The highs and lows of digital drama

Sep 2, 2008

The Burg, Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager, Lonelygirl15 (all started in 2006)
June 2006 was a big month for Web entertainment. Spurred by the presence of the four-month-old YouTube, which made online video readily accessible to millions of people, producers and other creative types started experimenting with the medium.

That same month saw the debut of three very different groundbreaking Web shows: The Burg, a sitcom about twentysomethings living in the hip Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg; Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager, a campy series about Darth Vader's hypothetical younger brother who works in a grocery store; and Lonelygirl15, the video diary of a fictional teenage girl who gets caught up in the exploits of a mysterious cult.

The Burg and Chad Vader were obviously works of fiction, but Lonelygirl15 was played off as a real video blog. That worked for several months, but even after the protagonist was outed as an actress, the show continued.

All three were impressive underground successes: The creators of The Burg went on to create The All-For-Nots for Vuguru, former Disney chief Michael Eisner's Web video studio. Chad Vader has been released on DVD. And Lonelygirl15's creators formed the production company Eqal, which just announced its third series, The Resistance.

Credit: Photo by The Burg, Eqal, Blame Society Productions/Caption by Caroline McCarthy