Quarterlife Explained

Quarterlife (stylized as quarterlife) is an American web series, also briefly an NBC television series in 2008, created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the creators of Thirtysomething and Once and Again, and producers of My So-Called Life. The show is about a group of twenty-something artists who are coming of age in the digital generation.[1]

Following the dismal reception of the premiere episode of the NBC television show as it coincided with a televised democratic primary debate with President Obama and Hillary Clinton,[2] the other five episodes were aired in a marathon on NBC Universal sibling channel Bravo on March 9,[3] making Quarterlife one of the few television shows to be canceled after one episode.

The regular cast included Bitsie Tulloch, Kevin Christy, Mike Faiola, Scott Michael Foster, Michelle Lombardo, Maïté Schwartz, and David Walton.

Characters

Main characters

Other characters

Television

Genre:Comedy drama
Developer:Quarterlife, Inc.
Composer:W. G. "Snuffy" Walden
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Seasons:1
Num Episodes:6
Editor:Jennifer Pulver
Runtime:Varies
Network:NBC

NBC 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.[4] [5] In February 2008, NBC announced that Quarterlife would premiere on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, with the show moving to Sunday nights immediately afterwards.[6] The show's first episode earned 3.1 million viewers, falling behind shows on ABC, CBS, and MSNBC in the same time slot and ultimately ranking 17th for the night.[7] 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.[8] Its remaining episodes would air on sibling channel Bravo following the NBC cancellation.[9]

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 on Oxygen in the teen demographic and tied with the Democratic Presidential debate airing at the same time on sibling channel MSNBC.[7] The show also performed poorly in the adults 18-49 demographic, where it managed only a 1.6 rating.[8] [10]

The series aired on the then-existing E! television system 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, some of the hour-long episodes (as edited for broadcast) were made available on the NBC and Hulu websites. During this time, Herskovitz claimed the show accrued an average of 300k views per episode.[11] After cancelation by NBC Episodes 2-6 were broadcast back-to-back on Bravo on March 9, 2008.

Television episodes

Title Original airdate -

Online episodes

Episode #TitlePart 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6
1"Pilot"November 11, 2007November 11, 2007November 15, 2007November 18, 2007November 22, 2007November 25, 2007
2"Compromise"November 29, 2007December 2, 2007December 6, 2007December 9, 2007December 13, 2007December 16, 2007
3"Anxiety"December 20, 2007December 23, 2007December 27, 2007December 30, 2007January 3, 2008January 6, 2008
4"Goodbyes"January 10, 2008January 13, 2008January 17, 2008January 20, 2008January 24, 2008January 27, 2008
5"Finding a Voice"January 31, 2008February 3, 2008February 7, 2008February 10, 2008February 14, 2008February 17, 2008
6"Home Sweet Home"February 21, 2008February 24, 2008February 28, 2008March 2, 2008March 6, 2008March 9, 2008

Video blogs

Characters in the Series post video blogs on quarterlife.com, Myspace, and YouTube.

TitleVloggerAirdate
StorytellerANDYOctober 31, 2007
Hi roommates!DYLANNovember 11, 2007
My first video blog!DYLANNovember 11, 2007
There is no way Brittany is on Myspace, so...DYLANNovember 14, 2007
On LisaDYLANNovember 14, 2007
Growing upDYLANNovember 17, 2007
My rant about people, money and jobs.DYLANNovember 25, 2007
SexualityDYLANNovember 25, 2007
I Have A BlogANDYNovember 29, 2007
Choices are scaryDYLANNovember 29, 2007
We have a visitor...DYLANDecember 1, 2007
Who's sexiest?ANDYDecember 6, 2007
Zoning OutDYLANDecember 6, 2007
LET'S TALK ABOUT SWINGERSANDYDecember 8, 2007
SERIOUSLY DAMAGEDDYLANDecember 8, 2007
Dylan Krieger and...DYLANDecember 12, 2007
THE KISSDYLANDecember 16, 2007
INTEGRITY AT 24 FRAMES PER SECONDJEDDecember 16, 2007
The Toyota CommercialJEDDecember 16, 2007
HUNKS OF GLOBAL WARMINGDYLANDecember 19, 2007
PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY, BABYANDYDecember 19, 2007
DATING CHICKSJEDDecember 19, 2007
BLOG ATTEMPTDANNYDecember 20, 2007
MESSAGE TO MY SUITORSLISADecember 20, 2007
BathroomDEBRADecember 22, 2007
Oh SighDYLANDecember 22, 2007
WHY?JEDDecember 22, 2007
I Too Can BlogDANNYDecember 23, 2007

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/business/media/13quarterlife.html?ref=business Show Series to Originate on MySpace - New York Times
  2. Web site: Timeline of the 2008 United States presidential election . en.wikipedia.org .
  3. News: NBC Pulls the Plug on Quarterlife. Stelter. Brian. February 29, 2008. The New York Times. 2008-08-17.
  4. News: NBC Acquires 'Quarterlife'; Internet Series Will Run First Online . The New York Times . Bill . Carter . November 17, 2007 . May 22, 2010.
  5. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic336d29bbc1c4e8ff30eb2540383e789?imw=Y NBC picks up 'Quarterlife' series
  6. http://www.nbc.com/quarterlife/ Quarterlife - NBC Site
  7. News: Score One for Old Media: Dems' Debate Is the Night's Hit, While Webby 'quarterlife' Shows None . The Washington Post . February 28, 2008 . May 22, 2010 . Lisa . de Moraes.
  8. Web site: NBC Logs Off 'Quarterlife' . zap2it.com . 2008-02-29 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080302024142/http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-nbcpullsquarterlife,0,4836180.story . March 2, 2008 .
  9. News: Hibberd . James . NBC's 'Quarterlife' shortchanges net . . 27 February 2008.
  10. Web site: Overnight Nielsen TV Ratings for Tuesday, February 26, 2008 including American Idol, NCIS, Back to You, Quarterlife, Jericho, The Biggest Loser and Big Brother - Ratings TVb... . October 1, 2008 . December 7, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081207064342/http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/02/27/nielsen-ratings-for-tue-feb-26-idol-dominates-jericho-crushes-quarterlife/2778 . dead .
  11. News: Serial Killers . The New York Times . Virginia . Heffernan . August 24, 2008 . May 22, 2010.