I've had this idea for a long time of getting the on-line puppet community together and producing a web-show. I think if all the puppet builders, actors, writiers, and filmers on here put our heads and talents together, we could produce a variety show of Muppet-esque caliber! Maybe even become an internet sensation! 

Is anyone into this at all? I'd love to know.

Sounds great! Count me in.

Sue

I think it is a great idea.  Actually there have been those that have tried in the past but it just has not gotten off the the cutting room floor so to speak.  Andrew tried this (he may still be trying) or something like it.  We wanted to do a collaborative video of a the song "Lion Sleeps Tonight" but that was an epic fail.  

I think the secret her well be someone who can really organize it and push it through.

If I were to organize it, I would find people who wanted to be involved and establish a cast based on the puppeteers and the characters they could bring from their own seperate locations. Then we would write and develope sketches, film, I would preside over the final cutting and edting and then we'd post the episode.

Well, this can be harder to do than it may sound. I was co-founder of the Saturday Night Puppet Block on Blogtv. It was difficult to get people involved at first and once people were involved, a ton of other problems started. People have egos which can easily bruise. Audiences form expectations which can't always get met, etc.
I'm not trying to say the idea can't work. Just that it requires A LOT of work to organize and you need to be sure you're willing to put in the effort and stick with it no matter what. Otherwise it may seem to work for awhile and then suddenly crash and burn.

It's hard enough to run our web show, SkippyShorts. My partner and I don't have the time we used to, and after we lost our funding it was REALLY hard to take a step back from doing things in a professional studio with a greenscreen and expensive camera to shooting things with a small handy cam in an empty school building like we used to. We're trying to get our fanbase back up by doing the things that made us successful in the 1st place and lots of fan interaction.

This sounds great. Another issue I can see is getting everyone to produce about the same quality of video so that splicing things together is not to large an issue. Maybe this would be easier than it sounds?

I hope if you get something going you will keep us informed. Thanks!

I figure the least we can do is try.
Let me see if I can get some stuff together, for now, can the people who'd want to be involved let me know?

This is an old idea that many people have tried (as Shawn mentioned) with mixed results. Some of the puppeteers on BlogTV have done successful collaborations online and the company I'm involved with, Unraku, actually includes two members who we mainly collaborate with online. It's very challenging, but also very rewarding with the right people. I think the key is to have someone who is a good leader, very organized and good at motivating people. It's also important to make sure that everyone has a rewarding experience and gets something out of it. I also think it's easier to do short, well-defined "one off" projects than something that is meant to be permanent and ongoing because it's tough to get people to commit over the long term.

I would be interested.

I've actually got two large puppets that I'm in the process of putting together a "sports talk" television show with them.  Basically, they'll argue and banter about different things in the sporting world just like all the stuff on ESPN.