| Venice: The Series | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by |
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| Starring | Crystal Chappell Jessica Leccia Galen Gering Hillary B. Smith Gina Tognoni Nadia Bjorlin Lesli Kay Dot Jones Shawn Christian Molly Burnett Eric Martsolf Judi Evans Michelle N. Carter Jordan Clarke Harrison White Michael Sabatino Liz Keifer Adrienne Wilkinson Christian LeBlanc Annika Noelle Patti Pelton Aaron Hartzler Wesley Ramsey Tina Sloan Gregory Zarian Elizabeth Scott Mandahla Rose |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Production location | Venice Beach, California |
| Running time |
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| Production company | Open Book Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | December 4, 2009 (2009-12-04) – present |
| Related | |
| The Grove: The Series | |
Venice: The Series is asoap operaweb series co-produced by and starring American actressCrystal Chappell. The series was inspired in part by the "Otalia" storyline on the daytime dramaGuiding Light. The series has beenstreamed on VenicetheSeries.com since December 4, 2009, and currently has six seasons with a seventh being in production.
Venice is described by Chappell as "a show about families, and life, and all the simplicity of it, and the turmoil of it. We're going to be following a character named Gina who is a designer, and she is a gay woman."[1]
Venice: The Series stars Crystal Chappell as Gina, a designer and a gay woman, and Chappell's love interest fromGuiding Light,Jessica Leccia, this time as Ani, Gina's love interest. Some of Chappell's and Leccia's formerGuiding Light co-stars also appear in the series, includingTina Sloan,Gina Tognoni as Sami andJordan Clarke as The Colonel. OtherVenice cast members include daytime actressHillary B. Smith ofOne Life to Live as Guya,Nadia Bjorlin as Lara,Galen Gering as Owen, Gina's brother, Michelle N. Carter as Michele,Lesli Kay as Tracy,Michael Sabatino, Chappell's husband, as Alan, andRobert Newman as an old boyfriend of Gina's. Other cast members includeShawn Christian,Eric Martsolf andMolly Burnett fromDays of Our Lives. Gregory Zarian joined the cast in Season 5 as Detective Nick Pfander.
Crystal Chappell playedOlivia Spencer on the long-running CBS daytime drama,Guiding Light, from 1999 until the September 18, 2009 network ending. She won aDaytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Daytime Drama for her work as Olivia in 2002 and was nominated again in the same category in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, she earned her first nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actress category and her second in 2010.
In 2009, afterGuiding Light was cancelled, Chappell, with help from her writing partner and co-producer Kim Turrisi, decided to createVenice: The Series drawing inspiration from the popular romance between herGuiding Light character, Olivia Spencer, andGL co-starJessica Leccia's character,Natalia Rivera Aitoro, also known by the portmanteau "Otalia". However, for copyright reasons, the names of the two actresses' characters are changed, and there is no official connection toGuiding Light.
Although Chappell's character in the show is an openly gay woman, the show is not a "gay web series" but rather a show that "embodies all kinds of people, with all kinds of issues".[1]
Chappell heavily publicized the series through thesocial networking sitesTwitter andFacebook.[2]
The web series is set in, and filmed in,Venice Beach,California, United States. It is filmed digitally. Each episode of season 1 is 6–10 minutes long, while episodes from subsequent seasons run approximately 15 minutes.
The first three seasons were released for free, and are viewable, on the video sharing websiteYouTube. The fourth, fifth and sixth seasons are available streaming on the show's website to rent or buy.
DVDs of past seasons of the show are also available for sale online at the website.
In 2011,Venice: The Series won the firstDaytime Emmy Award forOutstanding Special Class Short Format Daytime,[3] and won again in 2014 forOutstanding New Approaches Drama Series.[4] The series was nominated for aDaytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series in 2017.[5] In 2018,Venice was nominated for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series andOutstanding Directing in a Digital Drama Series.[6]
Writing forEntertainment Weekly, Alina Adams named the series one of the "4 best soap operas on the web" in 2015.[7]