Jason Clarke

After the jump, a classic Woodrow sketch from SNL, courtesy of Hulu.com:

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CBS has just announced that one of the two best shows on television, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, has been renewed for a third season! Congrats to the entire crew and cast. Looking forward to seeing what happens next year.

Good news for the continuing un-harnesing of network television: NBC has announced it will both expand its online video platform, and in a big finally! move, it will make its video player embeddable.

This move is a big step for a major network…it turns the tide from complaining against services like YouTube, and begins challenging them head-on.

In January, I predicted video would be the #1 story of the web in 2006.

At his RTNDA keynote in Las Vegas today, Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire supported my thesis. Lost Remote has an excellent wrap-up of his speech, where he demonstrated the new and exciting Brightcove platform which is about to go live (give it about two weeks or so). It’s a huge story, as Brightcove appears to be the first truly usable, open platform for creating, distributing, and monetizing personally-created video.

A summary of Brightcove, from Lost Remote’s coverage:

Brightcove is behind some of the most innovative video projects on the web, and founder and president Jeremy Allaire’s keynote follows. He demonstrated Brightcove’s tool that allows just about anyone to build their own player experience from a variety of templates and settings. And he talked about upcoming plans to encourage anyone to upload, distribute and sell video through Brightcove’s tools and a new relationship with AOL. More…He begins by mapping out the promises of internet TV: open distribution, consumer choice, multi-screen delivery and content owner control. A broad overview for the broadcast folks in the crowd.

I’ve been testing out a form of the Brightcove player for a few months but what I’ve seen is nothing like what Allaire demonstrated today. This is exciting stuff.

Veronica Mars is new tonight for the first time in weeks, I’m burned out on the Internet, and exhausted on top of that. So tonight, I’m going offline to spend time relaxing with my two favorite women. Thankfully, one of them is real.

Hey, parents: Have you watched countless hours of Sesame Street and/or Muppet movies with your child? If you’re anything like me, your mind begins to wander a bit as you’re enjoying the 23rd consecutive viewing of the one where Zoe’s tutu flies up in the tree. Because I’m curious about how things work, my mind tends to wander towards the how of both the show(s) and the movies, specifically the world of puppetry, which I find pretty fascinating. To me it’s one of those things that is way under-appreciated, especially considering how much happiness it brings to our children.

For example: have you ever thought about how Big Bird is brought to life by a pupeteer? Think about it for a sec. Is there somebody inside of him? Okay- that sounds like an easy answer. But, keep in mind he’s 8 feet tall. So is Carroll Spinney just a really tall guy? I doubt it- I’d like to believe there’s a bit more magic at work.

Enter the relentless power of the web and the people who make it. Today, a few of my long-standing questions- including how Big Bird is played, and trust me, the answer will surprise you- were answered thanks to The Muppet Wiki, a huge collection of information, trivia, and insider info on all things Muppet, from Big Bird to Kermit to over 1,000 other characters of varying acclaim. Besides providing great historical insight into the creation and development of the Muppets, the site has quite a few really interesting nuggets that I think might interest parents, and their kids, who consider Jim Henson’s world a great and really interesting place.

The web is buzzing about a big announcement by TiVo set for tomorrow (Thursday) at 11am EST. Many are predicting TiVo will announce a free set-top box in exchange for subscription deal, but I’m going in the other direction and predicting they’ll announce a major content partnership.

INSTANT UPDATE: Looks like I was…mostly right. Lost Remote links to a report that TiVo will announce KidZone, a new service that will offer “virtual channels, specifically targeted to the children.” The report also notes:

Parents have the ability to select from an entire menu of weekly recommendations and automatically record all of those shows. When TiVo is in KidZone mode, it locks out all other programming access by children. Parents get password-protected ability to decide what’s best for their children to watch and kids get their own space on TiVo to enjoy their favorite shows. The service will be launched in June 2006.

My first column for Newsvine is up. It covers the rumored return of Futarama to TV and asks: why not bring back favorite cancelled shows to DVD or the internet instead?

Since Newsvine is still in beta, you’ll need an invite to view the site. I have a few left, so if you’d like one, and you know me, just let me know. My email address is at the top right of every page on this site.

This is really cool: Mickey Kaus and Robert Wright have launched a new site called bloggingheads.tv (a take-off on “talking heads”, hehe).

It’s a video blog of sorts, with Wright on the left side of the video and Kaus on the right. The unique part: Both men are sitting in (apparently) their own separate offices, speaking into video cameras and communicating with each other via microphone. Somehow, they’re splicing each of their own videos into one, creating a single show with a split screen (Okay, I’m not explaining this all that well. Just go check it out).

Some quick reactions: This is a unique, innovative take on video on the web. Both commentators are smart and funny. As is necessary, the site provides plenty of contextual, metadata about the video. Especially valuable is a “topic view” where you can click directly to video clips pertaining to a particular topic. Also great: you can subscribe to either a video feed or an audio (podcast) feed of the program. Really, really excellent stuff.

This is a “talking head” show with no bombastic, idiotic host asking insanely stupid questions. Instead, it’s two smart folks talking about current events. So far, blogging has had a revolutionary impact on newspapers. Next up in 2006 and beyond: TV.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

The most important and awesome site in the history of the internet.

(Via Kottke)

UPDATE: More!