Nov 08, 2010 Filed Under: Videos,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Meryl Streep critiques Lisa Kudrow‘s outfit in a new clip from Lisa’s web series, “Web Therapy.”

In the all-improv web series, Kudrow plays a Fiona Wallice, a therapist who conducts sessions via video chat. Meryl guest stars as Camilla Bowner, a renowned sexual orientation therapist.

A floral-bedecked Camilla tells Fiona, dressed all in black, “I really apologize for imposing on you, on … this very sad day for you. I didn’t realize you were going to a funeral.”

“No, I’m not going to a funeral. Why would you think that I’m going to a funeral?” Fiona replies.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! You were dressed in a way that looked so sad!” Camilla replies in the clip. Click above to see the full preview.

The web series is now in its third season and past guest stars include Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Courteney Cox, Molly Shannon, Selma Blair, Jane Lynch and more.

Lisa, who co-executive produces the series, told Time Out Chicago, “A few years ago, we were asked if we wanted to come up with a web series, and the answer was, ‘No, not really.’ When I dismiss something out of hand, my brain just keeps working on it anyway. I kept thinking, Something on the web should really be about the web. Then I thought the dumbest thing in the world, which could be funny, is a therapist who will only do sessions online for three minutes with an iChat. It’s just a really bad idea.”

The New York Times and several other outlets reported earlier this year that Showtime will begin airing the series on TV in 2011.

You can catch Meryl on “Web Therapy” starting on Monday, November 8, at www.lstudio.com.

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Nov 03, 2010 Filed Under: News & Rumors,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Meryl Streep is set to have an upcoming guest spot on Lisa Kudrow’s online series, Web Therapy, the actress’ rep confirms. The Oscar winner has supposedly already shot three episodes for the former Friends star’s comedy show, previous webisodes of which have been picked up by Showtime to air on the network.

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Aug 19, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Lisa Kudrow might be best known as Phoebe from Friends, but she’s making Internet waves as Fiona, a self-absorbed shrink who counsels her clients via iChat on the hit online comedy series Web Therapy. As the show gears up for its TV debut next spring on Showtime, we caught up with its Emmy-winning star to talk product placement, celebrity cameos, and the perks (or not) of being sponsored by Lexus.

Fast Company: You were on the biggest sitcom of the last 20 years. Why do a Web series?

Lisa Kudrow: It’s just really cool and fun, so why not? That’s how I always felt about independent films. If it doesn’t work out, no one’s gonna see it. If it does work out, then that’s really great. Because you don’t have the restraints that are normally imposed [when you're targeting the masses].

FC: You get more freedom?

Kudrow: In terms of developing entertainment, things don’t cost as much on the Web, so you can keep developing your program for longer periods of time [with minimal financial risk]. And that’s something that you can’t do so much on TV anymore, because for the networks and studios, the stakes are just way too high.

FC: How did you wind up working with Lexus?

Kudrow: They had wanted to start [online content hub] L Studio, and a production company came to us and said, “Do you wanna do something? You’ll have complete creative control.” Meanwhile, I had come up with the idea for Web Therapy. So [my team] just said, Alright, as long as they’re asking, we can do it here.

FC: How did they define “complete creative control”? Never asking you to plug their products?

Kudrow: We actually didn’t have a Lexus [on the show] until the third season. When we first started working with them, they actually said, “You don’t have to say Lexus. In fact, don’t.” L Studio seems like it’s more about affiliation than integration.

FC: Meaning the best branded content shouldn’t feel branded.

Kudrow: Right. With certain shows I watch, like Top Chef, one season they were driving around in like Toyotas or Lexuses. But that wasn’t a focus of the show. So I was just like, Oh, good for them. Oh, they’ve got the same taste I do. Then I feel a little better about the Lexus I drive around in.

FC: Did Lexus give you the car for free?

Kudrow: No, oh god no. [laughs] I already had one. But let’s also not forget, that hey, could ya? Throw a Lexus in there?

FC: Wouldn’t that be nice.

Kudrow: [laughs] No, I mean Lexus asked if we could throw a Lexus into Web Therapy. They just wanted to see the car at some point. So we do it in ways that work with the characters and the show. For example, Fiona gets really upset because her husband’s campaign manager is driving around in a Lexus convertible, and she’s being driven around in a van. “Why do you get a nice car and I get this?” That was little more heavy-handed, but in a way that was funny to us.

FC: What inside scoop can you give us on what’s coming up for Fiona on the Showtime show?

Kudrow: We’re going to meet her mother. The character’s name is Pussy Hodge, played by Lily Tomlin, who was unbelievably funny. Then we spend more time with Fiona’s husband Kip, so we see a little more about how that marriage works as she’s starting up a new endeavor. And just how she finagles, blackmails, extorts–whatever she can do to get this thing off the ground.

FC: So for the most part, Lexus lets you do your own thing.

Kudrow: Yeah, that’s why we signed on. And if it stays that way, then it’s great.

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Aug 03, 2010 Filed Under: News & Rumors,Web Therapy,Who Do You Think You Are? Comments (1)

Courteney Cox (Monica) stars in ABC’s “Cougar Town” (and also gets executive producer credit). Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe) is executive producer of NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” and producer and star of the Internet series “Web Therapy,” which has been picked up by Showtime. And soon Matt LeBlanc (Joey) and Matthew Perry (Chandler) will be back on TV, too, LeBlanc in Showtime’s “Episodes” and Perry in the lead of ABC’s “Mr. Sunshine,” set for midseason.

A few days after LeBlanc met with TV critics to introduce “Episodes,” set for January, Perry turned up to talk about “Mr. Sunshine,” a surrealistic comedy-drama in which he plays the self-absorbed manager of a small-time sports arena.

“The genesis of the show was all Matthew,” executive producer Mark Firek said. “He had an idea for his character and for the setting and this personal journey that he was about to go on. And he came to us, and we worked on it together and made it this office comedy with him at the center.”

Working with Aaron Sorkin on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” made Perry think he’d like to try writing, he said. So far, he’s been hanging out in the writers room “all the time” and will sort out the division between writer and actor once shooting starts, he said.

But back to “Friends.” Nobody needed to ask what Jennifer Anniston (Rachel) is up to. So — Cox is working, Kudrow is working and now LeBlanc and Perry are working, too. So what about David Schwimmer (Ross)?

“Do you ever see David, and does he talk to you about his goals?” one questioner wondered.

“I have not seen David in a while,” Perry responded, trying not to laugh, “but I would assume he’s doing exactly what he wants to be doing. You know, he loves directing. He loves the theater. So he’s probably doing a bunch of that lame stuff.”

(For the record, post-”Friends,” Schwimmer has appeared on stage in London, Chicago and New York, voiced a character in the “Madagascar” movies and directed the movie “Run Fatboy Run.” TV viewers have seen him on “30 Rock” and “Entourage.”)

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Jul 30, 2010 Filed Under: News & Rumors,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Former “Friends” star Lisa Kudrow is making herself laugh.

She’s reading tweets written by her character, Fiona Wallice, on the online show “Web Therapy,” which recently completed its third season. Each segment runs about 3 minutes to 16 minutes.

Kudrow’s character is a self-absorbed therapist who isn’t interested in listening to people’s issues. She’s decided that 3-minute sessions by webcam are sufficient to diagnose a patient and dole out advice. The conversation often veers off-topic and onto Wallice.

“Web Therapy” is available on Hulu, lstudio.com and for purchase on iTunes. Each webisode plays out like viewers are looking at an actual computer screen with Kudrow and a co-star interacting in double boxes over web chat.

Unlike Fiona, who likes to keep her sessions brief, “Therapy” is expanding to other mediums. Showtime has picked up the series to combine and air as half-hour episodes. Additional material will be added to fill out the stories.

“Fiona is unabashedly self-serving,” Kudrow explained in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. “She doesn’t even do a good job in covering it up. She just thinks everyone else is really stupid (and) she’s the smartest person. Ever.”

In one episode, a patient says to Fiona, “I was getting the impression the last couple of sessions that I was boring you,” to which she responds, “I’m not bored. I mean I have enough of an intellectual life to keep interested in anything even you can say.”

Victor Garber plays Fiona’s husband, Kip, who may or may not be gay. Julia Louis-Dreyfus played Fiona’s sister in the show’s most recent season. Guest stars have included Jane Lynch, Selma Blair and Steven Weber.

The dialogue is mostly improvised, and actors wear an earpiece for director Don Roos to keep them on track.

“It’s really fun,” said Kudrow, who describes the process as “just listening and responding and then knowing that somewhere off in the distance we need to find our way over to a point.”

One of the most noteworthy aspects of Wallice is her voice, which Kudrow slips in and out of when talking about the character.

“I started with a friend who is really sexy, brilliant, articulate. … This woman is like a hero to me,” she said. “I thought that’s who Fiona thinks she is, so I started with her. That voice. And then it filtered through my comedy factory which turns everyone into an idiot.”

Kudrow recently took up tweeting. She doesn’t feel comfortable doing it herself, so she tweets as Fiona.

“Her first tweets we have her not understanding what it is at all. She goes on and on and so it gets cut off so you’ll see in the middle of a word it stops,” she laughed.

There’s an iPhone app that Kudrow likens to a therapy version of the Magic 8-Ball. Users type in a problem and get a response from Kudrow’s character, such as: “Well, that’s a ridiculous idea.”

Source.

Jun 11, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Every year, the television networks hold “upfronts,” where they trot out a lot of stars, showcase their upcoming new shows, and attempt to sell advertising for those shows. Since web TV shows have increasingly become the talk of the internet, it was only a matter of time before they had their own upfront. Or as Digitas, the digital marketing company calls it, a Digital Content NewFront.

Teri Hatcher, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Pollak, Seth Green, Martha Stewart, Arianna Huffington, Jason Bateman, Rick Fox and a host of internet gurus were at Digitas’ third annual Digital Content NewFront in New York this week, talking about internet content and new media, promoting their web content, and connecting with advertisers.

Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher was there to talk about her newly launched website targeted to women, Get Hatched, A Chick’s Guide to Life.

I had a chance to talk with Teri and asked her if she had any trepidation about breaking into the web:

When you believe in something and it comes from a place of passion and joy, that overrides fear. I think I probably felt scarier about joining the Desperate Housewives cast at the beginning, because you feel so many things are beyond your control and it isn’t just about quality at the end of the day.

I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where if I’m giving my best to something that’s all I can do. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.  And that’s not the reflection of who I am so there’s less fear based thinking.

When I asked if she had any tidbits about what will be happening on Wisteria Lane this fall she said, “I got nothin’ for ya! Other than that, we’re looking forward to welcoming Vanessa Williams. I have no idea what she’ll be doing other than being glamorous and probably causing mischief.”

Lisa Kudrow‘s internet series, Web Therapy, about a therapist who does quickie sessions by video chat, is in its third season. She told me she’s excited about the freedom the internet provides:

Creatively there are no limits. On TV, they don’t have the time for something different to see if an audience can find it and get used to it.

That unlimited creativity caught the attention of Showtime, which has picked up the series for the fall.

Actress Amy Brenneman was there, as were several other celebs, to pitch an idea for a new web series. Hers is called The Procrastinators. Brenneman even used a sampling of tweets from her followers about her idea as part of her pitch.

Comedian Kevin Pollak, who has an online chat show, feels the internet is a “creative nirvana.” Pollak moderated the panel discussion that included Hatcher, Kudrow, Ben Silverman of Electus and Ricky Van Veen of College Humor.

Pollak said that because actors have so much down time, they especially understand that if you’re “not creating, you’re waiting.” The internet, he said, was the perfect place to have creative control and maintain ownership of your product.

The woman in charge of the event was Stephanie Sarofian, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of The Third Act, the brand content unit of Digitas. She told me:

Marketing has become content-centric. It’s not like the old branded entertainment world or the old upfront world. It starts with a deal but it ends with a really amazing experience that we’ve seen through the entire process.

Despite the upbeat attitude toward the potential of web content at DCNF, however, I spoke with one woman who said most of the celeb web shows were nothing more than “celebrity YouTube.” This woman, who has worked in web marketing and production for years, agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity.

She called Kudrow’s Web Therapy a sponsored “audition reel.” She believes the real goal of the series was achieved: for Kudrow’s concept to be picked up by a broadcast or cable network.

This woman also thinks the revenue model for web shows is “not sustainable,” and though “some of these people will make money, the majority will not.”

If that turns out to be the case, it’ll simply be part of the ongoing birthing pains of an industry that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up.

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May 07, 2010 Filed Under: News & Rumors,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Jim Carrey, Lisa Kudrow, Brad Pitt, Amy Poehler, Isabella Rossellini and Roger Ebert are among those who will be honoured at the 14th annual Webby Awards.

Ebert was named Webby Person of the Year Tuesday, May 4 with organizers of the Internet awards saying the film critic ”raised the bar for online journalism and writing through his poignant and wildly popular blog, Roger Ebert’s Journal.”

Amy Poehler (SNL, Parks and Recreation) was named best actress.

The band OK Go won for film and video artist of the year.

JimCarrey.com won in the celebrity/fan site category, Kudrow’s work in Web Therapy was honoured in the comedy series space and Rosselini’s award came for experimental work in her Green Porno series.

Brad Pitt’s Make It Right received a nod in the activism category and The Muppets earned a Webby for best viral video, among other things.

Among other winners, Waterlife.nfb.ca, a website inspired by the film Waterlife, wins for the documentary (individual episode) category; SesameStreet.org for family/parenting site, Next New Network’s Reel Good Show will get the award for best variety video offer, Texts from Last Night will receive the mobile entertainment honour and College Humor’s Amir Blumenfeld gets a Webby for best individual performance.

Judges for the awards included Martha Stewart, Matt Groening and Arianna Huffington.

Hosted by B.J. Novak of NBC’s The Office, the 14th Webby Awards ceremony on June 14 will feature winners and honorees delivering their by-now traditional five-word acceptance speeches.

Click here for a full list of winners and nominees.

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May 07, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Paper Man,Web Therapy,Who Do You Think You Are? Comments (0)

Lisa guested NPR “Talk of the Nation” yesterday for a talk about her busy career. Listen to the interview below.

Apr 30, 2010 Filed Under: News & Rumors,Web Therapy Comments (0)

In its third season, Lisa Kudrow‘s brilliantly satirical Web series about delusional online (and unaccredited) therapist Fiona Wallice has taken flight. While viewers once simply watched Fiona’s webcam sessions with gullible clients, now the show — which just got picked up by Showtime — features her video chats with the woman who tried to seduce Fiona’s (possibly gay) politician husband; his passive-aggressive campaign manager; and — praise be to the comedy gods — her psychiatrist sister, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. If you haven’t made an appointment yet for a little Web Therapy, it’s time you did. A

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Apr 26, 2010 Filed Under: Gallery,Videos,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Captures from the first 3 episodes from season 3 of Web Therapy has been added to the gallery. To watch the episodes click the link at the bottom of this post.

Gallery Links:
Television Shows > Web Therapy (2008-2010) > Season 3 > Episode 31 – Forget Me Not
Television Shows > Web Therapy (2008-2010) > Season 3 > Staff Infection
Television Shows > Web Therapy (2008-2010) > Season 3 > Why There Is No “Sister’s Day”

Video Links:
Episode 31 – Forget Me Not
Episode 32 – Staff Infection
Episode 33 – Why There Is No “Sister’s Day”