report briefly found a home on the Fox News Channel, but host Matt Drudge quickly learned that the anything-goes mantra of the Web doesn't work on TV.
The two sides parted company after Fox accused Drudge of planning on airing a picture of a fetus to express his anti-abortion views. Drudge countered by accusing the channel of censorship.
Even DreamWorks realized it got a little ahead of itself by signing a blogger with no previous TV experience. The Mulgrew project has been postponed as the studio looks to pair him with a writer who can translate his idea to TV audiences.
"Certainly there's untapped talent out there," says DreamWorks TV's Justin Falvey. "At the same time, these people are not accomplished screenwriters. You have to realize that you're tapping into a comedic point of view -- a voice -- as opposed to believing you've identified a truly gifted TV writer."
In many ways, the inability to turn Web content into TV concepts mirrors the same lack of success the small screen has had in spinning off newspaper and magazine brands.
"USA Today on TV" was a disaster in the late 1980s. And CNN's attempts to turn sibs Time, People and Entertainment Weekly into newsmags were flops.
Like those attempts at bringing ink-stained household names to TV, the online, digital world may be too static for TV.
Downloading a Web short or reading a blog is a solitary act -- and it's still text- and information-based, elements that don't work on TV. (The closest counterparts would be features like the Weather Channel's local forecasts, TV Guide Channel's program guide crawl, or local public access information channels you speed past while trying to find a movie.)
"TV has either got to have dramatic action or comedic action," notes Tassler. "Right now, navigating the Web experience is not the most active process. It's about trying to find a way to augment it and adapt it."
With millions of bloggers pounding out specific sites on everything from right-wing politics in Boise to hot kosher restaurants in Orlando -- and online entities targeting narrow auds as well -- that world may still be too fragmented for TV outlets that demand broader viewership.
"Some of these sites may be great segments in a show," says one studio exec. "But I don't know if it's a show on its own."
Still, execs say it's just a matter of time -- and of developing a TV franchise, not just slapping something on air that worked online.
"I'm not sure ultimately how successful a translation that will be," says 20th Century Fox TV prexy Dana Walden. "What's successful on the Internet are very short bursts of entertainment, rather than development that can be sustained over hundreds of episodes of storylines. But we'd all be crazy to ignore the creativity that exists in that format right now."
