The Starting Line is an unlikely history-maker, coming from Fox's Drive, a show that sped in with a lot of hype but crashed and burned after only two episodes. The three-minute clip introduces the characters as cars speed down a busy highway. Only 50 seconds actually aired on TV. The entire special effect was only ever seen on Fox.com (and YouTube, above)-- making it the first Internet clip nominated for a Primetime Emmy (the uncensored Dick in A Box doesn't count).

The clip took a year and a half to produce. And it took a big loophole in this year's new Emmy rules to get nominated.

Continue reading "Awards Shows: Clipgasm: How 'Drive' made Emmy history" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Online Nation, set to be trounced on Sunday nights under the weight of 60 Minutes, football and-- if it lasts so long-- Family Guy, features Stevie Ryan, better known as the YouTube character, Little Loca.

And though LonelyGirl15 actress Jessica Rose has filmed a bunch of episodes for Greek, ABC Family's upcoming college series, it's Stevie who's being touted as the first YouTube star to land a paid TV job (which leads to more talk and hope about network suits trolling the Web for talent, etc.).

Continue reading "Viral Video: Little Loca gets a TV series" »

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Have you seen the Will Ferrell Internet clip that's getting more laughs and attention than Alanis Morissette's version of "My Humps"?

Will and his partner Adam McKay say they put it together in 45 minutes (sort of the way they come up with their bigscreen movie plots). Which sounds like an afterthought, but it's actually the cornerstone of a more ambitious Internet project that you can bet will not be free forever.

It's funny, though!

See the video clip... after the jump...

Continue reading "Viral Video: Hollywood bigs move in on homemade Net vids" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Comedy Central opened its stand-up comedy school today. Classes are free and it's all online. Which makes it exactly like those online traffic school courses without the driving parts.

Crash Course in Comedy, which you can find here, features ten video classes led by Ted Alexandro, a comedian who's had a couple of specials on the network and looks just like that guy in the picture on the left and on the site.

Ted gives tips on stage presence, joke development and writing, and illustrates it all with clips of stand-up comedians like Lewis Black and Dave Attell from the Comedy Central archives. One cool part is a section that allows you where you can build your own comedian avatar, customize the clothes, accessories (thankfully, potential "props" are limited to a guitar or water bottle--sorry Carrot)-- sort of like that Tyra Banks site without the bulimia-- and backdrop-- with a record feature that lets you record the jokes in your own voice. There's a section that allows you to e-mail your stand-up set to pals-- and a gallery where you can post the set so people can rate it.

But the coolest part?

Continue reading "Viral Video: Now you can be a stand-up and get a sitcom" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tabloid Baby pal and contributor Dr. Franklin Ruehl is a guest tonight on The Tom Green Show, an oddball talk show that's quietly creating the same kind of revolution-- and grabbing the same young audience-- as his old old MTV series.

Green, the performance artist prankster who rocketed to fame on MTV before losing a testicle, his movie star wife and releasing Freddy Got Fingered, has seen his career slide since it peaked with a cameo in then-wife Drew Barrymore's Charlie's Angels (which ranks high on Tabloid Baby's list of The Top 50 Movies of All Time).

After hitting a low trading spots on The Tonight Show with Ross The Intern, Green retreated to his home in the Hollywood Hills, and last summer, he began doing a talk show. For the Internet. From his living room. The show was relaunched last week with guests including Steve-O from Jackass (the show that was built on Green's earlier work), Andrew "Dice" Clay, Melissa Rivers and Neil Hamburger.

And while Howard Stern pretends to be blazing a new trail by forcing people to pay to hear his aging radio show (same as the old show, except with sweary words), it's clear that Tom Green, with his deadpan absurdist humour, unpredictability and Old School sensibility, is the one who's taking show business into the future.

And here's a surprise: a look at this week's lineup reveals that his guest list is better than Craig Ferguson's!

Continue reading "Viral Video: TV's best talk show isn't on TV" »

Posted by Tabloid Baby at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)