08/15/08
Text: Nik Mercer
Current T.V.—famously known as the television company that Al Gore co-owns—has been expanding at a rapid pace since its founding in 2005. The station exists both online and on cable (although good luck finding it in your channel guide!) and consists of both Current T.V.-generated material and user-contributed/produced video.
One of Anthem's favorite shows, infoMania, is the great congealer of the news on Current T.V. If their slogan is any indication—"Chewing up the week's media so we can regurgitate it, half-digested, into your mouth"—it goes without saying that the show is a funny one, but incredibly witty and keenly observant. If it was your only source of news every week, you'd be smarter than the bulk of us Americans...
We chatted with Brett Erlich, one of the main writers and co-hosts of infoMania about his segments and the program in general. Be sure to check out infoMania every Thursday at 10 PM PST.
On the nature of Current T.V.
I'd like to say there're two sides to Current T.V.—the viewer-created stuff and the stuff we create here...
There's too much media out there, and we basically dissect the week's media and regurgitate it to you.
On the origins of infoMania
It started out with Conor on Google Current... and [the producers] knew they liked it and wanted to do more stuff with it. As it progressed, we realized we wanted a half-hour show... we were doing these really short blasts, three minutes long at a time—and we were doing four a day!
On producing "Viral Video Film School" and other segments
We just watch so much shit—like, I'm not much of a sleeper, so I just sit at home at night and watch tones of viral videos...
And I thought it'd be funny to make all this stuff that's spontaneous [rule-based]. I typed in "versus" to YouTube once and realize that anything versus anything gets like, a bazillion hits.
One that some traffic was the "Viral Video Film School" [episode] about financial banks' [viral videos]. Everyone's trying to get out there and be online. To watch corporations and old media do this is... like watching early Wright Brothers films of the planes crashing and burning.
["Viral Video Film School"] is like a labor of love—and hate... mixed with a lot of caffeine... and there may be a little alcohol involved.
On the voice of infoMania
The show is all about our sensibilities, and basically, we're all watching stuff and we just pick stuff we like. We watch it and we all find what we like and we talk about it all...
Everyone brings something to the table, and that's great. We do [all] get along... I get together with [some other staffers] and have Battlestar Gallactica nights because we're all big nerds.
On the show's future
Ultimately, we want our show to rule the entire planet.
Actually, we just want people to watch it, and we work our asses off, and, I mean, we love doing it! I always say, "I have a silly job" to people who ask.
