Will Wright's first TV project unveiled

October 7, 2010 4:22PM PDT

Bar Karma to debut on Current TV, encourage viewers to participate in production of show via virtual television studio.

Though Will Wright is most famous for creating the games SimCity, The Sims, and Spore, he has long had an interest in television. As far back as 2003, he had signed a deal to make a television show for Fox that never materialized. Last year, he quit his Maxis studio to found Stupid Fun Club, a think tank dedicated to projects in various forms of entertainment. As of October 2009, the startup had three "play industry" projects in development.

Bar Karma? Looks more like Bar Dharma [Project].

Today, the first of those projects was unveiled. It is a new television series called Bar Karma, which is in the works at Current TV, the youth-oriented news channel founded by former vice president Al Gore. As befits Wright's game roots, the show will be interactive, encouraging viewers to help guide both its storyline and production. The latter will be controlled by viewer input, via a virtual studio that will allow viewers direct communication with the show's producers.

Bar Karma's production process will work like this: First, viewers will sign up on the show's official Web site at www.current.com/barkarma. Then, viewers will submit story ideas, which will be selected by the producers, who will post the finalists. Then, viewers will be able to submit storyboards for the shows, the finalists of which will be selected and posted for the Bar Karma community to vote on. Finally, the digital entertainment studio Worldwide Biggies will adapt, shoot, and produce the winning storyboards into actual 30-minute episodes.

"Bar Karma is a culmination of over a year's work and I am very excited to see the results as we join together not only gamers and television viewers, but actually create a community that will be empowered with a professional production team," said Wright in a statement.

Little about the show's potential plot is known, though the Web site bears the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-worthy tagline "A mystical watering hole at the end of the universe."

By Tor Thorsen

29 comments

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iThinkApple

@Mitchell_1797 Me too! I think he is better off making games :)

Mitchell_1797

hope it doesnt end the sims

Mitchell_1797

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Mitchell_1797

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

gbrading moderator

I'm not sure why Will Wright has decided to do this when he could be off making exciting video games...

asimplerapper

omg i love that name! "Stupid Fun Club" XD

fillup0

Am I the only one who thinks this will go horribly wrong?

8smokes

Al gore? skip

Miroku_of_Nite1

Remember the Will TV thing that came with SimCity 2000?

rng_cougar

[This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

jalexbrown

While I think this is a great idea, interactive television isn't exactly an amazing new concept; shows like American Idol and America's Got Talent already have a viewer-interaction model. But it's a cool idea to bring that sort of model into the world of fiction television.

oldboy36

I'd still rather let tim have a show. Letting the fans write is interesting but whenever you let the company pick finalist it usually doesn't end well. And firefly theme still sucks...:) To be specific the lyrics suck the music wasnt that bad.

themidgethotel

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DarkM151

its strange might be good xD

SciFiCat

This could be a great opportunity to discover talented script writers among the participating audience.

oldboy36

Firefly was ok it just had a horrible theme song. Thats why it got canceled. Back on topic I'm just disappointed because I got TIm Schafer confused with Will Wright for a sec and for a brief moment thought Tim Schafer was doing a TV show! Which would be .. there are no words for that awesomeness that could of been a Tim Schafer tv series. Oh well..

edgefilm2001

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airshocker

[This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

azazelis

[This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

GreyWizzard

@Rizion89 seriously dude, I wish there was a way to give you more than 1 thumbs up. You're the voice of reason.

SauhlGood

@rizion89 amen rizion, whole heartedly agreee with you, what can u expect most casual consumers are willing to be told what is popular

airshocker

Oh boy, a show to air on a liberal network. Negative 5 cool points, Will.

evilweav

Firefly was awesome.

Rizion89

@Spartan2929 Then please tell me why American Dad and Cleveland Show are still on? Because they are just goldmines of entertainment right? Please. Firefly was canceled because its budget was too high for Fox to continue pumping money into and its viewer base wasn't high enough to justify high costs in production value. Lets look at everything in your logic. Ico originally sold like lawnmowers in Arizona, yet its still considered to be one of the best games to grace the PS2; its critical following however was strong enough to warrant an HD remastering of the game due this upcoming summer. Slumdog Millionare was originally only shown in a handful of theatres in this country and didn't make that much money in its initial release; but guess who won the Academy Award for best picture? If you said Slumdog Millionare, then you get a cookie! Just because a nation full of people who consider fart jokes to be the be all end all of entertainment didn't watch a particular show, does not mean its not good or worthy of critical acclaim. I'd ask that you go watch an episode of Firefly, but you're probably too busy getting a buzz on Halo kill vids and reruns of the latest season of Family Guy on Hulu.

Spartan2929

If firefly was a good show it would have never been canceled.

dubel_07

Except for the fact that if it's good Fox will inevitably cancel it (i.e. Futurama, Firefly, etc.) this could be interesting.

fkbwii

Unique and interesting.

I_am_theOpus

Sorry Current, you cancelled Supernews, and will never be forgiven.

just_nonplussed

sounds interesting, but will it view over the internet?

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