Many of you have noticed the appearance of an unfamiliar naked fellow in the middle of this week’s video. No, he’s not a relic of old footage from season one, nor is he Morgan and Bill’s new roommate. That is, in fact, Jay Frechette of Area5.tv, appearing in footage from their new show, CO-OP.

The folks at Area5 are more-or-less the old crew of the 1Up Show, who lost their jobs during 1Up.com’s transition from Ziff Davis to UGO. Instead of living the high life on the back of their severance cheques, these guys manned up and put together a new company, with CO-OP — a half-hour web TV series featuring commentary on the latest and greatest gaming has to offer — as its first major output.

I loved the 1Up Show, and am thrilled to see its spiritual successor in CO-OP. I’m also really happy that we could further extend a joke from the show’s fourth episode in this week’s LRR update.

At the time this week’s video was conceived, CO-OP still didn’t have an official home, though I’m happy to report that it has since been picked up by Revision3.com. That said, as independent content producers like ourselves, Area5’s dinners now depend on views, so I’d like to encourage anyone reading this to check out their stuff. They’re our friends, and people who’s content I’ve enjoyed for years, so I’d like to welcome them warmly to the world of independent video :).

Area5.tv

–Jer