"quarterlife": New Web-Only Series

There' s a buzz out in the media about "quarterlife", a new made-for-web-only series produced by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick [who produced the popular 80's television series "thirtysomething" and the film "Blood Diamond"]. "Quarterlife" is going to be unencumbered from many big network language constraints and from other content that some television networks might censor.


Here are some excerpts from a November L.A. Times article by David Sarno:

Web-only series? Yep. Audience?
By David Sarno, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 11, 2007

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From the new quarterlife series:
Actors Bitsie Tulloch (L) and Scott Michael Foster (R)
Photo by Elizabeth Caren, Reuters

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.. "Quarterlife" is about kids a few years out of college trying to find their way in the real world. It hopes to speak to college kids, in their own language and in a medium they can relate to.

.. Most of us over 25 are familiar with the work of Herskovitz and "quarterlife" co-writer Edward Zwick, the creative team behind "thirtysomething," the term-coiningly iconic TV series of the late 1980s, and "My So-Called Life," which, if its status as the best teenage drama ever is not universally agreed upon, then only a handful of people need their minds changed.

Having nailed the 30s in the '80s and the teens in the '90s, Herskovitz, 55, and Zwick, also 55, have left themselves with a difficult pair of decades in which to complete their epic of growing up: the 20s, and this one.

"Quarterlife" valiantly attempts to navigate a perilous strait: On one side it's a tale of young artist-types trying to get a handle on real-world living, and on the other it's an ambitious exploration of a new media genre whose waters are largely uncharted: the short-form Web drama. Which means that both its characters and its medium are experiencing rapid, whirling change on the one hand and a pervasive sense of uncertainty on the other.

.. Widely thought to be the most expensive Web-only TV show yet, "quarterlife" is financed by a combination of venture capitalists and advertisers, according to Herskovitz, who would not offer exact budget numbers. "Quarterlife" has advertising deals with Pepsi, Target and Toyota, and it's not a leap to guess who's riding shotgun, given that one of the show's main subplots has two young filmmakers making a commercial for a Toyota dealership.

Links to "quarterlfe" on the web:

quarterlife.com
quarterlife at MySpace
quarterlife at Youtube
quarterlife Group at Facebook [Care to join?]
quarterlife at imdb



Other articles:

'quarterlife' ready for Internet debut [Freep.com]

Show Series to Originate on MySpace [N.Y. Times/Michael Cieply]

"Quarterlife" highlights Web role in writer strike [Bob Tourtellotte , Reuters at Canada.com]