No Picket Lines Online

The Internet Alternative to TV: Web Series Created With a 'Freer Hand'

It's the Internet's fault that the writers had to go on strike, so surely the Internet will come through in our moment of need and satisfy our hunger for pre-crafted dialogue. That's only fair, right?

Well, the Internet is trying.

On MySpaceTV, the video-sharing site attached to the popular social network, the show "Quarterlife" has generated a lot of buzz. Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the creators of "thirtysomething," about the angst of being in your 30s, and "My So-Called Life," about the angst of being a teenager, have now brought us a show about the angst of being in your 20s.

The lure of the Internet was too great to resist for the industry veterans.

"In general it's been harder and harder to do what we do on television," says Herskovitz. "Networks are much more branded than they used to be. They take a much stronger hand in what their programs should look like, sound like, feel like."

A show on MySpace gives its creator more artistic latitude. "I was definitely interested in being a freer hand and being independent," Herskovitz says.

Herskovitz's and Zwick's freer hands nevertheless caught the attention of NBC. So, starting in February, the show -- its title is a reference to the post-college quarter-life crisis -- will be repackaged from its current six-to-eight-minute episodes into an hour-long format on the network. Already written and produced, Season 1 will air regardless of the strike.

The status of a second season, online and on TV, is up in the air: A major point of contention between Writers Guild of America and the studios is the compensation writers should receive when their work appears on the Internet.

Though available on MySpace, it's best watched on its own site, http://www.quarterlife.com, where each episode is available on a large, almost-like-a-TV video player, instead of the small window and grainy quality of a YouTube video.

"Quarterlife" centers around Dylan (actress Bitsie Tulloch), a socially conscious wannabe writer, her roommates and the three guys next door. The show is prominently supported by Toyota: Several early episodes revolve around the three guys, aspiring filmmakers, struggling to suppress their artistic vision to produce a commercial for a Toyota dealership.

Another popular series on MySpaceTV follows a cast of recent college grads making their way in the world. "Roommates" follows eight friends, all highly attractive girls of questionable virtue. While "Quarterlife" is filmed by an omniscient cameraman, "Roommates" uses the conceit that the characters are filming their own lives to share them on MySpace.

The show is produced by Scott Zakarin, perhaps best known for E! Entertainment's "Kill Reality," a reality-TV show in which the stars of other reality-TV shows produced a real movie called "The Scorned."