UltimateTV was the name of a Web site for all-things-television officially launched in May 1998 in
Encino,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Originally a hobby website ("TV Net") started by David Cronshaw, an engineer at
KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). The two stations share studios at the ...
9, it caught the attention of Jeff Rowe, a Vice President at
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
and JD Publishing, a publisher of TV schedules located in Wisconsin. Rowe, Cronshaw and JD developed a business plan, hiring James Lamb of Tacoma, Washington as their first employee to begin as soon as he completed college at
Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) is a Private university, private Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran university in Parkland, Washington. It was founded by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants in 1890. PLU is sponsored by the 580 congreg ...
. Shortly after this, the site was found by Matt Soffen and a few problems were reported to David Cronshaw to fix. Because David was not a programmer, Matt offered to help by using his skills as a programmer, system administrator, and general techie. He worked with the site until it became Zap2it.
Briefly the Web site was launched as "UTV: Your Ultimate Television Network" before
United Television
BHC Communications, Inc. was the holding company for the broadcast property of Chris-Craft Industries. BHC stands for "broadcasting holding company".
History
The firm was originally incorporated in 1977 as BHC, Incorporated by Chris-Craft Indus ...
, the half-owners of the
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...
network at the time, had their lawyers send out a cease & desist letter, claiming the name to be too similar to their own, even though they admitted the name was internal and only relevant to their work as a station-ownership group and that the term UTV was not used in the marketplace. UltimateTV was best known for its Ultimate TV Show list ("UTVL" - based on the script which ran the Ultimate Band List) and its work for other television networks creating official Web sites, most notably ''
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. The concept is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film, also written by Whedon, a ...
'' and ''
Dawson's Creek
''Dawson's Creek'' is an American teen drama television series about the lives of a close-knit group of friends in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, beginning in high school and continuing into college. It aired from January 20, 19 ...
'' designed b
Jon Ofstead Art Director of Ultimate Studios (a division of UltimateTV) for
The WB
The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
.
With ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', James Lamb rose to prominence under the name TV James, shepherding a small online posting board community which ultimately grew to over 500 regular daily participants, including members of the show's cast and crew, most notably
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon ( ; born June 23, 1964) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, comic book writer, and composer. He is best known as the creator of several television series: the supernatural drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer' ...
. Many in that group of regular participants would go on to meet each other in person during one of several yearly parties (PBP or "Posting Board Parties") in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
or local regional gatherings of the show's fans. The posting board is credited with facilitating a number of connections which resulted in marriages between the show's fans, including Lamb and his wife Lori. The posting board software began as a free open-source perl script modified extensively by Lamb and Matthew Soffen of UltimateTV. The software is in use today o
The Fuselage the official Web site behind the creative team for the popular TV show
''Lost''.
In 2000, UltimateTV and parent company JD Publishing became part of The
Tribune Company
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
(owners of TV stations and newspapers nationwide) and the name was sold to
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
as the website was merged into other Tribune offerings under the name
"Zap2it.com" where it offered an expanded look at entertainment beyond just TV.
{{Webby Awards, cat=TV, year=1997, type=Nominee
Television websites