Wednesday, December 19, 2007

S.U.D.S. is Coming!

As reported earlier, The Jim Henson Company, in cooperation with RealNetworks and Warner Bros.'s Studio 2.0, are preparing to launch the latest Henson Alternative production, an irreverent detective comedy entitled "Simian Undercover Detective Squad" (or "S.U.D.S." for short). The upcoming web series will follow the inept undercover adventures of a grizzled orangutan detective and his rookie simian partner as they try to make it in a human world. Fifteen episodes are currently scheduled to debut at http://www.film.com/suds/ sometime in the first quarter of 2008. In order to promote the upcoming series, Henson has released an online teaser trailer for the series and a new installment of the Henson.com podcast all about "S.U.D.S."

So be sure to surf over to Henson.com to listen the latest installment of the podcast featuring exclusive, behind-the-scenes interviews with the series' producers/directors Perry Sachs and Deb Loftis, as well as performers Paul Rugg and Zand Broumand.

"Simian Underground Detective Squad" is the first of three Henson Alternative titles being produced for Film.com. Additionally, I've been told that Henson is planning to launch ten all-new episodes of "Puppet Up! - Uncensored", the company's live puppet improv show, in 2008. And also in development are 15 episodes of "Alt-Reality", a puppet-based reality-show parody being written and directed by Mike Upchurch.

I'll be sure to keep you updated with more details on "S.U.D.S", and all these other exciting web projects, as things progress.

4 comments:

frogboy4 said...

I was excited until I attempted to watch the clip. It's the never-ending streaming and buffering that occurs even on repeat viewings that will likely rob me of these programs!

If this is how they will be streaming it (instead of making downloadable) it won't ever play on my high speed wireless connection without being prohibitively choppy and obnoxious.

Another great Henson idea that's likely to go south because of technology, expense and being virtually a secret to non-hardcore fans. I'm not going to chance paying for choppy video. I hate complaining about that, but Henson really needs to use better technology methods of audio podcasts and video that work with different systems. Jim used to be on top of technology.

Vaughn Michael said...

odd frogboy it worked fine for me..this seemed ok I know it was just a clip but the only thing bad I could say is that Henson really needs to get this stuff on tv not on the internet.

frogboy4 said...

It's just this particular formatting of streaming Flash video that tends to run tweaky on some connections. And it won't allow for the content to be cached to ensure a smooth second viewing. Henson just picked the less friendly method to safeguard against pirating and YouTube posting. This will limit the viewership and result in unhappy fans who pay for content unwatchable on their set-up. Henson's not the first. This has happened before. I'd have to cancel my internet contract and set up a different type of provider.

Unknown said...

Monkey puppets! Better yet, seemingly inept monkey puppets. I love it! I cannot wait to see episodes!