I received a media release yesterday, announcing the launch of a virtual TV show, Life On Line.

It’s the latest project by Australian Steve Cropper, who produced a virtual worlds community called My Metaverse as well as a previous offering: The Late Show.

I watched the pilot episode and like any pilot, it’s pretty raw. The overall theme of the show is the multitude of ways that people spend time online, from Facebook to Wikis. The topics are covered in a fairly breezy way and it works to an extent. What doesn’t work for me in any way is the canned laughter. To say it’s annoying is an understatement – at points it harks back to some early TV shows in the 60’s where laughter appears in spots where there’s nothing to laugh at.

The news section featuring blogger Sigmund Leominster has promise, but the rest of the show to me seems to have a long way to go. It’s always great to see new options appear, and here’s hoping this is one that goes from strength to strength. The first episode launching today will determine to a large extent whether that’s the trajectory we’ll see.

Update – Episode 1 is now live, so you can judge for yourself the real deal: