Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 8:52 AM PT

Disney Launches Stage 9, Squeegees

Disney-ABC Television Group has officially taken the wraps off Stage 9 Digital Media, its short-form programing production company, with the premiere of Squeegees, a new broadband comedy series from online sketch comedy group Handsome Donkey.

Stage 9 has a production slate of more than 20 programs in the works, including animation, comedy, drama and the high-production sci-fi series Trenches. Stage 9 is the latest effort by big media companies to get into the web content game. TBS has SuperDeluxe, Comedy Central creates short-form programs through Atom (where I used to work), and powerhouse talent agency UTA has 60Frames.

One trend that seems to be emerging from all of these big media web initiatives is that they’re merely creating shorter versions of what already exists in old media. Sketch comedy series are just smaller version of Saturday Night Live. Roommates is like a shorter version of The Hills. quarterlife is just a shorter version of, uhh, quarterlife, now that it’s on TV (but probably not for long). Case in point: Squeegees.

Squeegees is about a group of bumbling window washers and their hijinks. Two episodes are currently available, and after watching both, what struck me most was how sitcom-y the show is. It’s got the goofy guys, the straight-laced boss (who happens to have a cute daughter), and all the jokes are built around wacky situations. That doesn’t mean it’s not funny: There are chuckle-inducing bits about nougat, drunken window-washing, and exposing one’s self in front of a day-care class in a particularly painful way. It just doesn’t seem as — ugh, I can’t believe I’m actually typing this — edgy as the Donkey’s previous work (Orgasmalarm, anyone?).

The series will live on both ABC.com and YouTube, with new episodes released Monday and Fridays on both sites. But in an inexcusable act of corporate control, neither site allows embedding. Come on! If you want to build an audience, let the viewers be the architect for web domination. Perhaps Toyota, the series’ launch partner, was a little skittish about having its brand out in the wild. Regardless, it’s short-sighted thinking.

And while this is a little cruel, I couldn’t resist: It looks like Stage 9 forgot to flip a switch on its new web site with its launch today — the site is still filled with Lorem Ipsum.

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Topic: Networks & Studios

Comments (2)

Squeegees looks pretty good, actually. And 20 more shows in development, probably including the other two they’re launching with, Trenches and Voicemail.

The names of the other shows are available on my blog post at SpaceShank.com — along with some quick Google-research:

Which show will feature Muppets?

Alec McNayr — 12:14 PM on February 28, 2008 Reply
Thanks for the update! I watched “Squeegies” and thought it was hilarious… I can’t wait to see more! Maybe I’m old-fashioned, I like the goofy slapstick comedy… better than most sitcoms anyway.

Danny Gibson — 5:01 PM on February 28, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (10)

[...] NewTeeVee, as usual, has some great coverage on the launch. [...]

space shank media - blog - archive »… — 12:09 PM on February 28, 2008
[...] exciting new future is a series called “Squeegees” about window-washers. I like what NewTeeVee had to [...]

Disney Comes Online with Nothing New «… — 1:26 PM on February 28, 2008
[...] your audience Jump to Comments I’d love to embed the first episode of Squeegees, the first show out of Disney’s Stage 9 studio, but I can’t. They’ve turned it off on YouTube, and don’t make it available on [...]

Memo To ABC, embrace your audience «… — 6:48 PM on February 28, 2008
[...] DISNEY-ABC TELEVISION GROUP has officially announced Stage 9, a new digital media studio. The studio’s first project is “Squeegees,” an online [...]

Disney - Stage 9 - Quarterlife - SAG - Cablevision… — 5:45 AM on February 29, 2008
[...] We also talked about quarterlife bombing on TV (easy, Marshall, I was nice!), and the recent premiere of Squeegees. [...]

NTV on NPR: Which Web Shows to Watch? «… — 11:13 AM on March 5, 2008
[...] of Squeegees, a new broadband comedy series from online sketch comedy group Handsome Donkey. (From New Teeve). This was written by Jill. Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008, at 2:44 pm. Filed under digital [...]

Running With My Eyes Closed › More… — 1:48 PM on March 5, 2008
[...] Frees Squeegees While I’d like to think it was my complaining, it’s more likely that common sense convinced the higher-ups at Stage 9 to finally allow [...]

ABC Frees Squeegees « NewTeeVee — 9:01 PM on March 6, 2008
[...] creators, how Mercedes-Benz is using branded entertainment to get its message out, and how Disney launching a new media studio shows how creating niche content is your way to be unique and grow an [...]

Podcast Brothers 2008-02-28 Podcast Brothers… — 5:17 AM on October 6, 2008
[...] web video makers Handsome Donkey, which from all accounts was hindered by too much network input (our story), and Voicemail, a light concept series in which a guy acts out actual voicemails (our [...]

ABC: Original Online Shows Not Our Thing… — 9:01 PM on November 27, 2008
[...] the writing was on the wall for Stage 9. The digital studio was officially launched a little less than a year ago and at the time had a slate of 20 projects including the sit-com-ish [...]

Stage 9 Laying Off Staff, Being Folded Into… — 4:32 PM on January 30, 2009