Last week we aired an episode about lonelygirl15, one of the first proper YouTube stars, and perhaps the most famous example of playing around with the boundaries of fiction and truth on the internet. But it was not the first. In 1995, aspiring filmmakers created the first ever soap opera on the Web, on a site called The Spot. Hollywood saw it as the future of entertainment. But a fan-led revolt showed that interactivity sometimes has a price.

Evan Chung explained the rise and fall of The Spot in a 2021 episode of the Slate podcast One Year. The overlaps and echoes are so strong with lonelygirl15 we thought you’d be interested to hear it.

This episode was written and reported by Evan Chung. It was edited by Laura Bennett. The host of One Year is Josh Levin. Madeline Ducharme was our assistant producer. Additional production help came from Cheyna Roth, with editorial direction by Lowen Liu and Gabriel Roth. Mixing by Merritt Jacob, our Senior Technical Director.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.

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