As of today, there are four television development projects based on Twitter accounts. Who knew 140 characters could provide so much depth and material?
Apparently television executives knew it, since they’re mining the Twitter fields for every witty, meaningful account out there. Deadline.com reports that the latest of the lucky tweeters is Kelly Oxford, a Canadian stay-at-home mom active on both a blog and a Twitter account. With Jessica Alba attached to the project as executive producer, Oxford has the interest of CBS for a pilot entitled Mother of All Something.
Mother of All Something joins the growing ranks of Twitter-based TV productions in development at CBS. The first was this year’s $#*! My Dad Says, which premiered in September to surprisingly strong ratings. CBS quickly picked up the show for a full season.
After that success, the CBS executives branched out, securing the development rights for projects called (inspired their originating Twitter feeds) Dear Girls Above Me and Shh… Don’t Tell Steve.
Will any of these Twitter TV shows find lasting success? It’s hard to say when each feed expresses itself in only a limited number of words at a time. And it isn’t as if the TV version of $#*! My Dad Says — an only mildly funny, standard sitcom — bears much relationship to its often hilarious source material:
$#*! My Dad Says (@s**tmydadsays):
“Everyone thinks their opinion matters. Don’t argue with a nobody. A farmer doesn’t bother telling a pig his breath smells like s**t.”
What sorts of sitcoms can we expect from each of the Twitter shows in development? Try to guess from the most recent tweets:
Dear Girls Above Me (@charliemcdowell):
“Dear GAM, ‘You hear that? I think the guy downstairs is having gay sex! He keeps screaming out DEREK.’ Nope, just watching the Lakers game.”
Shh… Don’t Tell Steve (@shhdontellsteve):
“Four minutes into Cougar Town Steve randomly turned to me and announced that he switched up his masturbation routine from nights to mornings”
Mother of All Something (@kellyoxford)
“Mark Zuckerberg is ‘2010 Person of the Year’, I’d like to ‘dislike’ that.”
They’re really getting entire television shows out of this. Amazing, isn’t it? It’s getting to the point where any non-corporate entity with enough followers has a chance at a TV deal. So keep tweeting everyone! You just never know if your Twitter (or mine) may be the next hit CBS show.
What do you think? Are Twitter television shows a short-lived and doomed fad, or are they the wave of the future? Do you think that your Twitter feed would make an excellent TV program? Tell us why in the comments section!
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include Chuck, Modern Family, Supernatural, Mad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.
