ABC is adding a few more digital properties following its popular Halloween short inspired by Modern Family, Fizbo: The Clown.
In an effort to expand its offerings online, the network will debut pop culture- and show-related videos under its ABC.comedy umbrella. The first are Taye Diggs Destroys Hip Hop, featuring the former Private Practice star, and Bruno Tonioli's Writer's Room, with the Dancing With the Stars judge, both available for viewing Monday.
Taye Diggs Destroys Hip Hop finds Diggs -- also a Broadway star -- post-Private Practice, and teaming with YouTube's Destorm, as he ventures into the world of hip-hop.
How does Diggs deal with not having a steady TV gig? As he says in the five-minute video, he likes to keep "moving, moving, moving." He's done theater, TV and film, so what's next? Hip-hop. But when Diggs is tasked to get behind the mic and actually throw down some beats, his inability to de-Broadway himself proves a lot harder than originally imagined.
In Bruno Tonioli's Writer's Room, Tonioli -- known for his bombastic and crazy one-liners -- finds himself delivering the most over-the-top lines that a fictionalized pressure-filled room of writers think up.
Here's how Tonioli's head writer, the wonderfully named Geryld Babbage, puts it in the digital short: "It's like writing poetry, but instead of using a pen, you use a bedazzled stick of dynamite." The two-and-a-half-minute short also is filled with intercuts between Tonioli's unforgettable remarks, frazzled audience members and nervous laughter from Dancing With the Stars competitors.
Fizbo: The Clown is a horror-inspired trailer that takes a more macabre approach to Modern Family's beloved clown character Fizbo, played by Cameron (Eric Stonestreet).
The ABC comedy series began in fall 2011 with video recaps for the network's Wednesday comedies and grew the following year to include comedic rundowns of the network's dramas.
“Humor is a hallmark of the ABC network so it makes sense that we infuse our digital video content with as much comedy as possible,” said Chris Thomes, vp of Disney/ABC Television Group’s digital media studio, in a statement. “With these new web shorts almost anything goes as long as we’re true to the brand.”
The final season of Private Practice is available on DVD on May 7. Dancing With the Stars airs at 8 p.m. Mondays and 9 p.m. Tuesdays. Modern Family airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays.
E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com
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