Guest Author - Dani M. Sanders

As I mentioned in my review of the quarterlife pilot, the ratings for this internet-to-TV drama weren't very good. With only 3.1 million viewers on that first night, it was the lowest-rated premiere that NBC has experienced in the 10p time slot in 17 years. It was rumored that the power-that-be would dump the show before the move to Sunday at 9p. Well, the rumors became truth when NBC announced on February 29, 2008 that it was canceling quarterlife after only one episode.

You would expect the creators of the show to be devastated by this news, but apparently it is just the opposite. According to a quote in the New York Times, Marshall Herskovitz never had much faith in the show lasting on a regular network. “If it was going to go on TV, it probably should have been on a cable network, and that’s probably where it’s going to end up,” Herskovitz said at a conference at Harvard. NBC seems to be granting his wish. The network is going to air the remainder of the episodes it commissioned for the first season on Bravo, one of their cable channels.

I must say that I agree with Mr. Herskovitz, at least in part. I watched the pilot in both its online form and on TV. Although the content was virtually the same (only about 5 minutes was cut from the online version for its NBC debut), I preferred watching it from the website. It felt more intimate and the eight-minute installments were just right. Honestly, watching Dylan and her friends for an hour straight made them all seem a bit whiny and contrived. Besides Lisa the actress, the only character I liked was Andy, the video editor for Danny and Jed's budding film-making enterprise. That's not much of a compliment to the writers, though; the actor who plays Andy, Kevin Christy, has played a similar character in almost every show I've seen him on -- the geeky guy whose best friend is his computer.

If you want a chance to see if the show improves after the pilot, you don't have to wait for it to show up on Bravo. Go check it out at quarterlife.com or on Hulu. I'm still receiving email alerts about new episodes, so it looks like the show will continue without NBC's support. If you want to discuss the show with me, meet me in the Prime Time TV forum!