''Imaginary Bitches'' is a
web series
A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...
created by
Andrew Miller that premiered on May 2, 2008. It comprises thirteen short
webisodes released on its website and
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
.
Overview
The series tells the story of a single girl who deals with the lonely reality that all her friends are in serious relationships by creating imaginary friends to talk to. But, as Edie explains: "They're not really my friends; they're horrible bitches."
The show stars
Eden Riegel
Eden Sonja Jane Riegel (born January 1, 1981) is an American actress. She portrayed Bianca Montgomery in the daytime drama ''All My Children'', and propelled the character into a gay icon, as well as a popular figure within the medium. Nominat ...
,
Elizabeth Hendrickson,
Brooke Nevin and Connie Fletcher-Staton. Guest stars include Michael Traynor,
Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Sarah Gilsig (born November 30, 1971) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles as Meredith Gordon in ''Heroes (American TV series), Heroes'', Kayley in ''Quest for Camelot'', Lauren Davis in ''Boston Public'', Gina Russo in ...
,
Aaron Staton,
Greg Rikaart
Gregory Andrew Rikaart (born February 26, 1977) is an American television actor. He is best known for playing Kevin Fisher (The Young and the Restless), Kevin Fisher on the television soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' since 2003, and also ...
, James Kee,
Chandra West, Brittany Ishibashi,
Sam Page, Charlie Koznick, and Billy Aaron Brown.
''Imaginary Bitches'' episodes have been viewed over 4 million times. In May 2008, ''Imaginary Bitches'' became a YouTube Partner, allowing the creators of the show to share revenue from advertising on YouTube video pages.
The show is something of a family affair. Show creator Andrew Miller is married to lead actress Eden Riegel. Riegel's half-sister, Tatiana S. Riegel, edits the episodes, and her brother, Sam Riegel, co-wrote episode 6 and sound edited episodes one and two. Quyen Tran, the cinematographer, is Sam Riegel's wife.
Characters
Eden and friends
Eden (Eden Riegel): The protagonist of the series. She is slightly self-conscious and extremely lonely due to all of her friends being in relationships. She also has difficulty finding and keeping a boyfriend. She creates the Bitches to have someone to talk to. Her enemies are Brittany, who stole her boyfriend, and Jessalyn, who backstabbed her. She unsuccessfully attempted therapy. One of her favorite shows appears to be ''
Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical internship (medicine), interns, residency (medicine), residents, and attending physician, attendings at the fictional ...
'', she plays a game with The Bitches where whenever someone says "Seriously" they have to eat a piece of chocolate.
Lizzie (Elizabeth Hendrickson): One of Eden's oldest friends, she appears to be perky and very friendly, as well as being open minded to Eden's single-ness. She has a forgetful boyfriend named Jake. In one episode, she breaks up with him after he reacts badly to her thoughts about weddings; however, she calls him in the end. In the same episode, she has an imaginary wedding in a way similar to the bitches but on a larger scale.
Brooke (Brooke Nevin): Appears to be Eden's closest friend. She considers herself to be very supportive of Eden, and helps her when they run into an old nemesis and sets her up with her shrink. She was the first of Eden's friends to learn about the Bitches, as well as the first to intervene. Her boyfriend Michael is extremely well organized, which sometimes bothers her.
Connie (Connie Fletcher-Staton): Eden's most promiscuous friend. She sets Eden up with a man from her office. She prefers not using condoms (citing it as her favorite thing about no longer being single) and has had sex dressed as
Catwoman
Catwoman is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, she debuted as "the Cat" in ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' #1 (spring 1940). She has become one of the superhero Batman' ...
. Her priest is a former porn star.
The bitches
Initially created to be friends to talk to, they quickly developed mean personalities. Though Eden is the only one able to see them they have communicated with Brittany. Although they appear to be best friends they also constantly are at each other's throats.
Catherine: The first bitch, Catherine is the meaner of the two. She can be very greedy, shown when she demanded twice the salary of the cast of ''
Desperate Housewives
''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...
''. She is described by Heather as being snobby. She dislikes Dr. Kee, refusing to even enter his office although he falls in lust with her. She compares Eden's friends to the
Pod People when they attempt to set her up with the perfect guy.
Heather: The nicer, if more promiscuous bitch. She is described by Eden as being around 5'4", with dirty blonde hair, wide green eyes, and pouty lips. Catherine calls her an anorexic whore. Eden says everything about her is perky. She has an infatuation with bald men, and wants to have sex with Dr. Kee because of his baldness. She would like to have sex with the entire cast of The CW (both male and female), the Jonas Brothers, and Hannah Montana. She has a sexual fantasy involving baseball. Mark's avatar Brett almost hooks up with her.
Jennifer: The nicest bitch, she is actually a lesbian, and falls in love with Eden.
Enemies
Jessalyn (
Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Sarah Gilsig (born November 30, 1971) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles as Meredith Gordon in ''Heroes (American TV series), Heroes'', Kayley in ''Quest for Camelot'', Lauren Davis in ''Boston Public'', Gina Russo in ...
): Eden's nemesis. She appears to dislike non-single people, and invites Eden to a singles party. Although she at first appears to be friendly, she quickly becomes a bitch. According to Heather she has an imaginary friend who thinks she's "psycho." She winds up being a lesbian and ruins Eden's attempt at lesbian dating by hooking up with Eden's date.
Brittany (
Brittany Ishibashi): A wannabe Guru and yoga instructor and failed actress. She had stolen Eden's boyfriend, but now wishes forgiveness. Catherine and Heather appear to her (the only time someone beside Eden has directly communicated with them) and trick her into confessing to be a fake.
Men
Waiter Guy (Michael Traynor): A waiter who Eden sleeps with. The relationship seems to be going well, but when she has no one to talk to about the night before, Eden creates Catherine. They break up after Catherine insults Waiter Guy.
Bruce (
Aaron Staton): A man at Jessalyn's singles party. Although Jessalyn promised him to Eden, she later uses her knowledge of the Bitches to take him. He calls Jessalyn "a sexy
Mother Teresa
Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...
."
Mark (
Greg Rikaart
Gregory Andrew Rikaart (born February 26, 1977) is an American television actor. He is best known for playing Kevin Fisher (The Young and the Restless), Kevin Fisher on the television soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' since 2003, and also ...
): A
Second Life
''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...
fanatic who works with Connie. He was set up with Eden because of their mutual imaginary worlds. He attempts to hook his alter-ego Brett up with Heather. Eden breaks up with him after he tries to masturbate to a Heather avatar that Mark created after hearing a description of Heather and her fantasies.
Dr. James Kee (James Kee): Brooke's shrink and the author of #1 bestselling self-help book, "Your Psyche Has a Secret." Catherine hates him, refusing to enter his office. Heather flirts with him, due to her attraction to bald men. He soon proves to be crazy after becoming infatuated with Catherine and even trying to have sex with her.
Father Grant (Charlie Koznick): Connie's priest. He is an ex-porn star who attempts to rid Eden of the bitches by having sex with her, apparently the plot of one of his movies.
Episodes
Eden's Europe Vlog
Ten
vlogs were made chronicling Eden (the actress, as opposed to the character) in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
with Catherine and Heather. The reason for the trip was a hiatus caused by re-negotiations of the bitches' contracts, which nearly resulted in them being replaced, going as far as Andrew sending Eden audition videos for replacements.
A video setting the vlogs up was also made, as a press conference. It is implied during these videos that Heather is
bisexual
Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...
and somewhat of an
ephebophile; as part of the contract she requests sex with male and female actors on
The CW
The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
, as well as teenagers
The Jonas Brothers
The Jonas Brothers () are an American pop rock band formed in 2005 comprising brothers Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas. Raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, the Jonas Brothers moved to Little Falls, New Jersey, in 2005, where they wrote thei ...
and
Hannah Montana
''Hannah Montana'' is an American teen sitcom created by Michael Poryes, Rich Correll, and Barry O'Brien that aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between March2006 and January2011. The series centers on Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cy ...
.
In the media
* On April 30, 2008, soap news website DaytimeConfidential.com posted an article about ''Imaginary Bitches'', and included an interview with series lead Eden Riegel. Since the show's premiere, Daytime Confidential blogger Jamey Giddens has posted a weekly review of new episodes.
* The day before the premiere of ''Imaginary Bitches'', May 1, 2008, Michael Starr mentioned the series in his column "Starr Report" in the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative
daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
''.
* On May 6, 2008, Canadian website Sweetspot.ca, which calls itself "Canada's Sweetest Lifestyle Guide", posted an entry about ''Imaginary Bitches'' recommending the series as something of interest to Sweetspot subscribers while they awaited the opening of the film ''
Sex and the City: The Movie''.
*
Entertainment Tonight Canada (ET Canada) aired a segment on ''Imaginary Bitches'' on May 29, 2008, which included behind-the-scenes footage of the cast and crew on set filming new episodes. Andrew Miller, Jessalyn Gilsig and Eden Riegel were interviewed. ET Canada featured ''Imaginary Bitches'' because several members of the cast and crew (Andrew Miller, Jeff Poliquin, Brooke Nevin, Jessalyn Gilsig, Chandra West, and James Kee) are Canadian-born.
* On June 3, 2008, ''
TV Guide Canada'' named ''Imaginary Bitches'' one of its "Top 3 Shows to Watch" in the soap column "The Nelson Ratings" by Nelson Branco.
* In the June 30, 2008, issue of ''
Us Weekly
''Us Weekly'' is an American weekly celebrity and entertainment magazine based in New York City. ''Us Weekly'' was founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, which sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986, and sold to Ameri ...
'' magazine, ''Imaginary Bitches'' made a list of "The Web's Big Hits".
*
TV Guide's June 30 – July 13 double issue featured a review of ''Imaginary Bitches'' written by
Michael Logan. In the review Logan raved, "You're a damn fool if you're not watching ''Imaginary Bitches''!", and went on to call the show, "Fresh, randy and pee-your-pants funny." Logan proclaimed: "''Bitches'' isn't just great. It's ''
Sex and the City
''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO, based on Sex and the City (newspaper column), the newspaper column and 1996 book by Candace Bushnell. It premiered in th ...
'' great."
* On July 25, 2008, the online edition of
People Magazine
''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''Peopl ...
mentioned ''Imaginary Bitches'' in its TV Roundup section.
* The website of TV's
The Insider featured an exclusive interview with ''Imaginary Bitches Eden Riegel on July 25, 2008. The interview was originally conducted by the entertainment blog Allie is Wired.
Awards
Imaginary Bitches took part in the 2008 Portable Film Festival and was chosen winner in the "Look at Me" category for online webisodes and video blogging.
On December 24, 2008,
TV Guide Canada announced its Second Annual Soap Opera Spirit Award Nominations. Imaginary Bitches received 5 nominations: Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Performance in a Podcast/Webisode/Soap-related Series (Eden Riegel and Elizabeth Hendrickson), Outstanding Guest Star (Greg Rikaart), and for Outstanding Podcast/Webisode/Soap-related Non-daytime Series (creator Andrew Miller). The winners were announced January 21, 2009 on TVGuide.ca. Imaginary Bitches took home awards for Outstanding Podcast/Webisode/Soap-related Non-daytime Series and for Eden Riegel for Outstanding Performance in a Podcast/Webisode/Soap-related Series.
On April 14, 2009, the 13th annual
Webby Award
The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...
nominations were announced. Riegel was nominated for her work on ''Imaginary Bitches'' in the best individual performance category. Miller received an official honoree selection for best writing. Riegel was announced on May 5, 2009, as the winner of the best individual performance people's voice award. Her acceptance speech, which was limited to five words, was: "I'm sleeping with the director."
In 2009, ''Imaginary Bitches'' was nominated for a
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...
in the New Approaches-Daytime Entertainment category.
References
External links
*
*
* {{IMDb title, 1236424
American comedy web series
2000s YouTube series
2008 web series debuts