Where are the Joneses? was a British sitcom and internet project, created by Baby Cow Productions and sponsored by Ford of Europe, which aired on the internet in 2007.
Starring Emma Fryer and Neil Edmond, the faux-documentary series followed Dawn Jones, a British woman who discovers her father was a sperm-donor whose donations spawned twenty-eight other children. Together with her new-found brother Ian, and documentary filmmaker Jonti Bloom, she sets out on a trip across Europe to find and meet each of the remaining siblings.
The series ran for three months in 2007, with a short episode varying between three and six minutes being posted on YouTube and their website wherearethejoneses.com every day. Described as 'Wikipedia-like', the series was notable for being collaboratively written using submissions from users through wikis and social networking sites. It was also filmed on location throughout various parts of Europe.
The show spawned an unofficial somewhat-spinoff series concerning Jack Nibbs, a lonely man desperate to proof his validity as one of the Joneses, which eventually crossed over into the main series itself several times. After three months, both the main and unofficial series came to an end. The possibility of a return for the series was briefly hinted at, but as of 2012 no more information has surfaced, leaving the project effectively dead.
Where are the Joneses? contains examples of:
- Cliffhanger: Dawn and Ian discover their father's surprising identity and set off to find the remaining siblings, accidentally leaving Michael in Cherry's clutches. In the unofficial spin-off, Jack Nibbs ends his final video deciding he's going to track down Cherry, who he is unaware is a psychopath planning to murder each of the siblings.
- Crossover: The unofficial 'spin-off' series eventually led to this with the main series, first when Michael sets up a video chat with the deluded Jack Nibbs, and later when Jack encounters the crew at a ferry port.
- Noodle Incident:
- The 'suffering' the French artist forces Ian, Dawn and Jonti to endure is left unexplained but for the fact that it took place in the dark and involved pigs - and that it left the trio greatly traumatized.
- Michael's vague reference to the incident that sparked Jonti's tribunal.
Michael: The only difference between him and the other crew-members who are calling in is that... he actually went on the holiday. Sexing-up is such an overused term isn't it, at the moment? - Promotion to Parent: Dawn becomes somewhat of a mother figure to Ian, who himself is somewhat of a child.
- Relative Error: Dawn and Ian's attempt to procure a picture of what their father might have looked like leads to a disgusted painter concluding the pair are considering reproducing.
