“The Artist,” a Gilded Age murder mystery with a touch of satire, stars Mandy Patinkin, Janet McTeer, Hank Azaria, Danny Huston, Zachary Quinto, Jill Hennessy, Patti LuPone and Clark Gregg. 

So, the faces are familiar. The network, not so much. Or, I should say, The Network, not so much. 

This is not a “Who’s On First” bit; the show appears on The Network, a tiny new streamer that, despite its nondescript name, is aiming to make a splash with original shows that rely on name recognition. It debuted last year with “The Green Veil,” starring John Leguizamo as a government agent tasked with stopping secrets from getting out.

The Network is putting out eight programs this year – which will include a mix of reality, documentary, and acquisitions, like acclaimed imports “The Jewish Council” and “Chivalry” – and hopes to get to one per month within a year or so. “The Artist,” which debuts Thanksgiving, is its big new scripted showcase. 

Like those on its behemoth brethren, this streaming show is available both for free with ads and in a pay-premium format. (It can easily be found on many systems like Roku or through its website.)

Aram Rappaport, who had previously directed indie films, created The Network and then wrote and produced both “The Green Veil” and “The Artist.” He spoke recently by video about his grand ambitions and pragmatic plans. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q. Are you some kind of lunatic?

Probably, a little bit. My background is in the ad space. I directed commercials and then founded an agency called The Boathouse, where we create higher-quality content for less money.

That was the idea for The Network. Could we reverse-engineer the economics behind a streaming platform where we just don’t have to spend so much money? We can create an independent film model, but make it serialized. 

Even the top streamers can’t make money and are consolidating. But we saw this opening where we could make premium content that was star-driven, produce it for a fraction of the cost, and offer it for free. And yes, everyone said it was absolutely crazy.

No one believed in it – no one believes the customer is going to stick to it and there’s not enough content there. But I just said, “Look, we’re going to pay for this and launch it,” which may have been the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, but we did prove the market generally wrong. We’re seeing insane stickiness, crazy growth. 

Q. So why is this the right time for The Network when there’s so much out there already?

From a market perspective, there’s no better time to launch a platform like this because the market is so bad and no one is greenlighting anything. We’re hearing that it’s really hard to get in the room for new people with new ideas. There’s no deficit for creativity.

And thanks to Netflix and the other platforms, people are now used to watching international shows with subtitles, which they weren’t five or ten years ago. And when I was talking to investors, people said “There’s no way you can say ‘premium’ and ‘ad-supported’ in the same sentence,” but that changed within a year, and now everyone’s doing it. So this is an exciting time to do independent television.

We’re at about a little over 2 million active users a month, which is obviously a drop in the bucket for something like Netflix. But our cost per user acquisition is below $2 per user, when the industry norm is above $35 per user, even on a free platform. Our ad agency background has allowed us to be surgical in terms of who we’re targeting. Our paid media is very strategic, and we have partnerships with places like Comcast X1 and Samsung.

We have to fight tooth and nail for every