Teenagers are a significant segment of the American population. However, teenage drama shows did not make a significant emergence until the 1990’s. Before the 90’s, there were a handful of shows that had adolescents as supporting or main characters but the shows were not geared towards a teen audience. Never Too Young was one of the first so- called “teen drama” shows that premiered in 1965 and aired for a single season. The show had soap opera elements and chronicled the lives of teenagers. Teen dramas as opposed to teen situation comedies have soap opera elements to them. Some teen dramas can be understood in relation to the long-running serial form in their emphasis on repetition and deferral of resolution, and in this respect, are close to soap opera in narrative organization (Moseley 54). A school setting or home residence is where many teen dramas take place. Similar to soap operas, teen dramas also center around place, character, and relationships, and emotional drama is often heightened through the use of close-up and (generally romantic pop) scoring (Moseley 54). Teen drama is geared towards an adolescent audience, therefore episodes address teenage issues: sex, drugs, self -esteem, love, and school violence. The short-lived teen drama, My So Called Life dealt with these issues but due to low ratings was cancelled. My So Called Life was a realistic and dynamic show that should not have been terminated abruptly.
One of the original teen dramas, Degrassi Junior High and later Degrassi High, became very popular in both Canada and the US while airing on PBS in the late 80s and early 90s (Silverblatt 21).Several years after Degrassi's premiere, Darren Star created Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1990, along with famous producer Aar...
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...MSCL. It was not overly dramatic but not overly artificial in its depiction of teenagers and their parents. There were not many shows of its kind in the mid 1990’s and there are still not many teen dramas of its kind today. In general, there are not many teen dramas period. Many of the teen shows are sitcoms or situation comedies. The few teen dramas on television include Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Out of these three shows, only The Secret Life of the American Teenager has any broad realism to it. Gossip Girl highlights the life of wealthy teenagers and Vampire Diaries is a fantasy show. My So Called Life had a good balance of addressing real topics like homosexuality, sexual harassment, parental arguing, and drug use in a realistic fashion. MSCL captured the anxiety of teen life without becoming overly idealistic.
In the article “TV’s Callous Neglect of Working- Class America” written by Noel Murray explains the modern day TV shows un-relatable plots to Americans today. Murray describes how shows in the ‘50s through the ‘90s were relatable to Americans and how they lived their lives. The TV shows then were able to get such great reviews because the jobs the actors had in the shows were average money making jobs. The characters are meticulously when it came to how they used the money they earned. However, as the years have passed, the shows that are on today are not as relatable to Americans. The shows express the fantasy, perfect life that everyone strives to have, but in reality, it is not possible for every family. The programs on today do not convey the difficulties that average Americans face each day, causing the shows to become more and more relatable to average TV viewers.
The reason I choose this movie was quite simple. I was raised on this movie, not only is it one of my favorites, it clearly demonstrates the many facets of adolescent behaviors in the family life cycle. One of the main characters, Mikey, played by Sean Astin is of adolescent age. Throughout
Adolescence is the time of development and mental advancement that happens between the onset of puberty and the fulfillment of physical and emotional development. Despite the fact that young ladies experience more dramatic physical change throughout adolescence than do young men, they have a tendency to achieve puberty prior and take less time to achieve development. Immaturity in girls start around the age of eleven and proceeds through about age sixteen. In youthful men, the same period starts about the age of thirteen and proceeds through about age eighteen. After about age fourteen, guys are,normal, heavier and taller than females. The motion picture film Thirteen, directed by Catherine Hardwicke introduces a correct and important point of view on the post-millennial adolescent experience and also displays many issues teens face in today’s society such as peer pressure, teenage sexuality, and drug use,
In “Tweens: Ten Going on Sixteen,” Kay S. Hymowitz points out the fact that in modern society kids mature too early, creating a negative trend called tween phenomenon; it occurs when kids become teenagers at a young age and skip the preadolescence period. According to Hymowitz, the evidence presents a troubling picture, tweens are too concerned with the way they look, are involved in criminal activities, are having sex, and are doing drugs and alcohol. The author concludes that the causes of the negative trends are complex, and I believe that she states a reasonable case that should be considered by parents, educators, and psychologists. Without a doubt, the three most negative behavioral trends of many tweens are their need for attention,
Sipple, L. (2011). The appeal of reality television for teen and pre-teen audiences. Journal of
After reading the directions and topic for this paper, I was extremely eager to get started. Adolescence is a stage of life that is very critical for a person. Speaking from my own experience, I know that the teenage years are a difficult part of life and during these years, one experiences a rollercoaster of different emotions, obstacles, and decision-making. Aside from the topic of Adolescence, I was glad that I could choose which movie I wanted to watch, and that was an easy decision. I decided to watch Sixteen Candles. The last time I watched this movie was when I received the DVD as a gift, which was when I turned sixteen. Watching the movie then, I obviously did not realize that most of the problems and events that occurred in the movie
Seinfeld was a sitcom from NBC that was very popular during the ’90s, and is often referred as “a show about nothing.” It consisted of the life of a fictitious Jerry Seinfeld and his friends in New York City (IMDb). Seinfeld reached a Nielsen rating of 21.7 percent and number one in the United States ranking during its ninth and final season (“Appendix 3: Top-Rated Programs by Season”). It was unique in the way that it portrayed social life during the ‘90s, and this inspired shows such as Friends, Ellen, and Mad About You (Pierson 49). In Seinfeld episodes, the viewer can observe social customs, fads, social standards, and family portrayals of ‘90s semi-young adults.
This film contains some classic examples of the kinds of real life issues adolescents deal with. Issues such as popularity, peer relationships, family/sibling relationships, sex, and struggles with identity are all addressed in this ninety-minute film.
David Denby thoroughly explains the distinction between the reality of high school life to what is portrayed in movies in the article, “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies.” He argues that many of these movies are extremely predictable and all have the same story line. Denby gives numerous examples of the cliché teen movie, which entails the skinny, blonde popular girl and her jock boyfriend who, let’s face it, has his shining moments in life, in high school. Denby’s main objective throughout this article is to distinguish whether these films reflect reality, or just what we imagine to be reality. He also touches on the other side of the social spectrum which usually consists of a quiet, female outsider who is known to be smart and
A recent young adult novel has stirred up a lot of controversy in the world of writing literature. The issue is that current young adult literature is too dark for teen readers, or is merely more realistic than previous works for teens. In early June 2011, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial written by book critic Meghan Cox Gurdon says how dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from ages of 12 to 18. As I write rhetorically about this argument meaning the understanding of or approach to human interaction or based on their purpose and motivation.
I believe this movie does a good job incorporating what we have discussed in class in terms of adolescent development. Although the movie is greatly exaggerated and blown up, the movie does emphasize on key factors to the development of an adolescent. Aside from the self-identity and friendship, the film incorporates parental relationships, academics, teacher-student relationships, risky behaviors, and moral development during adolescent
In “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies” David Denby criticizes movies portraying high school. He writes “The most commercial and frivolous of genres harbor a grievance against the world” (426). In many movies starting in the early 90’s you began to see an extreme amount of disrespect to adults from teenagers. High school movies are filled with unruly
This essay will look at the different ways in which young people are portrayed in the media. It will focus on how the idea of childhood innocence has been challenged by the media and rather than ‘little angels’ children are now seen as ‘little devils’ in the public eye. By looking at ‘The Bulger Case of 1993’ we can see where the idea of ‘little devils’ and children as evil beings began. It will examine why media stories of young people are focused much more on negative aspects such as crime and gang culture rather than positive ones. It will also look at how television programmes such as ‘Teen Mom’ and ‘Skins’ portray the youth of today and whether these programmes come across as a positive or negative portrayal of teenagers. The idea of a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ will also be examined and whether the way the media portrays children can be harmful to the construction of their identities and possibly lead to alienation.
So, now you might be asking yourself what show came twenty-five years after Candid Camera? The next broadcasted reality television show was An American Family. This show was written about a California family, the Louds. You would probably never believe it but this show captured it all! It showed many personal experiences in the loud family such as the parents divorce and lifestyle of their gay son, Lance. An American Family played an extremely vast role in exposing society to a more diverse and supposedly real representation of family life. This was just the beginning of unstable families shown on television. Later shows like The Simpson’s and Roseanne branched off from this family idea (The Original Reality).
Bauman, Lawrence. The Ten Most Troublesome Teen-age Problems and How to Solve Them. New York: Citadel Press, 1997.