First, a few clarifications. I am not a teenager. I have notbeen a teenager for seven years. When I was a teenager, I didn't watch muchtelevision. In fact, during two years of high school, I didn't watch TV atall. So, while I was aware of the 1990's groundbreaking teen series BeverlyHills 90210 and My So-Called Life , I didn't watch either of themuntil I was an adult and both shows were in syndication (90210 on FX and MySo-Called Life on MTV).

I appreciated and laughed at 90210 and am willing toadmit, with some shame, that last year I watched about three episodes a week (we'retalking the high school, college and the After Dark years -- don't askme why).

I fell in love with My So-Called Life, however, andmade my friends participate in more than one marathon viewing session. What Ifound in this show was a representation of adolescence as I remembered it, andwhile that meant dredging up some pain, it also meant that I found solace inknowing that there was something common about my experience.

Several friends of mine who also were My So-Called Lifefans appreciated it for the same reason. They liked seeing our specific brand ofadolescent girl angst writ small on their 13-inch screens on a weekly basis.Unlike 90210, which tackled issues in an episodic, moralistic way (theBrenda-and-Dylan-have-sex episode; theWest-Beverly-kids-solve-interscholastic-race-relations-problems-at-the-school-danceepisode; the Brandon-goes-bad-and-drives-drunk episode.), the folks behind MySo-Called Life rarely let things be that easy, or simple. Angela lied to herparents about going out on a school night and got away with it; Rayanne'sdrinking problems weren't resolved in one episode; Ricky didn't come out ina Very Special Episode; Brian turned his back on his admirer much like Angelaturned her back on him; and Angela's parents couldn't save her from the heartbreakingeffects of her on-again-off-again relationship with Jordan.

These realistic complexities are what appealed to me and myfriends and 10 million other viewers (mostly teenage girls). My So-CalledLife, in its brief 19-episode tenure (the show was cancelled by ABC the yearafter it debuted), gave us hope that there could be good television for andabout teenagers.

I was excited, then, when PBS started airing American High ,a high school reality show, in April. American High enjoyed a brief runon Fox (four of the series' 13 episodes aired on the network last August)before it was cancelled. PBS decided to run the series in full, allowing us tosee what happens when ?reality TV? meets teenhood.

American High follows the lives of 14 students at Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Ill. Some of thestudents figure more prominently than others; Morgan, Allie, and Brad, forexample, have been central ?characters? in multiple episodes. While it mightbe possible for viewers to discern some ?types? in the group -- Brad is thegay one, Morgan the annoying-yet-misunderstood one, Pablo the wry poet, Kiwi thejock, Kaytee the alternagirl -- R. J. Cutler, the show'sexecutive producer (whoseearlier documentaries include The War Room and A Perfect Candidate),works to create representations that are more dimensional than easycategorizations might allow.

Cutler and his production team were interested in allowing theteens to have some control over their representation from the start, equippingall of them with cameras so that they might record their own video diaries. Inan interesting twist, Cutler originally intended the diaries to be a forum forthe students to respond to specific questions or issues -- e.g., ?What scaresyou??-- but the students were more interested in shooting what Cutler (in oneof the making-of-the-show segments that air at the end of each episode) called?scenes,? in which their friends and family were also featured.

These scenesmake for some of the show's most interesting moments, such as when Morgan'sparents chase him around the house in anger and frustration, while Morganchallenges them, camera in hand. The diaries became an integral part of theshow, and the teenagers' own footage is intercut with what the camera crewfilmed.

While the series features issue-based episodes, these issuesaren't the usual suspects (teen drinking, sex, etc.) but are instead lesssensational ones: how one faces the end of childhood, or copes witha family splitting apart and reorganizing, or deals with the worry over collegeadmission. When hot issues do turn up on the show, they do so as part of ourintroduction to the kids themselves (as with Brad's sexual orientation, Pablo'sdrinking and partying, or Allie's truancy) and aren't turned intoopportunities for moral instruction or commentary.

It's refreshing, for instance, to watch Robby and Sara lie inbed together without fear of meta-commentary about teen relationships andsexuality, or to see Pablo and Lisa get away, for a while at least, withinhabiting Lisa's grandfather's unoccupied home as a haven from their ?defunct?families. But this is, after all, a reality show, and this lack of commentary iswhat we should expect.

It struck me, after watching the first couple of episodes,that doing reality TV for a teenage audience presents a particularly difficultchallenge. I remember that when both 90210 and My So-Called Lifedebuted, much was made of their willingness to deal with ?real issues? facedby teens, albeit in very different ways. Of course, in the case of 90210,there was a good deal of fantasy in the mix (much of it class-related and havingto do with the poor-little-rich-kid lifestyle in West Beverly), but it was thesugar with which the proverbial medicine -- certain lessons about the ills ofdrug abuse, for example -- went down.

Now, a decade later, reality may not be the prime concern formuch programming for teens: Roswell and Buffy the Vampire Slayer deploy otherworldly narratives to deal with earthly concerns; Malcolm in theMiddle hyperacts the nuclear family; Dawson's Creek features a castwho appear much, much too old to be just-now-graduating from high school;and Popular seems to be an over-the-top, ultra-vivid high schoolfantasia.

Teens don't necessarily watch the programming that'sdesigned for them, however, as a March 13 report in The New York Timesnotes. At that point, according to Nielsen Media Research, the top five mostpopular programs for teenagers were Malcolm in the Middle , TheSimpsons , TemptationIsland , Survivor and Grounded for Life --quite the mix for what has become a notoriously unpredictable, and desirable(because of their spending potential) audience.

I can't make any educated guesses about why these five showsare popular. I also can't compare them to the shows teenagers were watchingwhen I was one of them because we, as a demographic, didn't matter as much toTV execs then -- though believe me, in a way I wish we had, because maybe thatwould have helped My So-Called Life stay on air a little longer.

What I can tell you is that, for some teen viewers, a show'srealness still counts. Those who watch American High (and care enough topost messages about it on the show's Web site) take the authenticity intoconsideration when evaluating the show.

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