CH as its own series

Talk about commodoreHUSTLE, LRR's continuing web series.
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CH as its own series

Postby Aydin225 » 21 Apr 2011, 11:04

Commodore Hustle is my absolute favorite thing that LRR does. I've re-watched season 1 a bunch of times, and watch at least 1 old CH video a week. Every episode is fantastic.

I was wondering if you guys had ever thought of making CH a bigger thing, such as trying to sell it as a tv show or webseries, or pitching it to the escapist as another weekly thing. I'd also be interested to here what other LRR fans think of the idea.

I'm sure time constraints are an issue, but season one was so fantastic, it would be great to be able to have a running arc through CH again.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby CancerBottle » 21 Apr 2011, 11:46

It seems to me that Commodore Hustle is fan-service. It was made for you guys. I'm not disparaging it in the least, it's just that much of cH's humor revolves around in-jokes and meta-humor. The series is about the exaggerated personalities of the members of a sketch comedy troupe. You really have to be big fans of LRR to fully understand and appreciate the series. Non-LRR fans aren't going to be the best audience.

From what I understand, the reason there aren't running arcs in the current cH season is because fans complained rather ironically that season one was, well, too meta. Go figure.

cH works best as fan-service. See: "Hot Water at PAX."
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby thatlaurachick » 21 Apr 2011, 12:02

There's a LRRcast (Vigafray?) where the crew talks about why they've chosen to present cH in this format. Short story - this is what works for their schedule and the content of the series.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Vigafre » 21 Apr 2011, 12:46

CancerBottle pretty much covered the bases. commodoreHustle works in a way that revolves around the crew. Continuity is almost solely based around their release schedule, since it is the crew playing "the crew". Isolating the series would throw a bunch of plotholes everywhere.

And as Laura said, the crew has talked about their feelings towards the first cH format. I don't remember which LRRcasts exactly, but any of the LRRcasts with a cH label and possibly the "Matt Gets His Groove" LRRcast would explain there pre- and post-season feelings about the Season 1 format.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby The Jester » 21 Apr 2011, 13:11

CancerBottle wrote:From what I understand, the reason there aren't running arcs in the current cH season is because fans complained rather ironically that season one was, well, too meta. Go figure.

I'm pretty sure it's sorta the other way around; they changed the format when they started making videos for the Escapist because they were worried it'd be too meta for non/new-fans.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby CancerBottle » 21 Apr 2011, 13:29

The Jester wrote:I'm pretty sure it's sorta the other way around; they changed the format when they started making videos for the Escapist because they were worried it'd be too meta for non/new-fans.


You're probably right, I got my impressions after reading the comments for the season 1 finale. Mostly this and subsequent posts and Graham and Matt's responses.

I'm still working my way through the podcasts, so I'm sure things have changed since then.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Wolfenbarg » 22 Apr 2011, 14:26

Aydin225 wrote:Commodore Hustle is my absolute favorite thing that LRR does. I've re-watched season 1 a bunch of times, and watch at least 1 old CH video a week. Every episode is fantastic.

I was wondering if you guys had ever thought of making CH a bigger thing, such as trying to sell it as a tv show or webseries, or pitching it to the escapist as another weekly thing. I'd also be interested to here what other LRR fans think of the idea.

I'm sure time constraints are an issue, but season one was so fantastic, it would be great to be able to have a running arc through CH again.


I remember reading an article post-Leno incident where I believe Matt said it was their hope that a site might pick up the show. I'm sure that's changed now that the Escapist picked up the weekly video. As much as I love classic Hustle, I think the crew is happier with the current format. They can still make the weekly video as well as work on other projects without going crazy thinking about how the next Hustle is going to pan out. If it was the only thing they did, then it would be doable, but it's not.

I think they should bring running arcs back too, but they should be smaller and self contained to fit into the new format. So instead of having a super villain like Geoff to contend with, a smaller issue that could call for a two part episode could arise. Just depends on the schedule though.


CancerBottle wrote:It seems to me that Commodore Hustle is fan-service. It was made for you guys. I'm not disparaging it in the least, it's just that much of cH's humor revolves around in-jokes and meta-humor. The series is about the exaggerated personalities of the members of a sketch comedy troupe. You really have to be big fans of LRR to fully understand and appreciate the series. Non-LRR fans aren't going to be the best audience.

From what I understand, the reason there aren't running arcs in the current cH season is because fans complained rather ironically that season one was, well, too meta. Go figure.

cH works best as fan-service. See: "Hot Water at PAX."


I don't know about that. I watched a couple episodes of LRR's weekly video here and there, but it was Commodore Hustle that ultimately made me a fan. Gay Chicken drove me to this site, and season 1 led me to start running down LRR's catalogue of videos. I don't think the highly self referential thing is bad at all, it's just part of making a running series. Of course, as I said before, the new format works best for them since they have so many other things on their plate.

EDIT: I just remembered that I recently showed a group of my friends all of season one, no prior backstory on the rest of the videos or their status as a sketch comedy troupe. They all loved it. It's not just fanservice, it stands well enough on its own.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Graham » 22 Apr 2011, 15:20

We try to keep the episodes pretty funny even if you don't know who we are, so that's good to hear!
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Aydin225 » 22 Apr 2011, 20:23

I really don't see CH as a fanservice. I think its fun for hardcore fans to see things in Hustle that translate to life such as the crew's love of magic, or the hijinks like "Bros clubbing bros", but I think CH stands quite well on its own. I think all of the self-referential stuff is when LRR is at its absolute best. The video they did where they did the step-by-step process on how to create your own sketch troupe was probably the most self-referential thing ever made, but the way they did it had me dying with laughter.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Wolfenbarg » 23 Apr 2011, 02:16

Aydin225 wrote:I really don't see CH as a fanservice. I think its fun for hardcore fans to see things in Hustle that translate to life such as the crew's love of magic, or the hijinks like "Bros clubbing bros", but I think CH stands quite well on its own. I think all of the self-referential stuff is when LRR is at its absolute best. The video they did where they did the step-by-step process on how to create your own sketch troupe was probably the most self-referential thing ever made, but the way they did it had me dying with laughter.


How to LRR? I see that one as more of a biography. They explained every aspect they referred to, so it ends up being perfectly self contained. It also ends up being my absolute favorite video as well.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Graham » 23 Apr 2011, 09:32

I'd argue that cH is only about 50% fan service at the moment, and I only say that because of how well received it's been by Escapist viewers who aren't familiar with the prior season.

I don't know, I'm sort of looking out from the inside, so maybe I'm not a good gauge of it.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby SPACExJUMPxJOSH » 23 Apr 2011, 11:58

I sent a link of operation pussy cash xD (still gigle when I say that) to my freind sian, shes never seen an lrr and now shes hooked to the comadore hustle series, also should mention he hates internet videos and shares grahams need for a shower when youtube is mentioned, nuff said :P
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Aydin225 » 23 Apr 2011, 14:30

would it be possible to run season 1 of CH on the escapist as a limited series?
That'd probably be a decent gauge of how well outsiders receive it.

I'm fairly new to Loading Ready Run, I didn't discover it until after you guys had been doing stuff on the escapist. The arms race is the episode that made me check out the LRR website, and my favorite things to watch are CH and Phailhaus. I don't think that its so much fanservice as it is you guys at your best and most dry
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby SPACExJUMPxJOSH » 23 Apr 2011, 17:05

i think it could work but they would need to be half an hour long to be on TV really and its a matter of wether the guys would have time to do that and still have time to do another ; /
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby SPACExJUMPxJOSH » 23 Apr 2011, 17:05

although I would be vvvvveeeeeerrrryyyyyy happy if they did :P
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Wolfenbarg » 23 Apr 2011, 17:24

Graham wrote:I'd argue that cH is only about 50% fan service at the moment, and I only say that because of how well received it's been by Escapist viewers who aren't familiar with the prior season.

I don't know, I'm sort of looking out from the inside, so maybe I'm not a good gauge of it.


My first experience was Hot Water at PAX. I had no idea it was fanservice, all I noticed was that anything labeled Hustle was above and beyond all but the best weekly videos. The jokes all still work fine on their own anyway. I missed the club soda debacle, so I just thought it was a flash of total creativity that brought that video about.


Aydin225 wrote:would it be possible to run season 1 of CH on the escapist as a limited series?
That'd probably be a decent gauge of how well outsiders receive it.



That would be cool to show the first season of Hustle to the Escapist, however it does create a licensing issue between these two sites. When a video is licensed there, they hold the rights to its distribution for a limited window of time. I'm not sure LRR could continue to sell the DVDs if they aired season 1 there. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Master Gunner » 23 Apr 2011, 17:35

An agreement to show cH S1 on the Escapist would likely be negotiated independently, as their current contract would have nothing to do with previously produced content.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby CancerBottle » 23 Apr 2011, 22:30

Graham wrote:I'd argue that cH is only about 50% fan service at the moment, and I only say that because of how well received it's been by Escapist viewers who aren't familiar with the prior season.

I don't know, I'm sort of looking out from the inside, so maybe I'm not a good gauge of it.


If that's true, then that means the audience isn't getting 50% of the content. That's a simplification, of course, but you guys must see the problem.

I'm not saying it's impossible to enjoy cH by itself, but all the fans urging LRR to pitch it to Comedy Central or whoever should take into account that "cH is only about 50% fan-service" according to one of its creators.

Again, I'm not deriding the self-referential humor at all, it works well within the larger LRR project. The "normal" LRR videos draw in viewers from YouTube, Digg, wherever, and cH rewards their viewership with the wacky hi-jinks of the characters of the people who make those videos and all the references one picks up while binging on LRR. Take something like cH and give it to an audience un-familiar with the 'backstory,' jokes and references and with all the fans you might pick up, you're going to find a lot more who say "I don't get it" and move on. Especially if you include story arcs in the mix.

These latest cH episodes have been one-shots really. But if LRR want to prove me wrong and throw in a Geoff hardened by prison and cybernetic balls, I won't complain. :P

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Re: CH as its own series

Postby CancerBottle » 23 Apr 2011, 22:47

Aydin225 wrote:I'm fairly new to Loading Ready Run, I didn't discover it until after you guys had been doing stuff on the escapist. The arms race is the episode that made me check out the LRR website, and my favorite things to watch are CH and Phailhaus. I don't think that its so much fanservice as it is you guys at your best and most dry


See, I've shown "The Arms Race" to my friends, we're all into Nerf to an extent (occasionally we'll get together at someoene's house, turn off the lights and play a "zombie" game where the humans must retrieve "the device" and return it to "base" amidst a horde of zombies). They laugh, I'll remind them "Hey, these guys have a site with a huge archive of this kind of stuff." They say, "Oh cool." Of course if I ask later if they've seen LRR's latest video, they'll have no idea what I'm talking about.

This might go back to "being too smart for the internet." People probably don't expect to find long-running series that are constantly awesome on web.

As for cH showcasing LRR's dryness (eww) a lot of it is one character acting insane, another reacting to his antics while everyone else is in their own little world.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Aydin225 » 24 Apr 2011, 11:02

I think most people won't actively seek out stuff on the internet. I've show alot of people alot of different recurring video groups, and rarely do they click beyond that first video, regardless of how funny or enjoyable they find it.

I've seen interviews with Slash of Guns and Roses where he's admitted to fighting against ever releasing "Sweet Child of Mine", arguably one of their most successful songs. He thought that the song was too sweet, and their audience wouldn't appreciate it, and that the singer (who wrote it for his girlfriend) was just too close to the song to realize that it wasn't going to be popular.

Perhaps CH is similar. Those closest to it (the writers and hardcore fans) see it as a niche thing, which it certainly is. But the ensemble cast of wacky characters and their various quirks can appeal to everyone. Graham's horror at the giant creepy doll, the NESbox 360, Kathleen's cat obsession--all those kinds of jokes are relate-able to way more than just gamers and fans of LRR
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Wolfenbarg » 24 Apr 2011, 18:24

The internet is slowly evolving from a platform that is solely for one-shots and viral videos to one that is also viable for web series. Typically the audiences that gather around such shows are very niche groups, but casual viewers are coming around slowly. Weekly reviews seem to have caught on like absolute wildfire, other things shall follow.

It's not "too smart for the internet," it's just that quality web series are still a little ahead of their time.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby iamafish » 24 Apr 2011, 21:20

LRR ahead of their time? That's never happened before. (before Youtube, remember)
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby CancerBottle » 25 Apr 2011, 00:54

Wolfenbarg wrote:The internet is slowly evolving from a platform that is solely for one-shots and viral videos to one that is also viable for web series. Typically the audiences that gather around such shows are very niche groups, but casual viewers are coming around slowly. Weekly reviews seem to have caught on like absolute wildfire, other things shall follow.

It's not "too smart for the internet," it's just that quality web series are still a little ahead of their time.


The issue I see here is the sheer volume of content one is exposed to on the web. The internet isn't divided neatly into channels that host everything you like. Everything drowns out everything else. Nearly all the webcomics I read, the podcasts I listen to, and a good portion of my YouTube subscription list was linked on forums like this. In other words, a message board serving a niche helps that niche find other things that appeal to that niche. I have a hard time seeing sizable portions of the internet coming together on a Wednesday night to watch an independent, web-based series.

Though maybe I'm missing something. What examples do you see of casual viewers coming around?
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby Wolfenbarg » 25 Apr 2011, 20:11

CancerBottle wrote:
Wolfenbarg wrote:The internet is slowly evolving from a platform that is solely for one-shots and viral videos to one that is also viable for web series. Typically the audiences that gather around such shows are very niche groups, but casual viewers are coming around slowly. Weekly reviews seem to have caught on like absolute wildfire, other things shall follow.

It's not "too smart for the internet," it's just that quality web series are still a little ahead of their time.


The issue I see here is the sheer volume of content one is exposed to on the web. The internet isn't divided neatly into channels that host everything you like. Everything drowns out everything else. Nearly all the webcomics I read, the podcasts I listen to, and a good portion of my YouTube subscription list was linked on forums like this. In other words, a message board serving a niche helps that niche find other things that appeal to that niche. I have a hard time seeing sizable portions of the internet coming together on a Wednesday night to watch an independent, web-based series.

Though maybe I'm missing something. What examples do you see of casual viewers coming around?


Well... see your avatar. Mike Michaud had the brilliant idea of bringing more than a dozen reviewers into one place, headlined by the Nostalgia Critic. You can also see examples of great shows on the Escapist, whether they're commentary like Zero Punctuation and Extra Credits, or running series like Apocalypse Lane and Doomsday Arcade. Right now, things tend to get lost in an absolute sea of content, but sites like the ones I just mentioned are changing up the game. While they won't become juggernauts like NBC, you'll see major websites competing with similar ideas and delivery platforms within this decade. There is a sea of content, but the key qualifier is "good." You can tell the level of technical prowess of the crew by sound, how a show looks, and how tight the script opens.
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Re: CH as its own series

Postby CancerBottle » 25 Apr 2011, 22:21

Wolfenbarg wrote:Well... see your avatar. Mike Michaud had the brilliant idea of bringing more than a dozen reviewers into one place, headlined by the Nostalgia Critic. You can also see examples of great shows on the Escapist, whether they're commentary like Zero Punctuation and Extra Credits, or running series like Apocalypse Lane and Doomsday Arcade. Right now, things tend to get lost in an absolute sea of content, but sites like the ones I just mentioned are changing up the game. While they won't become juggernauts like NBC, you'll see major websites competing with similar ideas and delivery platforms within this decade. There is a sea of content, but the key qualifier is "good." You can tell the level of technical prowess of the crew by sound, how a show looks, and how tight the script opens.


I see what you mean, but sustainability is key. TGWTG has to keep introducing new shows as current ones get stale. The internet does negate the need for a distributor to a certain degree.

Preserving intellectual property is trickier though. And I'm not sure whether it's for the better or worse. Had ZP been picked up by a TV network, I wonder how many other reviewers would be taken to the cleaners.
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