''Quarterlife'' (stylized as ''quarterlife'') is an American
web series
A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...
, also briefly an
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
in 2008, created by
Marshall Herskovitz
Marshall Schreiber Herskovitz (born February 23, 1952) is an American film director, writer, and producer, and currently the President Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America. Among his productions are ''Traffic'', ''The Last Samurai'', ''Bl ...
and
Edward Zwick
Edward M. Zwick (born October 8, 1952) is an American filmmaker and producer of film and television. He has worked primarily in the comedy drama and historical drama, epic historical film genres, including ''About Last Night (1986 film), About L ...
, the creators of ''
Thirtysomething
''Thirtysomething'' is an American drama television series created by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz for United Artists Television (under MGM/UA Television) and aired on ABC from September 29, 1987, to May 28, 1991."The 'don't trust anyo ...
'' and ''
Once and Again
''Once and Again'' is an American family drama television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999, to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father. It was created by Marshall Herskovitz a ...
'', and producers of ''
My So-Called Life
''My So-Called Life'' is an American teen drama television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995. It is distributed by The Bed ...
''. The show is about a group of twenty-something artists who are coming of age in the digital generation.
Following the dismal reception of the premiere episode of the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
television show as it coincided with a televised democratic primary debate with
President Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
and
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
, the other five episodes were aired in a marathon on
NBC Universal
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
sibling channel
Bravo
Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels
*Bravo (band), a Russian rock band
* Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984
*Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...
on March 9, making Quarterlife one of the few television shows to be
canceled after one episode.
The regular cast included
Bitsie Tulloch
Elizabeth Tulloch (born January 19, 1981) known as Bitsie Tulloch, is an American actress. She is known for her roles as List of Grimm characters#Juliette Silverton/Eve, Juliette Silverton / Eve in the NBC television series ''Grimm (TV series), ...
, Kevin Christy,
Mike Faiola,
Scott Michael Foster
Scott Michael Foster (born March 4, 1985) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Captain John Paul "Cappie" Jones in the ABC Family comedy-drama series ''Greek'' (2007–11), Leo Hendrie in the ABC Family drama ''Chasing Life'' ...
,
Michelle Lombardo
Michelle Helen Lombardo (born September 16, 1983) is an American model (person), model and actress. Lombardo gained fame with her appearances in the 2000s ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues.'' She made her film debut in ''Dishdogz'' in 2005 an ...
,
Maïté Schwartz, and
David Walton.
Characters
Main characters
*Dylan Krieger (
Bitsie Tulloch
Elizabeth Tulloch (born January 19, 1981) known as Bitsie Tulloch, is an American actress. She is known for her roles as List of Grimm characters#Juliette Silverton/Eve, Juliette Silverton / Eve in the NBC television series ''Grimm (TV series), ...
) is a self-proclaimed writer who works as an associate editor at a magazine called ''Attitude''. She keeps a video blog on the social networking website Quarterlife.
*Debra Locatelli (
Michelle Lombardo
Michelle Helen Lombardo (born September 16, 1983) is an American model (person), model and actress. Lombardo gained fame with her appearances in the 2000s ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues.'' She made her film debut in ''Dishdogz'' in 2005 an ...
) is Dylan's best friend and roommate. She works in her father's appliance store. Debra has anxiety problems.
*Lisa Herford (
Maïté Schwartz) shares the apartment with Dylan and Debra. She is in acting school and works as a bartender. Lisa also reluctantly becomes a singer for a band despite her low self-confidence.
*Jed Berland (
Scott Michael Foster
Scott Michael Foster (born March 4, 1985) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Captain John Paul "Cappie" Jones in the ABC Family comedy-drama series ''Greek'' (2007–11), Leo Hendrie in the ABC Family drama ''Chasing Life'' ...
) is next-door neighbor to the girls and a film maker fresh out of film school.
*Danny Franklin (
David Walton) is Jed's business partner and roommate. He is also Debra's ex-boyfriend; Danny and Debra broke up after he cheated on her.
*Andy Melman (Kevin Christy) is Jed and Danny's 'sidekick', assisting them in the production of their videos.
*Eric Greensohn (
Mike Faiola) is an old friend of Debra's who comes to visit her and then stays to pursue a relationship with Dylan. Eric is an environmental activist.
Other characters
*Vanessa (
Majandra Delfino
Maria Alejandra Delfino ( ; born February 20, 1981), known professionally as Majandra Delfino, is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Maria DeLuca on '' Roswell'', and as Andi on the CBS sitcom ''Friends with Bette ...
) is a free-spirited girl who dates Jed, Andy, and Danny.
*John (
O. T. Fagbenle) is a musician who asks Lisa to join his band, and also dates her.
*Brittany (
Barret Swatek
Barret Swatek (born March 3, 1977) is an American actress and comedian who has appeared in films such as ''Lethal Weapon 4'', ''The 40-Year-Old Virgin'', and ''High School''. She has also made guest appearances on television shows such as ''Just S ...
) is Dylan's boss who has some unresolved feelings towards Dylan.
*Carly (
Bree Turner
Bree Nicole Turner (born March 10, 1977) is an American actress and dancer; she is best known for her role as Rosalee Calvert on ''Grimm''.
Early life
Turner was born in Palo Alto, California and grew up in Alamo, California. Her father is fo ...
) is a car saleswoman with whom Danny has an affair.
*Josh (
Mark Matkevich
Mark Matkevich is an American art gallerist and actor best known for appearing as Drue Valentine in 17 episodes of the television program ''Dawson's Creek''. He also appeared in the film '' Sweet Home Alabama'', where he played Patrick Dempsey's ...
) is a bartender and co-worker of Lisa.
*Mindy Krieger (
Lolita Davidovich
Lolita Davidovich ( sr-Latn, Lolita Davidović, italic=unset; born July 15, 1961) is a Canadian-born film and television actress, best known for portraying Blaze Starr in the 1989 film '' Blaze'', for which she received a Chicago Film Critics Ass ...
) is Dylan's mother.
Television
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
announced on November 17, 2007 that the network had acquired the rights to air ''Quarterlife'' on broadcast television in early 2008, after the episodes have been broadcast on the Internet. In February 2008, NBC announced that ''Quarterlife'' would premiere on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, with the show moving to Sunday nights immediately afterwards. The show's first episode earned 3.1 million viewers, falling behind shows on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
,
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, and
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
in the same time slot and ultimately ranking 17th for the night.
After the first episode failed to earn the ratings the network had hoped, NBC announced that the series would be
canceled after airing only one episode.
Its remaining episodes would air on sibling channel
Bravo
Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels
*Bravo (band), a Russian rock band
* Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984
*Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...
following the NBC cancellation.
The show's 3.1 million viewer rating was the worst in-season performance in the 10 p.m. hour by an NBC show in at least 17 years. While expected to be successful with teenagers due to its MySpace origins, Quarterlife lost to ''
Bad Girls Club
''Bad Girls Club'' (abbreviated ''BGC'') is an American reality television series created by Jonathan Murray for the Oxygen network in the United States. The show focused on the altercations and physical confrontations of seven aggressive, q ...
'' on
Oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
in the teen demographic and tied with the
Democratic Presidential debate airing at the same time on sibling channel MSNBC.
The show also performed poorly in the adults 18-49 demographic, where it managed only a 1.6 rating.
[
The series aired on the then-existing E! ]television system
In Canada, a television system is a group of television stations which share common ownership, branding and programming, but which for some reason does not satisfy the criteria necessary for it to be classified as a television network under Cana ...
in Canada in simulcast.
Episodes
The first season was released online in 36 parts, each approximately eight minutes, from November 2007 to March 2008. Each eight-minute episode of the series premiered nearly simultaneously on MySpace and the official Quarterlife site. It garnered the third-highest views of any scripted series in Myspace history. These were combined into six hour-long episodes for television.
In five months, total online views for the series—on Myspace, Quarterlife, and YouTube—were over 9 million. After the series was picked up by NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
, some of the hour-long episodes (as edited for broadcast) were made available on the NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
and Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
websites. During this time, Herskowitz claimed the show accrued an average of 300k views per episode. After cancelation by NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
Episodes 2-6 were broadcast back-to-back on Bravo on March 9, 2008.
Television episodes
Online episodes
Video blogs
Characters in the Series post video blogs on quarterlife.com, Myspace, and YouTube.
References
External links
Official Site.
Archived from th
original
on February 10, 2008.
Quarterlife
on MySpace. Archived from th
original
on January 23, 2008.
Quarterlife
on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
. Archived from th
original
on February 18, 2008.
*
Art Film Talk #23 Marshall Herskovitz
– Interview with the co-creator of the show, November 30, 2007 (audio).
{{Edward Zwick
American comedy web series
Television series canceled after one episode
2007 web series debuts