Starting this Monday, don’t be surprised if you see a lot of Tick fanatics standing on the rooftop shouting “Spoon!”
That’s when the short-lived, 2001 live-action sitcom adaptation of The Tick will start airing on Sony’s "The Minisode Network" (which can be found on Crackle.com, YouTube and MySpace). But Newsarama has an exclusive look at the full Minisode version of the show's pilot episode right now. Check it out by clicking on the link.
That’s right, fans. Patrick Warburton is back; big and blue and nigh invulnerable, not forgetting totally hilarious. And he’s now sharing a site that includes such animated heroes as the MTV/Mainframe version of Spider-Man, Voltron, Roger Ramjet, He-Man and She-Ra.
“It seems like five years ago, but we really started around Thanksgiving two years ago, November 2006,” recalls Lisa Dubbe-Herbert, Executive Director, Sony Pictures Television Video Networks. “It went public in May, 2007.”
Since then, just the animation content this online network has provided has become sterling. It includes a wide range of properties ranging from The Jackie Chan Adventures to Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, The Three Stooges to Dilbert.
“At Sony we really believe in brands, that is treating the TV brands we have like properties and franchises,” explains Dubbe-Herbert. “We also want to give the viewers choice on how they want to enjoy them. Minisodes’ is a new format to give you ways to enjoy these great TV shows. When we started, we first went to our library. Now we are also going outside and bring in other people.
“How we are set up is definitely ad supported. Whether we have them available for download-to-purchase sometime soon is maybe a possibility. Right now we are doing advertising. Also, one thing we do is maybe give you five minutes of a show and then point to where you can get the whole thing at another site.”
What’s also interesting is according to the lady, Minisodes is also being built to be a two-way system for viewers to communicate with Sony, and vice versa. It also apparently is being lead by fans.
“I made it a point to get Volton in there because I loved that show when I was a kid,” says Dubbe-Herbert. “I know that a lot of our viewers also are or they are the next generation who are discovering these shows for the first time because they aren’t on TV anymore. I mean we really saw this happen last week. We uploaded a number of minisodes of the Three Stooges on YouTube. It got amazing results. You’d be surprised how people just grabbed on to them. It was amazing how many 14-16 year olds were in the audience. They wanted more of them!
"It makes me think we’re tapping into things that are truly iconic. I think Voltron is another one of those shows. Another one that is shaping up to be the same way are He-Man and She-Ra. They definitely hit a core.
“The Minisode Network really started because we had this group of executives saying ‘Hey! We got this great library of programming just sitting around.’ We really do. Sony has a great collection of 80s sitcoms, 70s action and 90s animation like Jackie Chan Adventures and the version of Spider-Man that aired on MTV. Great geek properties. So we decided to grow from there. We are continuing to mine that.
“The CGI version of Spider-Man continues to do very well for us. In fact, all our animation does well both online and on cel phones. So now we’ve decided to continue to grow the animated genre. Now we’re doing deals with other content providers”
As for adding on The Tick? Like it’s hero Dubbe-Herbert found its addition a true no brainer.
“I also think The Tick was a little ahead of its time,” she opines. “So Minisodes will be our way of handling our ‘brilliant but cancelled’ shows. I believe we have nine episodes of The Tick and we’re really excited about it.
“Another thing. We want our viewers to know that Minisodes is really a two-way path. We really want to talk to our viewers. A lot of time it's simple stuff like where can they find things or will they have any more just like they just seen. It can also go to which of the Three Stooges DVDs would we recommend or where. We’re also finding people want more and more of this, too. Sony sees a lot of potential in this. It’s not going away. We’re having a lot of fun with this and love how it’s growing.”
In the meantime, break out that comfy chair and tune in to Minisodes starting this Monday. Like any true hero, The Tick is back and you’ll be able to see him online.
Related Media:Newsarama's exclusive premiere of The Tick's pilot Minisode
