The Little Streaming Comedy Platform That Couldn't

The latest in pop-culture news, recaps, and reviews, plus close reads, profiles, interviews, and more from Vulture.com. [Brand Logo]( BACKSTORIES [The Little Streaming Comedy Platform That Couldn’t]( An oral history of Seeso, NBCUniversal’s short-lived, extremely doomed comedy experiment. Illustration: by Julie Greiner In June 2012, shortly after stepping down as president of IFC TV and Sundance Channel, then-45-year-old Evan Shapiro published a [manifesto](. It was an intervention for TV in the early days of the streaming wars, before your Pluses and Maxes and Quibis ([RIP](). Shapiro warned of the havoc millennial “cord-cutters” would wreak on content providers and included the results of an assignment he gave his students at NYU to draft up “the next big thing” for the TV industry. What they came up with was “a low-priced pay-TV sampler,” offered by cable companies, “designed to offer just enough TV to get a cord-cutter hooked, but not so much it competes with or cannibalizes mainstay cable packages.” The students named this fantasy streaming platform “Ditto.” [Read The Story »]( Devour pop culture with us. [Subscribe now](for unlimited access to Vulture and everything New York. The Latest TV Recaps • [The Real Housewives of New Jersey:]( An Affair to Remember • [Pam & Tommy:]( Primal Scream • [The Book of Boba Fett:]( Street-Fightin’ Fett [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Stories We Think You’ll Like 1. [The Movie-Musical Reality Has Broken for the Better What can we learn from the movie musicals that did and didn’t earn awards-season love this year?]( By Jackson McHenry 2. [Enjoying Emotional Overload With Sylvan Esso The Grammy-nominated duo discuss their intoxicating, body-moving sound.]( By Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan 3. [Ozark’s Alfonso Herrera on Avoiding Drug-Lord Clichés “When we talk about this type of story, always the responsibility goes to the South. This show positions the responsibility in a more democratic way.”]( 4. [When Max Met Furiosa: An Oral History of Casting Mad Max: Fury Road The yearslong process of finding the right leads for George Miller’s Oscar winner involved dozens of future stars — and just as many what-ifs.]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( 5. [Pusha T and Ye Share a Dance in the Void for ‘Diet Coke’ The rapper’s first offering from his forthcoming album, It’s Not Dry Yet.]( By Ashley Shannon Wu [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Today’s Crossword]( 30-Across: Ending of a rom-com, usually. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty Images, Warner Bros. [Vulture Recommends]( We consume it all so you don’t have to. Adult Swim’s latest adult-animation entry, Smiling Friends. The inaugural season of tenish-minute odysseys follows co-worker pals Pim and Charlie, who spend their workdays trying to make people smile, literally, with varied and unhinged results. You see, they are employed [by a company called, yes, Smiling Friends.]( [Read more from Vulture]( Next week at Union Hall Vulture’s weekly comedy show, Pretty Major, will be hosted by [Marcia Belsky](, [Jay Jurden](, and [Zach Zimmerman](. [Buy tickets here.]( Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY If you enjoyed reading Vulture’s daily newsletter, forward it to a friend. Or dive deeper into the Vulture universe with our other newsletters: • [1.5x Speed](: Podcast recommendations and listening notes from Nick Quah, sent every Wednesday. • [Buffering](: Joe Adalian reports on the streaming industry, sent every Thursday. • [The Housewives Institute Bulletin](: For dedicated students of the Reality TV Arts and Sciences, sent every other Friday. • [Vulture 10x10 Crossword](: A puzzle for pop-culture obsessives, sent to your inbox every weekday. • [The Critics](: A weekly dispatch on the cultural discourse, sent Fridays. [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe](param=daily) | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2022, All rights reserved