The Site
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| The Site | |
|---|---|
 Logo ofThe Site | |
| Presented by | Soledad O'Brien |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Production companies | Ziff-Davis Television MSNBC |
| Original release | |
| Network | MSNBC |
| Release | July 15, 1996– August 18, 1997 |
The Siteis an hour-long television program devoted to the Internet revolution. It debuted in July 1996 withMSNBC's launch, and aired Monday through Saturday, reaching 35 million homes[citation needed].Soledad O'BrienhostedThe Site,along with her animated co-hostDev Null,voiced byLeo Laporte.
The Sitecovered technology in all forms, from technical aspects to news and culture. The show was sometimes billed as "the Net's evening news"[citation needed].Guests included musical artists, authors and columnists, who spoke about the impact of technology on their work.
History
[edit]The NBC News executive in charge of creatingThe SitewasDavid Bohrman,who was also the network's Executive Producer of Special Events and Breaking News. Bohrman was sent out to San Francisco to create and launch the program. His hiring of O'Brien is described in her book,The Next Big Story: My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities.The idea of Dev Null was also Bohrman's (after experimenting with virtual set technology at NBC the year before). Leo Laporte wore a motion suit, had an IFB earpiece, so he could hear O'Brien, and his animated image was rendered in real-time by an Onyx SGI computer. The artwork for Dev was designed by Protozoa.
The Sitewon many awards and was named the best broadcast on internet and high technology. It also was the first television show to have an award-winning website. One reviewer hailedThe Siteas the best program on the fledgling MSNBC. The show gained Soledad O'Brien Internet fame and the nickname "Goddess of the Geeks." whileLloyd GroveinThe Washington Postdubbed her "television's first cyberbabe."
The Sitewas preempted for two weeks in favour of news programs during the death ofDiana, Princess of Walesduring September 1997. That month, program creatorZiff Davisand MSNBC jointly announced thatThe Sitehad been canceled as it no longer fit into the network's increasing all-news format.[1]The Sitewas reincarnated asThe Screen Saversless than one year later, hosted by Leo Laporte beginning with the launch in May 1998 of the new cable network ZDTV (Ziff-Davis Television), until its cancellation after the takeover byComcast.
The Sitewas a forerunner to the 24-hour technology channelZDTV,later renamedTechTV,which merged to becomeG4.AfterThe Sitewas cancelled by MSNBC, and the show's staff were rehired by the parent company, Ziff-Davis, to launchZDTV.The new channel was devoted to digital technology, and it was substantially an extension of the themes presented byThe Site.The channel gained in popularity and was rebranded toTechTVin 2001.
Key contributors and on-air regulars
[edit]Cliff Stoll,Denise Caruso,Leo Laporte,John C. Dvorak,Matthew Hawn,John Gilles,Ali Hossaini,Shauna SampsonDavid Bohrmanand animated character Dev Null. Broadcast designers Victoria Webb, Susan Roderick and Executive Producer Nancy Juliber were integral to the on-air team, winning several BDA awards for work. Richard Stutting was Art Director for the award-winning website. Victoria Webb enlisted 3RingCircus to provide the network package for ZDTV.
A nightly five-minute segment in which O'Brien engaged in spontaneous tech talk with a virtual reality cartoon character, Dev Null, was animated in real time on Silicon Graphics computers. The character was in fact ZDTV journalist Leo Laporte, who did the voice and actions while wearing a motion capture suit. When O'Brien sat at an espresso bar to read email from viewers, Dev Null flirted with her while answering her computer questions. She recalled, "One of the reasons that segment of the show worked is that I could not see him as I was talking to him, and the segment was unscripted. He was funny, and his jokes were not gags."
Producers onThe Site,many of whom got their start in television there, eventually became executives at other innovative channels, includingLinkTV,Oxygen Media,G4andLAB HD.
Regular writers and columnists
[edit]Richard Kadrey,Kevin Poulsen;Joel Deane,John Gilles,Ali Hossaini,Matthew Hawn,Kevin Kennis(Kevin the Kid Tester) andShauna Sampson
Executive producers
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"Tech TV show canceled".The Modesto Bee.Modesto, California.September 23, 1997. p. 18.