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Tom Hanks Planning Yahoo-Only Web Series, “Electric City”

John Biggs

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Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

Monday, January 9th, 2012
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Everyone’s favorite puppet cowboy, Tom Hanks, is working with Playtone and Reliance Entertainment on a new web series called Electric City (logo not shown). According to the AP, the show is about a “seemingly peaceful city situated in a post-apocalyptic world” and each episode will be three or four minutes long.

The shows will have a socially conscious message including conservation and energy issues. This is Yahoo’s first scripted program and it will be available through multiple devices in multiple languages. Hanks will appear as a character.

Quoth the AP:

“On the surface, the Electric City is utopia and under the surface, Electric City is secrets and heavy-handed state control,” says Erin McPherson, vice president and head of original programming at Yahoo. “What we found really compelling is that this is perfect for a highly digital audience, a lean-forward audience who likes to utilize the medium of the Internet.”

It’s interesting to watch Yahoo move into a different medium here and here’s hoping Hanks and his animations will make it a better year for the beleaguered company.

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