Quarterlife, a made for MySpace TV show that “follows the lives of six twenty-somethings and charts the sometimes excruciating, sometimes comic, often emotional experiences that comprise coming of age as a part of the digital generation” has been picked up by NBC.
The deal is the first time a made for internet program has been picked up by a television network in the United States.
Quarterlife is produced by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, creators of the TV shows My So-Called Life and Thirtysomething.
NBC will air the show from its first episode and will tap into pre-recorded (but yet unaired) episodes, with new episodes put on hold by the writers strike. There is even some suggestion that the purchase by NBC is due to the writers strike; stuck with a diminishing supply of fresh content the theory suggests that television networks will look online and to independent productions to fill the airwaves. If true it’s a new additional benefit from the writers strike for online content creators, who’s smiles continue to widen as the strike goes on.
Trailer for the show below; the lead character Dylan is a video blogger and much of the footage is from that perspective. With mainstream exposure of video blogging on NBC video startups such as Kyte.tv, Ustream, Justin.tv and others along with a YouTube might also end up getting a boost as well.
Quarterlife Trailer
http://lads.myspace.com/videos/vplayer.swf
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(via Reuters)