The Curiosity Room

The digital library of Thom Woodley: film work, webseries, advertising and ephemera.

Copyright 2007-2012
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The Burg, which debuted in June 2006 and posted episodes regularly until 2008, was not the first online independent sitcom. But it was the first made in New York, and the first to get significant press, audience, acclaim and Hollywood attention.

We completed one season to a truly fantastic response, then integrated Motorola into a 9-part miniseries in 2007. Though this allowed us to successfully fund the show for once, our attention veered into attempting to turn The Burg into a television show. Several promising leads were not realized, and meanwhile our production company, Dinosaur Diorama, got busy producing The All-For-Nots for Michael Eisner and pitching other branded work.

We began planning for Season 2 in late 2007. Season 2 was larger, more sweeping, and with a stronger episode-to-episode arc than the 1st. It would have seen the gang participate in the Idiotarod, begin a podcast, get jobs at advertising agencies, begin ill-fated outsider music tours, and back a local Obama-like candidate (in a nod to his possible presidential run). It would have ended with the gang giving up on Brooklyn and moving to the suburbs for the 3rd season. But, it never came to pass.

We continued to make sporadic episodes and shorts. In 2009, director Peter Sollett contacted us about filming an episode, and we put together Change. Though we would have loved to produce more episodes, the combination of cast members moving to L.A. and the sheer energy it takes to produce a show this large on no budget saw us go into permanent hiatus.

The Burg starred Kelli Giddish (later of Law and Order and Chase), Lindsey Broad (later of The Office and Til Death), Matt Yeager, Jeff Skowron, Bob McClure, Chris O'Connor and Maria Hurdle. My primary partners in this project were Kathleen Grace, Matt Yeager, Ana Veselic and Johnny North.

Exemplary Episodes (click to watch):

Hip or Dangerous (our first, and shortest, piece)

Cred (first full episode)

Bar (terrible production values, but a fan favorite)

Fan Mail (a dramatic reading of a piece of hate mail we received)

Training (another fan favorite)

Show (our closing episode of Season 1)

Change (our most recent episode)

And here you can download our press kit, which has many of the original articles on The Burg.

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