Yahoo Starts Its First Season of Scripted Comedy Programming Principato Young Entertainment/Electus Scripted comedy comes to Yahoo: above, "Sketchy," a parody about breast pumps, features Ashleigh Prather, left, and Riki Lindhome, and was created by Lindsay Crystal. LIKE any network executive Erin McPherson spent the winter half-crazed over content decisions. She sifted through pitches, sat through pilots, took conference calls over the Christmas holiday from a bedroom in her parents" Colorado home. Jordan Martin "Funny or Die Presents: First Dates With Toby Harris," starring Seth Morris. But Ms. McPherson doesn't work at a television network. She is the head of video programming and originals at Yahoo, the Internet search engine turned news and multimedia portal that on Monday will unveil its first season of scripted comedy programming. An Internet brand putting funny videos online: that's nothing new. What sets Yahoo's endeavor apart is a model that is strikingly reminiscent of Hollywood. Before a single short ever went up, talent deals were secured, and programming schedules were puzzled over. A pseudo-upfront - like the events actual networks hold to give advertisers peeks at their coming shows - was held at Carolines comedy club in Manhattan last month, complete with open bar and talent. Only two shows are making their debuts on Monday - "Sketchy" and "Funny or Die Presents: First Dates With Toby Harris" - but production on several more is chugging along, and Ms. McPherson is continuing to order pilots. "We wanted to put a real stake in the ground when it came to Internet comedy," said Ms. McPherson, who is focused on Yahoo Screen, a video site with nearly 11 million viewers a month. Comedy is where we saw a lot of consumer demand, for both the best of what you see on TV and the viral sensations you see on the Internet. Yahoo has plenty of competitors, including YouTube, which is preparing to roll out numerous TV-like channels next month, and Comedy Central's original programming on atom.com. But Yahoo's networklike approach dovetails with changing attitudes on the creative side. Once the purview of Hollywood hopefuls vying for studio and agency attention, online comedy is becoming the playground of established talents, an outlet that stands on its own and draws stars with its freedoms. Ms. McPherson is focused not on minting new voices but on signing experienced creators like the actress and writer Alison Becker ("Parks and Recreation") and the writer Mike O'Brien ("Saturday Night Live"). Her pitch: Yahoo will be a supportive home. "We want to give those videos the push to become great viral hits," she said. It is an oxymoronic effort. Viral usually means videos that with no salient advantages or support become must-sees, passed gleefully across social media. The content that has its debuts on Yahoo, meanwhile, will live on one of the Internet's biggest platforms. Still, Ms. McPherson knows exposure doesn't always equal success and, more important, credibility. "If we could get a couple "Baby Landlords" out of this," she said, referring to the 2007 Will Ferrell short, "The Landlord," that has garnered 78 million views, "that would be huge." "The Landlord" helped establish Funny or Die as indisputably the biggest player in online comedy with 62 million video views a month. Rather than start a competing site from scratch, Yahoo sought a partnership, playing the bumbling nerd with the party-ready mansion to Funny or Die's savvy cool kid. The debut series in the collaboration, "First Dates With Toby Harris," is a prime example of what both sides stand to gain. Funny or Die's chief executive, Dick Glover, said "Toby Harris" would never get the full number of eyes it deserves on his site alone, because while it may be the Internet's comedy behemoth, it hardly matches the scale of Yahoo. "We knew this series was really good," Mr. Glover said. "But Seth Morris" - the show's star - "isn't a household name." He added: "Yahoo's viewers live in their ecosystem every day. The show can talk to all these different people we may not talk to on our site. Mr. Morris, who plays the hapless, stubbornly discourteous single guy at the center of the dry comedy, is one of the many new Yahoo stars represented by Principato Young Entertainment, a Hollywood management firm that specializes in comedy talent. Principato Young will serve as a talent pool, circulating scripts, passing along pitches and helping with casting for the site's programming.