Before YouTube opened the floodgates for amateur auteurs, Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab had Channel 101.
Harmon and Schrab, who created the Fox pilot "Heat Vision and Jack" (as in Jack Black) that never got on TV but attracted a cult following online, made the Web site (channel101.com) in 2003 to give wannabe TV writers and stars a chance to show off their short videos sans the constraints of the Hollywood system. Dubbed "the unavoidable future of entertainment," it has launched a few careers along the way.
Ironically enough, Harmon and Schrab — along with Black — are now executive-producing a "real" TV show, VH1's "Acceptable TV" (starting 10 p.m. Friday), where fans can vote on VH1's Web site which "show" will make it on air.
So look hip with your friends and check out their original project before the show starts.
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Be warned, these largely absurd shows (all still available for free viewing on channel101.com) aren't for everyone — one popular entry was called "Laser Fart"; other, more colorful titles are regrettably unprintable.
"Yacht Rock" — A fictionalized account detailing the lives of soft-rock icons like Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald might not sound very exciting, but this show lasted 10 episodes, a veritable eternity for Channel 101, and is largely credited with the dubious achievement of revitalizing the "yacht rock" genre of Loggins, McDonald, Toto, Christopher Cross and so on.
"Classroom" — This parody of after-school specials, which is still in "prime time" on the site (meaning that it hasn't been "cancelled" by the voters at their monthly screenings in Los Angeles), is the longest-running show in the site's history at 12 episodes.
"Kicked in the Nuts!" — This series lasted only two episodes, unfortunate given the seemingly limitless potential inherent in its premise: a guy in a clown wig kicking random people in a sensitive male area.
"The 'Bu" — A surrealist parody of "The O.C.," this one on Malibu featured "Scrubs" star Sarah Chalke and helped launched the careers of "Saturday Night Live" player Andy Samberg and writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, the masterminds behind popular "digital shorts" "Lazy Sunday" and "(expletive) in a Box." How surreal was it? When Chalke left the show, she was replaced by an Asian man. And then a puppet.
"Computerman" — Jack Black had the title role in this show about a man whose DNA combines with his computer to form, appropriately enough, a Computerman (you can also spot Black in a memorable turn as a "Laser Fart" villain). Another mainstream celebrity to star in a Channel 101 series was Drew Carey in "Call Me Cobra."
"House of Cosbys" — Animated series about an ardent Bill Cosby fan who clones the legendary comedian. Things go haywire when the Cosby clones start cloning themselves, a la "Multiplicity," leading to "Data Analysis Cosby" and "Buck Naked Cosby," among others. Shut down after four episodes amid legal threats from the Cos.
"Most Extraordinary Space Investigations" — Sarah Silverman played in the ensemble of this Dada-esque show nominally about space exploration. Harmon and Schrab were co-creators of Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program," which has Channel 101 regular Steve Agee as part of the cast. Full circle and all that.
