Liquid Generation CEO Bruce Freud is gunning for TV crossover for his successful online venture. Freud is adapting his youth-oriented entertainment site LiquidGeneration.com into “Liquid Generation TV,” a half-hour pilot for the WB.
“We’d be the first animated variety show on television,” Freud said. Like the web site, the show will be built on Flash animation.
Liquid Generation is writing the pilot and has filled four of eight new animator positions to augment its staff of eight. Collette Sunderman is casting in Los Angeles, where voiceovers will be recorded.
Liquid Generation will deliver the pilot by April 25 and expects to hear back by mid-May about a possible slot in the WB’s fall primetime lineup.
“It’s a great marriage between our content and our audience, and the WB’s audience and the content they’re looking for,” Freud said. “The development staff at the WB has been awesome to work with and David Janollari, the WB’s president of entertainment, is the perfect person to understand our humor.”
 |
Liquid Generation targets 18-to-29-year-olds with raunchy, irreverent humor, pop song parodies and extensive interactive features. Freud said the show would feature a song in each episode, created in-house at Liquid Generation.
“Everything we do on the site can translate directly to TV as long as we translate the interactive portions out of it,” Freud said. “Our tone and style of humor connect directly to Generation Y. Our writers are all young people who poke fun at authority and pop culture.”
Freud approached the WB last fall with co-executive producer Jerry Offsay, former Showtime programming chief and executive producer of “Eight Men Out” and “Baadasssss!”
“I received some interest from producers a little over a year ago about taking our content and making a TV show,” Freud said. “But instead of outside producers coming to us, we decided to do it ourselves.”
“There is a market for the type of content we have,” he continued. “I don’t need somebody else pitching me and owning the show. The show will be owned by Liquid Generation.”
Liquid Generation head writers Brad Saranecki and Kim Klechner are also executive producers.
Freud founded Liquid Generation in 2001 with his son Mike. The site has enjoyed steady growth, doubling revenue last year and generating 5.5 million hits a month.
A year ago LG launched sister site okayamigo.com, a dating site that targets the same young audience and boasts 55,000 members. LG also produces online content for clients including ESPN.
Liquid Generation is at 200 E. Ohio, Ste. 200. Call 312/753-0111 or see www.liquidgeneration.com.
