In another post I read, the writer expressed disgust at the “fake” feel in Secret Life of the American Teenager. That feeling of overdone acting is a sign of a low quality show. But as the TV critics we’ve become over this semester, it is difficult for us to imagine what a teenager sees. The attention a hormone-driven teenager pays to quality of acting is minimal; they want to know about sex. Therefore, shows that center on that topic will ultimately command more attention that otherwise realistic quality shows. We simply can’t understand.

Now, we have shows that can claim to be progressive, that have a young dedicated audience and air exclusively for a teenage population. It is a little scary to think that if sex education off-tv is struggling, the shows available for teens will adequately do the job. But that’s just an opinion.

The fact is, these shows don’t seem progressive. In Glee, only Finn goes through with sex, and that’s with the promiscuous Latina. Not to mention, a “Glist” is released in the latest episode that ranks Glee students on their sexual promiscuity. In SLOTAT, sex is a problem and will get you pregnant. These don’t seem to be very balanced in their approach to sexual activity in American Teens. They all play off a stereotype of how teens are sexually and emotional charged humans. To think they need to be influenced one way or another such in SLOTAT is insulting. Maybe if teens weren’t so engrossed in drama they might be upset. Just kidding.

None of these shows gives teens a lot of credit. The prevalent stereotype is that sexually, emotionally dramatic young adult. They must be controlled in some way, and if not there will be difficulties. None of this allows teens to grow themselves. The stereotype perpetuates the assumption that high schools need to “baby-sit” their kids, guidance councilors need to have condoms in their office, etc.. Is this considered “forward-thinking” in our culture? To me, none of this appears to be all that progressive.

After reading reviews on the show I would agree entirely that the show has accomplished making sex unsexy. Those that have sex have issues. The one girl who is promiscuous has sex because she does not have a father around. Ricky has sex because his father sexually abused him. No one on the show has sex because they really want to. There is a cause and effect relationship with sex on the show. Characters sleep with people because of some personal issue. I have issue on what the show is trying to say about people who come from single parent families. I don’t think it’s reasonable that since a person has no father they become a whore.

The show offers a shallow reality on teenagers. High school is nothing like what is depicted. The characters also feel contrived. Amy is the innocent good girl that gets pregnant the first time she has sex. She plays in the band and falls for the supposed bad boy. Than there is the non-sexual Asian characters that randomly insert sex stats in odd places. The sex statistics that the Asian character talks about seems out of place. It all feels like an info pamphlet on abstinence. However the message seems mixed because the characters that are not having sex seem crazy. The Christian girl who has sworn off sex till marriage is crazy. In the second episode the father explains to her that her cheating boyfriend only has one thing on his mind. It all seemed so stereotypical. The conversation between Christian girl and her father was painful. It seemed so contrived. He talked about how when he was a young boy that sex was the only thing on his mind and that she should avoid boys for a while. That seemed crazy what happens when she goes to college how is she going to interact with males. Also the conversation just felt so unnatural for a kid and parent to have. There was no awkwardness I’m sure when I was 15 I would not want to talk to my parents about sex. Rather they seemed like two adults having a formal conversation.

The undertones of the show are the most disturbing part. While the show tries to portray an image of being progressive or modern it fails. Sure they mention sex a lot that doesn’t make it new and cool. The Christian undertones are also weird since they are conflicting at times. The Christian girl and boy are not likeable. The boy is just dumb. Yet those that have premarital sex are immoral and those who don’t are unlikable. It is a weird confused message the show is sending. Also Ben and Amy in the second episode tell each other they love one another. Then the message from councilor preaching to Ben about how Amy’s sexual past is none of his business. He goes on to say that she is embarrassed because she had sex with someone who did not care for her. So what is the message of the show don’t have sex or wait till you find someone who you care for? After watching 3 episodes I am left with no clear answer. Only thing that I felt was resentment towards whoever wrote the script and the acting. I wonder if the screenwriter was ever in high school because the dialogue seems far from it. Sure the show is about sex but it could be much deeper if they talked about something else too. I thought that the first episode was all right but the next few were the exact same. They only talked about sex. But where is the sex on the show no one even kisses. Even people with boyfriends and girlfriends seem like awkward strangers. When the Christian girl takes back Christian boy they don’t kiss they hug. The characters do not seem like people rather they are stereotypes. The guy who made the show created 7th heaven as well. It seems all he did was create the same thing with christian undertones. The difference was that now the charicters only talk about sex

I’m realizing now the things I didn’t pick up on then. Like Topanga? She’s hot! (Now those “I wanna bang-a Topanga” t-shirts finally make sense.) I remembered her being more dorky than that, more like Corey. She is instead very stereotypically a teenage female; emotional, trendy, and doubtful. In the last episode she’s the first one to cry, hug Mr. Feeny and leave. Also, Mr. Feeny is kind of an asshole. He’s a wise meanie, and effectively teaches the gang of youth life lessons as he follows them from being their teacher to the principal to eventually following them to college and marrying the dean—oh, and he chaperones their senior prom, too, of course. His slightly British accent and stodgy frame make him the clear stuffy academic mentor, to eleven year olds just as to adult college students.

The closest thing Boy Meets World gets to any kind of sex discussion before the college years is in the season five episode “Prom-ises Prom-ises,” in which Cory and Topanga come close to consummating their relationship in a hotel room after the prom. (They decide they aren’t ready yet, especially after a switch-up between the Cory/Topanga room and the neighboring room which houses Cory’s parents.) I don’t know if that episode counts, though, because it wasn’t actually allowed to air—“mature subject matter” was deemed inappropriate by Disney. In that episode Topanga stereotypically will only go all the way if everything is “exactly perfect” and Cory stereotypically doesn’t care at all about perfection, but tries very hard to make everything exactly perfect so that Topanga will do it. I don’t believe the word “sex” is ever spoken in the episode, either. Cory’s dad gives vague advice about it, but only goes so far as to say “something  can happen in a minute that can affect you for the rest of your life.” There is an extended scene at the check-in counter of the hotel in which Cory and the hotel manager have a not-so-subtle coded conversation about it, replacing the word “tired” for sex. And then, once he finally does get a room, a mix up involving his parents trying to have a romantic night together one door down lands Cory walking in on his mother in a slinky nighty and his father walking in on Topanga. So while it is not as straight-forward as Secret Life of the American Teenager’s have sex get pregnant result, it does say that trying to have sex too soon will result in every teenager’s nightmare of knowing too much about their parent’s sex life—and having your parents know too much about your attempts at having one of your own. Oh yeah, and there is the whole thing with Cory’s parents being at the hotel in the first place to celebrate the fact that his mom is pregnant again, which does remind everyone about how sex leads to pregnancy. (He also reminds Cory of what he said earlier, about “what happens in one minute can change the rest of your life.”) That episode does deal with teenage sex, but it didn’t air with TGIF, only later in syndication.

Later on the gang all go to college together. Cory and Topanga get engaged and eventually marry, but first they try living together, and that’s when sex—and the fact that they’re waiting until imminent marriage—is talked about. (But they still avoid saying it) Well, Cory talks about it, and complains in his usual neurotic-but-funny way about how they’re not having it. Like in this clip:

So yes, even though they have been “in a relationship for 17 years,” they haven’t even… what’s the proper way to say this… gone beyond kissing? They definitely do not have sex. But it is clear that Cory wants to. And Topanga starts looking like the cruel one, like she’s withholding it from him in order to control him. The show has the characters save themselves for marriage in order to keep from offending anyone, but they nod to stereotypes of men wanting it to the point of madness. It’s kind of contradictory, and seems unfortunately for Cory’s already shaky wellbeing. Cory seems to be physically impaired because he isn’t getting any, or at least like he feels that way. Which is just, kind of, sad.

Sex on the show is completely simplified into something that lacks passion or personal connection while retaining a high degree of personal and familial dangers.  The lack of personal connection in relation to sexual relationships is demonstrated by the fact that no one on the show who is truly in love are actually having sex.  Jack does not have sex with his long time girlfriend Grace because of “both” of their Christian values, and Ben does not have sex with Amy even though they apparently have deep feelings for each other after the first 4 episodes.  As Henning writes, “The focus of the show is on the consequences of having sex rather than the pleasure or happiness it can cause.”  Instead of showing sex as an intimate bond, it is demonstrated as something disconnected and cold, that breaks relationships and causes unwanted pregnancies.  The sexual relationships (Amy’s with Ricky and Jack’s with Adrian) are not demonstrated visually as an act, but rather demonstrated morally as a consequence.  Ricky has a “deep emotional detachment’ when it comes to his sexual partners, and as a result Amy has become impregnated by a guy who cares little for her or the consequences that come from this act.  As a result Amy is shown alone, developing the show’s opinion that sex will generally create this circumstance.  Adrian also cares little for any sort of emotional attachment, and her sexual relations with Jack are demonstrated as a result of solely lustful desires.  The resulting breakup between Jack and his girlfriend Grace clarify another fault of sexual promiscuity.

As Henning also clarifies through her examination of the title and the relationships shown in the episodes, viewers are left with the idea that sex is something best kept secret, “Making sex something that teenagers have to hide or are hiding changes the dynamic of the subject matter with the potential viewer.”  By continuing such a horrible myth, the show is cutting out an opportunity of open conversation on the subject of sex.  Even though each episode ends with advice on some of these matters, sometimes openly telling its teenage viewers to talk about the subject of sex, the themes of the show clearly vie for the opposite.  To make sex such a horrible consequential thing with no emotional involvement and also demonstrating that it is something secretive and hidden eliminates the real truth of sexual relationships.  It is hard to believe that teenagers today find sex as something so bad, so I feel the conservative and cheesy approach taken by the show is not an effective tool in teaching about it.

This also applies to the show’s approach to diversity.  Much like any teen television series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager develops a set of characters taken from every racial and even mental background.  By doing so it appears that the show is attempting to give a voice to each background and eliminating an opportunity of seeing the show as white-dominated.   But once again these attempts only appear cheesy to the viewer, and in some cases only further stereotypes.  For example it seems very racist that the one main Latina character, Adrian, is fit under the passionate sexual stereotype that has been around for the last century.  Besides including every racial background the show also follows the new trend of including mentally disadvantaged characters as a part of their show.  Grace’s brother has Down’s syndrome, and while it is sometimes refreshing to see the involvement of such characters on television, Grace’s brother’s involvement in High School drama seems comedic to me.  If they left his involvement to the constraints and difficulties that he had with his condition and his relation to the most popular girl in school, I think it would probably teach teens an important lesson about the handicapped.  But instead the producers seemed set on including him directly in the sexual dramas, as a tool of finding Jack’s promiscuity.  Therefore, I feel that the show’s intents at teaching teens important lessons about sex and diversity fall short.  Instead of creating a modern perspective on these issues they are harkening back to conservative Christian values and historical teen shows that do nothing than create a mildly entertaining teen TV show about High School.

The lack of sex in Saved by the Bell contrasts sharply with what we saw this week in Secret Life of the American Teenager.  While SLAT doesn’t show actually show any sex in the show, it is the show’s primary theme and it is discussed very frequently by the characters.  Due to SLAT’s and the shows ever present message about teen sex it would seem to suggest that the life of an American teenager revolves around sex.  However when watching Saved by the Bell I came away with a much different idea about what its creators think that lives of teenagers revolve around.  Most of the story line in Saved by the Bell actually revolves around commentary on the dichotomy between the popular/jock/cheerleader crowd and the unpopular/nerdy crowd.  Personally, I think that Saved by the Bell offers a more realistic portrayal of what is actually on teenager’s minds the SLAT. When I was a teenager I feel most people I knew were most concerned with their social standing then they were with sex.  It is important to also note here that aside from their difference in portrayal of teenagers the shows are from two very different genres, sitcom and drama.  SLAT carries with it a pretty serious message while Saved by the Bell is at its very core a fairly light hearted comedy but I don’t think that this difference in genre offers much of an explanation for why one show ignores sex and why the other discusses it almost exclusively.

One of my working theories for why sex isn’t present in the Saved by the Bell is something we discussed in class; the thought that teenagers will emulate what they see on television.  This thought process coupled with a general hesitancy to show any racy material on television was much more prominent in the early 1990’s when this show was being made.  Now it is much more common for television producers to push the envelope in terms of what they want to expose the general public to.  By saying this I am not implying that SLAT is by any means a racy show but I am saying that in the early 1990’s television producers may not have been comfortable with a show target to teenagers openly discussing sex.

In the end I think that Saved by the Bell does a good job of touching on a wide variety of problem and scenarios that teenagers face in spite of its exclusion of sex from its plot lines.  The show finds a way of demonstrating moral lessons without feeling preachy and in your face about it like SLAT does.  Also, the show is just really entertaining and watching it again just reminds me of how much I liked the show when I was younger.  I would hope that in the future teen television could gravitate back towards shows like this and away from overly message driven shows like SLAT.

I think the heart of Glee’s appeal is all the songs that are sing, mashed-up and danced to in the episodes. While there are have been a few more recent songs (Gold Digger, Smash Your Window, Keep Holding On), the majority of the songs are pretty old (Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, Don’t Rain on My Parade, True Colors, Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore, Lean on Me, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, all Madonna songs). The characters in Glee take the older songs and recycles/rejuvenates into a younger, newer voice. It’s nostalgia for the older folks, and good singing for everyone else (the American Idol effect).
Glee’s primary setting at William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio seems like a cop out, screaming “this is our target audience,” but I definitely think the show should not be watched as a show that is set in the present. Moreover, Glee’s setting and characters are about the nostalgia (some good, some very bad) and superficiality of teenage hormones and the popularity contests that in some form or another, that occurred in high school. The sign that you were not popular is getting a slurpee thrown at you. In the Pilot episode, Kurt’s reputation is established for us by him being thrown into the trash dumpster before school by a group of Varsity leather jacket wearing football players. Rachel, Glee’s lead singer, is shown in many occasions to have slurpee water thrown in her face at random times. When the football players, Finn and Puck, join the Glee club, their popularity diminishes, courtesy of slupees that were thrown in their faces. In one frame, the camera is set on a slurpee being carried to splash onto someone’s face. This action is indicative of the hyperbole that lets Glee get away with actually having to deal with the tough issues that come up. Of course, no one goes out of their way or carries around a slurpee to throw in someone’s face to reaffirm their superiority (Sue Sylvester comments on this act when she whacks one out of a student’s hand and yells, ‘I hate those things’). More so, I think the slurpees, much like a lot of quirks and actions on the show are about the idea of having to worry about your popularity vs. actually dealing with the problem of a popularity contest. In the end, it’s just so silly that we are able just to laugh the issue off and be breath a sign of relief those years are over.

A central conflict in Glee is the accidental pregnancy of the Cheerios head cheerleader, Quinn Fabray. Unlike Amy whose pregnancy is made really scary for her in SLAT, Quinn’s pregnancy lures a lot more people. When Terri, Mr. Schuester’s wife found out that she had a hysterical pregnancy and is not actually pregnant at all, her sister helps her plot a fake pregnancy, in which she will claim Quinn’s baby as her own when she is birthed. The sisters go to such ends as ask their doctor to fake a sonogram of a baby girl when Will is present. This absurd sister relationship creates an appeal for older women, and helps build up the storyline. It takes until episode 12, “Mattress” until Will Schuester figures out that Terri is actually not pregnant. Aside from the romantic and friendly relationships of the high school characters on the show, there is great curiosity in the lives of Will, his wife Terri, Emma who is in love with Will, and Ken Tanaka who is in love with Emma. The adults present in the show together create interactions of older matters that speak to the show’s popularity in age range.

An unexpected way in which the show highlights adults is in Kurt Hummel’s interaction with his father. In episode 4, “Preggers,” Kurt is caught dancing to Beyonce Knowles’ “Single Ladies” by his father with Brittney and Tina as his back up. In the heat of the moment, Kurt tells his father that it is for a football exercise, in which his father asks for game tickets. Caught between lying to his dad and not wanting to tell him that he is gay, Kurt joins the football team as a kicker, and kicks the game winning point, waving to his father as his teammates carry him away off the field. While this is definitely a story of a child not wanting to disappoint his parent, the highlight was at the end of the show when Kurt finally tells his dad that he is gay. Surprisingly, the masculine father responds calmly with, “I know.” The focus of Kurt being gay is then about his dad and the reactions that he gets from other people about his son who is gay. This is clear later in episode 10, “Ballad,” that we watching during the screening, where Kurt and Rachel diva off for the solo of “Defying Gravity,” and Kurt purposefully doesn’t get the high note because of what people will say about his father, rather than getting what he wants.

When I watched the Pilot of Glee, I totally thought that the director could take it in many directions: it could be about a small town school making it big as a glee club; it could be about getting out of the small town (eluded by Finn’s desire for a scholarship to go to a big state school); it could about the grit of the American working class. But in the end, it’s just really a musical in television episodic form, rejuvenating teen years of the past into the present.

Side Note: I think the success of Glee in international syndication speaks a lot of its lack of a necessary understanding for its storyline and favoring of its joy in music and dance. So far, it has been syndicated and broadcasted in: Australia, Canada, Latin America, Brazil, New Zealand, Fiji, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Philippines, Japan, Georgia, Turkey and more parts of Southeast Asia.

The part that makes it “Teen TV” is that the number one thing learned in High School tends to be that: gossip is a terrible, terrible thing. However, gossip doesn’t come from nothing, and the beauty of Teen TV is that it follows gossip from the source. Teens watch as it develops, progressively worsening and chaotically destroying friendships left and right. However, to make the show worth watching and keep the audience interested, there are the little sappy “forgive-me” moments that only work in the show. It’s the gossip that makes the show attractive to audiences, the fact that gossip itself is the juicy secret that is being critiqued and used to judge a person behind their back. The feeling of figuring out who someone “really” is, or what they “actually” did, makes people feel better about their selves.

In the two episodes of the [new] 90210 (episodes 17 and 18 of season two), each beat was updating the viewer on the scenario between couples by both showing what happened, and gossiping about what happened, and how they tie in with the episode. Representing different morals, and in the end seeing which attitude came out on top, thus leaving the teen viewer to decide for their self which morals to stand behind.

Episode 17 and 18 continues a “sexual harassment” scenario where Mr. Cannon is accused of sexual harassment by Naomi Clark, when after school she was pleading to him and he interrupted, “are you asking to have sex with me?” which is a rather odd reaction to have when someone is asking to have their piece run in the school newspaper. “Odd” because this is sexual harassment according to Title IX, and because Mr. Cannon is married and some 10+ years older than Naomi is; which makes it very weird that he’s even thinking of sex between them to think to deny the prospect. Even odder than that was the fact that she was “lying”, according to the show. The message being that: it’s not good to lie, because a domino effect will occur – in this case her ex-boyfriend, Liam, almost got expelled for assaulting the teacher, and almost “ruined” Mr. Cannon’s life. She wasn’t lying though, what happened was that she was pressured into coming forward about it (good), and then pressured into stepping away from it (bad) because the melodramatic words of “ruining [his] life” were used. From there, she ended up being victim to something she didn’t/couldn’t bring herself to do in the first place. The school turned from supporting her to gossiping about her and her “lie.”

Dealing with sexual misconduct is not the only message in Teen TV. The struggle between feminism and masculinity in relationships is another topic being portrayed. In episode 17 the high school rock band, of all girls, sings about how guys don’t listen or pay attention to the details, and how girls do so much to deserve a little attention. This song is representative of the relationship going on between Silver and Teddy, where repeatedly Teddy proves incapable of remembering the easiest things about Silver. In the end, though, Teddy gives a gift to Silver – that she likes – saying that he’s known all along what she likes. The message here is that although it may seem like every relationship is one sided, where either the guy or the girl is in charge, it’s actually two sided. It’s actually two to a couple that each takes responsibility to make sure the relationship works. Alike the instant recovery from Silver’s concern after a clever gift was presented, in episode 18 there is another instant make up for the way the boyfriend treated the girlfriend (not telling her about Adriana’s plan to leave the band and sign on to a recording company). He puts together a miniature ball room in the newspaper editing office, for her, and remarks on his history of messing up so that he should get another chance to make up for his mistake – which is another moment that was odd, in that, he had made a promise to let her tell the band instead of him telling them first, which resulted in girlfriend getting mad at him in the first place.

Stepping back for a moment: there is a certain message being sent, such as Tiffany Henning suggests similarly for SLAT, where all sexuality and gossipy relationships are nothing but bad news. In the “real world” where adults roam free of teenagers, there are still problematic relationships due to sexual or gossip reasons, but there are also good relationships that exist even with sexuality and gossip. 90210 and SLAT both seem to try and portray to the teen audience that these are only problematic to teenagers, that no matter how things would work out if they were adults that they really ought to refrain from participating in these adult-like activities because it’s all bad news from the get-go.

It is obvious that “Hannah Montana” appeals to (pre)teens. Right away the show jumps into the story with energy. This energy is depicted in actors moving around the set after every other line and when stationary, they are slightly bent at the knees as if to portray a constrained, explosive, energy. The energy in “Hannah Montana” relates to the energy in most teenagers; they don’t know where to focus it and how to interpret it so they often act sporadically and without reservation.

The style of the show embodies a sitcom with slapstick humor as the characters exchange overly dramatic reactions that are reinforced by the laugh track. I suspect that it must keep a relatively simple narrative to maintain accessibility to younger viewers. If it were as complex as “Glee,” perhaps much younger viewers would be confused.

Following commercial breaks in the pilot, scenes from Montana’s signing performances reignite viewers with a glamorous performance. In these scenes Hannah is depicted as being older than she actually is, a common occurrence of the music industry. One of the most applicable elements of the show is the plot. Most, if not all young girls idolize the pop star life, full of glitz and glamour, fame and fortune. This commonality among young girls acts as the pull, to consume / fantasize Hannah’s life.
The other side of the plot proves appealing as well. In the first episode, Hannah lives a double life and has to alter her appearance before her friend Lilly arrives. Not only does Miley Cyrus, the actress, get to express / commentate on this plot in relation to her own life as a singer and a ‘real’ person, but it also appeals to a wide audience of teens, who at that age experience confusion about their own identity.
In the most recent episode the actors have matured significantly and so has the content, but their antics have remained immature. This dichotomy is the result of a problem that actors encounter with getting older while trying to maintain the same fan base. By adjusting the content to slightly more adult scenarios, the viewers that have ‘grown up with the show,’ are still able to relate to the show, while keeping it entertaining for younger viewers.

The show addresses reality in a variety of ways as well. One of the stereotypes that the show portrays in the first episode is a flamboyant male clothing designer. Younger teens most likely don’t comprehend homosexuality, its stereotypes, or place within society, but the character is highly animated and thus, amusing.
The show’s ‘reality’ is interesting because it is half reality television and half documentary. The characters use their names from real life and their reputations are carried over as well, in the case of Billy Ray Cyrus, father of Miley and famous musician.
Though there are some unrealistic, or at least uncommon occurrences deriving from a famous singer lifestyle, the majority of the scenarios are true at heart. That is to say, a show’s believability can be maintained by sometimes replacing reality with the genuine. The main theme that transcends the episodes I watched was the importance of friendship and family – universally good values.

The relationships portrayed in “Hannah Montana” offer another node in which teens can relate. One plot element revealed in the premiere is that Hannah’s family does not have a mother. This arching story is a place where the show relies on a serious nature to ground it from its relentless lofty humor. The absence of a mother figure in the show dictates how Hannah interacts with her father and the role he plays in the family. Billy Cyrus is portrayed as a voice of reason, providing guidance throughout his kids’ experiences. Among the extensive developmental changes that his kids undergo, Ray struggles to adjust to household and child raising responsibilities.
Though this show is directed toward young girls, the relationship that Hannah’s brother and father share is one of aspiring toward manhood. It seems that the majority of the shows intended audience would not be interested in the development in this relationship.
By season three, the show is more comfortable addressing relationship’s sexual themes. Oliver, the third wheel of the Hannah and Lilly, is a geeky, prepubescent who in earlier episodes is desexualized. In later episodes he is dating Lilly (a story that strongly mirrors the developments between Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione) and the responsibilities of individuals in a relationship are revealed.

With regard to issues of race, “Hannah Montana” could be criticized for keeping its cast culturally uniform. When Hannah and Lilly go to sit next to Hannah’s love interest two other students, one Asian and one African American, steal the seats before them (did someone say, ‘cue diversity’) signifying a cultural hierarchy. The seat stealers are portrayed as close cohorts, which unifies the show’s definition of diversity as ‘non-white.’ Though the portrayal of ethnically diverse cast members may have changed throughout the series, it was a bold move to characterize them that way in the pilot episode.

At first I was hesitant to watch Hannah Montana because of how awful I thought her feature film was. (Yes, I saw it. It was unavoidable. I was on a plane.) After watching these episodes I developed an appreciation for the teen television genre. I can see now, after having critically analyzed the show, that Hannah Montana is an effective teen series that exercises calculated production choices. Sure – its not what I would choose to watch in my free time, but I am 22. I can remember watching “Lizzie Mcguire” with my sister as a kid and kind of liked it. It is easy to see how Hannah Montana succeeds.

As an aside, I noticed that the show displayed some cliché scenarios, which provoked a few questions. The pilot’s story continues in her middle school, where she displays nervous behavior when talking to a guy. Lilly encourages Miley to approach the guy, fulfilling the role of the ‘supportive friend’. The role of these clichés in a show designed for teens is questionable. Where does the impulse to call these experiences displayed on television cliché? Are they implemented to reflect real occurrences or do they exist as a token? Why are clichés important to us? Is it simply a label we use to strip things of their originality or something more? What makes something cliché?
Watch the first few minutes of the pilot and compare it to a later episode in relation to my comments.

Pilot:

Season 3, Episode 30:

Gossip Girl Cast

Freaks and Geeks Cast

An op-ed by Terry Teachout in the New York Times captures the difference between “Freaks and Geeks” and conventional teen television well. “Freaks and Geeks,” he says, is “agonizingly true to life […] I have no doubt that this is why it failed in its original network run. Most Americans don’t watch TV to see life as it is. They get enough of that at home. Nowadays, the most popular shows are about pretty people who have lots of great sex. For these fortunate folk, failure is that which immediately precedes success, a temporary condition existing solely to ”humanize” them, thus permitting the rest of us poor slobs to identify more easily with their on-screen adventures. That’s why Hollywood stars get paid the big bucks: we can’t look like them, but they can act like us.”

Gossip Girl's Serena and Nate

Freaks and Geeks' Sam and Cindy

Unlike the “glamorous lives of Manhattan’s elite,” the lives of the freaks and geeks more closely resemble the universal high school experience. Set in small town Michigan, the kids at “Freaks and Geek’s” McKinley High are an awkward and gawky bunch dressed in denim and army surplus. Though each episode is relatively self-contained, the plot is never tied together in a neat little package or completed with cliffhanger embellishments. Instead, “Freaks and Geeks” presents us with a more accurate reflection of reality, where questions are left unanswered and problems don’t resolve themselves.

Apparently, “Freaks’” resemblance to reality was considered inappropriate by executives on NBC (the station it first aired on in 1999.) Garth Ancier, former president of NBC Entertainment, who was wary of the show’s subject matter from the beginning, considered “Freaks and Geeks’” unsuitable for television. (For instance, he refused to air the fourth episode at all due to its “psychological intensity.”) The show went on to be frequently pushed back and rescheduled until NBC nipped it midway through the 1^st season after its 12^th episode. But for “Freaks and Geeks,” this was only the beginning. Although its ratings were low, “Freaks” managed to cultivate a sizable fan base and critical acclaim during its brief stint on NBC. After its cancellation, fans rallied for the network to pick “Freaks and Geeks” back up.  NBC wasn’t receptive, but it wasn’t long before the Fox Family Channel aired the final six episodes in syndication. Terry Teachout calls Fox’s adoption of the show “wholly admirable as well as wholly unexpected” considering that Fox, which “normally specializes in more conventionally reassuring fare” is “giving a second chance to ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ a comedy from which teenagers can learn a valuable lesson about real life: it isn’t always funny.”  “Freaks and Geeks” proved to be successful on Fox, and four years later 35,000 fans signed an internet petition to release “Freaks and Geeks” onto DVD. The collective voice of “Freaks” fan base was heard, and the DVDs were so profitable that Shout! Factory released the limited “Yearbook Edition” box set in 2008.

I didn’t watch “Freaks and Geeks” when it first aired in 1999; I would have been too young to understand it anyway. But from what I gather—based on our short history lesson about teen television—“Freaks and Geeks” was pretty ahead of the curve. (To this day, it is widely hailed as some of the best teen television of all time.) Like I’ve said, what’s most impressive about “Freaks and Geeks” is the excellent writing and acting that culminates into a truthful account of the teen years. “Freaks” is a drama, but it’s frequently very funny.

The following clip is a perfect example of how a seemingly mundane issue—a boy dealing with being naked in front of other boys in gym class—becomes compelling. This scene illustrates how the show’s acting and writing bring to life and point out the absurdity in the humdrum of the everyday.

With wonderful acting and writing, I’d certainly place “Freaks and Geeks” into the category of “quality television.” Even “social realism.” Perhaps “Freaks and Geeks” is quality because it’s real. So real, in fact, that it captures the adolescent experience timelessly, for anyone from any generation. We all identify with Sam and Lindsay… we all question the institutions of our schools, our homes, and our values. Above all, “Freaks and Geeks” is a candid recollection of our universally awkward youth.

I wanted to watch the show from its first season, so I decided to view episodes 3 and 4 from the first season. Every Saved by the Bell episode starts the same way (at least from what I saw): with the main character, Zack Morris, looking into the camera to talk about a realistic problem that he (and presumably other high schoolers) face. In episode 3, Zack starts the episode by talking to the audience about “that teacher that everyone hates”. For anyone in high school or even middle school, this is a subject matter that they can relate to. I am sure that all of us growing up had a hard teacher who always seemed to be grumpy and enjoyed making our lives difficult. However, to exhibit this notion, Zack yells “Terrible Testaverde” next to the school lockers and everyone beside him screams and drops their books. Obviously, this is highly unrealistic, but nonetheless the show gets its point across that people are terrified of this teacher and high schoolers can still relate since they have probably had a teacher they disliked.

If the scene of Zack yelling a teacher’s name and everyone becoming terrified is unrealistic, then what is the purpose of this scene? In class we talked about the notion of a show “playing down” to its younger audience and I believe Saved by the Bell is doing just that. To me, Saved by the Bell is not primarily a show for high schoolers to relate to their lives (though this does occur sometimes), but is rather a show for elementary and middle schoolers to get a “sneak peek” of what high school life is like. Though the show deals with serious social problems, it seems to do so in a comical, childish way. By dealing with subject matter such as sex, love, cheating on a test and taking responsibility for one’s own actions in a light-hearted manner, the show can be popular among a wider age range. Suddenly, serious issues can be incorporated into a storyline for middle school or even elementary school children. Furthermore, because Saved by the Bell deals with serious issues in a comedic way, it is even more entertaining. This allows children who are going through the same situations to laugh them off and realize that these are situations that all high schoolers must go through.

In episode 4 of the first season, Bayside High School holds a “Girl’s Choice” dance where the girls get to ask the boys to the dance. However, because Zack and Slater both want Kelly to ask them, they turn down other girls in hopes that Kelly will ask them. In fact, Slater even says he turned down seven girls AND a teacher, highlighting the fact that he has irresistable sex appeal. Furthermore, Zack has a conversation with the principal about Kelly and how he hopes that she will ask him to the dance, but in the mean time, other girls are getting mad at him that he is turning them down. The principal says to Zack, “Look, when you’re a Ladies’ man, you’re going to make them mad sometimes. You’re not going to please them all.” The conversation between Zack and his principal reminded me of the conversation in Secret Life of the American Teenager that Ben had with his guidance counselor about joining the band: both highly unlikely in the way that a school administrator would talk to a student. In both shows, there is a lack of portrayal of sex because the viewer never actually gets to see anything besides hand-holding or a kiss on the cheek, however this is where I feel the two stop in comparison. As Tiffany Henning points out, the lack of sex in SLAT “creates a very sterile and official vibe around the after effects of sex”. However, in Saved by the Bell, I felt that the lack of sex occurred simply because the kids did not really want to and/or were not ready to have sex. While SLAT deals with the temptations of sex, the kids in Saved by the Bell do not really seem to be of high school age and thus do not have the same temptations. While the boys do have crushes and they do allude to wanting to hang out with girls alone in their rooms, it seems that they would not know what to do with the girl once they got them there. I think this is all chalked up to the fact that the show’s target audience is younger than high school. For anyone familiar with the show, does Screech really seem like he is in high school? Furthermore, when watching the show it is painfully obvious that there is a laugh track. To put it bluntly, the jokes are not funny and are not of high school age.

Despite seeming to tailor to a younger audience, I really enjoyed watching Saved by the Bell. Maybe one of the reasons I enjoyed it was because it was a bit nostalgic for me to be watching the show again. Nonetheless, this is not a show that I would choose to watch regularly if it were still on television. As I was watching, it was fun for me to compare it to similar teen television today. Though the series 90210 was on TV at the same time and both featured “high school” students, they were very different shows and obviously had different target audiences, similarly to how I see SLAT and Glee today. While Saved by the Bell may not be targeting the older-teenage range, it is clear how it gained a strong following among tweens who wanted an insight into what high school life is like, whether that portrayal was realistic or not.

Some interaction that is unlikely to actually occur between high schoolers: