BLACK ACTRESS TO STAR IN NET'S FIRST SITCOM: De'Leon Makes History in Television Internet's Sitcom, a Sitcom

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA. The Television Internet Broadcasting Network, a pioneer of internet series programming, announced today that acclaimed comedian Lunden De'Leon will star in the network's new series Sitcom, a sitcom premiering this winter on televisioninternet.com.

In a press conference Tuesday streamed online from its website, De'Leon announced that she will be part of internet history as Sitcom becomes this winter the first situation comedy series for the Internet. Television Internet will aire online this winter twenty-six original half-hour episodes viewable for free. De'Leon will also make internet history as the first African-American actor to star in an original series for the Internet.

"Sitcom could easily finish in the top ten of any network show this season. It's that good," says De'Leon who has starred in over fifty movies and television shows and graced the pages of Swimsuit Illustrated, and most recently, the fall edition of Black Men's Magazine. "As a Black woman, I am very proud that Sitcom shows that African American women can be funny, beautiful, and intelligent." In the pilot episode of Sitcom, following the success of its last show Muscle Beach, Television Internet gives Muscle's fictitious Executive Producer Justin Chase (played by Allen Burns) the greenlight to produce with his head of marketing and promotions Brandy Dubuffet (played by De'Leon) the next series for the network.

De'Leon's character is one of the fictious heads of the network. "Having a Black woman as one of the heads of the network was important to the production of the series. It sends a positive image regarding the role of Black executives in Hollywood," explains De'Leon.

Recently in the August 15, 2001 NAACP President's Report on Television, Kweisi Mfume said that "while there have been increases in the number of minority actors in on-air television roles, since 1999 when he said there was a 'virtual whitewash' in network television, an absence of color remains in the executive levels."

"In the spring of 1999. Mr. Mfume reported that none of the 26 new series on the four major networks had a Black character in a lead role. That's disgraceful," explains Sitcom's writer and executive producer, Television Internet CEO Anthony Kling.

This year's NAACP President's Report indicated that for on "air positions, Fox Network reported having 24.8 percent African American actors, 6.4 percent Hispanics, 4 percent Asian Americans and 1.6 percent Native Americans. CBS reported the numbers of African American, Latino and Asian American actors increased in the 2000-2001 season. CBS reported no Native American actors nor presented any percentages according to the total workforce."

Kling's last Television Internet series Muscle Beach, was lead by Asian American actor Ryan Moriarty; the series became the net's most watched series and was the only U.S. program nominated for the RAI Italy netcasting award. In addition to De'Leon, Sitcom also stars Hispanic actor Eric Turic and Indian actor Kevin Deen.

Kling is the son of seven time Emmy nominated, two time Emmy Award winning writer/producer Woody Kling who collectively have been attached to all six decades of television history with credits including All in the Family, the Carol Burnett Show and Maude and two of the "Top 100 TV Shows of All Time" according to Variety.com. The elder Kling was intrumental with Norman Lear in the 1970s in placing African Americans in leading comedic roles in shows like All in the Family, the Jeffersons, and Good Times.

"While Sitcom focuses on many themes, a core theme in the series is the interracial relationship that blossoms between Dubuffet and Chase - a white Alabama-born golf fanatic," explains Dubuffet.

Not only is Sitcom is the first primetime quality situation comedy for the net, it's also the first time in programming history a netcaster turns the cameras on its operations. Sitcom is a semi-autobiographical, face-pace comedy about the struggles a group of DotCom executives go through to deliver primetime shows online. Sitcom clearly does something that no other Sitcom has done - it pokes fun at its own broadcasting company and provides insight into the competitive DotCom content race. Sitcom is also the first spin-off series for the internet.

If Sitcom looks like a network sitcom, that's not accidental. Sitcom will be airing the first crossover episode for the net (when Jim Morrow of Muscle Beach joins the cast of Sitcom in a two-part crossover special), the first movie of the week (a one and half hour Sitcom special), and a series of controversial episodes (on racial discrimination in Hollywood, glass ceilings for female executives, and under-representation of Latinos in television today).

Television Internet's shows like Sitcom have been covered in virtually every major television, internet, and wireless industry publication including the Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety. When Muscle Beach premiered in March 2000, Variety quickly praised the show as the "first network-quality first-run series for the Web". Today, Muscle is in its third season as the net's longest running series.

Since September, Sitcom has been heralded for delivering the "Net's First TV Movie of the Week" (Microsoft Newsstand), been acclaimed for being part of the "first wireless broadcasting network to deliver net-original series programming to Windows Media-enabled Pocket PC wireless devices" (Microsoft Newsstand), been covered in a story alongside Blink 182 and Julianne Moore (Playboy Magazine), appeared on cable tv* (Techlink), and was the only series to be part of the October 4, 2001 Microsoft press release in two continents for the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 (San Francisco, CA).

In Sitcom, Television Internet shows how that the making of a sitcom is itself a sitcom. With one of the strongest casts and comedy scripts ever assembled, Sitcom issues in the next generation of net programming, broadband delivery, and wireless original programming.