Could Louis C.K. Make His TV Show Using The Direct-To-Fan Model?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_Morning_Matters_with_Alan_P...
Also, just last week there was a 20 minute comedy pilot called People Just Do Nothing on the BBC which started life as a series of 10 minute youtube shorts. It had various industry people behind it, such as the producer from The Office. It'll likely get a series.
It seems that in UK comedy at least, instead of pitching your show to commissioning editors at the channels, who probably won't understand it, you just make your own pilot and put it on youtube to demonstrate the concept. Peter Serafinowicz did this back in 2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peter_Serafinowicz_Show
That's less common than people who pitch traditionally, but yeah there are people who do that. I think the reason it works with comedy is that often you can make a good pilot with a tiny budget, and possibly the reason it happens more in the UK than the US is that our (English) comedy is slightly less formulaic and more crazy - subjective point of view, though.
A couple of other examples... American sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", the actors spent $200 shooting a pilot that they showed to networks as their pitch. The Office (original UK version) was originally a student project by Stephen Merchant, with Gervais as the only actor in it, and they then sold the show to the BBC based on that video they made. Gervais said in an interview something along the lines of "the BBC never would have bought it based on a traditional pitch because it only makes sense and is funny when you actually see it".
Somehow, I doubt it. Louis C.K. is in a pretty unique space to try and do this kind of thing, and as mentioned in the article he would have no obvious reason to do this for his own show. To my, admittedly limited, knowledge no-one has managed to replicate the success that Louis has had, so if the implication is that we're on the cusp of major disruption in the distribution model, then I remain sceptical. In the next 10-20 years? Sure, why not.
So I'm guessing that you and the article are both right. They don't mention a timeframe, and you mention a reasonable timeframe. Essentially, "never mistake a clear view for a short distance".
We think of the internet as a fast moving medium. But It's fascinating how long it has taken for so much old world functionality to migrate to the Internet. It has been 20 years, and we're only now seeing banks and other companies trying to restructure their physical locations around Internet services.
But I could completely imagine someone else in a similar position doing, perhaps even with Louis CK's help and the same platform. Imagine if Chris Rock wanted to launch a new crazy-experimental TV show. Funding via the Internet, with Louis CK's help, and then license it to a TV channel as well. I think it would be a huge success.