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MSNBC forced to give statement on Rachel Maddow's terrible Reddit AMA

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Here's a sign of just how big a deal Reddit's question-and-answer section r/IAmA has become: Celebrities aren't just taking big chunks of their day to sit down and answer questions, they're making statements to the media when things go horribly wrong. 

During her recent foray on Reddit, MSNBC star Rachel Maddow answered questions about her favorite smell ("Clean river, spring day," she responded) and that ubiquitous and obnoxious Reddit staple: "Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?" (Maddow chose the single horse-sized duck, if you care). Meanwhile, she ignored the tough questions. Why didn't MSNBC cover the Bradley Manning trial? What's the single worst offense committed by the Obama administration? Shouldn't progressive Democrats have supported Rand Paul's filibuster over the the administration's drone policies? 

Redditors wanted those questions answered more than any others. They voted them to the top of the thread—along with one other comment, when it was clear Maddow wouldn't touch the tough questions. "This AMA is a bust," redditor Chafuter declared

An AMA isn't a traditional press event—celebrities don't control the conversation at all, redditors do. You get exposure on one of the most popular websites in the world, they get to ask you anything. Comments are voted up democratically, so when you ignore top questions you're pretty much abandoning your part of the bargain. 

The bar for celebrity screw-ups on Reddit has been set very high. In a now legendary appearance, Woody Harrelson tried to divert every question to a discussion of his latest film, Rampart. The Reddit backlash was rabidly furious, and Harrelson soon found himself the unwilling star of his own image meme ("Does AMA, Dies," read one). The response from Harrelson's media team was equally confused, in the sense that it was nonexistent. 

On Monday, an MSNBC's representative sent a statement to Talking Points Memo defending their anchor's performance on Reddit: "Rachel addressed a variety of topics from the Reddit community—including the war in Afghanistan, Ron and Rand Paul, government spending, gun regulation, her editorial process, media bias, conflicts within the Democratic party, and partisan gridlock," the spokesperson said.

That's slightly better than the Harrelson response. But if MSNBC actually wants to address Reddit's anger about Maddow's AMA, they should probably post a statement to, you know, Reddit.

Photo by AtHandGuides.com/Flickr


YouTube's teasing a new channel design

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Kyle Marshall isn't simply a YouTube correspondent. He's a charter community member. The Alberta, Canada, resident has been making videos since 2008 and to this day will still make upwards of 15 videos in a single week.

His trademark program is his weekly installment of YouTube News, which runs each Tuesday.

This week, Marshall looks at YouTube's pornographic landscape before getting into music subscriptions and rumors surrounding a new channel design.

Photo via Kyle Marshall/YouTube

Rebel Wilson and Channing Tatum are hosting the MTV Movie Awards

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Every evening, the Daily Dot delivers a selection of links worth clicking from around the Web, along with the day's must-see image or video. We call it Dotted Lines.

 

Behind "Armed Response," YouTube's new Homeland Security drama

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Some of the nation's biggest stories and tragedies now play out on Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Reddit, as citizen journalists capture and curate news in the making. And we're now getting a new perspective on war that we haven't seen before: footage from the viewpoint of the very soldiers who are fighting overseas.

Armed Response, the newest webseries from Break Media, combines both aspects to tell the story of a Homeland Security team battling a Mexican cartel at the Port of Long Beach. It's told entirely through POV helmet and security cameras, so it feels as though you've been dropped into the middle of a first-person shooter, like Call of Duty or Modern Warfare.

Break Media is launching Armed Response on March 13, as a four-part webseries on its new YouTube channel, Hardcoded.

 

The Daily Dot talked to Break Media's SVP of Entertainment Development Greg Siegel, producer Tom Bannister, and writer Matt Michnovetz (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, 24) about the origins of Armed Response and the freedom that comes with producing a webseries.

Daily Dot: Where did you get the idea for Armed Response?

Tom Bannister: It really came out of just really watching the Internet and being fascinated by the way that news—and especially more viral news—is covered on the Internet, and that’s anything from journalism on YouTube where soldiers put up the head cam footage (which is fascinating) to the articles that follow the exploits of soldiers, to stuff like the Japanese tsunami and the way that was covered on security cameras. Or more recently, I think just the way that we get news at the moment, which is on our cell phones, recordings, something that the whole world is watching, and that becomes the most shared, the most viral thing on the Web.

And there’s a real cross at the moment on the Web between news and entertainment. So I think Armed Response comes out of that, and seeing those videos.

Greg Siegel: From our perspective, this kind of visceral action video works so well online and so well with our male 18-34 demo that from our perspective it’s the perfect kind of programming that audiences are beginning to respond to.

DD: What does the success of Halo 4 [a commercial and critical success which recently won four Streamys] say about the future of action/drama webseries?

TB: I think that video game elements within our show are very important. ... Matt obviously has an interest in video games and video-game writing. So we just threw all these ingredients together and used video games and different takes and actions in a way into the melting pot.

GS: And the thing that series like Halo and others I think just show the appetite from audiences it’s clear that this is the audience of the Web, and extending that type of series from existing IP [intellectual property] to original IP that you can launch based on the genres that these fans are consuming is a really compelling thing to do. And speaking to that originality, this is something people can get in from the ground up, not having to know anything about the original brand. It’s new; we’ve got some great characters, great acting and directing, and I think it’s an original form of storytelling that’s not constricted by the boundaries of a game or another type of brand that’s been out for a while.

DD: What differences have you noticed about writing for TV and writing for the Web?

Matt Michnovetz: I’m absolutely fascinated by the Web, and when these guys came to me with the idea of doing “final footage” action and the action genre, I thought, “Genius.” Blown away. And this was even before watching—I just saw Zero Dark Thirty—the last 20 minutes of that movie really cemented the fact that there’s something here that can be done, and as long as we have some great characters and unique storytelling, it’s unlimited essentially where you can go. I like not having the constraints—we’re constrained by budget, obviously—but I think these guys have done a great job figuring out a way to do that. And that’s something the freedom of the Web basically provides. And obviously we’re coming on uncharted territory here.

TB: I remember when we first started doing this; I believe it wasn’t that long after the bin Laden thing, and I think the idea of being there with a team of Special Forces team and seeing from the perspective of the helmet cameras, I think that was very real to people and we were wanted to expand on that a little bit.

MM: That’s one of the things that’s great about the Internet opposed to working at a network with all the constraints that that poses: You’ve got the freedom to be a little more experimental and figure out what works and tie in something. Even if the episodes are short or if they’re long, we can scale them to what’s appropriate entertainment-wise, and then have the story flow with that.

DD: What is the story you’re trying to tell in Armed Response?

MM: It’s the rise of a young agent and how she stumbles into this situation and is thrown into a trial by fire to come out on the other side a little more hardened, a little weary of what she’s dealing with, and of course it’s open-ended to the potential that we could do more with her. As it is, it’s a story of a mentor passing the torch to his apprentice, and how she takes the ball and rolls with it and has to deal and rise to the position of leading this group who finally take these guys down.

DD: Women aren't often seen participating (or even leading) missions of this nature on TV. How important to the story was it that Kara Sanchez [portrayed by Camille Guaty] was a woman?

TB: We always knew we wanted the hero to be a heroine. Female characters in unusual or intimidating situations are often more frightening than male characters in the same situation. Armed Response is about trying to place the viewer in the middle of a fire fight, and we felt this would be more impactful if it was through eyes of a female character. Much like a horror movie.

DD: How much of the footage was from helmet cameras, and how much did you have to shoot yourselves?

TB: Justin [Lutsky], the director, went in knowing he wanted very specific shots and an idea of how he was going to tell a story. But we had to build those helmet cams to rig up like a camera, so actually when you’re looking at all of the heads, all of the cameras are done by the same guy. Even the actress, the female character, is actually a guy running around with a heavy helmet rig on there. So actually the guy who played the sniper was also the cam person. Even if it’s generally one guy doing it, we’d switch the helmet cam depending on which actors’ perspective it was. What we didn’t know when we started doing it like that is with scenes where you have more actors, it means it takes an incredible amount of time to do.

MM: I was blown away when I came to set and saw these guys going at it. There’s always a kind of—not to sound corny—but a magic when you see it come to life from the page, and all the pieces in place with the actors and the director and the crew. And the location itself is stunning. It’s basically like a character from the story, and watching these guys get this thing together and watch the shots from the helmet cams was, I’m not gonna lie, a little breathtaking.
 

Photos courtesy of Break Media

Netflix Social will let you hide all the embarrassing dreck you watch

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For the first time since March 2010, Netflix will have a social component.

The company announced via blog post that it will roll out Facebook integration to its United States users as of today.

"We get suggestions from our friends for new things to watch and we connect with our friends through the shared enjoyment of a great movie or TV show," writes Netflix Director of Product Innovation Cameron Johnson.

The new feature—aptly called Netflix Social—will allow U.S. members to link their subscription to the streaming service with their Facebook accounts so that they can share what they're watching with their friends.

As the blog post notes, the sharing feature is only visible on Netflix. The company will also add two new social rows of movies to the user interface: "Friends' Favorites" and "Watched by Your Friends."

Netflix subscribers will also be given the option of preventing certain titles to be shared with their friends, a good option for a queue filled with unrated Steamy Foreign Dramas or just terrible and embarrassing titles like Good Luck Chuck.

The new feature is the culmination of lobbying efforts by the video streaming company, who spent more than $1 million in 2011 and 2012 in getting Congress to amend the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. VPPA made it illegal for video stores to release the rental history of its customers without their consent or without a police warrant.

On Jan. 10, 2013, President Obama signed the amended bill into law.

Prior to Netflix Social, the company employed an in-house feature that allowed subscribers to receive and give movie recommendations from friends. In March 2010, however, Netflix announced that they were phasing it out because only 5 percent of subscribers were using the social component.

Want a free year of Netflix? Try getting a Netflix tattoo.

Photo via Netflix/YouTube

"Veronica Mars" movie resurrected on Kickstarter

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In what is perhaps the most important project ever to grace Kickstarter (at least for fans of noirish, mystery-driven teen dramas on UPN and The CW), the long-awaited Veronica Mars movie might actually finally be happening.

Rob Thomas, creator of the show, launched a fundraising project for a movie spinoff of the show, which ended in 2007. He slapped a $2 million goal on the Kickstarter, which would make it the second-most expensive project to get Kickstarter funding. Within its first few hours, it's already pulled in over $178,000 from more than 1,800 backers. Yep, this thing is probably happening.

Thomas wrote that series star Kristen Bell is on board, and figured out that if he could convince 30,000 people to pony up the average Kickstarter pledge of $71, he'd be able to make the film happen. Thomas and Bell met with Warner Bros., which owns the rights to Veronica Mars, and the company agreed to give them a shot at trying to get Kickstarter backing.

Until now, Warner Bros. "wasn’t convinced there was enough interest to warrant a major studio-sized movie about Veronica and the project never got off the ground," Thomas wrote. That makes sense, since the show was cancelled due to low ratings, as is the way of things in the TV business.

The video promoting the project features series stars Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, and  Ryan Hansen. It has the show's hallmark voiceovers, and a terrible Gollum pastiche.

Thomas is aiming to shoot the movie later this year for a 2014 release. Among the usual Kickstarter rewards of copies of the movie and posters, Thomas and Bell are offering backers the chance to be followed by them on Twitter for a year, get a custom outgoing voicemail message from Bell, grab invites to the premiere, or even have a speaking role in the flick. For a struggling actor with $10,000 to spare, the latter could be good exposure.

Bell and Thomas need a lot of support from "sassy little honey badgers" (as she calls them) to make this actually happen. Just 12 projects in Kickstarter history have raised over $2 million, and the top film/video project raised less than half of Veronica Mars’ goal.

It's a tough ask, but if there's any cult property that could achieve that goal (other than say, Community or Arrested Development), Veronica Mars has a good shot at making the cut. The show has a fandom that was dedicated enough to hire a plane to fly over the CW's offices in 2006, urging bosses to continue the series.

So, if you've ever wanted to find out if Veronica and Logan ended up shacking up together, if Wallace made it to the NBA, or if Dick and Mac ever hooked up for real, here's your chance. Who knows? Maybe Veronica Mars will be the first Kickstarter movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars in a couple of years.

Photo via Kickstarter

Photoshopped Obama now rules all of Westeros

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In the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, the leader of the Seven Kingdoms sits upon an Iron Throne forged from more than 1,000 swords.

The throne has been claimed by some of the most ruthless leaders to ever have lived, and now that includes President Barack Obama.

For more than four years, Reddit user mcnealy has had a lame photo of Obama in a crown framed on his or her wall. But like most poorly Photoshopped images, the photo got old.

"At any rate, I wanted to update it for the second term, in a more modern way that sort of reflects the culture, so why not Game of Thrones!" mcnealy commented. "You're free to make it however you see fit, of course. I encourage artistic liberty here—but still, here are a couple of resource images I really liked the idea of combining into one!"

The following images are what four redditors came up with:

Image by jonnaybb/Reddit

Image by thatbaldatheist/Reddit

Image by deadranger/Reddit

Image by varsatorul/Reddit

Images via Reddit

Olivia Wilde faces the wrath of angry Beliebers, laughs it off

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Established hot person/actress Olivia Wilde is learning never to piss off Beliebers on Twitter after the tween terrorist organization bombarded her with somewhere between 17,000 and 35 million angry tweets.

Two weeks ago, Wilde chided Justin Bieber on Twitter during his now infamous London birthday extravaganza for his failure to dress appropriately. She wrote: "Bieber, put your fucking shirt on. (unless you lost all your shirts in a fire in which case my condolences and please purchase a new shirt.)"

She bravely recounted her traumatic experience on The Tonight Show, telling host Jay Leno that was she just concerned about Bieber since it's so chilly in England. "It was mean spirited but they didn't realize it was sent with love," she joked.

Nonetheless, Beliebers were outraged at Wilde's harsh (but caring!) criticism. She claimed "35 million" people responded to her.

"One of them was, are you a lesbian or are you too old?," laughed Wilde, who is engaged to Saturday Night Live comedian Jason Sudeikis. "And it’s great, because it’s a question I never asked myself before."

And it went on.

"This one was interesting: ‘Put your shirt over your mouth.’ Which, I’m assuming, is a Shakespearean insult," said the perfect human being.

But Wilde isn't too deterred by this teachable experience.

“It's pretty much the funniest thing that's ever happened to me because my Twitter feed is now filled with the most hilarious abuse."

Photo via tonightshownbc/YouTube


"Veronica Mars" movie Kickstarter is the fastest ever to reach $1 million

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Earlier today, screenwriter Rob Thomas launched one of the most ambitious Kickstarter projects in history: an all-or-nothing plea to his fans to turn the cult TV hit Veronica Mars into a feature film. With a goal set at $2 million, the second-loftiest ever, Thomas described the project as fans' one shot to see the movie become a reality.

The all-or-nothing gambit has paid off: In just over four hours, with 14,000 backers, the Veronica Mars Movie has broken records for the fastest Kickstarter project in history to break $1 million. It defeats its predecessor, the video game Torment, by a handy two hours.

On the Kickstarter's home page, Thomas commented that despite Veronica's heartbreaking third-season cancellation, and a previous lack of interest from rightsholder Warner Brothers in making the film, studio execs were fine with allowing fans to have a share in backing the movie. "Their reaction was, if you can show there’s enough fan interest to warrant a movie, we’re on board," he wrote. "The average pledge on Kickstarter is $71. The most common donation amount on Kickstarter is $25. Surely, 80,000 of our three million viewers would find that price-point viable!"

It looks like Thomas's calculations were spot-on. Around 13,900 people contributing to hit the $1 million milestone, which averages out to about $71 exactly. The top donor level, a $10,000 slot that gives you a walk-on role in the show, was snapped up early, leading to speculation about which rich Hollywood star could have gotten in the game. (Cameo from Meryl Streep or Paul Rudd? Dream big, we say!) 

Thomas has promised a film noir that brings Veronica back to the small California town of Neptune to solve her darkest case yet.  "I promise if we hit our goal, we will make the sleuthiest, snarkiest, it’s-all-fun-and-games-‘til-one-of-you-gets-my-foot-up-your-ass movie we possibly can," wrote Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell, who's long been on the record about how much she would love to play the amateur detective again. 

But of course he's aware that plenty of his fans will be watching to see how (or if)  the rocky romance between Veronica and Logan will finally be resolved. "I pledged, and I was thrilled to do so," commented backer Sarah Patankar.  "But if Logan and Veronica don't get together, I want my money back. Tumblr immediately burst into a flurry of Logan/Veronica Gifsets and boundless excitement. "I THINK WE WANT THIS MOVIE YOU GUYS," gushed figsandtea. "I THINK MAYBE WE DO. YES?"

With the goal looking like a certainty, now fans are already discussing what the overflow cash will bring. "Stretch Goal—At 3 Million we film a scene between Kristen Bell and Sloths," joked backer Christopher Rider. The highest funded Kickstarter ever was a smartwatch that raised over $10.2 million. Will Veronica top that? Thomas promised to "figure out something cool" if fans boosted the series that far—but the huge Bollywood dance number he joked about is unlikely. 

"It's nerve-wracking," Thomas wrote in his passionate letter to fans. "I suppose we could fail in spectacular fashion, but there's also the chance that we completely revolutionize how projects like ours can get made."

Viva revolution. Viva Veronica.

Photo via blackrose687/deviantART

Nick Offerman advises Reddit on bacon, manliness

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If you ever play Monopoly with Nick Offerman, don’t deprive him of the thimble piece.

"I choose the thimble because no matter where I roam, you can't prick my motherfuckin' thumb with your bitch-ass Scottie Dog," the actor, craftsman, and mustache enthusiast explicitly stated. He added, "Can I cuss on here?"

Offerman's Monopoly token of choice was one of many topics discussed during a March 13 Reddit AMA session. The session was his second on the website; previously, he had hosted an AMA in August 2012. In addition to discussing his renowned role as Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, Offerman was also present to promote his new film Somebody Up There Likes Me, providing redditors with a preview video.

  • Who is your favorite Parks and Rec character besides Ron?
  • If you had to choose between bacon or carpentry, which would you choose?
  • Why did you decide to start tweeting again?
  • Any future projects you are working on that you can disclose?
  • Here’s a shot in the dark, but is there ANY chance that you could spare an hour to be a guest on my podcast? (Rob_Saget)

"1) Duke Silver. 

2) Easy. Bacon. Carpentry requires protein to flourish, but Bacon requires only my masticating pork-hole. 

3) To use the practical side of Twitter to disseminate information to my peoples, despite the amount of time people waste upon said channel. 

4) Doing a play in Los Angeles with my gorgeous wife Megan, Annapurna, late April-June 9. 

5) I think you had another question, but it's dark so I missed it."

If you could impart one piece of knowledge to the wayward generation of Reddit, what would it be? (Silfax)

"One Knowledge Piece: Wealth is more amply measured in hugs than dollars."

If you directed Rocky 7, who would you have Rocky fight? (Greenskeeper)

"I imagine he'd be in a pretty good scrap with his colon by this point. I'd love to see him take on Dr. Phil, as well, and have Dr. Phil be inexplicably formidable, but then of course, ultimately lose to Mr. Balboa."

Manliness: as a 24 year old half Asian male weighing in at 120 lbs, struggling to grow facial hair, how can I become more manly like yourself? (karmaghia)

"Turn off your computer and go out of doors. Dig a large enough hole to transplant a mature apple tree. Nurture the tree, feed it, coddle it so that its fruit will be ample, bright and firm. Practice open-hand strikes against the rough bark of the trunk until it's time to harvest. Choose the champion of your apple crop, pluck it from the tree, and beat yourself about the face and tits with it until your mettle will suffice."

You're stranded on a desert island. What three items do you bring? (pivotalsquash)

"Sharp knife

One dozen hogs 

Small seaplane"

We all know Ron Swanson has only cried twice in his life. Is there anything that makes you cry? (la_doble_de_Consuelo)

"I cry with regularity, and I don't mind a bit. I cried last night during rehearsal for this beautiful play Annapurna, by Sharr White, that Megan and I are doing in LA. I consistently cried at the curt but heartfelt life advice dispensed by Coach Eric Taylor. I cried when Ashton Kutcher came back to television. For all of us. For shame."

As an enthusiast of barbecued meats. Do you have a favorite? How do you like it prepared? (ItsBurgertime)

"My favorite of all is steak, ribs, pork loin, lamb chops, bratwurst, cheeseburgers. I like them prepared on the grill."

It is widely believed that you may have been flying high during your last AMA. Care to shed some light on this? (wrecker14)

"Can I get a light, please?"

Photo via Nick Offerman/Imgur

5 shows Kickstarter or Netflix should bring back from the dead

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The Veronica Mars movie is probably happening.

Creator Rob Thomas launched the Kickstarter campaign, (with star Kristen Bell on board) earlier today. It’s already become the fastest fundraiser to reach $1 million, and it's still going strong.

Some are skeptical about whether Warner Bros. is exploiting fans by asking them to fund a movie the studio could easily support financially, but the Internet is already in a "Shut up and take my money!" whirl of excitement over the newly-announced project, so it's more a question of when it will reach its goal, not if. And of how much money the film will have raised when the campaign ends on Apr. 12.

More and more, creators and production companies are turning away from traditional television and looking to other means of getting shows directly to the viewers. Netflix has found massive success with the original series  House of Cards, and the highly-anticipated Arrested Development season 4 is set to premiere on the streaming service in May 2013.

However, now that we're finally about to find out what happened to Veronica, Logan, Wallace, and the rest of the characters in Neptune, Calif., it may only be a matter of time before a number of other projects stuck in TV Purgatory try for a crowdsourced reprieve.

Nothing has been announced yet, but we still have our hopes set on these shows getting a second life through investment from streaming sites and fundraisers.

1) Firefly, Sept.-Dec. 2002

It may have ended 10 years ago, but we're still bitter about Firefly getting canceled. Before the show ever aired a single episode, it was shifted to Friday nights by FOX—where, it is said, TV goes to die. The episodes were never aired in the correct order, and the show was never given a chance to grow. It was canceled after just 11 episodes.

A cult audience grew after the DVD's release, and due to fan enthusiasm, Joss Whedon had the chance to tell the story of Mal, Zoe, Jayne, and the rest of the Serenity crew in a feature-length film, Serenity, in 2005. Even though we're still upset about Wash and Book, we still want more.

Nobody may be a bigger Firefly fan than star Nathan Fillion. In February 2011, he innocently toldEntertainment Weekly that he would buy the rights to Firefly if he won $300 million from the California Lottery, and a number of Browncoats offered to chip in before Whedon shut it down.

But with Fillion on Castle, Morena Baccarin in Homeland, Gina Torres in Suits, and Joss Whedon busy being Joss Whedon, another reboot may take a long time.

At least we're possibly gettingDr. Horrible 2 this year.

2) Party Down: Mar. 2009-June 2010

This short-lived series from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas  followed six aspiring Hollywood actors and writers hoping for their big break as they worked for a catering company serving the assholes who already made it in the industry.

It had the backing from Starz and the support from critics, but it was canceled after two seasons due to low ratings (for a premium cable network); Jane Lynch's move to Glee and Adam Scott's to Parks and Recreation also probably had something to do with it.

People have been clamoring for a Party Down movie ever since the shpw left the airwaves, and there hasn't been much concrete news since. Megan Mullally said the movie could shoot during the "next hiatus," but things still aren't set in stone.

With a cult following, Party Down could also do well on Kickstarter—and we already know Thomas is willing to embrace crowdfunding.

3) Community: Sept. 2009-Present

Community technically hasn't been canceled yet, but it has gotten little love from NBC over the years. It was pitted directly against the ratings juggernaut known as Big Bang Theory for two years before NBC fired creator Dan Harmon. They moved Community to Friday nights behind Whitney (refer back to how that worked with Firefly) until the show was delayed "indefinitely" just before the season premiere on Oct. 19.

Fans fueled the momentum during the months-long hiatus leading up the premiere on Feb. 7 with a Reddit-made version of Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne and an Inspector Spacetime Web series

Reviews for the new season without Harmon are mixed (just go into almost any thread on r/community) and it's still getting its ass kicked in the ratings by Big Bang Theory. The new showrunners are hopeful for a season 5, and compared to how other NBC shows are holding up, it may still have legs.

If by chance it doesn't get renewed by NBC, we'd love to see the Greendale Seven go streets ahead on Netflix with Harmon back in charge. And, depending on how Pierce's arc ends this season, we'd be fine using Abed's choice of Fred Willard to replace him, since Chevy Chase won't be returning.

4) Pushing Daisies: Oct. 2007-Jun. 2009

Pushing Daisies revolved around Ned (Lee Pace), a pie-maker who had the gift to bring people back from the dead with a single touch. It combined a procedural with the whimsical tone of a fairy tale that resonates in current hit Once Upon a Time, but it got canceled after it struggled in the ratings and ABC opted not to order any additional episodes.

The last three episodes eventually aired months after the show was canceled, but fans remained dissatisfied with the ending. So did creator Bryan Fuller. He said that he would continue the series in comic books (which had beenpostponed as of 2011), and he was also open for a miniseries, a movie, or even a stage adaptation.

We'd go for any of those options, and the comic/graphic novel could easily be funded by Kickstarter. We just want a more satisfying ending than what ABC forced on us.

5) Wonderfalls: Mar.-Dec. 2004

Bryan Fuller doesn't have much luck with TV shows. Years before Pushing Daisies came out, he created a little-known show called Wonderfalls, which focuses on Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas), a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop who converses with animal figurines who give her instructions to help people in need.

Initially delayed by FOX, it aired in March 2004 to low ratings. It was moved to Thursday after it did well upon second airing, although the time change was never really advertised, and it was canceled after just four episodes.

A push from fans got them a screening of all 13 episodes at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City in January 2005 and DVD interviews reveal that the show's writers already thinking seasons ahead for the main character including Jaye being institutionalized and diagnosed with "Joan of Arc syndrome."

Even if you haven't heard of this cult show, it's easy to catch up with it on DVD if a season 2 were ever to happen. We think it would work well with a Netflix revival, like with other FOX cult hit Arrested Development.

Photo via RavenU/Flickr

 

Nick Offerman's butt cheeks cameo in this video about weed

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Every evening, the Daily Dot delivers a selection of links worth clicking from around the Web, along with the day's must-see image or video. We call it Dotted Lines.

  • Alison Brie and Nick Offerman sing a song about smoking weed. But it's so much more than that. It's also about Megan Mullally's pubes. Guest-starring Adam Scott, FNL's Stephanie Hunt, Amy Poehler, and Nick Offerman's butt cheeks. Watch above. Then read Offerman's Reddit AMA.
  • Remember the girl who filmed herself masturbating in the Cornell University engineering library? She's back.
  • Australian emcee Iggy Azalea has a new music video called "Work." And if twerking is your job, you'll be enlightened.
  • Ontario's Hell's Angels have a hard-on for sports gambling.
  • Justin Bieber blames his recent breakdown on the gym. Right.
  • The best dating advice from moms
  • The Kick-Ass 2 Red Band trailer. Awesome.

Sherlock Holmes is not dead in these adorable GIFs

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Fans of the BBC's hit Sherlock finally learned that filming will begin shortly for the long-awaited third series. But while filming begins in just 5 days, that means we won't see a new episode until winter. What's a fan stuck in the middle of a two-year-wait for a three episode mini-series to do?

Contemplate Sherlock's impending un-demise, of course. That's what Tumblr artist Shockingblankets has done, with an adorable series of fanart gifs illustrating some of the potential ways in which Sherlock might pop back into the life of his grieving friend Dr. Watson. Shockingblankets started the series a month ago and immediately the Tumblr notes started piling up. The series grew so popular that yesterday she created a masterpost for them that already has 12,000 notes and reblogs.

In the original Sherlock Holmes series, Alfred Conan Doyle famously killed off Holmes, then had to bring him back to life years later after fan demand for more grew too intense. Holmes, of course, was famously revealed to have faked his own death. When Holmes shows up at Watson's house four years after leaping off a Swiss alp in "The Empty House," Watson is so surprised to see him he faints dead away.  In the BBC version, Sherlock leaps off a balcony in the Series Two finale while Dr. Watson looks on, but is later shown to be safe and sound. While Sherlock creator Moffat has provided fans with other hints about the upcoming series, two of the biggest questions remain: How did Sherlock fake his death, and how will he announce his return?

Shockingblankets' hilarious artwork offers up various possibilities, all involving John involved in routine domestic affairs at 221B, when suddenly Sherlock pops up like an oversized jack-in-the-box. Whether it's the cute simplistic drawing style, the fandom in-jokes (John's been washing his famous red pants!), or the hilarious jawdrop that John does every time, this is an addictive art series even if you aren't a fan of the show.

Enjoy the rest of the series below, and then head over to Shockingblankets' Tumblr to play John's Jam Adventure, a reference to the famous Kate Beaton comic in which New Watson likes Jam!

We're all very happy.






All illustrations by shockingblankets/Tumblr

"Veronica Mars" Kickstarter hits $2 million goal on first day

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We've just solved the mystery of the biggest-ever movie Kickstarter.

The fundraiser for a movie version of cult show Veronica Mars hit its $2 million goal in less than a day. It shattered the record for the fastest project to reach $1 million in funding, hitting that mark in about five hours.

This means we'll finally getting to see what happened to teenage detective Veronica Mars et al after the show ended in 2007. Creator Rob Thomas plans to shoot the film this summer and release it next year.

Warner Bros. was bullish on a movie version of the UPN and The CW show, according to Thomas, but gave him and star Kristen Bell a shot at raising funding (and proving fan interest) through Kickstarter.

That they did with great aplomb, tapping into the goodwill of fans who either loved the show as it aired or caught up on DVD in the years since. One investor even pledged $10,000 to bag the top reward of a small speaking role in the film.

The successful funding also raises a discussion of whether this marks a new benchmark in helping gauge interest for studio movies and getting them made.

Sure, it flips traditional marketing on its head by getting fans to pay to have a movie made in the first instance, and will probably ruin Kickstarter now giant corporations see what it can do, but that's a debate for another time.

Right now, it's a time for "Marshmallows" (as Bell called fans in the project video) to celebrate.

Bell and Thomas were thrilled with the progress!

When fans found out about the Kickstarter success, they were all like:

Photo via heyyobecky4lyfe/Tumblr


Not like:

 

GIF via cinematic-orchestra/Tumblr

Veronica thought the record-breaking project was not bad at all

 

GIF via im16again/Tumblr


She danced.

GIF via capslockpirate/Tumblr


Maybe we'll even see the return of Adam Scott?

Or Aaron Paul?

Photos via tvhangover/Tumblr

No matter, as long as there's plenty of focus on Veronica and Logan.

Aw.

Photo via im16again/Tumblr

The wonderwall: Why Kitty Pryde is more than a Tumblr rapper

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Kitty Pryde has just been let out of a magazine photo shoot.

It's one of many she's landed since her dreamy debut single, "Okay Cupid," catapulted her from talking about hip-hop and posting rap videos on Tumblr to making Rolling Stone's list of the best songs of 2012.

But Kitty, the sarcastic, self-proclaimed “little white girl ruining hip-hop,” hates modeling.

"It's just being bossed around, being uncomfortable, looking ways that you don't want to look,” exclaims the rapper born Kathryn Beckwith, who recently shortened her stage name to avoid further confusion with the X-Men character.

Kitty is getting used to being in the spotlight—in uncomfortable positions. Just check the comments on any of Kitty's videos, any article about her, or even her own diary on Tumblr. She’s at the center of a confounding debate about privilege, authenticity, and “real” hip-hop in the Internet age.

“People think I represent teenage girls in hip-hop, which I don't think anybody really wanted in the first place,” she says. “I might not be representing us well. I don't know.

Kitty has been pegged "Tumblr-wave" and "Tumblr-core." While she scoffs at both terms for obvious reasons, it’s the most logical box to put her in. Kitty, who turned 20 in February, blogs prolifically—her avatar is a Skrillex animation and her Dashboard theme sparkles with My Little Pony characters—and gave away her new EP, D.A.I.S.Y. Rage on the platform. She even recently launched a fundraiser to help one of her early friends on the site.

Intentionally or not, Kitty’s Tumblr famous. Teenage girls post videos on the site trying to emulate her rap style, and they send her messages asking for advice about everything from relationships to eating disorders.

“At first, I was like ‘Oh god, I should not be the one giving out advice,’ but now it kind of helps me, because for some fucking reason, people look up to me,” Kitty says. “I don't understand why. But I make better decisions when I know other people are going to be emulating them.”

Kitty’s made a lot of big decisions in the past year. She quit her job at Claire’s at the mall, which she says she still misses. She moved out of her parents’ house in Florida and headed  to Brooklyn, where she now lives most of the time with her boyfriend, Grammy-nominated producer Hot Sugar. And she self-released D.A.I.S.Y. Rage.

The EP hits all of the right SEO points for the Tumblr crowd, with references to Wu-Tang Clan sprinkled in with Twitter trends, YouTube memes, 4chan's music boards, and stalking boys on the Internet. Her music seems to confuse the hell out of critics and bloggers.

Is she a self-aware artist—cue eye roll from Kitty—who’s in on her own joke? Is she even joking? And is this pale, freckle-faced white girl actually any good at rapping? Nobody seems to have asked the girl at the center of it all.

"I'm not a person," Kitty says, laughing. "People don't really consider me a person anymore. I'm the subject. So, it's whatever."  

Then there’s the other type of attack that plagues Kitty. She’s been accused of sleeping her way to the top with everyone from producer Beautiful Lou (who sent her the beat for "Okay Cupid") to rapper Riff Raff, who she collaborated with on "Orion's Belt." One of the tracks on her latest EP is about the stress-induced rash she gets when someone harasses her—which happens a lot.

The online trolls are persistent—one girl has apparently been stalking Kitty on the Internet for two years–and the real-life ones can be worse. A girl once harassed Kitty at a show until she broke down crying—on the same night someone threw a full water bottle at her during her set.

"At first I was really freaked out because I didn't know how stuff worked," says Kitty.

"I didn't know that once you start being in the public eye, you don't get to pick what people think about you anymore. People are going to think whatever they want, and you literally can't do anything about it. At first I was like 'No, wait!' And I would try to clear up rumors and stuff that bothered me, but now I'm like 'Whatever, dude. You're an idiot.'”

On “Dead Island,” the first single from D.A.I.S.Y. Rage, Kitty takes the haters in stride, rapping with veteran poise about the weird experience of watching people speculate about her on their blogs.

“You're unable to discern if I'm the wunderkind or underdog; So fuck it all, I'm the wonderwall,” she raps.

Although she can't control what people think of her on the Internet, Kitty insists on staying in control of her own career. She’s turned down commercial deal for "Okay Cupid," major label offers, a tour with 3Oh!3, and an appearance on G4's Attack of the Show, all in the name of staying true to her personal brand and vision.

“[On D.A.I.S.Y. Rage] I got to do whatever I wanted,” she enthuses. “I made whatever songs I wanted. I could record it wherever and release it wherever I wanted, and if I had taken those deals, I wouldn't be able to do any of that stuff. And I might not even have been able to write my own songs!”

I ask Kitty if she sees music as a full-time career in the long run.

“At this point, it seems like I'm going to be [rapping],” she casually responds. “It wasn't necessarily what I planned on doing, but it's so fun that… why not?”

After her run at South by Southwest this week, Kitty will tour the U.S. with Danny Brown, the rapper she fawned over in her “Okay Cupid” video and later befriended IRL.

“Everybody said that I couldn’t do that, and it was never going to happen, and nobody took me seriously—except for Danny, and a couple of other people,” she says. “And now, I just want everybody to know that it’s real life, bitch! And I am a musician! And I’m an artist! And I’m a rapper! And I can rap good!”

Photo via SXSW


For Your Consideration: A YouTube guide to Emmy nominations

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It’s been said that Netflix and YouTube could make serious waves at next year’s Emmy Awards. Here’s why.

Now that awards season is over, Hollywood is starting to turn its attention to its next great shindig: the Emmys. The nominations for excellence in broadcasting won't be announced until July 18, but speculation is already brewing that this year could be a watershed for online programming.

"The Internet is about to come to consciousness about the Emmys," John Leverence, the vice president of awards for the Primetime Emmy presentation, told TVGuide.com.

Most critical attention thus far has hovered over House of Cards, Netflix's original series, directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey, and Julia Stiles’s lead in Blue. But what about other unsung heroes of Internet television?

Once you take the webseries away from its current Emmy niche (Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media--one award for original programming, one for online tie-ins to television programming), the possibilities are endless.

So what webseries and original programming deserves a nod from the Emmys? The Daily Dot walks you through some of the nomination highlights--and the online programming that deserves your consideration.

Outstanding Drama Series

House of Cards probably has this nomination in the bag, but Halo 4, Booth at the End, and H+ should all be viewed as serious contenders for this category.

Outstanding Direction for a Drama Series

If anyone is nominated for online programming in this category, it's a clincher for Fincher, but we'd love to see Stewart Hendler acknowledged for his stellar work on two of this year's finest webseries: H+ and Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.

Outstanding Special Visual Effects

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn’s phenomenal visual effects team has already nabbed a Streamy for Best Production Design and an industry award for Sound Editing. In an ideal world, Halo 4 would pick up Emmy recognition for its outstanding sound and video editing, cinematography, and production design; but if this series doesn't at least nab an Emmy nomination for Visual Effects, we say there is no justice.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

Bryan Singer's action-packed sci-fi dystopia H+ killed it with an incredible first season of 40-plus episodes. TubeFilter called it"easily one of the most epic, well shot, well thought through web series released this year," and we're inclined to agree. Plus, given that Google Glass is actually making the technology of H+ seem less "futuristic" and more "right now," we think creator and writer John Cabrera has more than earned a writing nomination—if only for his prescience.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy

Issa Rae for The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.  Awkward Black Girl has been delighting audiences for over two years now, quietly giving the lie to the myth that women can't do comedy. It's past time for Hollywood to give Rae her due share of acclaim.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie

Troian Bellisario for Lauren. Julia Stiles is getting a just amount of attention for her moving portrayal of a struggling mom who's also a hooker in Blue, one of many Wigs’s network series focusing on the lives of modern women. But her fellow Wigs series star Troian Bellisario deserves acclaim for portraying "Lauren," a soldier who runs into pushback from her superior officer when she attempts to report a rape.

Outstanding Short-format Animated Program

With its hybrid of animation styles, if Tom Hanks's arresting Electric City isn't at least nominated for this, we'll swear off awards ceremonies forever, until next year.

Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics

Elizabeth Chan for The Failure Club. So sue us. We just want to hear "The Christmas Song" again, all right?

Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series

Christine. Headed by the charmingly nonplussed America Ferrera, the casting is the strength of this Wigs series, as "Christine" speed-dates her way through a night of first-impression hell.

Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series

Burning Love, Ben Stiller's hilarious Bachelor spoof, had an outstanding comedy ensemble cast throughout its first season, including cameos from Jennifer Anniston and Community's Ken Jeong.

Outstanding Nonfiction Programming

We love news commentary series The Young Turks, and as its YouTube channel closes on a billion views, it's high time this 8-year-old Internet phenomenon, along with creator Cenk Uygur, received more mainstream attention.

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

Husbands. Buffy alumae Jane Espenson penned this popular series about two gay boyfriends who wake up married in Las Vegas. If only for making one of the staple tropes of slash fanfiction a reality, give her all the awards.

So what did we miss? If you were casting an Emmy ballot, what webseries would be at the top of your list? Let us know in the comments.

Screengrab via YouTube

The Real High Priest: A Spotify tribute to Alex Chilton

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This one’s for old Alex Chilton
and all the songs he has written
for every person
there’s a specific place and/in time

—“Forever Blue” by Leatherbag

In a time when people have so much more access to everything, we can feel like we know much more than we actually do about the niche subjects of our choice. That being said, my 10-plus year sojourn to understanding the man behind my favorite recordings of all time is still ongoing, and I’m as confused as I was the first time I heard the music of Big Star and Alex Chilton sometime in the late ‘90s.

The record was Third/Sister Lovers by Big Star. I recorded it (the Rykodisc Edition, 1992) to cassette tape and forced myself to listen to it, even though I found it confusing, disheveled, and pretty weird. Once that tape died, I made another dub, then another, and eventually got a CD copy. This was early Internet days, people; America Online ruled the school and Napster was in its infancy. Only after talking  to snarky record store clerks could you understand a little about where it came from, and then there’s the whole thing with the tracking order. This record got to me like no other record had, and my  journey to the Atlantis that is Alex Chilton began.

Chilton is my favorite musician of any era. He embodies the tradition of folk and the passing down of classic tunes to new audiences while continuing the punk rock mindset of doing what it is you feel like, nevermind his guitar playing (which can be either perfection or destruction depending on what the tune needs). Many people have made attempts to reveal the real Chilton and his life with music. I am not going to try. (I hear  that a biography about Chilton, entitled A Man Called Destruction: The Life & Music of Alex Chilton from the Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man, is being written by Holly George-Warren.)

I  never met the man, and let’s face it, if I had, it probably would’ve been, to put it mildly, rough. So instead, I’ve traveled the shallow depths of Spotify to find significant songs by Chilton that continue to rule my daily life. Along with this Spotify playlist, I have prepared a sort of crash course in junk I’ve picked up and continue to carry in my pockets about Chilton.

A shortened history:

1967: The Box Tops hit No. 1 internationally with “The Letter,” earning two Grammy nominations and selling 4 million copies.

1969: Terry Manning (Ardent engineer and musician) and Chilton sneak around recording what will later be known as the album 1970 while Chilton is still under contract with Bell Records, the Box Tops’ label

1969: Rock City. Members include Jody Stephens, Terry Manning, and Chris Bell. Rock City morphed into band called Icewater before becoming Big Star with Chilton.

1972: #1 Record is released.

1972: Chris Bell leaves Big Star and begins recording what would become the I Am The Cosmos solo LP that was released posthumously.

1974: Radio City is released. Big Star now a trio with Chilton, Stephens, and Hummel.

1974: Recording of Third/Sister Lovers with Jim Dickinson (released in 1978).

1974-1975: Bachs Bottom with Jon Tiven sessions.

1977: Singer Not The Song EP released. (Terry Ork talent buyer for CBGB’s put out on his label, Ork.) Chilton produces and plays on Chris Stamey single, “The Summer Sun” (also put out on Ork). Chilton brings the Cramps to Memphis and Ardent to record tunes later released on the Gravest Hits and Songs The Lord Taught Us.

1978: “Bangkok” b/w “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” single released on the Ork label.

1979: Like Flies on Sherbert released. Chilton returns to Memphis and records at Ardent again with Jim Dickinson.

1981: Behind The Magnolia Curtain released. Chilton joins Tav Falco’s Panther Burns on guitar.

1985: In January, Chilton produces a session with now-legendary band the
Replacements at Nicollet Studios in Minneapolis. The sessions are included on the reissue of the Replacements’ Tim LP.

1986: The Bangles cover “September Gurls” on Different Light. The album goes platinum both in U.S. and U.K. Chilton also produces New Orleans honky tonk band Johnny J & the Hitmen’s album ‘Nuclear Hayride’ that same year.

1987: The album Pleased to Meet Me by the Replacements contains the tribute song “Alex Chilton,” but also has the man himself playing guitar and singing on “Can’t Hardly Wait.” Pleased to Meet Me was also produced by Jim Dickinson.

1990: Chilton produces I Know You Fine But How You Doin’ by the Gories.

1993: Release of Big Star/Teenage Fanclub NME single. A side: “Mine Exclusively,” by Big Star. B side: “Patti Girl” by Teenage Fanclub. The first Big Star reunion show at the University of Missouri featuring Chilton, Stephens, Auer and Stringfellow (of the Posies).

1996” Alan Vega, Ben Vaughn and Chilton team up on Cubist Blues.

1998: Chilton contributes backing vocals to “Crazy” on the Afghan Whigs 1965 LP. The Box Tops (original lineup) reunited for a one-off album with Chilton entitled Tear Off. Chilton also produces The Royal Pendletons’ Oh Yeah Baby LP, and contributes new Big Star composition called “Hot Thing” to the Big Star: Small World compilation.

2010: Big Star slated to play SXSW Music Festival March 20 in Austin, Texas. Chilton passes away three days prior, due to heart complications.

I got a call from a friend on the evening of March 17, 2010. My wife and I were taking a night in from the SXSW Music Festival when I got the news about his passing. I was always suspicious of the mourning of someone you didn’t know and continue to be, but I was saddened to know someone I had spent so much of my own personal time with was gone. I just can’t sum up such a rich musical life like Chilton’s. I can only be thankful for it and continue to learn from it.

Randy Reynolds, better known as Leatherbag, is a critically acclaimed songwriter and the producer of the KLRU music documentary series, Hardly Sound.

Alex Chilton photo via Stephanie Chernikowski/Redferns; Leatherbag illustration by Daytrotter 

Here's the Peter Dinklage dubstep supercut you were waiting for

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Every evening, the Daily Dot delivers a selection of links worth clicking from around the Web, along with the day's must-see image or video. We call it Dotted Lines.

A glimpse at YouTube's changes up ahead

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More than 800 million YouTube users need their YouTube news. Andy Smith is determined to give it to them. 

Since 2007, the Ohio-based YouTuber has delivered the latest in community news, with stories ranging from the alarming to the heartwarming.

Smith is on the topics that you want to know and the stories that you need to know, and he'll tell you how they'll both affect your time on site. 

Every Wednesday, the Daily Dot spotlights a video from Smith's triweekly updated Lion's Den channel.

This week, Smith talks about the changes on the horizon for YouTube. "Between the new channel pages, a big announcement from VEVO, and a new video sharing site from Chad Hurley, YouTube Founder, who knows what the future holds," he writes.

 

Photo via The Lion's Den News/YouTube

5 amazing ways "Veronica Mars" moved us last week

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It's been an emotional week for fans of Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas's cult favorite TV show about a snarky blonde teen who sleuths her way through crimes large and small in the fictional town of Neptune, California. Although the show was canceled after its third season, its niche audience remained faithful—and last week they made their voices heard. 

Last week, six years after the show went off the air, her fans brought her to life once again, in a Kickstarter to fund a Veronica Mars movie that was the fastest fund drive ever to reach $1 million, then the fastest fund drive ever to hit its goal, breaking $2 million in less than 8 hours. The Kickstarter—which had the second-highest goal for a project—currently has $3.6 million from over 55,000 donors. And there are still 25 days to go.

In the few days since the project was funded, the Internet has been full of deep thoughts on Veronica Mars, but we've seen none as important or as relevant as the ones that have come directly from the show's fans. Here are the moments from the last week of Veronica Mars fandom that moved us, made us cry, and reminded us how amazing it is when fans unite to support something they love.

1) Francis Capra said Veronica Mars saved his life


Kristen Bell and Francis Capra at 2009 Comic-Con. Photo via ldfranklin/deviantART

Francis Capra, who played Weevil, the brilliant-but-violent gang leader who becomes unexpected allies with Veronica, showed up on Reddit to do an emotional AMA on Friday:

I feel obligated to reach back out to the community that has made this possible, by showing so much love, support, and loyalty as to "Break Kickstarter Records" and personally, remind me of just how much Veronica Mars meant to me. This show saved my life years ago and it looks like its gonna do it again. ... I always said we had the greatest fans any cast could ever ask for, this week, you guys showed the world just how real those claims were.

Though Capra was "discovered" at an early age, his father was incarcerated most of his life, and died in a shooting the year before Veronica Mars aired.
 

2) "This isn’t just my story"

On Tumblr, nonnonmodernist treated us to a short, moving post about the role Veronica Mars played in her own life. "I could tell you the story of how Veronica Mars saved my life," she begins.

I came out the other side. And along the way I learned all kinds of things from Veronica—about how to survive trauma, how to set boundaries, how to be a person in the world again. … I know I’m not the only one. This isn’t just my story. It’s the story of every teenaged and 20-something girl who looked up to Veronica. I cried when they announced that the show wouldn’t be renewed. I cried because I had no idea when we’d see another heroine on our tv sets who so willfully flouted the bounds of good girl behavior, and yet saved the day, and never had to be domesticated, and yet could relearn how to love, and always remain true to herself, even the unpleasant parts of herself.

But now we have the chance to bring her back, and maybe create a ripple in the placid pond of tv development, and maybe also expose a ton of new people to one of the best shows ever made.

This is the kind of eloquence Veronica Mars inspires that makes even non-fans want to contribute to the cause.
 

3) "Don't you dare feel bad"

Backlash over the Veronica Mars Kickstarter began even before the project was funded. After the Atlantic Wire published a somewhat dismissive editorial on the fundraiser, Hank Green, Seanan Mcguire, and many other fans spoke out about the merits of supporting creative projects without wanting to receive a monetary return on your investment. But it was TV Line that served up the most passionate paean to fansourced fundraising:

A lot of the time, the Internet is used to tear things down. To mock Smash, to snark about red carpet fashions, to hurt. All from the cozy, oft-anonymous comfort of everyone’s couches. For 10 thrilling hours on Wednesday, though, 30,000 strangers banded together online to create something. When does that ever happen?

4) Fans can hardly contain themselves


Photo via veronicamarsconfessions/Tumblr

Fan christycorr, writing on LiveJournal:

Undiluted bliss of this kind is exactly one of the biggest perks of being a fan, of being someone who is unashamed to actually get excited about things, and it feels so warm and fuzzy and amazing.

Oh, and thanks, Batman:


Illustration by Joe Dunn via Joe Loves Crappy Movies / Digital Pimp

Who needs grammar when you have Veronica?

whenever im sad i just think about the fact that a veronica mars movie is finally gonna happen then im okay

You and me too, kid.
 

5) It made Joss happy

Add this to the many reasons fans cult-worship Joss Whedon: when BuzzFeed asked what he thought about the Veronica Mars Kickstarter, Whedon, who is a huge fan of the show, got excited:

It was unfettered joy. A) I thought it was an awesome and ballsy move. B) I love V. Mars and want more of it. And C) It feels like a real game-changer.

Game-changer? Definitely. PC Magazine has already dubbed 2013 "The Year of the Fangirl," naming Whedon's latest project, Much Ado About Nothing, along side the Veronica Mars Kickstarter in the same breath.

That sounds like a reason to break out the marshmallows to me.

Illustration by calliope52/deviantART

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