A Complete History of Chronic Zing

So who, or WHAT, you might ask is “Chronic Zing?”  Here’s the history in bullet points.

Fall 1997 – Chad Hill, Annie Conner, Josh Williams, Jason Spencer and Stephen Kennedy join up at College of the Ozarks to create a Mystery Science Theater tribute movie known as MST2K. The first episode riffed the Dolph Lungren disaster known as “Masters of the Universe.” The group soon expressed an interest in doing comedy for a living after college.

April 10, 1998 – Josh and Jason create the name “Chronic Zing Entertainment” while researching video equipment options on the Internet. The name stuck.

Halloween 1998 – Chronic Zing creates its first official production, the second and final MST2K episode “Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park,” a riff of the 1979 made-for-TV movie. The first official Chronic Zing sketch directed by Josh Williams was “Slug Your Neighbor”.

December 1998 – Jason serves as producer for the first Chronic Zing TV pilot “The Chronic Zing Show,” a collection of comedy sketches written and performed by Josh, Chad, Stephen and Jason.

Summer 1999 – Jason directs the sketch “Fat” featuring Nicholas Appleton.

Fall 1999 – Josh directs our first feature, “The Making of Fractured House”, a mockumentary which would later serve as the basis for “The Making of Fractured House: The Series”. This marked the beginning of a long working relationship with Canadian musician Jay Neilson, as well as long-time collaborator Bill Gebhart.

Spring 2000 – Josh records his first and only album “Everything But The Bathtub.”

May 2000 – Josh and Jason take their first step into the commercial video production business with the purchase of equipment that would later be used by Chronic Zing.

April 2001 – ChronicZing.com goes live and was an early adopter of a new-fangled thing called “web video.” Many of the sketches created for the “Chronic Zing Show” were the first videos posted.

Summer 2001 – Chronic Zing was in the peak of its sketch comedy period with regular releases on ChronicZing.com every week. Sketches such as “Skank,” “Stupid Idiot” and “Ming the Chinese Chef” as well as the popular MovieRama and GodStock series boosted page hits to new heights. Many of these videos were created in the basement studio of Josh’s Norwood, MO home.

Fall 2001 – Just in time for Halloween, Josh’s sketch “Punkinman” goes live at ChronicZing.com. “The Chronic Zing Action Squad,” a parody of the 1980s GI Joe series is a highlight of our website during this time.

Christmas 2001 – Josh and Jason direct the sketch “Christmas With Marla Schtewerdt”.

February 2002 – Chad Hill parts ways with Josh, Jason, and Bill.

August 2002 – ChronicZing.com gets a face lift (we call it the “orange” phase) which featured the first version of our “atom” logo. Shortly afterward we released “Unsung Heroes: Smitty Wilcox” and “Unsuccessful Pickup Lines,” the final videos created during the sketch comedy period.

Fall 2002 – Chronic Zing begins planning and pitching its first major TV project, which would later become “Bill Across America”.

April 2003 – Chronic Zing becomes a business when Josh, Jason and Bill incorporate Chronic Ideas LLC.

May 2003 – Chronic Zing produces “Bill Across America,” a reality TV pilot starring Bill Gebhart. Among the purchases for the show were a 37-passenger school bus and a Panasonic DVX100 camera. The pilot cost approximately $10,000 to produce.

Summer 2003 – Bill, Jason and Josh feverishly pitch “Bill Across America” with limited interest by representatives of Coca-Cola and FamilyNet.

February 2004 – Chronic Zing plans a variation of “Bill Across America” titled “Bill and Casey Rule The World” which was never completed. During this time, it was decided to focus our efforts on the production of independent comedy films. Josh Williams begins writing “Catch!”

March 2004 – Bill Gebhart leaves Chronic Ideas LLC as a partner, but remains a creative consultant and collaborator.

April 2004 – Chronic Zing begins production on its first 24p fully-digital short film “Sausagehead.”

August 2004 - Josh Williams finishes writing the short film “Catch!”

September 2004 – Chronic Zing completes post production on “Sausagehead.”

October 2004 – “Catch!” goes into production. “Sausagehead” wins Best Picture at the Show-Me Digital Film Festival.

Spring 2005 - After a year and a half of work, Chronic Zing decides to call it quits on all “Bill Across America” pitch efforts.

May 2005 – Chronic Zing completes the first cut of “Catch!” It is featured at a local premiere in Branson, MO alongside “Sausagehead.”

August 2005 – Josh and Jason decide to separate the commercial production company from Chronic Zing Entertainment and rebrand it, calling the new production house The ATOM Film & Sound Works.

Summer 2006 – Chronic Zing re-cuts “Catch!” and makes additions to the soundtrack with the help of Jay Neilson. The only additions to ChronicZing.com come in the form of a never-updated video podcast and some minorly pathetic updates making excuses for our lack of progress. Jason refers to this period as “our Vietnam.”

September 2007 – After years of talk, Josh and Jason decide to revisit “The Making of Fractured House” with the idea of creating a new film based on the 1999 feature.  Bill Gebhart is involved in the early stages of production.

February 2008 – Chronic Zing begins production on “Fractured House: The Series” on location in Colorado.

April 25, 2008 – Chronic Zing celebrates its 10^th anniversary with a total reboot of ChronicZing.com. The new blog, titled “The Zing Underground,” is a new way to get the word out about our movies and allow our friends all over the world to assist us in our quest to create fun films.

Summer 2008 – Production continues, slowly, on “Fractured House: The Series.”  Chad Hill returns to reprise his role as “Chad Heifer.”

February 2008 – “The Zing Underground” blog is renamed “Strategic Stupidity” after a term coined by Josh to explain the process by which we engineer our humor. Fascinating isn’t it? I thought you’d say so.

And that brings us up to right now. Click that RSS button and get involved with Strategic Stupidity. Because hundreds of starving Ethiopians are counting on you.