In 1999, Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab wrote a pilot called Heat Vision and Jack starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson for the Fox network. The pilot didn't make it. And apparently they both lost out on making it big in the industry.

After failure in the big leagues, Schrab and Harmon decided to go indie. They began hosting a series of movie nights or festivals. Faced with numerous submissions of orginal, homegrown movies, the festivals quickly evolved into a web-based tv channel.

How it works.
  1. Aspiring directors submit a pilot of their proposed show. This pilot can be no longer than 5 minutes. Shorter submissions are acceptable.
  2. The pilots are then reviewed by the guys running the website. If the pilot gains approval from them, the pilot goes to the next step.
  3. Pilots are screened at a monthly festival to an audience who then vote for their favorite pilot.
  4. The top five pilots(based on audience votes), are accepted as the prime time shows for the web channel.
  5. Prime time shows that fail to gain enough votes to stay in the top five are cancelled.
  6. Prime time shows that stay in the top five are allowed to submit a new episode for the next montly audience vote.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

The result is some pretty funny shows. House of Cosbys and The 'Bu are my two favorites. The website hosts all the canceled shows and many failed pilots, so there are hours of entertainment to be had.

Warning: Not all of these shows are good. In fact, many are very bad and/or stupid. There is frequent nudity, violence, swearing, and all sorts of wacked out things. If you don't like the shows, feel free to submit your own.

Is this the future of television entertainment? Open source tv? Sounds good to me.


Jumplink to http://www.channel101.com to check it out.

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