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)

With so much going on with all the families on “Modern Family,” a photo album of highlights from the past season works as a great walk through highlight’s of the series, and makes audiences feel like distant relatives themselves by thumbing through.

While something like this could have been executed as a simple photo gallery with simple captions, ABC utilized a sponsorship to make a rich and detailed experience, highly designed with “photo album” elements. With almost every page, there’s also exclusive, never-before-seen clips from the respective episodes. 

I really like the editorial choices that went into putting the book together, as it really presents a cohesive, loving picture of the families and each character’s latest ups and downs. It’s kind of funny too, in that as the series has a faux-documentary style with no context (ie who is shooting this documentary?), the same applies to this memory book… I could see Cam putting it together, but it’s as if the same faux-documentarians built this book as well! 

In addition to the memory book, the extension also has a “Make your own family portrait” for people to send as an e-card and spread the word about the album, and a big contest involving family stories. However, this is also a great looking app on the show’s Facebook page!

(As a “Social TV” aside, interesting that while the “Modern Family” Facebook page has 6 million likes, each post has about 1,000 likes or so… I wonder why that isn’t higher?)

(Source: beta.abc.go.com)

In light of the extensive blogs and other cool initiatives NBC has done for “The Office,” I’m not really a fan of how they’ve created a lot of “special features” which are really nothing more than a photo gallery of stock photos and copy that isn’t really true to the world of “The Office.” One the hope page of “The Office” they’re pushing “Kelly’s Breakup Tips” and “Party Pooper’s Guide” which are both examples of this… as a non-fan of the show, I feel a little duped, and I can’t imagine fans of the show will get a whole lot from it either. 

I can see that it does serve to keep the page looking fresh and moving older material off the main real estate, but I don’t know if using that kind of content works any better. I don’t know if I’d tweet or share these galleries, and judging by the lack of comments on these items, it looks like fans of the show feel the same way. To be fair, older gallery/exclusives that used more “Character” details and asked for input (ie “Newborn Tips: Pam vs. Angela) were far more successful.