Web-Only “Quarterlife” to Debut November 11th

This is what I’ve been waiting for. Something good to watch on the Web. Seriously, with the amount of bad television churned out by the networks these days, I’m all for having a few professionals take the plunge to produce for an online-only audience. Last week, MySpace announced that producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (Thirty Something and My So-Called Life) will debut Quarterlife on its site on November 11th. The show will not be seen on regular networks, only online.

While I don’t know if Quarterlife will live up to my TV-watching criteria (it doesn’t have Timothy Busfield after all), I’m extremely happy that professional producers are willing to give Internet-only distribution a try. Zwick and Herskovitz are almost sure to lose money, but they have a chance to convert some key TV-watchers to the Web and make the platform viable for other producers in the future. I could care less about watching TV online per se, but I’d do almost anything for good content, and it’s clear that producing quality TV for the networks is getting harder and harder.

From a tech perspective, we will ultimately see online and traditional TV distribution channels merge. Comcast for one is already playing both sides of the fence with moves like last year’s purchase of tech company thePlatform. When the merge does happen, we’ll see consolidation again. But in the meantime, look forward to a few apple-cart upsets – not just in the tech arena, but in the content one as well.