Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
One of the greatest television innovations that has occurred in recent years has been the development of web series. Whether you’re a die hard YouTube fan eager to check out all of YouTube Red’s new series or you’re a casual watcher of Broad City, a lot of the content you love can be traced back to the Web. Today, we’re giving some much deserved applause and love to Felicia Day and her platform-defining series, The Guild.
If you’ve never seen The Guild, you should really do yourself a favor and check it out. Created by and starring the often-described “Queen of the Geeks,” Felicia Day, the six-season series follows Codex (actually Cyd), a shy and anxious unemployed concert pianist who is addicted to an online MMORPG referred to as The Game. The show mostly focuses on Codex’s in-game guild, which is composed of the love-obsessed Zaboo, the type-A Vork, the rude but surprisingly loyal Bladezz, the ditzy Clara, and the sarcastic Tinkerbella. It’s a fun and funny show that walks the line between smartly commenting on nerd culture and authentically feeling as awkward and at times stilted as its main characters. However, this series isn’t merely fun to watch. It’s one of the first mainstream web series to revolutionize the format.
The Guild was far from the first web series. Even before YouTube existed, there were platforms for online series creators, such as Dan Harmon’s Channel 101, which hosted the failed Justin Roiland series that later became Rick and Morty. But The Guild was a rare series that blended timing, tone, and subject matter so perfectly that it quickly became a viral hit, gaining over 69 million views on YouTube as of 2011. The Guild was one of the first series to authentically capture otherness in the online realm.
While mainstream television characters were bumbling through impossible online scenarios or equating “hacking” with furiously typing, The Guild offered audiences a comically inflated yet authentic look into World of Warcraft-esque online gaming. In this way, The Guild with its nerdy roots, intentionally unpolished shots and cast, and smart, funny, and female creator was as other to the world of entertainment as its characters were to real life. The show watches as ode to online gaming, nerd culture, and the importance of finding community, even if that community comes from an unlikely source.
Almost all of this and the amazing shows that later followed in The Guild’s footsteps can be credited to the series’ creator, Felicia Day. Day gave an interview on Episode 165 of the Harmontown podcast after the release of her autobiography, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). If you want to listen for yourself, Day’s introduction comes around the 18:09 mark. The creator and beloved actress has been very open about The Guild coming from her own addiction to online gaming. However, Day never blamed the game for her self-destructive behavior:
Day later pulled herself out of her addiction and her low point thanks in part to writing the pilot that would eventually become The Guild. No one she pitched the series to understood the premise, so Day and her friend said the seven words that have passed through the mouths of almost every Internet success story: “Let’s shoot it, and put it online.”
From that moment on, Day worked tirelessly to make her show the best it could possibly be. During the show’s six seasons, Day was the only writer for the series and, according to her interview, handled all social media, marketing, appearances, and coordination. She and her limited cast and crew kept up this breakneck speed for six years with hardly any money.
Without permission, as Day says, she gave us one of the most refreshingly awkward and sincere web series out there while paving the way for web series and mainstream adaptations of geek culture. And, if you need another reason to adore this series and its brilliant creator, Joss Whedon has directly credited The Guild as a source of inspiration for Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Today, we salute you, Felicia Day, and your quirky, revolutionary series. Catch The Guild before it expires from Netflix on February 25, but you can still watch it on YouTube.
