BuzzSugar

Quarterlife Already Canned by NBC, Moving to Bravo

BuzzSugar — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:29:54 -0800

Well, now we can put Quarterlife in the vault previously reserved for shows like Anchorwoman and Emily's Reasons Why Not. After just a single episode, NBC has yanked Quarterlife from the schedule after its premiere got the network its lowest ratings for a 10 p.m. time slot in 17 years. But Quarterlife apparently has at least three lives: It will get to show its remaining five episodes on Bravo.

We'll never know whether the premiere got such poor ratings was because the show, from My So-Called Life creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, had already aired on multiple online platforms and MTV, had a boatload of obnoxious and false-sounding technology references, just plain wasn't that compelling, or some combination of the above. Herskovitz, for his part, said he knew it was a failure the second he saw it on NBC, which seems to me like he's trying to duck the blame, but I do tend to give the guy who brought me Angela Chase a little slack. (He then issued a statement saying he was still trying to find the show a home on cable, and within hours, Bravo had picked it up.)

I've seen a later episode of Quaterlife and, while it was much better than the premiere, I'm not sure it was enough to keep people watching. But at this point, I'm curious to know how the show fares on Bravo – even though the backstory has now become more compelling than the show itself.

Meanwhile, at least one pretty excellent parody of the show, 2/8life, has sprung up online. The episodes I've watched are spot-on - and it's made better by using the original MSCL character names - so to check out the first installment, just read more.

Photos courtesy of NBC

Marshall Herskovitz and Bitsie Tulloch Talk Quarterlife

BuzzSugar — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:35:09 -0800

Quarterlife, the drama about a 20-something magazine editor who seeks freedom by documenting her life online, came together through a series of unlikely coincidences. The show - which is from Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, the team behind My So-Called Life- started its life as a rejected pilot for ABC. Years after that attempt, it surfaced online with a new focus, a new lead character (Dylan) and actress (Bitsie Tulloch, whom Herskovitz met at random in jury duty), and a new social network to support it. And tonight, the series starts its new life on NBC.

Quarterlife - which debuts at 9 p.m. before moving to its regular Sunday time slot - will air like a traditional hour-long drama. But there's little else traditional about the show. NBC doesn't have control of the show; instead, it's being hailed as a new model for TV, one where the producers fully own their product. (Fun fact: Devon Gummersall, aka Brian Krakow, is one of the show's writers.)

The move to NBC was something Herskovitz "had mixed feelings about," as he said in a recent call with reporters - and I'm not sure about it, either. I found parts of the first episode insufferable; from the way Dylan acts much of the time, it's hard to believe Herskovitz and Zwick have ever seen a blog. But there's still something comforting in the rhythms of their language and the earnestness of their characters, and I know I'll be hooked for the whole six-episode run, no matter how much it occasionally makes me want to hurl pillows at my TV.

Herskovitz and Tulloch recently chatted with reporters about the series, and here are some of the highlights of the chat.

On being worried about the stereotypes of "an Internet series":
Bitsie Tulloch: When Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick say 'Will you play the lead in my series?' it doesn’t matter what platform they’re doing it on. You don’t say no. . . . The other reason I really wasn’t nervous about it is that I, myself, tend to watch TV shows that I have missed on TV on my laptop. So if I was doing it, and I have friends who do it all the time, then I had no misgivings about thinking that it would be successful at all."

Lots more from Tulloch and Herskovitz, so read more.

On how blogging has affected a generation:
Bitsie Tulloch: "First of all, we seem to really define ourselves by our creativity in a way that other generations maybe didn’t - not because they couldn’t, but because they didn’t have access to this incredible, far-reaching platform. . . . It’s the first generation that grew up on the Internet, when you think about it. I mean, I was a freshman in high school when I had my first email account. . . . There’s this strange, sort of ambiguous thing that goes on a lot with the blogs, you know, particularly with my character, where Dylan is sort of simultaneously inviting people in while at the same time keeping them at a distance because at the end of the day, she’s still talking to a computer screen. She’s not talking to a living, breathing human being."
On what makes Quarterlife different from a normal series:
Marshall Herskovitz: "We love television. The problem we’ve had with television is that the business has changed so much and that the networks exert too much control over the producers. And the fact that we’re coming to NBC with complete creative control of our product and that we are delivering them completed episodes - they haven’t even seen the scripts. They don’t even know what the stories are about until they get the episodes. That’s never happened literally in the history of television."

On how the show changed from the original, rejected ABC pilot:
Marshall Herskovitz: "Honestly, we really picked the wrong characters to write about for the ABC pilot. We talked about seven people who all lived in a house together who were all lost and confused and didn’t know what to do with their lives. And I think we missed something because . . . if you talk about people in their 20s today, one thing you do see is that a lot of these people do know what they want to do and are very passionate about it. . . . There are a lot of different aspects of this generation that we kind of missed in that pilot. And the sum total was that even though I loved the cast and it had a nice feel to it, you didn’t have any emotion at the end of it. And so we realized that we had to start all over again and that’s when this character, Dylan, sort of just appeared full-blown in my mind one day - this sort of semi-difficult, amazing, intelligent, slightly feral, vulnerable, contradictory person."
On becoming the self-conscious, insecure Dylan:
Bitsie Tulloch: "Initially Marshall was sort of like, 'I don’t know. You might be too cute to play Dylan. She’s supposed to sort of fade into the background.' And my attitude was, you know, I can do this. I desperately want to give this character integrity but it did come down to really layering it, down to coming up with a walk, a very childish, kind of almost boyish walk for Dylan based on - you know, I had seen the movie French Kiss. And I always remembered that there was a scene where Kevin Klein said to Meg Ryan, 'You know, you walk like a little girl.' And she said, 'No I don't,' and of course saunters off childishly. I always remembered that and I tried to sort of do something similar with Dylan. She’s very fidgety, and the walk is just kind of all over the place. And she can't sit still."

Buzz News Roundup, 12/17

BuzzSugar — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:30:59 -0800

Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien will return to the air Jan. 2. The Futon Critic has Conan's full statement along with Jay's take.
Meanwhile, David Letterman is working on a plan to bring his show back - writers and all, writes The Hollywood Reporter.
The release date for the Bryan Singer/Tom Cruise film Valkyrie has been pushed back from July 4 to October 2, Variety reports.
Jon Favreau and country music stars Tim McGraw and Dwight Yoakam are joining the cast of Four Christmases, which stars Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, writes ComingSoon.
Billboard has new details on Alanis Morissette's new album, which will bring together folk, world, and experimental pop music.
The American Film Institute has named its top movies and TV shows of 2007, USA Today reports, including No Country for Old Men and Friday Night Lights.
NBC has set a February premiere date for Quarterlife, the online series it's re-purposing for TV, Zap2it reports.
According to Variety, Emmy Rossum will star in Dragonball, the movie based on the Japanese manga.

Photos courtesy of NBC

Soapbox: Is Quarterlife a Synonym for Selling Out?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 07:15:00 -0800

For most of my TV-watching life, I've defined myself as a fan of Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the producing team behind Relativity, Once and Again, and, of course, My So-Called Life. I remember reading about their latest project, Quarterlife, several years ago, back when it was still an ABC pilot awkwardly titled 1/4life. I was bummed when it didn't make the network's schedule, and I was happy to hear the show was finally surfacing online.

So the news that NBC has picked up Quarterlife should thrill me. Instead, I'm confused and a little annoyed.

My problems have little to do with Quarterlife itself. I don't think the show is great - some of the stilted dialogue makes it clear that the show is written by folks who don't spend much time around twentysomethings - but it's good enough to keep me watching. What bugs me is Herskovitz and Zwick's attitude about the whole thing: promoting themselves as revolutionary and anti-TV, then running back as soon as TV called. There's more to my thinking - including a potentially good side to this arrangement - so just read more

I believed Herskovitz's recent Los Angeles Times op-ed, where he wrote that television was a poisoned environment that stifled all creativity. I was excited to see how two respected producers could shake things up by working outside the system. And then, the system beckoned, and they fell into its arms. The most cynical part of me thinks it seems like suspiciously convenient timing, what with the writers' strike knocking so much other programming and limiting the networks' store of original, quality series.

But there's another side, though it's harder for me to believe it right now. It's the one Herskovitz pointed out recently: They're still doing something unprecedented. NBC shouldn't have anything to do with editing Quarterlife; the network is supposedly buying it to air as-is, leaving Herskovitz and Zwick - who are continuing to work as producers during the strike - in complete creative control.

Really? I guess we'll see when the TV version of Quarterlife starts to air, which could be as soon as this spring if the strike continues. Maybe this really will be a new era where shows stay in the hands of the people who make them. Or maybe I'll look back and think these two producers just sold out.

Source

Buzz News Roundup, 11/19

BuzzSugar — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:39:06 -0800

Whenever the TV season picks up again, Dirty Sexy Money will be around for all of it, writes Zap2it.
Hollywood Reporter has news that Kathy Bates will join Ashton Kutcher and Michelle Pfeiffer in the dramatic love story Personal Effects.
Couldn't get tickets for this weekend's Saturday Night Live show? The New York Times writes about the event.
ComingSoon reports that production on the sequel to The Da Vinci Code will be pushed back due to the writers strike.
Olympians and Omarosa are among the contestants for Celebrity Apprentice, which will premiere in January; details are at The Futon Critic.
NBC is bringing the Web series Quarterlife to TV, Broadcasting & Cable reports.
According to Reuters, Gus Van Sant's biopic about gay San Francisco city councilman Harvey Milk (which will star Sean Penn) will be made before Bryan Singer's version.
Hey, you 10 people who watched On the Lot: Variety has a story about what winner Will Bigham is up to.

Link Time! 11/13

BuzzSugar — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:31:01 -0800

Funny man Michael Showalter is guest blogging on Popwatch as we speak. Er, as we type/read.

Glowy Box explains why many TV blogs went on strike today in solidarity with striking Hollywood writers.

Speaking of which, Deadline Hollywood Daily points us to a mixtape for the picket lines.

According to Frank Darabont's interview with the MTV Movies Blog, Tom Hanks wants to star in Fahrenheit 451.

FabSugar tells me that Marc Jacobs wants his own reality show.

Cinematical is saying there has now been a new Bond girl cast for Bond 22 and she's um, you know, mildly good-looking.

Give Me My Remote has some thoughts on the transformation of Jim Halpert.

Stereogum has the new video for Duran Duran's song "Falling Down," featuring a mental institute for... models and starlets, I think.

TV Squad really, really hated the new Web series Quarterlife.

Source

TV Today: Quarterlife

BuzzSugar — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:30:00 -0800

Quarterlife, the Web series from My So-Called Life producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick that premieres on MySpace TV today, is being hailed as the series that could help bring Web-only programming into its own. The show was originally written as a pilot for ABC, but when the network turned it down, they decided to take it to the Web - while sticking as close to network-caliber production as possible.

In interviews, the two have sounded almost evangelistic about their choice to leave traditional TV for the Internet; Herskovitz even wrote an op-ed for the LA Times about how the current television environment is poisonous to creativity. So I guess there's a little irony in the recent stories that the show could end up on TV after all, with NBC reportedly looking to air it as soon as February.

All of that, though, just makes me more curious to check out the show, about a 20-something video blogger whose penchant for putting her life online drives a wedge between her and her friends. As I noted when I first watched the trailer, I'm not sure if the sorts of quasi-deep lines that were so meaningful to me in My So-Called Life are only going to strike me as hollow and cheesy now that I'm older. But the episodes are just eight minutes long, so I figure I can give a few of them a try. To watch the trailer for Quarterlife, just read more

Source

"MSCL" Producers Go Online with New Series

BuzzSugar — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:27:56 -0700

What if Angela Chase were a 20-something video blogger? She might look a lot like Dylan, the main character of "Quarterlife," a new online TV series from "My So-Called Life" producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick that focuses on the trials and tribulations of the quarterlife crisis generation. "A sad truth about my generation is that we were all geniuses in high school," Dylan says in one voiceover, "but apparently the people who deal with us never got our transcripts."

"Quarterlife," which consists of 36 eight-minute episodes that will premiere Nov. 11 on MySpace, has an interesting history. It was produced three years ago as a pilot for ABC, but the network passed on the show. The producers ultimately decided to put the show online, and they're also launching a social networking site for creative 20-somethings.

Twentysomethings are the one age group we haven't really seen Herskovitz and Zwick take on, not counting the short-lived "Relativity," and as a 20-something myself, I want to see how well they reflect the hopes and neuroses of my friends and me. But I'm also nervous that they're going to miss the mark, in the same way I worry that if I were to watch "My So-Called Life" now, it would sound more navel-gazey than insightful. I also think it's a little risky to launch a show about a video blogger on a social network full of them, especially when the trailer includes the angsty line "Why do we blog? We blog to exist."

Nonetheless, Nov. 11 is now marked on my calendar. To check out the trailer and let me know what you think, just read more

Source

Greenberg: A Harsh Look Under a Magnifying Glass

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:30:00 -0700

It always feels slightly off when a comic actor takes on a serious role. Not that Ben Stiller hasn't proven his flexibility with fare like Reality Bites or Friends & Neighbors, but never before has he seemed so straight-faced, vulnerable, and well, depressing, as he does in Noah Baumbach's latest Greenberg. In fact, it took a few scenes for me to settle in to Stiller as Roger, a 40-year old with severe social and mental anxiety. His face is tired, there's no sense of a smirk - even Stiller's gray hair is on display (Derek Zoolander would not be pleased).

The film follows Roger as he returns from a recent institutional visit (due to a nervous breakdown) to house-sit for his brother Phillip (Chris Messina). He spends his days writing angry letters to Starbucks and Mayor Bloomberg, and looks on as neighbors play in the backyard pool, afraid of human contact. The only lifeline Roger actually makes is the family's personal assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig) and their German shepherd.

Almost immediately, Florence and Roger hop into a bumbling courtship. Roger seems drawn to her mid-twenties youth; Florence, in turn, is grappling with quarterlife uncertainty about life, and in Roger she sees someone much older who hasn't figured it all out either. It seems feasible that they'd get together, but not quite as likely that she'd put up with him. Basically, Roger is a very unlikeable guy, and like most Baumbach movies, his human flaws are both intriguing - and painful - to watch.

To see what I mean, read more.

Through interactions with his ex Beth (Baumbach's wife and muse Jennifer Jason Leigh) and longtime friend Ivan (a great Rhys Ifans), we learn that Roger has always been motivated by selfish reasons. In his earlier days, he had a band with Ivan, which he single-handedly ruined after refusing to agree to a contract. As such, Roger still doesn't want to commit to anything. It's an issue which is further brought to light as Florence suggests that he be her boyfriend. He handles the situation by doing what any self-involved person might - he snaps at her. Not once, but many times. Unable to hang around Florence or people his own age, Roger instead turns to his niece's teenage friends, doing coke like it's the eighties and rambling on about olden days. Will he ever get a reality check?

Oh, it comes. But not quite with the clearly-defined resolution that you might hope for.

Stiller is great in the role, portraying Roger with a subtle touch. But perhaps his performance is overshadowed by just how much you want to shake Roger. Instead, I'd argue that the film actually belongs to Gerwig. How refreshing to watch an actress who looks and acts like a regular woman, and as Florence, she evokes that somewhat-needy, twenty-something girl that we all know and love despite her questionable choices. Florence is the heart of the film, and as such, she keeps it from completely succumbing to the doldrums. Be warned though, there are no laughs or real sweetness here. You'll likely find yourself feeling mixed about Roger and the film, because frankly, they're both downers. But as character self-examination goes, Greenberg still makes for an interesting study.

If you'd like to review a movie you've seen recently, check out the Movie Reviews Group in community. I may even feature your critique on the site!

Photos courtesy of Focus Features

Sundance Snapshot: HappyThankYouMorePlease

BuzzSugar — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:30:36 -0800

I've had a little crush on ~~Ted Mosby~~ Josh Radnor ever since I got hooked on How I Met Your Mother, and I've had high hopes for the side project he's been working on between seasons. Radnor makes his debut as a triple threat writer/director/actor in HappyThankYouMorePlease - but don't let the quirky title turn you away. I'm happy to report the film is among my favorites from Sundance 2010, so let's get into the good stuff.

Who's behind it? I already mentioned that Radnor wrote and directed the script, and he has plenty of talent supporting his cast, including Malin Akerman, Tony Hale, and Kate Mara.
What's it about? The movie centers around Sam Wexler (Radnor), a writer in his late 20s living in New York and struggling to find meaning in his love life and career. On a particularly fateful day, Sam befriends and takes in a young boy who's been separated from his foster family and meets a potential love interest in Mississippi (Mara). Akerman plays Sam's best friend and confidant Annie, who's got her own issues to deal with (particularly with a co-worker (Hale) who won't give up until he gets a date with her). Finally, Zoe Kazan plays Mary Catherine, a lifelong friend of Sam's who is struggling to figure out whether or not she and her boyfriend have a future together in New York.

To see why I enjoyed the film so much, just read more.

What did I think? The premise sounds simple (and cliched enough): six new yorkers looking for meaning in their relationships and going through mini quarter-life crises. Though the idea is not the most original story line, Radnor's witty script and real characters are what keep the movie afloat and thoroughly enjoyable. We can all relate to at least one of the characters, who are each afraid of moving forward into adulthood. The connections between them are refreshingly genuine: Sam and Annie have a rare platonic friendship that doesn't inevitably veer into a relationship; Mary Catherine gets caught between the city she loves and the man she loves. Equal parts charming, funny, and painfully real, HappyThankYouMorePlease is a sweet little movie that (hopefully) means only bigger and better things for Radnor's bright future.