Following Fictional Characters on Twitter?

I’m not much for following celebrities on Twitter – I don’t see the point.  I’m not going to discuss much of anything with them, and I’m not really that interested in their lives (in fact, I could care less – I’m fully aware they are all just people who put on their pants the same way I do.  Their pants just happen to cost between 100 and 5,000 times as much as my pants do.)  There’s a couple in the list of people I follow – that’s because for a while I just decided to start following everyone that Twitter recommended to see what happened (only one star is in my “Usual Suspects” list – which is basically the only people I see tweets from.)  And he only ended up there because, well, it’s Steve Martin and his tweets are funny – I don’t care what he had for breakfast, just as long as it’s funny.

Now, however, I’ve got something even weirder than stars in my follow list (they even made it into the “Usual Suspects” list) – I’m following all the characters from Studio 60 on Sunset Strip.  NO, no the actors – again, I could care less about them.  I’m talking about the characters.

I really enjoyed Studio 60 on Sunset Strip – it’s in my top 10 all time favorite TV shows.  I really dig Sorkin’s work there, and on West Wing – both were compelling shows with cool dialog (though often unrealistic in it’s delivery, but that made it fun), interesting characters who weren’t perfect (but not over the top), and the subject matter was always fun to watch.  And I absolutely hated the fact that Studio 60 got canned, and the hacky (and in my opinion, unfunny) 30 Rock survived.  *SIGH*  There is no justice in TV.  (Firefly is proof of that too.)

I happened across a Metafilter link talking about the characters being on Twitter, and had a WTF?! moment.  I checked out the Twitter accounts and expected something stupid… but, well, they actually look like Twitter streams the characters might have produced if they were real people.  There was a short list of the accounts involved, and it’s not just all being done at once – it’s done as realtime conversations.  Hrm.  Someone is putting a lot of effort into a strange sort of realtime fan-fick.  Fan-fick is something I’m not at all fond of, to be honest, since it’s poorly written drivel that takes characters in directions the were never intended to go.  And it’s most often poorly written.  Have I mentioned the writing on fan-fick is poor? 😉

The article I read didn’t snag all the characters – so, I dug around until I found them all.  Here’s a quick complete list of the characters I found on Twitter, if you’re interested in watching and finding out what strange drama ends up unfolding:

@andymackinaw60 – Andy Mackinaw, Writer

@jordanmcd60 – JordanMcDeere, President of NBS

@wesmendell60 – Wes Mendel, Creater of Studio 60 on Sunset Strip

@d_killington60 – Dylan Killington, Actor

@harriet_hayes60 – Harriet Hays, Actor

@suzannes60 – Suzanne (no last name), assistant

@lucykenwright60 – Lucy Kenwright, Writer

@simonstiles60 – Simon Stiles, Actor

@rickytahoe60 – Ricky Tahoe, Writer

@jeaniewatley60  – Jeannie Whatley, actor

@jackrudolph60 – Jack Rudolph, Chairman of NBS

@tomjeter60 – Tom Jeter, Actor

@calshanley60 – Cal Shanley, Director

@mattalbe60 – Matt Albie, Head Writer

@dannietripp60 – Dannie Tripp, Executive Producer

Interestingly enough, most of the characters do follow each other (not unexpected), but they only seem to follow people who fit within the character’s original premise for the most part.  And they are tweeting in real-time as if the show is going on, and they are doing the show (since the show is a show about what it’s somewhat like to put on a Saturday Night Live type of show).  Wild.

I’m really curious where this goes – though, I could easily see this as a interesting experiment that eventually fades away as the person(s) running the accounts get bored.

This also brings up the question – how long until people try their hand at recreating other show characters and interactions on Twitter?  Characters have been done before – but they usually just respond to current events.  To take it to this level is more fun and interesting.  How long until we start seeing ‘episodes’ of Knight Rider and Magnum P.I. on Twitter? 🙂