Television gave us the sitcom, the soap opera and the prime-time drama. What has online video birthed? How about serial shorts where the exposition is dealt with in direct address, aping the verite slices of life popularized by camkids — i.e., the latest Lonelygirl15 installment:

Those are some of the hallmarks of the format created by the Lonelygirl15 team, who are now spinning off the concept in a new show for UK-heavy social network Bebo according to the Los Angeles Times:

“The series, titled ‘Lonelygirl15 Presents…KateModern,’ is the story of a LonelyGirl-esque 19-year-old British college student, her friends, and the mysterious dark forces that permeate their life (the same forces featured prominently in recent LonelyGirl episodes).”

What creators Miles Beckett, Greg Goodfried and Mesh Flanders have done is create a new (and quantifiably compelling) format for narrative motion pictures online. And it works particularly well in the context of a social network, where the audience can feel like the action is no longer perched on a proscenium. Besides product placement and promotional campaigns, the team can now add franchising to their business model.

The production values of the show have certainly risen, as actors, sets and locations have broadened in their scope. But I’d like to suggest that the real value in the production is the fact that there’s a script, primarily. In the words of Robert Evans, “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t going to be on the screen.” It’s the ability to craft a story for this format that sets the Lonelygirl15 team apart for now.

Now all they have to do is prove that this new format won’t succumb to two longstanding showbiz bugaboos — the “sophomore slump” often experienced by breakout production team’s second effort, and the dreaded “curse of Rhoda,” the Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoff fiasco so bad, it’s haunted every spinoff since. Not to mention contract renewal negotiations with the star of the franchise.