www.nobodyswatching.tv) indicate that fans have actually talked to him, or to the show's other main character, Will, played by Paul Campbell.
The pilot wound up on YouTube and became one of the site's most popular clips, spurring hundreds of thousands of downloads and attracting the attention of NBC executives, who ordered scripts for six new episodes and signed Killam and Campbell to talent-holding deals. They haven't actually greenlit production of the show yet, though, so Lawrence and the cast have returned to the Internet to build more buzz and cater to online fans by producing short webisodes that are posted right back to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.
Not only is Nobody's Watching a trailblazing Internet success story, but it's also quite possibly the perfect show to follow such a tortuous and unique path to the airwaves (assuming it actually makes it; NBC has until February to pick it up). This is not simply a sitcom that people found funny enough to view and send to their friends. It's a sitcom about a reality show about people creating a sitcom, with layers of meta-storytelling so thick that it's no surprise that one of the reasons the WB initially rejected it was that test audiences found the premise too confusing.
Saturday Evening Lights |
Under the Desert Lights (6 p.m. Saturdays, Vegas TV, Cox Channel 14). It helps to have a better game than last week's 7-0 yawner between Green Valley and Basic high schools, but the idea is intriguing: airing a full-length high-school football game the day after it's played. Vegas TV (which is affiliated with the Weekly's parent company) gives it the full treament, too, with pregame interviews, multiple cameras and KLAS's Chris Matthuis handling the play-by-play. There were a few gaffes, both technical (a few minutes into the game, the station inexplicably restarted the game) and human (the announcer noting that the stands were "packed" for Basic's homecoming as the camera panned the nearly empty visitors' bleachers); and it may be tough for a high-school sportscast to get much attention between Saturday's college and Sunday's NFL games. But for parents and fans of local sports, it certainly beats sitting in the rain. (Green Valley won, by the way.) There are still several weeks of games to go, including postseason coverage.
Scott Dickensheets |
The pilot follows lifelong best friends Will and Derrick as they put together a videotaped plea to networks to let them improve the quality of TV sitcoms. They get a response from executives at the WB, who fly them out to LA and house them on a sitcom set, complete with a live studio audience and a replica of the coffee shop set from Friends. Although Will and Derrick think that they're creating the next great WB sitcom, and being filmed while doing it, the executives really have no intention of airing any sitcom and want the two as unwitting reality-TV stars.
Full of references to other shows and the process of producing TV, Nobody's Watching is about as insider as it gets, although the plot is more organic and less confusing unfolding over the course of a 22-minute episode than it is in a quick synopsis. It's not as brilliant as some online boosters have made it out to be, but it is different and clever and often funny, and the only sitcom in recent years to make good use of a laugh track (in this case, by making it an actual plot point on the show).
The premise of the website is that fictional characters Derrick and Will have been dropped by the WB and are waiting around in LA to see if NBC picks up their option, so in the meantime they're making little videos that play off their love for TV. The site makes no reference to the show's fictional nature, but, a couple of message board posts aside, all of the fans seem to understand the convoluted concept and embrace it, with their enthusiasm for calling Derrick on the phone or responding to posts by the two stars, who write, naturally, in character.
The show-within-a-show-within-a-show concept and all the extraneous jockeying can be a little distracting, especially when what Nobody's Watching ultimately comes down to is the relationship between two friends, a tried-and-true concept that Lawrence has already explored effectively on Scrubs. The delivery method may be cutting-edge, but the fact is that good storytelling, not the power of the Internet, is what will ultimately drive the success of Nobody's Watching, if it gets there.