''Dot Comedy'' is an American television series that aired on

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...

(ABC). It is notable for being a series that was canceled after only one episode.

Premise

''Dot Comedy'' was an early attempt at bringing

Internet humor The history of humor on the Internet begins together with the Internet itself. Initially, the internet and its precursors, LANs and Wide area network, WANs, were used merely as another medium to disseminate jokes and other kinds of humor, in additi ...

to mass television audiences in the pre-

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

era, which premiered on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

on December 8, 2000. The show was hosted by

Annabelle Gurwitch Annabelle Gurwitch is an American author, actress and television host most recognizable from her stint as a hostess on '' Dinner and a Movie'' on TBS, and an activist associated with environmental issues and secular humanism. She also was recog ...

, the Sklar Brothers, and

Katie Puckrik Katie Puckrik (born July 12, 1962) is an American broadcaster and newspaper columnist. Born in Virginia, Puckrik is best known for hosting British youth magazine shows '' The Word'' and ''The Sunday Show'' in the 1990s. She also created and hos ...

. Adapted from a British show of the same name, the show featured a similar premise to ''

America's Funniest Home Videos ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on ABC, based on a recurring segment on the Japanese variety show '' Fun TV with Kato-chan and ...

'' in that the hosts and audience react to ostensibly humorous content originating on websites. In addition, Puckrik would interview the creators of the web content presented. Viewers were also encouraged to submit their own web content, such as video, audio, and image files. The show was a co-production with the television channel

Oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

, and episodes were planned to air afterwards on Oxygen after being broadcast on ABC. The show replaced '' The Trouble with Normal'' on ABC, which had been cancelled after five episodes as part of a troubled post-'' TGIF'' attempt to relaunch the night with adult-targeted sitcoms. ''Dot Comedy'' did even worse, being viewed by 4.1 million viewers in its only aired episode before also being cancelled. The remaining four episodes never aired.

Critical reception

Bob Curtright of ''

The Wichita Eagle ''The Wichita Eagle'' is a daily newspaper published in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Originating in the early 1870s, shortly after the city's founding, it is owned by The McClatchy Company and is the largest newspaper in Wichita and the surr ...

'' gave the show a mixed review. He thought that the show had the potential to display humorous content on the Internet and give a platform through which content creators could gain exposure, but criticized the Sklar Brothers' hosting as "superfluous".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0270763, Dot Comedy 2000 American television series debuts 2000 American television series endings Television series canceled after one episode 2000s American reality television series Television series by Carsey-Werner Productions Works about the Internet 2000s American video clip television series American Broadcasting Company reality television shows American English-language television shows