[flashback] The Spot - lonelygirl15's beach party ancestors
In late 2006, when the fuss over lonelygirl15's real identity and the fact that her YouTube videos had been scripted was at its peak, I had a sense of deja vu. I remembered The Spot.
Wired ran a cover story on actress Jessica Rose and lonelygirl15 co-creators Mesh Flinders and Miles Beckett, and writer Joshua Davis breathlessly described the cloak-and-dagger behind the scenes action that made lonelygirl15, in Davis' words, "a mashup of homemade video diary, soap opera, and mysterious, hint-laden narrative like Lost. It's all the more engrossing because viewers can correspond with the characters and even affect the plot."
Although YouTube didn't exist in 1995 and broadband connections were rare outside of the workplace, Flinders' "thrillingly uncharted creative landscape" had been tried before, and had produced the same reaction from the much smaller number of regular Internet users at that time. The Spot, or "Melrose-Place-On-The-Web," as Wired called it in June 1996, was produced by American Cybercast and was the first website to feature episodic fiction in the style later used by Flinders with lonelygirl15. It also had banner ad sponsors, which made the site a pioneer in online advertising, and won one of the original Webby Awards.
Without video, the site made clever use of photo galleries and online diaries to create interest in the lives of the Spotmates, a group of attractive young men and women in their early twenties. The Spotmates were portrayed "on camera" by models from the Los Angeles area, and their "diaries," which predated the term but were similar in tone to a personal blog, were written by creator Scott Zakaran and a team of writers. Fans ("Spotfans") were encouraged to comment on the diaries and give advice to the Spotmates, sometimes affecting the plot line with their suggestions.
I've never been much of a soap opera fan. When I was in college, the peak of the Luke and Laura wedding hysteria meant General Hospital was "destination television" for many girls in my dorm, as well as a lot of the guys (though they probably won't admit it now). But The Spot was fascinating to me, especially in the beginning when, like lonelygirl15, it wasn't clear whether it was real or not. Keep in mind that there weren't dozens of blogs coordinating to figure out the truth about The Spot in the way lonelygirl15 was finally outed in 2006, so individual web surfers were mostly left on their own to decide.
The conflicts between the Spotmates as they shifted alliances between each other, moved in and out of the house and dished the dirt on each other was enough to keep me coming back for more, but there was one "event" that happened at The Spot that was particularly memorable. While photos of the Spotmates on the beach had always been a big part of the appeal of the website, the legendary Spotmate Lingerie Party provided hours of clicking fun (especially on a dial-up connection). Sadly, I can find no leftover images from the site anymore other than the few archived on The Wayback Machine. They were tame compared to the terabytes of pr0n available on the web today, anyway, I suppose, which probably accounts for my nostalgia for The Spot and the Spotmates.
The Spot fizzled out in 1997 when American Cybercast went bankrupt, but at its peak it had over 100,000 hits a day, the equivalent of millions of hits today. The Spot was revived in 2004 for a couple years, but it wasn't the same. It was truly one of the defining moments of the early Internet for me, and I still remember it fondly. Anyone else have Spotmate memories?
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Thanks for post!
Thanks for post!
good job.
Nice find Milo. It's always nice to see someone else writing about how the C's were a bit premature in falling over each other to congratulate themselves for having such an original and ground breaking idea that no one had ever tried before.
This sounds very reminiscent of NoHos or Roommates. I'm guessing girls in lingerie will never be a storyline that does poorly on the internet.
new article compares The Spot to Lonelygirl15
Nice find Milo. It's always nice to see someone else writing about how the C's were a bit premature in falling over each other to congratulate themselves for having such an original and ground breaking idea that no one had ever tried before.
While photos of the Spotmates on the beach had always been a big part of the appeal of the website, the legendary Spotmate Lingerie Party provided hours of clicking fun (especially on a dial-up connection). This sounds very reminiscent of NoHos or Roommates. I'm guessing girls in lingerie will never be a storyline that does poorly on the internet.
Spotfans and the Fourth Wall
The memories are flooding back. I remember the Spot so well, and the Spotfan community was nothing short of amazing. We didn't just interact with the Spot characters, we became Spot characters. There was the infamous Harry. His nemesis Paul. The stalker V-Chip. The Chase loving Ri. The sharp tongued August. The peacekeeper BonBon. The kilt wearing Nagus. The chivalrous Paladin. The Mel Gibson look-alike A.C. The gentle AlanBear. The incurable romantic RickM. And the list could literally go on and on and on. So many of them became a part of the Spot storylines, even attending photo shoots and holding elections and IRC debates for who the next Spotfan Guest Poster would be!
And the spotfan events! In L.A. and Vegas and New Orleans, to name just a few. People attending from all over the USA and also from Australia and Canada and Europe. The romances that flamed up! And the breakups. And even the deaths that were mourned.
It was a community. One that many have tried to mimic or recreate with little success. I'm proud to have been a part of it.
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I enjoyed the SPOT very
I enjoyed the SPOT very much. It was a great place to interact with "people" real and imagineered. It was a wonderful time with wonderful memories. Good to reconnect with everyone after all these years.
Ah the good old days
I was a somewhat early fan of The Spot. Absolutely loved the people in front and behind the scenes. It was a blast to not only get to meet all of them in person but also to participate in the community that sprang up around the show. Fans literally flew around the country for Spotfan gatherings. It was a close knit community, like a decentralized village, with many of us still in contact with each other today. Sadly, I don't think that sort of community would spring up again today.
Paladin
RE: Ah the good old days
@Paladin: I agree that the sort of community that The Spot created was unique, but mostly because it was unique for its time. The Spotfans were nuts for the drama (and humor) that unfolded in front of them on their computer monitors, because there wasn't anything to compare it to.
Today, we're much more accustomed to people baring their souls (and bodies) online, so a similar show - and there are some out there, including follow-ups from the lonelygirl15 crew - doesn't have the same impact as The Spot did on its fans.
Spot Memories!
I have so many that it difficult to pick just one or even three! The Spot changed my life. I know that sounds dramatic but it's true. I was an administrative secretary in a unhappy life. The Spot was so interactive (way beyond its time) and as a curious follower of this thing called the internet, I thrived. I interacted with the characters and even became a part of the storyline.
As the first guest fan poster on The Spot, I was a celebrity "in my own mind" at least. It was a blast. As one of the writers said to me "back in the day," I broke through the fourth wall as did many Spotfans. And if you ever want to hear the story, I am always willing to reminisce with anyone who will listen.
Not only did I become a part of the storyline but I soon became an internet geek and went on to work in web development in L.A. for a time. It was a definite far cry from a secretary in Bradenton, FL. And while I find myself back in Florida, I am not the girl I was back then. I learned so much in a short period of time. I will never forget that time in my life. And who knows, maybe one day I can be a part of something special like that again.
Ri
Spot Memories!
@Ri: I don't think you sound too dramatic. I know a lot of people were affected by the interactive nature of The Spot - I was one of them. In my case, I was stunned at how open these seemingly real people were. Even knowing they were characters didn't lessen the impact. It was a feeling that my kids don't understand because they've been surrounded by MySpace, YouTube, and thousands and thousands of personal blogs, where everyone opens up and dishes the dirt.
Amazing times. Thanks for commenting, between you and Paul I feel like I've got two Spotcelebrities here on this site. :)
The Spot
Wow, this is a real blast. I was one of the original fans of The Spot and I am currently business partners with Scott Zakarin (the man who created the Spot) in a company called Iron Sink Media. In talking about any type of website one must not forget that the site exists because a community exists behind it. The fans of the Spot (at least for me) were this eclectic bunch of professionals (you had to have access to the web way back in 1995 and that usually meant working in a company or corporation that had web access back then) so the cross section of fans was much more stable (for the lack of a better word) than some communities today. Sure we had our cyber bullies and psycho fans (one woman even called herself the Spot's psycho internet stalker) but I think that the core foundation of fans being in stable jobs contributed to the intensity of loyalty the site felt. To this day I still communicate with a contingency of original Spot fans. We've gotten together as a group several times over the years and stayed in touch with each other through all of lives challenges.
The original cast of the Spot just recently got together for a reunion (it's been almost 13 years since the Spot begin on June 6, 1995.) I think many of them are still amazed that a website "job" that took up probably a tiny fraction of their time for most of the actors back in the day would still have holding power over a decade later.
The fans have the entire back up of the Spot site - we're just not allowed legally to put it back up due to copyright infringement issues with the current owners of the property.
Good to see that some folks do remember that there was a time before Lonelygirl15 and that the genre was created by the Spot.
-Paul
RE: The Spot
I know I checked out what was happening at The Spot at work, I'm not certain but I think it was before we got 56K dial-up in my neck of the woods, so it was a lot faster.
Nice to hear there's a group of Spotfans still together. One of the reasons I chose The Spot for this flashback was the lack of search results on Google. I was hoping a few would come out of the woodwork, and now I don't feel like the only person who remembers The Spot.
history on the internet always repeats
Good article! I wish there was some of the old content out there so I could see what it was like. Here's a video on youtube about the Spot from 1995:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjRi2RqGPS8
I wasn't aware of the Spot at the time, but became aware of it after following the search for lonelygirl15 very closely. Scott Zakarin also did the nohogirls, which came out a few weeks after lonelygirl15 was outed, and is now doing Roommates on myspace.
cheers,
milo
Just want to say thanks Milo
Just want to say thanks Milo for the link to youtube. I never saw that before, wow, isn't Youtube so useful for this sort of thing!
Pete
RE: history on the internet always repeats
Thanks, milo! And what a cool link to that 1995 "Extra" clip. Too bad that "worldwide system of connected computers known as the Internet" never caught on. ;)
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