The blogosphere needs Amanda Congdon back.

The bitingly witty and expressively comic former host of the once-popular vlog Rocketboom has been out of the public eye since her last video for ABC’s web site was posted in November, but her star turned long before that when a dispute with Rocketboom, the vlog site she hosted and co-produced for more than two years, led to her departure in June of 2006. Since then she’s kept up her own blog (though it’s looking quite stale), done some minor work in TV, a short-lived blog called AmandaAcrossAmerica, and hosted the aforementioned weekly video update on the ABC site.

I was convinced back in 2005 that Amanda would be the first true crossover hit between the blogosphere and the MSM, and indeed she certainly got tons of air time being interviewed on the morning shows, not to mention those bit parts on some TV shows and commercials. Her audience for Rocketboom swelled to more than 300,000 by some accounts. But by crossover hit, I mean someone who would continue to live and succeed in both media platforms, merging audiences and blurring the lines between the Web and TV and movies. I was sure she had the talent and qualities that played well in both worlds and would bridge the two audiences (in ways where there wasn’t already some overlap). I’m not a media critic, but as a casual observer, I felt she had terrific comic timing and charisma that would be appealing in the MSM (yes, being attractive doesn’t hurt for that medium), but also had the irreverant, spontaneous attitude that was necessary to succeed in the Web-based world. And she had no problem making fun of herself, which was key to getting inside some of the stories she did for her newsy Rocketboom segments. She played extremely well in front of a Webcam on a mock studio set, and at the same time just about fit but wasn’t quite ready for a big splash in the corporate environment one still finds in the MSM. A friend and I placed bets that she’d find her fit as the next SNL regular, one who would take her Web audience to SNL by creating crossover work in a vlog attached to the NBC hit. In some ways, SNL cast member Andy Samberg has assumed that mantle crossing over in the opposite direction by producing some spectacularly hilarious viral video hits (the best of which decorum prevents me from even linking to; this is a business blog, after all) and helping spawn his first movie deal last summer (the jury’s out on a successful movie career).

Amanda didn’t quite seem right for the ABC gig, even though it was an online medium. It felt like she’d been plucked from an environment that embraced her talents and been placed into one where she was forced to conform in ways that didn’t fit her style. She still had the opportunity to explore the offbeat, but much of the irreverence was gone. Not to be conspiratorial, but I wonder if it was because her work was edited or in some way or was expected to conform to an environment that may have been Web-based but still overseen by The Big Bad Media Giant? Whatever it was, the situation seemed to stifle her, and her contract expired in November. One blog says her agent claims there were no disputes, and that the contract just wasn’t renewed. To be fair to ABC, perhaps her audience just didn’t follow her, I don’t know. A long-rumored deal with HBO for what Amanda herself acknowledged she didn’t even “really know exactly what it’s going to be” never materialized.

Check this out for some quintessential Amanda, which she posted after her departure from Rocketboom. It combines pure comedy with some subtle messages about the Web environment and not-so-subtle messages about the fleeting nature of fame. How she convinced her mother to deadpan “what a loser!” about her own daughter in this “where are they now” parody about herself is a terrific example of why she was truly popular. With Amanda, anything went, and she used that talent to stretch the boundaries of a medium that was as pliant as Silly Putty. I’d be naïve if I didn’t attribute some of her popularity to ogling fanboys – she got her share of marriage proposals and other drivel on her blogs – but what made the real fans come back was her (and her co-producer and co-writer Mario Librandi’s) ability to tap into what was relevant (or even plain fun) on the still-developing video Web of, lo, those 48 or so months ago, and how she did it in a manner that took advantage of the medium. Whether or not this parody was posted as a preemptive strike against anticipated chatter about her being a flash-in-the-pan, it was nonetheless sensational.

I didn’t intend for this blog post to sound like an obit, and I’ve made an attempt to contact Amanda to see what her future plans are. I sure hope to have some news directly from her to see if there’s still room for her in the blogosphere, the MSM, or both. One hopes this representative (I’d rather not use the word “icon” here) of the early-ish video Web wasn’t soured or changed in some way by the rigidity of the MSM and that she can still bring her insight back to the medium where she found her voice.