Retro TV: Dawson"s Creek

I do love my teen programmes; The OC, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and 90210 but no show defined the teen genre more than Dawson's Creek. The show was sort of based on the life of its creator, Kevin Williamson who created the Scream series and The Vampire Diaries. Williamson who was at the time Hollywood's wunderkid was approached to create a teen TV series after studio bosses read his witty script for Scream and Williamson described his efforts as Some Kind of Wonderful meets My So-Called Life meets Pump up the Volume meets James at 15 meets Little House in the Prairie. Dawson's Creek revolves around Dawson Leery played by James Van Der Beek, an aspiring film-maker who more or less had the perfect life; doting parents, great best friends and an idyllic life in a seaside town called Capeside. Dawson is an eternal optimist who firmly believes in that little thing called love and is a passionate Steven Spielberg fan. His close friends consist of gal pal, Joey Potter played by Katie Holmes, who he has spent practically every memorable moment with since his whole life. Their blissful friendship hits a rocky path when they start to drift apart and move into adulthood. Dawson's guy pal is Pacey Witter played by Joshua Jackson who is about as different from Dawson as you can get. Pacey is irresponsible, outspoken, restless, reckless and very funny and he is a chronic underachiever who uses his sarcasm to disguise his unhappy childhood. Then there is also newcomer, Jen Lindley played by Michelle Williams who has moved to the town from New York who strikes up a friendship with Dawson which leads to conflict with Joey. Later on in the series the four friends are joined by brother and sister, Jack and Andie McPhee played by Kerr Smith and Meredith Monroe.

There was no doubt that the relationship between Joey and Dawson was very special; you know the type where she would sneak into his room by climbing up a ladder and they would watch movies all night on his bed? The two of them were soul mates who would go on to become lovers and then greatest friends. Dawson's Creek covered a lot of heavyweight issues such as teenage sex, abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality all mixed up with teen angst.  The show ran for six series during the period of 1998 and 2003 and is credited as defining a generation. What made the show stand out was the impressive dialogue they would use to converse in. It was rather akin to Shakespeare with long prose and expressive verbs. When I first started watching the show it took me a while to get into it but once I did boy was I hooked. Dawson's Creek really had a lovely charm about it especially the childhood friendships, rites of passage and comprehensive dialogue. It may not have been as glamorous as Gossip Girl or as cool as The OC but it held a sense of warmth that the other shows lacked. You really felt that you knew Dawson and co and really lived through their trials and tribulations. Dawson's Creek ended in 2003 with a special length episode and even though a lot of time has passed since then I now watch the lives of the actors from the series with interest and fondness. James Van Der Beek has gone on to act in films and TV shows and he is now a father and on his second marriage, Katie Holmes is now Mrs Tom Cruise and as well as having a very stylish little daughter she has herself a very stellar acting career, Michelle Williams also has a daughter by the late Heath Ledger and is now one of the most respected actresses in Hollywood and Joshua Jackson has done a fair bit of acting himself and is now happily dating Diane Kruger.

The show is now being repeated on Sony TV on Wednesday at 7pm.

Retro TV: My So-Called Life

Angela Chase played by Claire Danes is an ordinary girl who lives in an ordinary town and attends an ordinary high school. Sounds like a pretty boring story right yet My So-Called Life was one of the most popular teen shows of its time. It aired over here in the UK in the mid 90s and I accidentally came across it while I was on holiday from university and I immediately grew to love it. Facing a teen-life crisis, 15 year old Angela dyes her hair red and dumps her childhood friend, Sharon Cherski played by Devon Odessa for wild child, Rayanne Graff played by A.J Langer and Rickie Vasquez played Wilson Cruz who is coming to grips with his homosexuality. She also has a huge crush on gorgeous but dim, Jordan Catalano played by Jared Leto. Her life goes from being mundane to something of a mini roller coaster with Angela, Rayanne and Rickie getting into scrapes after scrapes, some of them fun and some dangerous. My So-Called Life set the precedence for thought provoking teen dramas that spoke to its audience rather than at them. The series was created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz who had brought us ThirtySomething, and boy it was beautifully told. The display of teen angst was brilliantly portrayed in the show and a lot of teens around the world related to Angela and her pals. It tackled issues such as child abuse, homophobia, teenage alcoholism, homeslessness, adultery, school violence, censorship and drug use.

Angela's insightful narrative really depicted the way today's teenagers thought and how minor issues such as being popular, getting a guy to like you and who is taking you to the prom were such a big deal. It also showed a young lady trying to find her identity and place in life. Prior to this my exposure to American teen life had been the cheesy aspect of cheerleaders, school presidents and jocks or the opposite with the class nerd or social misfit. My So-Called Life was the first show to deal with a regular teen who was questioning life and it paved the way for other teen dramas such as Dawson's Creek. The OC and One Tree Hill. No surprise that it was nominated for four Emmy Awards and took a Golden Globe with Claire Danes winning the Best Actress in a TV Series. It also came 33 on Entertainment Weekly's New Classics TV list of shows from 1983 and 2008 and in 2007 was listed as one of Time magazine's 100 Best TV Shows of All Time. Sadly the show only ran for one season due to many factors such as Claire Danes going onto other projects and low ratings but My So-Called Life will always live in our memories plus there is always the DVD box set.

Check out this fan page for the show.

My So-Called Life is available to purchase from amazon.

Have a peep at the trailer for the series below.

Lily

So it seems that CW along with everyone else cannot get enough of Gossip Girl. They love it so much that they have ordered a prequel which is based on the romance of Lily van der Woodsen nee Rhodes and Rufus Humphreys. The channel that is home to popular teen shows, 90210 as well One Tree Hill will be airing a retro version of Gossip Girl. The spin off series of which is yet to be named is set in the colourful 80s and tells the story of the teenage Lily who is the mother of protagonist, Serena van der Woodsen. Young Lily is forced to move in with her sister after falling out wth her parents when she is kicked out of her posh boarding school. She turns to big sis Carol who is a free spirited actress based in San Fernando. Unfortunately Lily is not happy for long; it seems that sleepy San Fernando is a tad bit boring for our Lily and it is not long before she is up to her old tricks. She goes in search of fun and excitement in LA and finds it in the fast paced life of Sunset Strip. Gossip Girl Retro sees Lily hanging out in restaurants, bars, clubs and totally living the Jackie Collins' 80s Hollywood life where she eventually bumps into a certain Rufus Humphreys. The show will showcase the fashion, music and pop culture of that era so you can imagine what they have in store - over the knee boots, leggings, stilettos, shoulder pads, teased hair and lots of blue eye shadow. It all kicks off on 11th May when instead of the regular GG we will be treated to a back door pilot to the spin off. Brittany Snow plays the young Lily, Krysten Ritter (who we last saw in Confessions of a Shopaholic) plays her sister Carol, Andrew McCarthy plays their father, Cynthia Watros as their mother and Serena's father, Keith van der Woodsen will be seen for the first time played by Matt Barr.


Hmm. To be honest I am not really looking forward to it. I like Rufus a lot and I find him to be a very funny, quirky yet warm character but I find Lily to be a total bore. Unlike her daughter who is charismatic and engaging, Lily comes across as being a total stiff and a snobby one to boot. I find it hard to imagine her smoking a cigarette let alone anything stronger so I am finding it hard to buy this so-called wild childhood that she experienced. I personally would have preferred to see Jenny in a spin off which takes place when Serena, Blair and co have gone onto college. Rather like the book series The It Girl but instead of trying to fit in with a cool crowd lil Jen would be Queen Bee of Constance Billard. Now that would have been riveting with Eric as her morale conscience and big brother Dan making guests appearances. GG creator's, Stephanie Savage (who I wrote about here) and Josh Schwartz's explanations for not going down the Jenny route was because they did not want to lose any of their talented cast. Now I love Steph and Josh dearly but that is the lamest excuse I have ever heard. We all know that Serena and co are off to college in the next season so what they should have done was follow their escapes on campus and launch Jenny in her own spin off. But hey what do I know? I just watch the show religiously.

90210 - New Generation

While we are on the topic of icons of pop culture in 1990 a fun TV series took us by storm. It was called Beverly Hills 90210 and was about the lives of the pampered and privileged school kids of West Beverly Hills High. So glam and slick were the production values of the show that you could have been forgiven for getting it mixed up with 80s soap, Dynasty. Beverly Hills 90210 was basically a teen version of Dallas and Dynasty and the first of it's kind. Around that time shows aimed at teens were either comedies or nitty gritty dramas so this was the first time that teenagers had a glossy programme that was just for them. The focus of the show were twins, Brandon and Brenda Walsh, played by Johnny Depp lookalike, Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty, who had moved from small town Minnesota to the lushness of California. The show ran for 10 years making stars out of it's cast. However, in 2000 after a lot of addition and deletion of the characters as well as tackling issues such as date rape, alcoholism, domestic violence, gay rights, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, suicide and AIDS, it bowed out in style.

So you can imagine my delight when I heard that a spin off was being planned. I didn't take much notice at first as there was never any substantial evidence. Unbelievably, the rumours have turned into a reality and 90210 as it will be called will air on The CW Television Network in September. It is basically the same format; new family moves to the area from Kansas and tries to adapt to the new environment. Veterans from the original series, Jennie Garth who played Kelly, Tori Spelling who played Donna and Shannon Doherty are set to return to the show in recurring parts. This is so cool and judging by the trailer will be a show to challenge Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill.

You can catch 90210 on The CW Television Network on 2nd September.