When you think of PBS, you probably think of Downton Abbey or Jane Austen novel adaptations. You probably don’t think about Web video series adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein– particularly where the Dr. Frankenstein protagonist is a female medical doctor.
Regardless, that’s the plan for PBS’ first scripted web series, “Frankenstein, M.D.” produced for the social media loving/YouTube crowd. The show, debuting later this year, will follow the adventures or Dr. Victoria Frankenstein and her unusual medical experiments.
If that sounds out there, consider that PBS has partnered on “Frankenstein, M.D.” with Pemberley Digital, the quirky production firm that has produced adaptations of Jane Austen novels such as Emma (“Emma Approved”) and Price and Prejudice (“The Lizzie Bennett Diaries“).
The monster-themed Web show was the centerpiece of PBS’s NewFront event in New York on Monday, during which the company likely surprised ad buyers with its growing digital output. In aggregate, PBS Digital Studios boasts of 30 original series which have attracted a total of one million YouTube subscribers and over 75 million views. All but the Frankenstein series were unscripted, educational/reality shows.
“We’re trying to produce short form Web content with the PBS sensibility,” said Matthew Graham, senior director of PBS Digital Studios. Mr. Graham claimed that while PBS’s core TV audience tends to be either kids or older adults, two-thirds of the PBS Digital Studios audience is between 13 and 34 years old.
That might explain why the network is rolling out a video series about a monster novel published in 1818. “This is going to be a really wild and crazy show,” said Mr. Graham. “The Internet likes weird.”