Top 10 TV Shows that Started Online

This show has been making history a great deal more entertaining since 2007. Created by Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner, with Will Ferrell among the show’s executive producers, this wacky web series was picked up by Comedy Central after it gained popularity on HBO’s Funny or Die show. A normal episode involves a drunk attempt at narrating an important event from history, while actors mime their way through a reenactment. Even when it was a web series, Drunk History managed to pull in a lot of famous faces, including Jack Black and Ryan Gosling.

“Scrubs” isn’t the only hospital-based comedy out there. Children’s Hospital – emphasis on the apostrophe – was a web-series shown on THEWB.com, with each episode lasting around five minutes. The hilarious comedy show set in a Brazilian Hospital, despite clearly being shot in California, poked fun at medical dramas like House, Grey’s Anatomy, and ER. After releasing two online seasons, it drew the attention of Comedy Central and Adult Swim. Showrunner Rob Corddry chose the latter, as he believed Childrens Hospital (now without the apostrophe) was more suited to a 15-minute time slot rather than a full half hour.

Before Parks and Recreation and Master of None, there was Human Giant. Written by and starring Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, and Paul Scheer; this sketch comedy series ran for two seasons on MTV, with the production company leaving the option for a third on the table. With no plot or consistent characters, each episode sees the three comedians take on different roles as they mock pop culture or deliver biting social commentary. A handful of the segments debuted online as part of Channel 101 before the show premiered on MTV in 2007.

Their on-screen counterparts might be lazy; but Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine, and Anders Holm are anything but. Prior to Workaholics' successful run on Comedy Central, the mischievous trio formed part of Mail Order Comedy, a sketch group based in Los Angeles. Via their personal website and a YouTube channel, the comedians wrote and directed a variety of sketches which, eventually, caught the attention of Walter Newman, an executive at Comedy Central. After Workaholics took off, its three stars created a production company under the name of Mail Order Comedy.

If there is one emotion everyone can relate to, it is awkwardness. Based on that simple belief, Issa Rae launched The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl in 2011. The sketch show follows the passive-aggressive J who works for Gutbusters, a company manufacturing weight-loss pills. Positive word of mouth and a strong social media campaign helped Issa’s show go viral, which eventually piqued HBO’s interest. Re-envisioned as Insecure, a raunchy comedy series that explores contemporary racial and social issues, season 1 and 2 sit at an impressive 100% on RottenTomatoes.com as of September 2017.

What do David Letterman, Tina Fey, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pratt, and Michelle Obama have in common? They all appeared in an episode of Billy on the Street. Hosted by Billy Eichner, this ad-libbed comedy game show follows the energetic comedian as he hits the streets of New York to quiz people on their pop culture knowledge. With cash prizes as an incentive, Billy on the Street gained popularity through the Funny or Die website, before being picked up by Fuse and later truTV. With five successful seasons, the series earned Eicher parts on Parks and Recreation and New Girl.

Depending on who you ask, this series is the best or worst thing to happen to Portland. ThunderAnt was a web series created by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein that started to appearing online in 2005. It began as a normal sketch show, but the content quickly started to center around Portland and its distinct culture. Some segments, like the Feminist Bookstore, were actually shot on location. The pair took their idea to IFC and Broadway Video, who quickly snatched them up and launched the award-winning Portlandia.

Cartoon Network’s whimsical story about a boy and his dog’s daily adventures in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo has captured the hearts of children and adults alike. Combining subversive humor with heartfelt beauty, show creator Pendleton Ward cited Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro as a source of inspiration. Prior to his work on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Ward directed a short film entitled Adventure Time for Nicktoons, which eventually became a viral hit online. After the production company failed to capitalize, Cartoon Network jumped on the opportunity and the rest is history.

Making it in New York City might be damn near impossible, but it gets a bit easier with a good friend by your side. In a case of art imitating reality, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson used their real life struggles to launch the web series Broad City. Their infectious friendship and down to earth performances spoke to millions of people around the world, including Amy Poehler – who mentored the series’ leads and became one of the executive producers of its TV iteration. The success of the online show resulted in Comedy Central producing a big budget version of Broad City in 2014.

One of the most successful, critically-acclaimed and beloved animated series of the 2010s, Rick and Morty spawned from Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s twisted brains. Boasting irreverent humor, raunchy jokes, and sci-fi themes that would be considered too niche for Community, Adult Swim’s hit series started off as a Back to the Future parody before transforming into so much more. In 2006, Roiland submitted The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti as a webisode to Channel 101, a non-profit short film showcase co-founded by Harmon. It proved so popular that he brought the characters back for future shorts. Eventually, Rick and Morty was born.