Going against the normal pattern, with popular entertainment seeking to establish an Internet identity, Icebox.com's budding animated Internet series Starship Regulars is moving to television as a live-action, half-hour series.
Icebox said it licensed the comedy series about ordinary working stiffs on a starship – "men and women, earthlings, and other species" – to Showtime Networks for an undisclosed price.
The animated Web series was created by Rob LaZebnik, co-executive producer of The Simpsons and one of the founders of Icebox.
The series will begin airing later this summer simultaneously on the Internet and TV – in Showtime's "Sci-Friday" Friday night science-fiction programming block – as animated shorts. The live-action, prime-time series will debut June 1, 2001.
Although many animation companies such as Warner Brothers and Disney are turning TV success into Internet dollars, Icebox CEO Steve Stanford said television has a history of developing content from other media.
"There is a well-established trend of things starting in one form and migrating to television," said Icebox CEO Steve Stanford. "The Simpsons, for example, started as shorts on the Tracy Ullman Show. South Park started as animated Christmas cards. We think the Web is the best place to incubate great television ideas."
Icebox will get production fees, a percentage of the show's back-end gross, and rights payments for the show.
Starship Regulars , a sendup of Star Trek and other science-fiction series, is one of a number of animated Internet shows that Icebox hopes to sell to television networks.
Icebox is "using the viral power of the Internet to develop and market a program," said analyst Peter Christy of Jupiter Communications. "But it isn’t dependent upon the Internet for its success."
Icebox is based in Los Angeles and was launched in June 2000.
Other Icebox series include Zombie College (innocent freshmen have their brains eaten by zombies) and Hard Drinkin' Lincoln (our favorite president was actually a boozer).
Stanford said some of Icebox's shows will make their transition to the small screen as animated shows and others will be live-action. In the case of Starship Regulars, a live-action format meshed best with Showtime's live-action program lineup.
