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The Temp Life
Title card
GenreComedy
Created byWilson Cleveland
Written byWilson Cleveland
Yuri Baranovsky
Tony Janning
Gabe Uhr
Directed byEvan Ferrante
Jato Smith
Andrew Y. Park
StarringWilson Cleveland
Mark Rywelski
Rachel Risen
Thom Woodley
Milo Ventimiglia
Illeana Douglas
Craig Bierko
Taryn Southern
Sandeep Parikh
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes43 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerWilson Cleveland
Production locationNew York City
CinematographyJato Smith
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running time5–10 minutes
Production companies
  • CJP Digital [1]
  • Tailslating Productions
Original release
NetworkYouTube
My Damn Channel (2010-2011) [2]
ReleaseNovember 29, 2006 (2006-11-29) –
January 23, 2011 (2011-01-23)

The Temp Life is an American comedy web series created and produced by Wilson Cleveland,[3] who also stars as Nick Chiapetta (AKA "Trouble"). The series, sponsored by Spherion debuted on YouTube on November 29, 2006, ran for five seasons[4] and is considered to be the first[5] and longest-running online branded entertainment series.[6]

Premise

The series revolves around Nick “Trouble” Chiapetta (Cleveland), an incompetent temp agency boss and the temps he works with.

History

In 2006 while working at a public relations firm in New York City, Wilson Cleveland was inspired by then one year-old YouTube[7] and the potential of online video to "make little TV shows on the Internet for clients to tell their stories."[8] Cleveland created The Temp Life, in 2006 for Spherion Staffing to raise brand awareness among 18-25 year-olds.

The Temp Life was among the first web series to become a new media signatory with the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild in 2009.[9] and featured guest appearances by Milo Ventimiglia,[10] Craig Bierko and Illeana Douglas[11]

The first four seasons premiered on YouTube, Blip, MySpace, Daily Motion and Facebook. Episodes of the fifth and final season premiered first on My Damn Channel and YouTube before becoming available on iTunes, MSN Video, Blip, Daily Motion, Facebook and various video-on-demand platforms including Roku and Boxee set-top boxes and Verizon Fios. In January 2010, The Temp Life became available on-demand in nearly two million U.S. hotel rooms via LodgeNet’s DoNotDisturbTV hotel room network.[12]

Reception

The Temp Life added an average of 85% more viewers with each season[13] and had reached over 18 million upload views when Fast Company called it “a bona fide phenomenon” in September 2010.[14]

The series received generally favorable reviews with critics calling positive attention to the minimal Spherion branding contained in The Temp Life episodes. In her August 25, 2010 review, AdWeek's Rachel Kaufman wrote, "It doesn’t hurt that there’s almost no pitching, just a quick logo at the beginning, and that the series is genuinely humorous"[15] and GigaOm's Liz Shannon Miller called The Temp Life "an on-the-nose sponsored series" that's "proven that you don’t need to drop the sponsor into every scene in order to spread the message."[16]

In a 2010 interview, SFN Group CEO, Roy Krause said that The Temp Life was the company's top marketing priority. Christian, Aymar (2014). Media Independence: Working with Freedom Or Working for Free?. Routledge. p. 174. ISBN 9781317690344.

In 2012 ‘’The Temp Life’’ won the Webby Award for Comedy: Longform or Series[17] and received a Streamy Award nomination for Best Branded Entertainment Web Series in 2010.[18]

Plot

See also: List of The Temp Life episodes

Season 1 (2006 - 2007)

The first season premiered on YouTube November 29, 2006. Mark (Mark Rywelski) comes to interview for a temp job at Pedtastic - a social network for shoe lace makers and meets Nick Chiapetta (Wilson Cleveland), the company's self-professed ‘’Deputy of Trouble.’’ New temp Laura (Laura Kowalcyk) is hired to manage Pedtastic’s new office.

Season 2 (2008)

The second season premiered on September 13, 2008 with the episode titled, “Mergers and Acquisitions,” in which Nick gets conned into selling his Pedtastic social network startup for shoe lace professionals to Commodity Staffing in a “multi-hundred dollar transaction.” Nick unwittingly makes Pedtastic’s only four employees - Mark, Laura, Paul and Caitlin part of the deal by contractually obligating them to become temps with Commodity Staffing for one year. In the season finale cliffhanger episode titled, “Where in the World?” Paul and Caitlin are accidentally outsourced to a call center in Thailand and Nick falls unconscious after drinking some bad coffee.

Season 3 (2009)

The third season premiered on February 19, 2009 with the episode titled, “Dream Big!” Nick’s guardian angel Tom Cruise (played by Evan Ferrante) comes to him in a dream and convinces him to take a 33-week sabbatical and leave Mark and Laura in charge of Commodity Staffing.

Season 4 (2009–2010)

The fourth season was announced on September 10, 2009[19] and premiered on November 15, 2009. Nick returns from sabbatical to find he and Commodity Staffing have been sued out of business and pushed out of his office space by Celltons, a cell phone button-maker. Having lost everything in the lawsuit, Nick takes a temp job transcribing video resume submissions for Celltons' Head of Human Acquisitions, Alina Deloris (Rachel Risen). When Celltons CEO, Eve Randall (Illeana Douglas) threatens layoffs, Nick plots to get Alina fired by recruiting only the least-qualified temps who apply to work at Celltons including Nancy Roder (Taryn Southern) and Stevie P. (Sandeep Parikh). Nick succeeds in getting Alina fired and convinces Eve to hire him as Celltons’ new head of Human Acquisitions.

Season 5 (2010–2011)

The fifth[20] and final season was announced on July 29, 2010[21] and premiered on the My Damn Channel YouTube channel on December 9, 2010 with the episode titled "We're Number Two!" which finds Nick (Wilson Cleveland) living his best life. Celltons has become the number-two cell phone button company ever since Eve Randall (Illeana Douglas) fired Alina and put him back in charge of hiring temps. Little does Nick know that Eve has hired his estranged half-brother Eddie (Craig Bierko) to keep an eye on him. But Eddie has his own score to settle and secretly teams up with Alina to humiliate Nick and push him out of the company. Nick teams up with Cook (Milo Ventimiglia), the office lunch cart guy to catch a pastrami sandwich thief. Nick gets conned into hiring Thomas Clancy (Mark Gantt), the worst corporate spy in the history of corporate spies. Stevie P. (Sandeep Parikh) gets into a love triangle with Nancy Roder (Taryn Southern) and her twin sister Tammy (Jessica Lee Rose). The temps undergo corporate sensitivity training led by Counselor Rick (Tony Janning), a de-motivational speaker on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In the series finale episode titled “Return of the Eddie” which aired on January 23, 2011, Nick and Eddie reconcile and quit Celltons to open a lemonade stand in Mexico. They take all of the temps with them, leaving Alina all alone.

References

  1. ^ Hustvedt, Marc (September 10, 2009). "Spherion-backed Temp Life Re-Staffs For New Season". Tubefilter. Tubefilter Inc. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  2. ^ Baldwin, Drew (October 1, 2010). "The Temp Life Brings Season 5 to My Damn Channel". Tubefilter. Retrieved October 1, 2010 – via Tubefilter, Inc.
  3. ^ Richardson, Jillian (July 17, 2014). "The Godfather of the Branded Web Series Reveals His Secrets to Success". Contently. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  4. ^ Kaufman, Rachel (August 25, 2010). "The Branding Campaign That Became an Honest-to-Goodness Phenomenon". AdWeek. Retrieved August 25, 2010 – via Eldridge Industries, LLC.
  5. ^ Frick-Wright, Peter (November 13, 2010). "Portland's Scotty Iseri turns an office job into a web series, and then some". The Oregonian. Retrieved November 13, 2010 – via Oregon Live, LLC.
  6. ^ Hampp, Andrew (August 8, 2010). "If You Build a Web Series Around It, Will They Come?". Ad Age. Retrieved August 8, 2010 – via Crain Communications, LLC.
  7. ^ Turner, Amy-Mae (February 19, 2011). "10 Fascinating YouTube Facts That May Surprise You". Mashable. Retrieved February 19, 2011 – via Mashable, Inc.
  8. ^ Manarino, Matthew (October 10, 2013). "Wilson Cleveland has a Bright Idea for Web Video". VideoInk. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  9. ^ Horowitz, Lisa (September 29, 2009). "Writers Guild East Signs 11 Digital Media Producers". The Wrap. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
  10. ^ Liebman, Lisa (November 22, 2016). "The Gilmore Girls Cast Power Ranking". Vulture. Retrieved November 22, 2016 – via New York Media, LLC.[permanent dead link]
  11. ^ Hustvedt, Marc (March 9, 2010). "Illeana Douglas Drops Into The Temp Life". Tubefilter. Retrieved March 9, 2010 – via Tubefilter, Inc.
  12. ^ Baldwin, Drew (October 1, 2010). "The Temp Life Brings Season 5 to My Damn Channel". Tubefilter. Retrieved October 1, 2010 – via Tubefilter, Inc.
  13. ^ Hampp, Andrew (August 8, 2010). "If You Build a Web Series Around It, Will They Come?". Ad Age. Retrieved August 8, 2010 – via Crain Communications, LLC.
  14. ^ Macsai, Dan (September 1, 2010). "The Web's Best Branded Videos Sell and Entertain". Fast Company. Retrieved September 1, 2010 – via Mansueto Ventures, LLC.
  15. ^ Kaufman, Rachel (August 25, 2010). "The Branding Campaign That Became an Honest-to-Goodness Phenomenon". AdWeek. Retrieved August 25, 2010 – via Eldridge Industries, LLC.
  16. ^ Miller, Liz Shannon (November 17, 2009). "The Web Series Universe Starts Coming Together Thanks to Too-Wacky Temp Life". GigaOm. Retrieved November 17, 2009 – via Knowingly, Inc.[permanent dead link]
  17. ^ "The Temp Life". IMDB. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  18. ^ Axon, Samuel (April 11, 2010). "Streamy Awards 2010: Here are the Winners". Mashable. Retrieved April 11, 2010 – via Mashable, Inc.
  19. ^ Hustvedt, Marc (September 10, 2009). "Spherion-backed Temp Life Re-Staffs for New Season". Tubefilter. Retrieved September 10, 2009 – via Tubefilter, Inc.
  20. ^ Kaufman, Rachel (August 25, 2010). "The Branding Campaign That Became an Honest-to-Goodness Phenomenon". AdWeek. Retrieved August 25, 2010 – via Eldridge Industries, LLC.
  21. ^ Baldwin, Drew (July 29, 2010). "Temp Life to Return With Record-Breaking Fifth Season". Tubefilter. Retrieved July 29, 2010 – via Tubefilter, Inc.
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