''Ctrl'' is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. It is the first stand-alone web series launched by a major television network. The series stars

Tony Hale Anthony Russell Hale (born September 30, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role in the Fox comedy series ''Arrested Development'' as Buster Bluth. Hale played Gary Walsh on the HBO comedy ''Veep'' from 2012 until its ...

as a typical office-working, self-confidence-lacking nerd who discovers he can undo things (as well as employ other keyboard functions) in real life. It is an adaptation and expansion of the short film ''Ctrl Z'' by

Robert Kirbyson The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

, which was a winner at the 2008

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. ''CTRL'' was spotted and developed by SXM from the original short film ''Ctrl Z'', which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. SXM ultimately partnered with NBC's digital studio to produce the online series. After NBC shut the digital studio in 2011, all rights reverted to SXM, who are currently developing Season 2 with

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

and a private investor. By 2012, the episodes were no longer on the NBC website, and by 2022 no longer on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

Cast

as Stuart Grundy * Steve Howey as Ben Piller *

Emy Coligado Emy Coligado (born June 5, 1971, in Geneva, Ohio) is an American actress known for her role as Piama Tananahaakna on the sitcom ''Malcolm in the Middle''. In 2001, Coligado landed a recurring role as Emmy, the medical examiner's assistant, on t ...

as Elizabeth *

Edgar Morais Edgar Morais is an actor and filmmaker. He studied theater in Lisbon, Portugal and was a student of Ivana Chubbuck in LA and Susan Batson in NYC and has worked with globally celebrated filmmakers such as Larry Clark, Victoria Mahoney, Teresa Suth ...

as Jeremy *

Richard Karn Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

as Arthur Piller *

Scott L. Schwartz Scott Leslie Schwartz (born March 16, 1959), also known as The Ultimate Bad Guy, is an American film and television actor and stuntman, and former professional wrestler. His size and agility at 6'8" and have allowed him many roles as thug or v ...

as a security guard

Episodes

Games

There are also two games on the NBC website. The first lets you guess Stuart's password ("MERLIN'S IVORY BEARD") and watch some extra video clips. The second lets you explore Stuart's desktop. You can use Stuart's password from the first game to watch more of the second. By manipulating the flash file by going "back" in the flash file, you can get the option to type in a Username and Password with a submit button below.

References

External links

Ctrl on NBC's Official Website
(as of 2012-04-02, the actual link works but no videos are present)
Ctrl on Hulu
*{{IMDb title, 1473954, Ctrl American comedy web series American science fiction web series 2009 web series debuts 2009 web series endings American time travel television series NBC original programming Television shows set in Los Angeles Television series by Universal Television