''Dot Comedy'' is an American

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

that aired on

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

(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 WANs, were used merely as another media to disseminate jokes and other kinds of humor, in addition to the traditiona ...

to mass television audiences in the pre-

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

era, which premiered on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

on December 8, 2000. The show was hosted by

Annabelle Gurwitch Annabelle Gurwitch (born November 4, 1961) is an American author, comedic actress, television host most recognizable from her stint as hostess on ''Dinner and a Movie on TBS','' and activist associated with environmental issues and secular huma ...

, the

Sklar Brothers Farrell Randal "Randy" Sklar and Jason Nathan Sklar (born January 12, 1972), professionally known as the Sklar Brothers, are American identical twin brother comedians and actors best known for hosting the show '' Cheap Seats'', which aired for ...

, 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 ...

. 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 the Japanese variety show ''Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan''. The show featur ...

'' 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 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'' 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 original programming English-language television shows