MERRIme.com Marries Hollywood Production Values to Web TV

Most original video made specifically for the web looks rather amateurish when compared to the slick fare produced for television.

MERRIme.com, a Web TV series created by and starring actress Kaily Smith, breaks that mold. The show is about Merrideth Weisman, a spoiled trust-fund girl in Los Angeles who frantically begins dating men she meets online in an effort to avoid the “get a job or get a husband” ultimatum from her wealthy father (played by Tom Arnold).

Launched online earlier this summer, MERRIme.com has garnered praise from TV Guide, the Independent Television Festival (winner of Best Comedy TV Pilot), the New York Television Festival 2009 (official selection) and The Tracking Board.

Smith, a 2005 USC grad, says all 16 episodes (each of which run anywhere from three to seven minutes or so) were shot in a nine-day period last November, all for less than $50,000 total in production costs. At that dirt-cheap-for-Hollywood price, how did Smith and her crew make MERRIme.com look so glossy?

The high-resolution Red One cameras certainly didn’t hurt. Beyond that, Smith says, “We pulled a lot of favors and recruited people who were passionate about doing quality work.”

Smith says she got the idea for doing a show on the web from “a few people in the industry” who recommended using the Internet as a way to market her talents. Originally conceived as a reality program on online dating, Smith scrapped that idea and scripted the pilot for MERRIme.com with writing partner David Weidoff. (The pair also co-founded Red Ladders Entertainment, the show’s production company.)

Twelve of the 16 episodes currently are available on the MERRIme.com site. The show also can be seen on TheFrisky.com, part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network.

“Every week viewership is growing,” Smith says. “Last week our audience doubled on TheFrisky.”

Industry reaction also has been favorable, according to Smith. “The people I’ve talked to are so impressed with the production values,” she says. “They say it looks like it should be on TV.”

Which is Smith’s goal. “I really want it to be a television show, on prime-time or cable,” she says. “I also want to shoot a Season 2.”

While Smith proclaims herself not particularly web-savvy, she says she has used social networking to help promote MERRIme.com. “We do a lot of Twittering as the characters,” she says.

Web-savvy or not, Smith highly recommends the Internet as “a great way for directors, writers and actors to get their work out there. Web TV is the wave of the future.”

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