The first of the serial's 80 episodes – each running 90 seconds long – begins tantalizingly enough, with a teen girl waking up in her backyard wearing only underwear. After sneaking back into her house, popping some pills, the young woman utters "Oh god," in a British accent. What she sees: a running videocamera placed on the top of her dresser.

The first project of ex-Disney chief Michael Eisner’s Vuguru (www.vuguru.com), which promises to bring TV-worthy content for the web, "Prom Queen" is being produced and directed by Big Fantastic -- Douglas Cheney, Chris Hampel, Chris McCaleb and Ryan Wise – the four guys responsible for last year's webisodic suspense serial "Sam Has 7 Friends."

"Prom Queen" is more polished than "Sam," but it has the same cliffhanger construction (and pretty L.A. cast) that the team pioneered with their first series. For example, episode 2, airing tomorrow, introduces us to our lead character, Danica, the British girl from episode 1 doing a video project, "What is the American obsession with prom?" She does short interviews with the other characters, succinctly introducing these teen archetypes ("most likely to succeed," "class flirt," "most likely to save the world"), followed by an ominous text message that one of the kids receives: "u r going to kill the prom queen." Fade out.

Big Fantastic's Chris McCaleb says things are different from "Sam," which they pulled off during weekend shoots, in between intense day jobs. "There was absolutely no template to go from, so we had to make it up as we went along," he says. "The characters in 'Prom Queen' are much more interconnected than those in 'Sam.'"

But the format also continues to have its challenges, explains McCaleb. "It starts with writing - how do you tell a compelling story in just 90 seconds? Then, how do you do that every single day, 7 days-a-week, while continuing to advance the larger story line?"

McCaleb and his team are still working around the clock prepping, shooting, editing and delivering new episodes (every day, they produce 3-4 installments, which each take a few hours to shoot.) They also need to stay attuned to the "metaverse" of the series, he says, meaning constant attention to the MySpace profiles of their characters and message boards comments. ("You have to have pretty thick skin to read them," adds McCaleb. "The audience pulls no punches, but we wouldn't have it any other way.)

And although the Big Fantastic crew is working with a big-time established player such as Michael Eisner, one thing seems consistent from last year. "Everybody in the cast and crew is getting paid a little, as they did on 'Sam,'" adds McCaleb, "but certainly not enough to pay the bills. What keeps everyone coming back is a commitment to doing something new, exciting, and something that has never been done before."