Imaginary Bitches

Imaginary Bitches is a web series created by Andrew Miller that premiered on May 2nd, 2008. 13 five- to 7-minute webisodes comprise season one. New episodes are released weekly on Friday nights at 11:00PM EST on the Imaginary Bitches Official Web Site, and on the Imaginary Bitches YouTube Partner Page.

The series tells the story of a single girl who deals with the lonely reality that all her friends are in serious relationships by creating imaginary friends to talk to... who turn out to be serious bitches.

The show stars Eden Riegel, Elizabeth Hendrickson, Brooke Nevin and Connie Fletcher-Staton. Season one guest stars include Michael Traynor, Jessalyn Gilsig, Aaron Staton, Greg Rikaart, James Kee, Chandra West, Brittany Ishibashi, Sam Page, Charlie Koznick, and Billy Aaron Brown.^[1] Female cast members go by their real names on the show, while male cast members have character names other than their own.

The series is directed by show creator Andrew Miller. Miller is the sole credited writer on episodes one through five and episodes 7, 10, 12, and 13. Episode 6 is written by Miller and Sam Riegel. Episode 8 is written by Bo Price and Miller. Episode 9 is written by Jeff Poliquin. Episode 11 is written by Nicole Millard and Kathryn Price, who, as a team, also wrote the Disney film The Game Plan.^[2][3]

The episodes are edited by Tatiana S. Riegel, who also edited Lars and the Real Girl, co-edited There Will Be Blood, and won an American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for her work on the HBO film PU-239.^[4] Quyen Tran is the Cinematographer.^[5] Each episode begins with a short musical introduction and ends with a theme song by Ben Harrison entitled "Not Alone." ^[6]

Imaginary Bitches episodes have been viewed over 4 million times.^[7] In May 2008 Imaginary Bitches became a YouTube Partner, allowing the creators of the show to share revenue from advertising on YouTube video pages.^[8]

The show is something of a family affair. Show creator Andrew Miller is married to lead actress Eden Riegel. Riegel's half-sister, Tatiana S. Riegel, edits the episodes, and her brother, Sam Riegel, co-wrote episode 6 and sound edited episodes one and two. Quyen Tran, the cinematographer, is Sam Riegel's wife.

Episode 1: It's Not Easy Making Imaginary New Friends When her friends are too busy with their boyfriends to hear about Eden's amazing date, Eden (Eden Riegel) creates an imaginary friend named Catherine to listen too her. Unfortunately Catherine doesn't just listen, she talks back. And says things that Eden doesn't want to hear.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Brooke Nevin (Brooke), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Lizzie), Connie Fletcher-Staton (Connie), Michael Traynor (Waiter Guy)

Episode 2: The Dirtier Isn't Always the Better When Eden's Friend Lizzie (Elizabeth Hendrickson) doesn't invite her to a "couples-only" dinner party, Catherine appears and argues that Lizzie is a terrible friend. Eden creates another imaginary friend, Heather, to defend her.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Lizzie)

Episode 3: Where Were You When Eden Got Drunk and Puked All Over Me and Lizzie When Brooke (Brooke Nevin) learns about Eden's imaginary friends she decides to take on the bitches in order to win back her best friend.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Brooke Nevin (Brooke)

Episode 4: A New Leper in the Colony Eden is very excited when she is invited to a singles party, only to learn that real girls can be bitches, too. In this episode we are introduced to Jessalyn (Jessalyn Gilsig), Eden's nemesis.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Brooke Nevin (Brooke), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Lizzie), Connie Fletcher-Staton (Connie), Jessalyn Gilsig (Jessalyn), Aaron Staton (Bruce), Michael Kass (Ugly Guy)

Episode 5: It's Totally What You Think Eden's friend Connie (Connie Fletcher-Staton) sets her up with a guy from her office, Mark (Greg Rikaart), who has an imaginary life of his own. But the date ends badly when Eden and Mark's imaginary worlds collide.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Brooke Nevin (Brooke), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Lizzie), Connie Fletcher-Staton (Connie), Greg Rikaart (Mark)

Episode 6: Help Dr. James Help You Eden hopes a session with Brooke's shrink (played by James Kee) will help her with her imaginary problems... but sadly, Dr. Kee seems to have an even weaker grasp on reality than she does.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), James Kee (Dr. Kee)

Episode 7: A Spiritual Bitch Bath Eden and Brooke attend a yoga class taught by spiritual guru wanna-be Brittany (Brittany Ishibashi), who just so happens to be the girl who stole Eden's ex-boyfriend. But Brittany learns that payback's a bitch when Catherine and Heather expose her as a fraud.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Brooke Nevin (Brooke), Brittany Ishibashi (Brittany), Angela Trimbur (Angela), Michael Daniel Cassady (Jason), Megan Hollingshead (Shannon)

Episode 8: Sexy Secret Santa When Brooke finds out that Eden and her imaginary friends are doing Secret Santa in July, she feels guilty for having left Eden out of the girls' "couples-only" gift exchange last Christmas. But when Brooke, Lizzie and Connie crash Eden's imaginary holiday party, the bitches have a plan to make Eden's real friends disappear.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Brooke Nevin (Brooke), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Lizzie), Connie Fletcher-Staton (Connie)

Episode 9: Porn Star Priest Connie introduces Eden to her very sexy priest (played by Charlie Koznik) and hopes that he can "exorcise" her imaginary demons. But his technique is unconventional, and his past downright seedy.

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Brooke Nevin (Brooke), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Lizzie), Connie Fletcher-Staton (Connie), Charlie Koznik (Father Grant)

Episode 10: Imaginary Bridezilla Lizzie is depressed after breaking up with her boyfriend, but she finds something better than vodka to ease her sorrow: the wedding of her dreams. Too bad it's all in her head!

Episode Cast: Eden Riegel (Eden), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Lizzie)

Ten vlogs were made chronicing Eden (the actress, as opposed to the character) in Europe with Catherine and Heather. The reason for the trip was a hiatus caused by re-negotiations of the Bitches contracts, which nearly resulted in them being replaced, going as far as Andrew sending Eden audition videos for replacements.

A video setting the vlogs up was also made, as a press conference. It is implied during these videos that Heather is bisexual, as part of the contract she requests involves sex with male and female actors on The CW as well as The Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana.

Eden and Friends

Eden (Eden Riegel)- The protagonist of the series. She is slightly self-conscious and extremely lonely due to all of her friends being in relationships. She also has difficulty finging and keeping a boyfriend. She creates the Bitches to have someone to talk to. Her enemies are Brittany, who stole her boyfriend, and Jessalyn, who backstabbed her. She unsuccessfully attempted therapy. One of her favorite shows appears to be Greys Anatomy, she plays a game with The Bitches where whenever someone says "Seriously" they have to eat a piece of chocolate.

Lizzie (Elizabeth Hendrickson)-One of Eden's oldest friends, she appears to be perky and very friendly, as well as being open minded to Eden's single-ness. She has a forgetful boyfriend named Jake.

Brooke (Brooke Nevin)-Appears to be Eden's closest friend. She considers herself to be very supportive of Eden, and helps her when they run into an old nemesis and sets her up with her shrink. She was the first of Eden's friends to learn about the Bitches, as well as the first to intervene. Her boyfriend Michael is extremely well organized, which sometimes bothers her.

Connie (Connie Fletcher-Staton)-Edens most promiscuos friend. She sets Eden up with a man from her office. She prefers not using condoms (citing it as her favborite thing about being single) and has had sex dressed as Catwoman

The Bitches

Initially created to be friends to talk to, they quickly developed mean personalities. Though Eden is the only one able to see them they have communicated with Brittany. Although they appear to be best friends they also constantly are at each other's throats.

Catherine-The first bitch, Catherine is the meaner of the two. She can be very greedy, shown when she demanded twice the salary of the cast of Desperate Housewives. She is described by Heather as being snobby. She dislikes Dr. Kee, refusing to even enter his office although he falls in lust with her. She compares Eden's friends to the Pod People when they attempt to set her up with the perfect guy.

Heather-The nicer, if more promiscuous Bitch. She is described by Eden as being around 5'4", with dirty blonde hair, wide green eyes, and pouty lips. Catherine calls her an anorexic whore. Eden says everuything about her is perky. She has an infatuation with bald men, and wants to have sex with Dr. Kee because of his baldness. She would like to have sex with the entire cast of The CW (both malke and female), the Jonas Brothers, and Hannah Montana. She has a sexual fantasy involving baseball. Marks avatar Brett almost hooks up with her.

Enemies

Jessalyn (Jessalyn Gilsig)-Eden's nemesis. She appears to dislike non-single people, and invites Eden to a singles party. Although she at first appears to be friendly, she quickly becomes a bitch. According to Heather she has an imaginary friend who thinks she's "psycho"

Brittany (Brittany Ishibashi)-A wannabe Guru and yoga instructor and failed actress. She had stolen Eden's boyfriend, but now wishes forgiveness. Catherine and Heather appear to her (the only time someone beside Eden has directly communicated with them) and trick her into confessing to be a fake.

Men

Waiter Guy (Michael Traynor)-A waiter who eden sleeps with, the relationship seems to be going well, but when she has no one to talk to about the night before, Eden creates Catherine. they break up after Catherine insults Waiter Guy.

Bruce (Aaron Staton)-A man at Jessalyn's singles party. although Jessalyn promised him to Eden, she later uses her knowledge of The Bithes to take him. He calls Jessalyn "a sexy Mother Teresa."

Mark (Greg Rikaart)-A Second Life fanatic who works with Connie. He was set-up with Eden because of their mutual imaginary worlds. He attempts to hook his alter-ego Brett up with Heather. Eden breaks up with him after he tries to masturbate to a Heather avatar.

Dr. James Kee (James Kee)- Brooke's shrink and the author of #1 bestselling self-help book, "Your Psyche Has a Secret." Catherine hates him, refusing to enter his office. heather flirts with him, due to her attraction to bald men. He soon proves to be crazy after becoming infatuated with Catherine and even trying to have sex with her.

On April 30 2008 soap news website DaytimeConfidential.com posted an article about Imaginary Bitches, and included an interview with series lead Eden Riegel. ^[9] Since the show's premiere, Daytime Confidential blogger Jamey Giddens has posted a weekly review of new episodes. ^[10]

The day before the premiere of Imaginary Bitches (May 1 2008), Michael Starr mentioned the series in his column "Starr Report" in the New York Post.^[11]

On May 6 2008, Canadian website Sweetspot.ca, which calls itself "Canada's Sweetest Lifestyle Guide," posted an entry about Imaginary Bitches recommending the series as something of interest to Sweetspot subscribers while they awaited the opening of the film Sex and the City: The Movie.^[12]

Entertainment Tonight Canada (ET Canada) aired a segment on Imaginary Bitches on May 29 2008, which included behind-the-scenes footage of the cast and crew on set filming new episodes. Andrew Miller, Jessalyn Gilsig and Eden Riegel were interviewed. ET Canada featured Imaginary Bitches because several members of the cast and crew (Andrew Miller, Jeff Poliquin, Brooke Nevin, Jessalyn Gilsig, Chandra West, and James Kee) are Canadian-born.

On June 3 2008, TV Guide Canada named Imaginary Bitches one of its "Top 3 Shows to Watch" in the soap column "The Nelson Ratings" by Nelson Branco.^[13]

In the June 30 2008 issue of Us Weekly magazine Imaginary Bitches made a list of "The Web's Big Hits."^[14]

TV Guide's June 30-July 13 double issue featured a review of Imaginary Bitches written by Michael Logan. In the review Logan raved, "You're a damn fool if you're not watching "Imaginary Bitches"!", and went on to call the show, "Fresh, randy and pee-your-pants funny." Logan proclaimed: "Bitches isn't just great. It's Sex and the City great."^[15]

On July 25, 2008 the online edition of People Magazine mentioned Imaginary Bitches in their TV Roundup section.^[16]

The website of TV's The Insider featured an exclusive interview with Imaginary Bitches' Eden Riegel on July 25, 2008.^[17] The interview was originally conducted by the entertainment blog Allie is Wired.^[18]

• Imaginary Bitches Official website
• Imaginary Bitches YouTube Channel
• Imaginary Bitches on the Internet Movie Database
• Imaginary Bitches Press Page with links to articles and cast interviews
• Imaginary Bitches on MySpace