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The name “Rocket Science Laboratories” might be a misnomer - this company’s employees were behind “Joe Millionaire,” “Temptation Island,” and “My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé.”  But they also helped with the 30th anniversary reunion of "M*A*S*H," so it’s not all bad.  Now - for better or for worse - Rocket Science is also associated with Yahoo.

In an article on Adweek, Andrew Wallenstein explains the relationship: “The Web behemoth has signed the production company to a nonexclusive first-look deal.”  So it’s not exactly a binding, we-want-everything-you-can-give-us agreement, which is probably a good thing.  (Look at Rocket Science’s IMDB entry and judge for yourself, if you want.)

Yet as Wallenstein notes a few paragraphs later, “Yahoo! does have two other deals with production companies: Embassy Row, Michael Davies’ shingle responsible for Yahoo! daily series ‘The 9,’ and Gotham Group, an animation specialist that has projects in development but no active programming on the site.”  This may not be a temporary experiment, then.

“Our goal is to see how we’re going to keep consumers for a longer period of time, and extend engagement,” Drew Buckley, general manger of Yahoo Entertainment, told Wallenstein.  “Video programming is a piece of that.”

I dunno - "M*A*S*H" was great, but Rocket Science’s recent stuff hasn’t exactly demonstrated a lot of staying power.