An oral history of Seeso, NBCUniversals short-lived, extremely doomed comedy experiment.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
The students named this fantasy streaming platform Ditto.
(Credit to Shapiro for also predicting that Twitter would be the future venue for water-cooler chat.)
This is especially true for comedy.
For younger viewers, late-night shows are less a cable-viewing experience thana YouTube or Twitter clip-viewing experiencethe next morning.
Tentpole series likeSaturday Night LiveandInsecurecan be fired up on demand.
So its not far-fetched to think that a Ditto-like platform for comedy would have worked.
What was it really like to ride this weird, before-its-time train before it went off the rails?
Vulture spoke with the architects of Seeso, and the creators they courted, to find out.
One version of the future was what we were calling baby Netflixes.
He had already proved himself by running Sundance Channel and IFC, bolstering the latters comedic reputation.
The yet-to-be-named subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service was approved in January andannouncedin March.
The idea was that, if you were into comedy, we might do sci-fi next or horror.
One of the models had sort of an extreme-sports idea.
But eventually youll have the beachfront property in whatever the NBC/Comcast bundle winds up being.
Youll have the number-one cable channel.
Shapiro:We did 11,000 half-hour interviews with consumers before we even came up with a plan.
Thats kind of what happened with Seeso.
Purnell:I was at Comcast/NBCUniversal as part of a rotational program for post-MBAs.
I started working on NBC News approach to younger audiences.
When I first heard Evans name, they called him the millennial whisperer.
I met with Evan and Ben [McLean, SVP, operations and strategy].
Evan did a very good job of building a culture in a very short time.
I think we had a group of people that were dedicated, close-knit, and committed to the cause.
Dan Kerstetter (manager, content and programming):I was running point on IFCsGarfunkel and OatesandBirthday Boys.
Kerstetter:Evanbrought me in to be his head of programming.
So Im heading up the East Coast office, and she was heading up the West Coast.
Jonah Ray (Hidden America With Jonah Ray):Dan was always very good.
But she really made sure it felt complete, like it felt of a piece.
Even then, they didnt keep that great of an eye on it because I went over.
Through spring 2015, staffers engaged in a debate over what to call the eventual product.
A boatload of suggestions were partitioned into a sort of tournament, including possible names like Picky and Yaffle.
Purnell:Evan had a list on his wall.
He had a whiteboard on his wall and had everything there we could think of.
We had some weird Latin phrases at some point; it was kind of all over the place.
And eventually we had what you could call a little NCAA tournament of names.
Kerstetter:It came down to two names: Seeso and Picky.
I think they did some internal research to see what URLs that were real words NBCUniversal owned.
Picky was one of them, and during the quarterly off-site, were all voting between the two.
And Evan had this whole idea of, We can decontextualize Picky.
Let us handle your shows for you, or something like that.
Someone asked me in a meeting, How do we tell consumers that?
How do we convince them?
And I say, See so for yourself.
The URL was owned, but not standing up.
I basically convinced everybody that that was a name we could own.
Kerstetter:I think it sounded web-y.
And some of the notions were like, You came to seeSNL, so check outThe UCB Show.
You came to seeThe Office, so check outBajillion Dollar Propertie$.
That was the idea behind some of the marketing that never came to fruition.
You have Netflix, you have Hulu, you have Crackle.
The name doesnt matter if it sticks around; staying power dictates that youll normalize it.
If it doesnt, people will make fun of it forever.
And now they are.
Same thing withThe Kids in the Hall, by the way.
Kerstetter:Jumping fromPython, I went for all thingsMighty Boosh.
It just felt totally like those things are very similar to each other.
So now, what shows have Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt and Rich Fulcher done?
Why dont we acquire these things?
It was something really curated.
Baltz:Its still the only place that has putGarth Marenghis Darkplaceon anything in the U.S.
So you got to take your fucking hat off for that.
I dont care how cynical of a comedy nerd you are.
They had a lot of British comedy that you cant get anywhere.
Netflix offered more money than was already guaranteed tokeep it exclusive.
Shapiro:My understanding was Netflix paid $100 million just forThe Office.
By the way, that wasnt just to keep it.
That was also to make it exclusive too, meaning you couldnt stream it anywhere else.
And in both cases, I was told, Yeah, no, definitely, itll add in.
Thats not what happened.
OnceThe OfficeandParks and Recwere off the table, the Seeso team was given more resources for original programming.
Sometimes Seeso architects bought shows already formed.
Sometimes they said, We want to work with you.
What do you have?
Sometimes they bought an idea and it turned into something else entirely.
And Shapiro wasnt afraid to spend what money he had to make the shows work.
Shapiro:We came up with a programming filter: bold, authentic, funny.
Bold is easy to do.
Authentic is easy to do.
Funny is not so easy to do.
I thinkHarmonQuest,Hidden America,Take My Wife,Shrink,andFlowersall kind of speak to that.
We wanted to find things that didnt feel like they belonged anywhere else in the current TV atmosphere.
What they actually are craving is respect.
Ill give them that respect, and then Ill get more bang for my buck from crazier people.
Seesos beta platform launched on December 3, 2015 for about 10,000 viewers, according to Shapiro and Purnell.
NBC planned to spend $10 million in in-kind advertising across its networks to make this happen.
But according to Shapiro, Seeso actually got one-tenth of one percent of the advertising they were promised.
Patrick Cotnoir (digital producer):The launch was really exciting!
We had all this original content ready to go.
A lot of people felt like,This is something I would use.
I want to do a good job.
Then on top of that, wewerentleft alone in certain circumstances.
We had to use the technological products that were built inside Comcast, and that was somewhat limiting.
Purnell:I will forever hateAccedo.
Shapiro:I was incredibly naive as a product runner.
I mean, I didnt know shit about it.
Purnell:I dont think NBC put expectations on Seeso that Seeso didnt suggest were achievable.
We didnt help ourselves with the way that we continued to approach them with our numbers.
Shapiro: It was guesswork, and we put very high numbers on it at the beginning.
Thats definitely my fault.
I tend to really give a shot to point for a hill and then take it.
Right around launch, we understood that the product wasnt ready.
Marketing wasnt necessarily ready either.
We did that, and then we met those metrics.
And look, they had their own promos to run, their own businesses to run.
So I understand that.
But internal promotions were also never mandated.
Kerstetter:If we could have done things differently, we would have held off on launch.
The platform received outsized attention, especially inthe New YorkTimes, and featured a number ofwell-reviewedstand-up specials.
Everyone was super excited about what was going on.
Thats what our show was.
Jargowsky:It felt just very ascendant.
It felt like the audience was going to find it.
Vilaysack:I had never done anything before.
WithBajillion,I got four seasons and a low budget.
But it aint nothing to sneeze at.
Im so proud of it.
Harmon:I was particularly frank with Evan as he was pitching any idea of doing something for Seeso.
I also dont know if itll be gone tomorrow, because I cant control that aspect of our industry.
And he took that well in stride.
Esposito:We were not just nominated for GLAAD Awards Ihostedthe GLAAD Awards that year.
Butcher:I think that lasted for 30 days, probably.
But thats how quickly all this stuff works.
Seesos second full year started out strong.
Shows likeMy Brother, My Brother and MeandShrinkdebuted to positive reviews in February and March.
But dark clouds loomed.
Shapiro thought ofJohnnyas a moonshot effort to broaden Seesos audience and make some prestige television.
Those involved were banking on heavy cross-promotion on the program that never manifested.
The platform would shutter before any episodes were released.
All agree it contributed to his firing in late April 2017.
But it was still substantially less per episode than other major shows on all the other networks.
Paul Reiser (Theres… Johnny!
The minute Evan and I got together, it just had this wind at its back.
It was a great experience.
And it saddens me, what it could have become.
Shapiro:In the budget meeting at the end of 2016, they found out how much I paid.
Johnny!, and it was not a good moment.
The meeting ended within five or so minutes we just had nothing to say in response.
It was a big shock.
You know: A million dollars isnt cool.
You know whats cool?
We have to be in that game.
Harmon:How could Evan be leaving but Seesos going strong?
Shapiro:I had my fourth boss in two years.
They had a lot of decisions to make on where the money and resources were going to be put.
Reiser:I think we have the distinction of being the first show to ever cancel the online grid.
I dont want to have to defend it.
Id rather attempt to win other battles.
Kerstetter:I feel like our rollout and streaming strategy was flawed.
Some money went into certain shows or resources that would probably have been spent better elsewhere.
Shapiro:We were left to our own devices to make something.
Esposito:We could call Evan directly.
I could text the head of the connection.
Because NBCUniversal was our parent company, and even NBCUniversal has a parent company.
Purnell:Switching to a subscription model from an ad-supported business was a top mindset change.
Kerstetter:The most unfortunate thing was stuff that didnt get to see the light of day.
I knowBajillioneventually sold their catalogue and fourth season toPluto,so that was able to finally get out there.
And you go, Well, can I have it back to put it on another wall?
And theyre like No, were going to put it in a vault.
Esposito:It was really tough finishing the second season ofTake My Wife.
And then I found out that Starz had interest in purchasing it.
Harmon:I think Seeso at its inception was a perfect risk-liability balance for NBCU.
It was cheap to launch, and it covered up that they might have been nervous about the future.
Shapiro decided to stop trying to run networks and focus on content itself.
In 2019, he wastappedto resuscitate the National Lampoon comedy brand, which he ran until September 2020.
Shapiro:How does something that lasted two years have a legacy?
I mean, the shows, I think, obviously are that legacy.
But a lot of the strategy we used is now being baked into Peacock.
So whatever happens there, for good or bad, will be part of that.
Baltz:I got heckled at a stand-up sketch show by a dude for being in a Seeso show.
I wasnt even onstage.
I was in the audience.
Theyre geniuses, but theyre proven producers, showrunners, writers, which will warrant higher budgets.
Theres more at stake, right?
So there is going to be more oversight.
And I cant get a show on Peacock, you get me?
Its another thing if you make an amazing project and people dont know how to fucking find it.
Kerstetter:There arent many specific SVOD services like that that are that cheap right now.
It seems like most people have taken the idea of going big, like HBO Max.
Baltz:The pathway from basically doing improv to doing something else those pathways dont really exist.
Harmon:Every single brand you serve potentially has a small erosive effect on your own brand.
Thats a very cynical way of characterizing all of that stuff.
Theyve got more opportunities, but its going to be harder and harder for Vince Gilligans to get created.
