Latest from Next TV in 420

Fusion, Fuse Light Up '420' Fare

MCN Staff — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 12:15:00 +0000

Fusion and Fuse said they will have '420' flavored programming on hand today, April 20, of the informative and partying variety, respectively.

Fusion, the news network from Univision and ABC News, at 6 a.m. kicked off a slate of programming exploring the state of marijuana in America. It includes the premiere of the documentary Evergreen: The Road to Legalization, at 8 p.m.; Grass: The History of Marijuana, narrated by Woody Harrelson, at 10 p.m.; and a marathon of Fusion original series The Cannabusiness Report, hosted by chief cannabis correspondent Ryan Nerz.

Fuse and fuse.tv will roll out a music video block from 4:20-7:30 p.m. that includes Cypress Hill’s “Insane In The Brain,” Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dog’s “Young Wild and Free” and A$AP Rocky’s “Jukebox Joints.” Also on the menu are pharmaceutical-friendly episodes of Everybody Hates Chris and Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce and the movie Cheech and Chong Get Out Of My Room. Here is a promo.

Vimeo Hopes to Smoke Out Next Breakout Hit

thomas.umstead@futurenet.com (R. Thomas Umstead) — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Now that digital-content provider Vimeo has moved its first original series to HBO, the company is looking for its next big original online hit series.

High Maintenance, a comedy about a marijuana delivery messenger just acquired by HBO, was Vimeo’s first stab at the original series arena. The series — created by Ben Sinclair and KatjaBlichfield— initially launched on Vimeo for free before moving to the online video provider’s subscription on-demand platform for its second season.

HBO will develop six new episodes of High Maintenance and will run its 19 prior episodes on the HBO Go and HBO Now platforms.

“High Maintenance has proven to be one of today’s most highly-acclaimed online comedies,” HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said in a statement. “We are thrilled to bring this sophisticated and clever series to our HBO audience.”

High Maintenance follows the adventures of “The Guy,” a nameless marijuana dealer played by Sinclair, as he delivers his product to clients in New York City. Each episode focuses on a different set of characters and how they interact with the unnamed dealer.

“We didn’t create the show thinking that it will be sold to HBO, but we’re thrilled with how it turned out,” Vimeo general manager Greg Clayman told Multichannel News. “We’ve talked about the emergence of various platforms, so it’s really interesting to see a high-quality show like that make its way across the various platforms — first it was free, then it was on demand and now it’s on HBO.”

Clayman said Vimeo doesn’t have another original series lined up as of yet but is talking to several producers about various projects.

For Vimeo, which has more than 170 million unique users uploading and viewing original video content, its service provides an open platform for all types of videos. The service’s Vimeo On Demand content allows its premium VimeoPRO users to charge a fee for viewing of their original movies, shows and documentaries.

Clayman said the service’s hybrid free offering and transactional on-demand package is not unlike that of the cable bundle which features both a large package of channels and premium content for consumers to choose to watch on various platforms.

He pointed to Dish’s Sling TV digital subscription package as an iteration of the mix of traditional linear content and digital presence that will reach a large swath of customers on whatever platform they choose to watch.

“It’s interesting to watch all the different flavors of online and cable content that we currently have in the marketplace,” Clayman said. “Often people talk about cable versus online but then you have Dish, which is a [multichannel video programming distributor] but also offers an online product. Instead of one over the other, we’re seeing a merger of the two as quality content finds its way to audiences.”

HBO Gets 'High Maintenance'

Leslie Jaye Goff — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 17:15:00 +0000

Premium cabler HBO has ordered six new episodes of popular online video series High Maintenance, about a weed delivery guy in Brooklyn, and said it will distribute all 19 existing episodes across its platforms.

One of the most well performing series on Vimeo (trailer here), High Maintenance follows previous HBO ventures into THC TV such as Bored to Death and Silicon Valley, among others.

The series stars Ben Sinclair -- co-writer and co-creator with his wife, Emmy-winning casting director Katja Blichfeld -- as the amiable pot dealer, known as “The Guy” by his clients, an eccentric group of stoners. Guest stars have included Hannibal Buress (Broad City) and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey).

In addition to writing and starring in the series, Blichfield and Sinclair EP, cast, direct and edit it.

“We have been growing this show organically for three years now, and we are elated to bring it into full maturity at HBO," Blichfeld and Sinclair said, working the marijuana metaphors for all they were worth.

The show's original 19 episodes, which debuted on Vimeo, will be available later this year on HBO, HBO Now and HBO Go, the network said.

"High Maintenance has proven to be one of today’s most highly-acclaimed online comedies,” Michael Lombardo, president, HBO programming, said. “We are thrilled to bring this sophisticated and clever series to our HBO audience.”

High Maintenance is produced by Janky Clown Productions; Russell Gregory also serves as an executive producer.

Weed on TV: Just Say … Why Not?

Leslie Jaye Goff — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000

In HBO’s season-two trailer for Silicon Valley, a hulking, Birkenstock-wearing computer programmer grabs an enormous bong and fires it up to the relentless strains of Danny Brown’s “Smokin’ & Drinkin.’”

The series, which returned April 12, is but one of many premium, basic-cable and broadcast shows in which weed plays into the story line in one form or another. In Comedy Central’s Broad City and Workaholics; Showtime’s Episodes; IFC’s Maron; and even A&E’s Bates Motel, where the local town is run by a weed cartel, getting high is just something people do. On a fairly regular basis. And the act is not just implied or covered by a jump-cut to the after-effects; characters are casually toking away on screen.

Download the 4/20 timeline.

With 23 states and Washington, D.C., having legalized marijuana in one form or another, TV programming has gone to pot as well. Since the earliest references to weed in scripted TV shows to today, pot-related story lines have evolved from “Protagonist smokes weed — with disastrous results” to “with nostalgic results” to “with comic results” to, essentially, just “Protagonist smokes pot.” It’s tangential to the results.

Is TV merely reflecting the nation’s changing attitudes about pot or are we a nation under TV’s influence? In an effort to answer this 4:20-inspired question — that being the legendary time of day stoners would gather after school to get high, making the date April 20 a totem on the stoner calendar — Multichannel News presents this “4/20 Timeline” looking at the concurrent evolution of pot and plot.