Quarterlife Makes the Leap from Web to TV
Tonight marks the premiere of Quarterlife (10 pm/ET, NBC), a new series from Marshall Her­skovitz and Edward Zwick that chronicles the angst-ridden lives of creative twentysome­thing pals. But what sets the drama apart is its unique gestation — it was ultimately developed specifically for the Web.
According to Her­skovitz, a Quarterlife pilot was originally filmed for ABC in 2005, but, dissatisfied with the re­sults, he overhauled the concept. "It became more about a girl [Bitsie Tulloch's Dylan] who blogs and tells the secrets of her friends," Herskovitz explains. "It was a perfect vehicle for an Internet series." Herskovitz and Zwick took their self-financed pilot to MySpace, which began airing the show in 8- to 15-minute installments last November. The results attracted 250,000 viewers per webisode. Says Herskovitz, "Our the­ory was if you brought the same level of qual­it
Tue, Feb 26, 2008