For ABC’s new series, “Don’t Trust the B—— in Apartment 23,” someone working on the site is having a lot of fun with the show. One example of this is the gallery of memorabilia collected by the fictional James Van Der Beek during the series. 

Offerings are a little light right now, considering that only two episodes have aired, but what they do have is perfect for something like “Apartment 23,” as it gives an expanded look at the world of the series, while also being funny! (It is a comedy after all).

For example, the two selections up right now tie directly into the first two episodes, and are fun little things that build on elements from the series. The first is a what a listing for JVDB’s curriculum would have looked like, the second is an illustration of his costume for a strange commercial.

The reason I ultimately think it “works,” is that I’m intrigued enough by what they pick out, that I’m definitely coming back to the show’s site to see what they post next. Heck, maybe I’ll even “like” it on Facebook!   

(Source: beta.abc.go.com)

Sometimes you can tell when there’s “heart” involved with a project, and I think there’s evidence of that with NBC’s “Inside Greendale Community College” site for their series “Community.”

Like other mini-sites for NBC, such as the ones related to “30 Rock” and “The Office,” the Greendale College site is built out of the show’s own Greendale College, the school at the centre of “Community.” 

It has lots of elements in regards to things you would see on a typical school site, such as details about registration and campus life, but NBC has almost built in callouts to their other extras, some of which are videos… which I can’t view in Canada. However, there’s a long-standing blog with entries tied to episodes of the series, and fun bios on little-seen characters in the student population. 

On top of that, NBC goes the extra mile to not wrap the mini-site in their NBC.com navigation, but allows the only noticeable reference to NBC be in Greendale’s big box ad, which makes the fictional site that much more believable. I’m only a casual “Community” fan, but I found myself engrossed in the mini-site, clicking on every single thing just to see how wide the content stretched.  

(Source: greendalecommunitycollege.com)