Revived Icebox Pursues Content Syndication Model.

THE newly launched Icebox.com is an entirely new and refreshing breed of online entertainment company: one with no advertising, no offices, no overhead, no Web site (yet) and only two full-time employees.

But it does have plenty of marketable content.

Five founders of the original online entertainment company, now bankrupt, announced last week that they had bought the rights to the Icebox content library.

The company's former head of business and creative affairs, Tal Vigderson, and its former head of business development, Scott Rupp, have taken the helm and are working out of their homes.

"Think of Apple Computer in the early days," Vigderson quipped.

Three of the original Icebox founders -- John Collier, former co-executive producer of "King of the Hill;" Howard Gordon, former executive producer of "The X-Files;" and Rob LaZebnik, former co-executive producer of "The Simpsons" -- are contributing their time "as they are able," according to Vigderson.

Their plan is to syndicate the vast Icebox content library -- online and offline -- and spend money on original content production only when funding from future partners is in place.

When it shut its doors in February, the provider of online movies and cartoons had only been in operation about 14 months, but had developed a loyal following.

While Icebox had minor hits with online programming like "Mr. Wong" and "Zombie College," it also developed a nasty cash-bum rate. Icebox spent $15 million of investors' cash in about a year, mostly on in-house Web infrastructure and production. At the same time, revenues from advertising were dwindling.

"There was an audience for the stuff we were doing, but we were just starting to figure out how to turn that audience into revenue," Vigderson said. "Unfortunately, we had a company that required a lot of money. Without a huge infusion of venture capital, we couldn't continue."

Sounds like many dot-coin epitaphs, but Icebox stood out from online entertainment companies for its unrivaled roster of creative talent.

Collier, Gordon and LaZebnik attracted dozens of other industry veterans, who were lured by the creative freedom that the Web site promised.

The censor-free environment let them create such characters as a gay Jewish duck, a foulmouthed Asian house boy, an alcoholic Abraham Lincoln and the long-lost brothers of Jesus: Marty, Vinnie and Chuck.