The highs and lows of digital drama

Sep 2, 2008

Prom Queen (2007)
Michael Eisner has seen the future, and it's online video. In the spring of 2007, the former Disney CEO's online video production company, Vuguru, launched its inaugural series, Prom Queen, in partnership with MySpaceTV.

With a young and pretty cast, a salacious mystery plot, a debut right at the start of high school prom season, and big-money production backing, there were high hopes for Prom Queen.

Was it a success? Not quite. Eisner later spoke of how advertising revenues were disappointing, despite millions of views of the videos. But he attributed those shortcomings to the fledgling nature of the industry, and has vowed to keep going. But so far, Vuguru still has yet to churn out a real hit: medical thriller Foreign Body, the most recent Vuguru production to debut, was a flop.

Credit: Photo by Vuguru/Prom Queen/Caption by Caroline McCarthy