For years, television developed new talent with a simple system that served it well for many years: Give Bonnie Hunt a show, cancel it after eight weeks, repeat. But now programming executives must grudgingly log into the YouTube computer television website to watch the films that people have made with their iMovies. Recently, the iMovies of one Shane Dawson have attracted the attention of NBC, and Deadline Hollywood reports that the network is developing a workplace comedy with the online cyberspace star.
Dawson’s style will be familiar to anyone who has a niece with access to YouTube: a mix of frenetic monologues that veer off into brief comedy sketches and/or song parodies. References to tween culture abound, as in this One Direction sendup:
Dawson’s most popular video is a parody of Fred, another YouTube phenomenon who ended up with his own TV show. Fred’s series was canceled by Nickelodeon after 24 episodes, but hey, he beat Bonnie Hunt. Progress!