The series finale

As the school year comes to an end, the television season is ending as well. Shows that we have been following all year long are approaching their respective season finals and taking a break until the fall. For those who don't want to rely on reruns and syndicated shows for their entertainment over the summer, there is another place to watch shows. Original content for web series has become popular recently resulting in several well-made shows that air exclusively on the Internet. Here is a list of some of the popular Internet shows to help tide you over until your favorite show returns in the fall.

"Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog": While the series is only three episodes long, totaling less than 45 minutes worth of content, "Dr. Horrible" is probably the most well known Internet series. As musical that tells the story of criminal mastermind Dr. Horrible, the series was the result of the writers strike. Created by Joss Wheaton ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Firefly") Dr. Horrible became an instant hit when it premiered and continues to have a huge following. "Dr. Horrible" can be seen in its entirety on Hulu or can be bought on DVD.

"The Guild": Created and Staring Felicia Day, "The Guild" chronicles the adventures of a group of social misfits who know each other through an online role-playing game. Codex (Felicia Day), the main character, has her life thrown into disarray when a guild member shows up unexpectedly on her doorstep. This forces a meeting of the Guild members who up until this point have never met in real life, only online. After a successful first season, which is avalible on DVD, Microsoft signed an exclusive deal with the show to premier the show's second season on Xbox Live and the MSN site. A third season is planned to go into production this summer. "The Guild" has won several awards including the YouTube award for Best series and the first ever Streamy for best comedy series.

"Chad Vader": While Darth Vader is second in command of the entire galaxy, his younger brother, Chad Vader, is the day-shift manager at a local supermarket according to the popular online comedy. Because Chad acts in the same manner as Darth Vader, he tends to clash with customers and other employees. The series has been awarded the George Lucas Selects award and the first episode has been viewed over seven million times on YouTube. Also Matt Sloan who voices Chad Vader was so impressive that his work on the show allowed him to be hired as the new voice actor for Darth Vader for the official Star Wars Video Games.

"Break A Leg": The idea for this series came from a failed submission to a contest held by FX through the hit show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Despite not winning the contest, the show gained a large and dedicated fan base that protested FX's selection of a different show. "Break a Leg" is the story of David Penn; a sitcom writer whose show Groomates has been picked up. While this seems like good news, David soon discovers how difficult it is to get anything done in Hollywood, a place where he seems to be the only sane person. The idea of an independent Internet show lampooning Hollywood seems unusual and the show reflects that unusual feeling as it spirals out of control including a prophecy about "Hollywood Jesus" and a Child Actors Guild that is led by an adult sized Gary Coleman thanks to an experimental surgery.

"Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series": Inspired by the children's cartoon "Yu-Gi-Oh," the shows creator, Little Kuriboh takes each thirty minute episode and edits it down in to a four to seven minute video while re-dubbing the audio. The series constantly makes humorous, often obscure, references about various pop culture: from old video games to the famous movie quotes. The series pokes fun at the inferior English dub that Japanese cartoons tend to receive often having the company 4Kids at the butt of the jokes, though 4Kids is only one of many things to be made fun of. The series has even spawned several catchphrases such as "Screw the rules, I have money!" Even though there are several references to the actual cartoon series but a prior knowledge of the series is not needed to be able to enjoy the constant jokes of the series.

"Lonely Girl 15": While the series started as what appeared to be a video blog of an average teenage girl, over the course of its run, the series grew into a multi-character story that involved a group of teenagers against an evil organization called "The Order." The fictional nature of the show was initially kept secret causing many viewers to think that they were watching real people. The creators of the show who set up a MySpace page for the main character where she interacted with fans of the show furthered this idea. The series has eventually grown into an online franchise. The original series has over five hundred episodes and even has several spin-off shows that take place in the same fictional universe and continue the story. These include both KateModern, which is set in London and a Polish spin-off called N1ckola.

"Star Trek: Phase II": For those who simply can't wait until Friday to see the new Star Trek movie, this show may help you to wait the remaining few days. Created by dedicated fans of the original series, "Star Trek: Phase II" (sometimes called "Star Trek: New Voyages") picks up where the original series ended at the beginning of the fourth year of Captain Kirk's five year journey. Unlike most Web shows which are usually less than ten minutes long per episode, "Star Trek: Phase II" episodes tend to run closer to the hour length that the episodes of the original series did. While the show has not officially been authorized by CBS who owns the legal rights to the franchise, it has received support from the fan base as well as many people who worked on the original series. Several of the episodes are written by writers by "Star Trek" writers while both Walter Koenig and George Takei have reprised their roles and Denise Crosby has played the grandmother of her TNG character.