Venice: The Series
| Venice: The Series | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Soap opera Web series |
| Created by | Crystal Chappell Kim Turrisi |
| Starring | Crystal Chappell Jessica Leccia Galen Gering Hillary B. Smith Gina Tognoni Nadia Bjorlin Leslie Kay Dot Jones Shawn Christian Molly Burnett Eric Martsolf Judi Evans Michelle N. Carter Jordan Clarke Harrison White Michael Sabatino Liz Keifer Adrienne Wilkinson Christian LeBlanc Annika Noelle Patti Pelton Aaron Hartzler Wesley Ramsey Tina Sloan |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 49 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Crystal Chappell Kim Turrisi Hope Royaltey |
| Producers | Christa Morris (co-exec) Hillary B. Smith (supervising) |
| Production location | Venice Beach, California |
| Running time | 6-10 minutes (Season 1) approximately 15 minutes (Season 2-) |
| Production company | Open Book Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | Venice: The Series (2009-present) YouTube (Seasons 1, 2 & 3) |
| Release | December 4, 2009 – present |
| Related | |
| The Grove: The Series Guiding Light | |
Venice: The Series is a soap opera web series co-produced by and starring American actress Crystal Chappell, and is inspired in part by the "Otalia" storyline on the daytime drama Guiding Light. The series has been streamed on VenicetheSeries.com since December 4, 2009, and is currently in its fifth and final season.
Venice is described by Chappell as "a show about families, and life, and all the simplicity of it, and the turmoil of it. We're going to be following a character named Gina who is a designer, and she is a gay woman."[1]
Creation
Crystal Chappell played Olivia Spencer on the long-running CBS daytime drama, Guiding Light, from 1999 until the September 18, 2009 network ending. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Daytime Drama for her work as Olivia in 2002 and was nominated again in the same category in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, she earned her first nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actress category and her second in 2010.
In 2009, after Guiding Light was cancelled, Chappell, with help from her writing partner and co-producer Kim Turrisi, decided to create Venice: The Series, based around the popular romance between her character, Olivia Spencer, and co-star Jessica Leccia's character, Natalia Rivera Aitoro, also known by the portmanteau "Otalia". However, for copyright reasons, the names of the two actresses' characters are changed, and there is no official connection to Guiding Light.
Although Chappell's character in the show is an openly gay woman, the show is not a "gay web series" but rather a show that "embodies all kinds of people, with all kinds of issues".[2]
Chappell heavily publicized the series through the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.[3]
Production
The web series is set in, and filmed in, Venice Beach, California, USA. It is filmed digitally.
Each episode of Season 1 is 6–10 minutes long, while episodes from subsequent seasons run approximately 15 minutes.
Cast and characters
Venice: The Series stars Crystal Chappell as Gina, a designer and a gay woman, and Chappell's love interest from Guiding Light, Jessica Leccia, this time as Ani, Gina's love interest. Some of Chappell's and Leccia's former Guiding Light co-stars also appear in the series, including Tina Sloan, Gina Tognoni as Sami and Jordan Clarke as The Colonel. Other Venice cast members include daytime actress Hillary B. Smith of One Life to Live as Guya, Nadia Bjorlin as Lara, Galen Gering as Owen, Gina's brother, Michelle N. Carter as Michele, Lesli Kay as Tracy, Michael Sabatino, Chappell's husband, as Alan, and Robert Newman as an old boyfriend of Gina's. Other cast members include Shawn Christian, Eric Martsolf and Molly Burnett from Days of Our Lives.
Distribution
The first three seasons were released for free, and are viewable, on the video sharing website YouTube. The fourth season is available on the show's website, and requires a paid subscription.
DVDs of past seasons of the show are also available for sale online at the website.
Awards
In 2011, Venice: The Series won the first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Short Format Daytime,[4] and won again in 2014 for Outstanding New Approaches - Drama Series.[5]
References
- ^ Crystal Chappell, venicetheseries.com Fan Q&A Part 1 www.venicetheseries.com
- ^ Crystal Chappell, venicetheseries.com Fan Q&A Part 1, www.venicetheseries.com
- ^ Lisa Bernhard "Love That Dares to Tweet Its Name Sparks Web Series", The New York Times, August 24, 2009
- ^ "38th Annual Daytime Emmy® Award Winners" (PDF). National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. June 19, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
- ^ "41st Annual Daytime Emmy® Award Winners" (PDF). National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. June 22, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
External links
- Official website
- Crystal Chappell.com
- Venice en Lesbicanarias Episode recaps (Spanish)