Internet Series Quarterlife Goes Back to TV

NBC Picks Up Series Originally Intended for ABC

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/19/2007 11:37:00 AM

Marshall Herskovitz’s and Ed Zwick’s navel-gazing 20-something series, Quarterlife, was picked up by NBC.

The series premiered on MySpace and Quarterlife.com Nov. 11, and it will run 36 eight-minute episodes weekly.

The drama -- about a lowly magazine assistant who moonlights as a video blogger (and surreptitiously makes her roommates part of her blog) -- was developed three years ago for ABC. But when the network passed on the series -- and, in an unusual move, gave the rights back to Herskovitz and Zwick -- the producers decided to go ahead with Quarterlife as on online series.

NBC optioned second-run rights, and it will package the series into six one-hour episodes. It will also stream on NBC.com.

The series’ journey from TV to the Internet and back to TV is interesting in light of loggerheads in Hollywood between the Writers Guild of America and studios and networks over residuals for streaming video.

Quarterlife was done with union personnel (who will have to be compensated when the show goes to TV), and it has decidedly higher production values and more involved story arcs than many made-for-the-Internet series, as well as a higher price tag.

Herskovitz and Zwick have yet to recoup their investment, although the NBC deal will go a long way toward putting the producers in the black.