Movie Analysis

/AMERICAN YOUTH0 __

Edited by Neil Campbell

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First published 2000 as The Rildiant Hour: Versions ofYouth in American Culture by University ofExeter Press

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SEVEN 'Teensomething': American Youth Programming

, in the 1990s

Simon Philo

In her book Defining Visions: Television and the American' Experience since 1945, MaryAnn Watson writes:

Television's most transforming power has been to provide social scripts for post-war America. Television has been the primary means of socialisation for Baby Boomers and their progeny. From the home screen they've derived lessons about what society expects from them and notions about and ofwhat they expect from society. [...JThe national psyche has been permeated-in both obvious and discreet ways-by television's defining visions.

(Watson 1998: 266)

As David Marc concurs, 'the lives of the vast majority of Americans born since the defeat of the Axis forces have been accompanied by a continuing electronic paratext of experience' (Marc 1996: 135), with television functioning as a 'primary delivery system offering broad ranges of representational and presentational programming' (ibid.: 135-6). For many commentators, acknowledging television's key role in socializing viewers brings with it inevitable concerns over the content of its 'scripts'. Predictably, concern has been registered most forcibly in relation to television's perceived impact upon the hearts and minds of the nation's youth. There has not been a great deal of academic work devoted to the study of television specifically tailored for adolescent viewers. In fact, what

156 American Youth Cultures

litde there has been has mined that 'well-worn area of young people and moral panics' (Oswell 1998: 36). Watson's fears, for example, concerning the malign effects of contemporary TV's 'scripts' on impressionable young minds recall the hysteria witnessed in the 1950s, when television first entered the majority ofAmerican homes and it became clear that the westerns and crime series that clogged those nascent prime-time schedules were attracting a sizeable young audience. As public concern over juvenile delinquency peaked in the mid-1950s, a Congressional committee headed by Senator Estes Kefauver was convened to investigate its possible causes. The investigation centred on three likely areas of influence within the mass media-film, comic books and television. In the case of the latter, shows were monitored, expert witnesses were called and numerous academic reports read. Despite the fact that no hard, causal evidence could be found to prove that television led direcdy to delinquency-most experts identifying the quality of home life as the main cause-the findings published in August 1955 argued that television was potentially more injurious to impressionable young minds than either movies or comics. Since it was readily available to the nation's' teenagers, who already watched an average of four hours every day, Senator Robert Hendrickson spoke for his fellow committee members when he concluded that: 'television is perhaps the most powerful force man has yet devised for planting and spreading ideas' (in Spring 1992: 185).

Forty years on, Mary Ann Watson writes with some horror that 'more than rwo thirds' of American teens surveyed in 1995 'agreed that television shaped their values' (Watson 1998: 125). Yet, whilst Watson finds this a 'shocking statistic' in the context of what she identifies as a decline in 'responsible television', she clearly iguores the potentially constructive and instructive function many of today's teen shows perform (ibid.: 125). Far from witnessing television's major contribution to the so-called 'dumbing down' of American youth, might we be seeing-in the case of the teen dramas discussed in this chapter at least-something akin to the opposite effect? One criticism frequendy levelled at Dawson's Creek, for example, is that its characters employ the kind of sophisticated vocabulary that in reality high school teenagers simply do not possess or employ. Norwithstanding debates over the accuracy of such criticism, surely there is-at the very least-a case to be made for the potentially instructive value ofweekly exposure to long words and difficult concepts? To further reassure the likes of Watson, closer inspection might appear to reveal that youth TV in the 1990s is rather safe. For although self- definition remains a vital concern in dramas which position teens at the

'Teensomething': American Youth Programming in the 1990s 157

very heart of their constructed world, American screen-teens are almost exclusively voiced by adult writers. Therefore, it is not surprising to discover that many of these TV texts exhibit a tendency towards 'responsible' discourses that many critics overlook in their rather selective analyses. Despite the poses that many TV teens strike and the rhetoric they might occasionally spout, One often finds that a touching-though not necessarily Victorian-moralism, faith in the future, and teen-typical fusion of idealism and pragmatism prevail over nihilism, cynicism and despair. Echoing Mark Twain's description ofTom Sawyer, youth TV is by and large then crammed full of non-threatening, 'rightly constructed' boys and girls. It is replete with 'sanctioned rebels' for the TV age. Like Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause, many are redeemer-confonnists on a mission to 'clean up' the adult world before they can fully enter it.

Ostensibly wise beyond their years, typically self-obsessed, and ftequently prone to spouting psycho-babble at the slightest provocation, these are some of the most [pseudo-]sophisticated teenagers in American TV history. Ofcourse, it is perhaps not altogether surprising to find that small screen representations of teens should be so sensible. If one looks at the set of imperatives which determine the shape and scope of television output and the centrifugal force this exerts on material and meanings, then it is surprising that shows are able to find the time and space to offend. The hotchpotch of commercial, artistic and moral pressures which impact upon the programme-making process work to make television the most risk-conscious of all cultural media. As a result, contemporary teendramas like My So-Called Life, Dawson's Creek and Party of Five are distinguished by witty, literate scripts that breathe life into bright, communicative teenagers, who are the antithesis of the rarely seen sullen, uncommunicative outcasts so feared by parents and educators. Responding to criticism which objected to the fact the characters in Dawson's Creek were too good-looking and well-spoken to be believed, one reviewer urged anyone who had 'a problem' with this and who would 'rather watch unattractive, inarticulate youngsters' to 'go rent Kids' (Fretts 1998b: web). Ever willing to analyse, dissect and explain their thoughts and deeds, the most irritating thing about today's small-screen-teens could well be that they do not shut up. Whilst Dawson's Creek's Joey Potter claims that she is 'so sick and tired of talking all the time', this realization does nothing to stem the flow of words which tends to characterize these dialogue- engorged dramas.

--'

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Youth Must Be Served The practice of tailoring shows to specific audiences had argaably begun in the 1970s, but it was not until the late 1980s that the networks began focusing their energies and attention on capturing 'the hearts and minds (and brand loyalties) of those most elusive of all TV viewers: teenagers' (Mahler 1989: 10). The arrival on the scene of Rupert Murdoch's Fox network, with its deliberate targeting of a much younger core audience, undoubtedly contributed to the increasing ghetto-ization of US TV precipitated in the late 1970s by the arrival of VCRs and greater viewer choice available via the proliferation of cable TVchannels. The combined effect of these had resulted in a dramatic drop in audience share for the three major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), and forced them into examining the nature of programming which had until this point been driven by a desire to capture the broadest possible audience. As their combined audience share dipped from 90 per cent to a figare nearer to 50 per cent, the so-called Big Three networks looked to follow Fox's example and target more sharply defined, but potentially lucrative demographic bands.' With the emergence of 'satellite and cable television [programmers] no longer define[d] youth as a point in the schedule, but as niche markets with their own particular channels' (Oswell 1998: 45). In the 1990s, Rob Owen has observed that 'TV's demographic dial is set for youth and that is unlikely to change' (Owen 1997: 204). Fox declared its intention to go after the youth market from the

moment it began broadcasting in 1986. Andy Fessell, Fox Vice President for Research and Marketing in the late 1980s, stated that the network would work assiduously to appeal to the 18-34 demographic, and this policy had been so successful that by 1993 the average age of the Fox viewer was just 29 years 01d.2 In its first full season, Fox scheduled the teen police drama 21 Jump Streef (starring a pre-movie stardom Johnny Depp) in a clearly signalled, and ultimately successful, attempt to draw younger viewers to the channel. Up until this point, American television had all but ignored the dramatic needs of adolescents. Even Mary Ann Watson is forced to admit that pre-Fox youth progranuning could be best described as 'goofy' (Watson 1998: 44), with teens 'only seen on TV as part ofa family sitcom unit' (ibid.: 49). Historically, teen audiences have always proved difficult to reach,

capture and retain. This is a group that has traditionally spent less time watching TV than any other section of the population.J Searching for an explanation, programmers and media analysts concluded that the principal

'Teensomething': American Youth Programmingin the 1990s

reason for this was that adolescent viewers simply could not identify with the On-screen teens maiustream shows set before them. As David Oswell points out:

The relationship between youth and television is [...] an unhappy one. Teenagers have been caught in a double-bind. On the one hand the construction of television as domestic and familial has meant that young people have had little desire to stay at home and watch. Attempts by television producers to escape this problem have always fallen short of the 'real thing'. And on the other hand, those teenagers who have stayed at home watching television have been constructed as addicts and pathological.

(Oswell 1998: 45)

TV's traditional lack of appeal to teenagers, then, is largely attributable to the fact that it both represents and symbolizes family authority which many adolescents instinctively rebel agaiust-'an implicit rejection of family order accompanies the search for sexual identity, and television, as a centre of family life, must bear a share of adolescent resentment' (Marc 1996: 137). However, Fox's highest-rated pre-Simpsons show proved very popular

with this previously ill-served audience, who connected with the somewhat implausible but apparently fact-based premise of four young police officers going undercover in high schools to root out teen crime. Described by TV World as 'fearless and uncondescending iu portraying contemporary issues that face teens [such as] arson, teen prostitution, gang vandalism, child abuse, teen runaways and cocaine' (in Paterson and Thompson 1996: 20), 21 Jump Street apparently took its responsibilities seriously enough to follow up these issue-Jed episodes with information on relevant toll-free heJplines-an innovative feature replicated by Fox's next and, to date, biggest teen drama success, Beverley Hills 90210. David Marc argues that one positive side-effect of the 'decline of

the three-network hegemony' has been an increased 'literacy' in pro- gramming. This has come about because catering for smaller, more homogeneous audiences 'inspires frankness [and] a form of truth [...] which usually makes for better drama'. Thus, iu contrast to the days before narrow-casting, when '[a]t the peak of network dominance the problem was always the same: get more viewers', the late 1980s and 1990s have seen the 'compromises of least objectionability yield to the strong metaphors that are possible when a preacher speaks to the converted'

1 160 American Youth Cultures

(Marc 1997: 136). Good news, then, for America's adolescent viewers. However, whilst media critic and Gen-X champion Rob Owen has sought to credit the fact that 'television today is better than it has ever been' to the 'discerning tastes of [younger viewers] who will not settle for the same old shows' (Owen 1997: xi), youth programming in particular has un- doubtedly benefited from a combination of institutional, technological and economic shifrs that have shaken up US television in the past fifteen to twentyyears.4

One of the biggest hits with American teen audiences in the 1990s has been Fox's drama Beverley Hills 90210. First aired in October 1990 and produced by Aaron Spelling-the man responsible for adult shows like Dallas and the Love Boat-9021O arguably 'jump-started the whole youth ensemble drama trend' (Owen 1997: 76). Whilst its glamorous setting and glossy production values might have put off many, closer inspection revealed that here was a show which extended the limited thematic range of teen-centric dramas. In the face of almost inevitable critical oppro- brium, 90210 proved itself to be 'more than just a show about the wealthy and winsome' (Wax 1991: 37). By-passing the soapy sheen cast by perfect smiles, faultless skin and a Californian sun that never set, many young viewers discovered that-much like 21 Jump Street before it-unlikely settings did not necessarily preclude an engagement with relevant teen issues and concerns. Executive producer Charles Rosin had intended the show to stress the sheer 'complexity of teenage life' (ibid.: 37); and, as Douglas Durden agreed, it appeared to have largely achieved what its creators set out to do: 'Despite its exclusive zip code, 90210 began its career as a realistic look at teenagers from the perspective of teenagers' (in Owen 1997: 73).

In a 1993 piece in the e-journal Bad Subjects, academic Crystal Kile reported with a mixture ofexasperation and barely disguised disdain that:

well over 80% of[her] students' essays about the series could be condensed into three sentences: 'I can totally identify with Beverley Hills 90210. It is the only show on television that really addresses the issues facing young people in America today. It is not like Saved By the Bell, it is an important show because it is so realistic.

(Kile 1993:web)

Kile was dismayed that classroom debates about the show invariably revolved around its realism. This in spite ofher frequent attempts to stress the fact that 'the metaphoric real world displayed on TV does not display

'Teensomething': American Youth Progtamming in the 1990s 161

the teal world, but displaces it' (ibid.). Her students, she lamented, simply did not 'get' that 90210 reflects symbolically the structure of values and relationships beneath the surface' (ibid.), and that ultimately sucb values are those of a conservative and presumably adult mainstream. Whilst she is probably correct in arguing that the show engages in such ideological work, in her rush to condemn she fails to 'read' as 3' teen viewer might. For example, the very utopian drive that lies at the heart of 9021O-what Kile calls its 'deep yet blank nostalgia for the kinder, gentler Californian youth cult mythos of the late 1950s and early 1960s' (ibid.)-is arguably a variant strain of that desire for the comfort and securities of the past found in so many youth texts, and clearly resonates here for precisely this reason. For some members of its non-teen audience, the show served as a

useful teaching prop, becoming popular with both parents and educators who employed episodes 'to jump-start talks about sex, drug and alcohol abuse, AIDS and teen preguancy' (Wax 1991: 37). Such admittedly anecdotal evidence suggests that it functioned as instnlctive text-a role at odds with Mary Ann Watson's assessment of the series as symptomatic of 'the tempestuous bed-hopping and dirty talk' that was the 'hall mark of the Fox network in the 90s' (Watson 1998: 123). Watson argues that the show actively endorsed teen promiscuity in giving 'the clear im- pression that the cool kids in big school were having sex' (ibid.: 121), in the process exerting harmful pressure on young viewers by highlighting the embarrassment felt by characters in the progtamme who were not yet sexually active. Yet, whilst she might well have a point in arguing that 90210 has packaged a made-for-TV morality by 'essentially [glamorizing] what it professed to caution against' (ibid.: 121), it should be noted that the character Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) does not take the decision to lose her virginity lightly, and that she learns that every action has consequences if not a price.5 Darren Star, the show's creator and producer, claimed that 90210 was not in the business of moralizing and that it simply wanted to air issues vital to young Americans. However, Watson found an ally in conservative media critic Michael Medved, who lamented that at the very moment 90210 was heading for the number one teen ratings slot:

any American youngster who watched television with even moderate regularity would have received the unequivocal impression that the pop- ular culture expected that he or she should become erotically experienced and cheerfully enter the brave new world ofadolescent intercourse.

(Medved 1993: 114)

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In his book Hollywood vs. America, Medved has argued that the Fox network in particular must be held responsible for 'regularly and powerfully encourag[ing] casual sex' (ibid.: 108) on its youth-targeted programming. Much like Watson, he believes that shows like 90210 justified their prurient focus on teenage sex on the grounds of public service-that they were tackling important issues as part of a noble campaign to raise viewer awareness about sexual diseases and birth control. Yet, Medved also notes that, despite the consultative, on-set presence of a birth control expert, when Brenda loses her virginity to Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), little attempt is made to teach or educate as the couple never openly discuss the matter. More importantly, he points out that Brenda's subsequent preguaney scare suggests that precautions were not taken. In defence of the show, it might be argued, however, that such a scare can function very effectivelyas a cautionary tale to its millions of teen viewers.

Stylistically the show undoubtedly took its cue from MTV, with its emphasis on rapid cuts and slick editing of brief scenes that might have been drawn directly from rock videos. The use of a rock sound- track featuring new and established bands worked to comment upon the plotlines, articulating characters' feelings by providing 'a modern musical accompaniment that fits the emotions flitting across the screen like a tailored glove' (Crosdale 1999: 8). Although heavily reliant on dialogue, teen dramas are also characterized by their use of rock music, which-as Simon Frith suggests-'amplifies the mood or atmosphere and also tries to convey the "emotional significance" of a scene: the true real feelings of the characters involved in it' (in Turner 1993: 59). The 'emotional reality' of the music can, then, help deepen the sense of realism depicted, supplying added emotional texture. Formally and thematically, 90210 has arguably influenced those more

critically-acclaimed teen dramas which followed in its wake, convincing network executives of the commercial viability of the teen drama and demonstrating to programme-makers the key ingredients for a hit show with a notoriously elusive, but potentially lucrative demographic.

The Rise and Rise of Teen Dramas-My So-Called Life and Party of Five By the 1994/5 season, despite the exodus of several of its original and popular stars, Beverley Hills 90210 to hold onto its number one

'Teensomething': American Youth Programming in the 1990s 163

position in the Nielsen ratings for 18-24-year-olds. Predictably, in response to the success of 90210, the major networks were alerted to the commercial potential of the hit teen show and ABC showed first in premiering My So-Called Life in August 1994. Focusing on the life, loves and crises of high school teenager Angela Chase (Claire Daines) and her close circle of friends, this show-unlike 9021O-prompted immediate critical favour. Notwithstanding the undoubted quality of both scripting and acting, My So-Called Life's positive reception with the critics must be attributable at least in part to a discernible snob factor. For here was a show aired on an established network and, more importantly, created and wrirten by the team responsible for one of the most critically lauded drama series of the late 1980s-thirtysomething. Aired from 1987 to 1991, thirtysomething has much in common with the teen dramas discussed in this chapter. For whilst-as its title suggests-it focused on the lives of adult characters, the show's 'coming-to-terms-with-our-parents, coming- of-age narratives' (Feuer 1995: 71) made it something of a template for nineties teen-based dramas playing out surprisingly similar dilemmas.6 thirtysomething was also characterized by a high level ofsoul-searching and -bearing, which some unkind critics labelled 'whining' (ibid.: 61). This propensity for heavy bouts of on-screen self-analysis is arguably one of the features of the show that links it explicitly to teen dramas like My So-Called Life, Party ofFive and Dawson's Creek, in which a 'spiritual crisis' precipitated by eighties 'yuppie envy and guilt' (ibid.: 60) is replaced by one brought about by travails of the journey through adolescence. All of these shows, then, are characterized by the sheer amount of self- examination that goes on within them, and, as such, might well be bracketed together as 'teensomethings' in recognition of the show that arguably helped spawn themJ

Sometimes referred to as the 'anti-9021O' (Owen 1997: 139), My So-Called Life was praised for the realism and honesty of its portrayal of teens and teen life, winning the TV Critics' Association award for Best Drama in 1995. In contrast to the somewhat air-brushed, one-dimensional characterizations found on 90210, Angela Chase was presented as a more complex fictional teen- the depth of her character most effectively revealed in the accompanying monologues she delivered. Unlike the popular high school kids portrayed in 9021O-'class presidents and homecoming queens'-My So-Called Life featured 'outsiders who didn't seem to fit in' and consequently struck a more realistic chord with many viewers (ibid.: 139). The show gave at least some expression to that brand of youthful nihilism rarely found on the tightly-policed cultural medium

164 American Youth Cultures

ofmainstream television; and whilst we did not quite witness TV's equiva- lent of the 'dark cinema ofyouth' epitomised by movies like Larry Clark's Kids, we came as close as we might expect-ot hope-to get (Campbell and Kean 1997: 233). In line with those classic youth narratives identified by Paula Fass which situate adolescents at a 'splendid cross-road whete the past meets the future in a jumble of personal anxieties and an urgent need for social self-definition (ibid.: 215), Angela and het intimate circle of peers are shown facing up to the emotional turmoil of grow- ing up. Writer/creator Winnie Holzman was at pains to emphasize the universality of problems faced by teenagers down the years-problems which she presumably hoped would prompt a not altogether unpleasant mixture of the shock ofrecognition and nostalgia in non-teen viewers:

Who am I? "What does it mean to find yourself? These are the basic struggles, and they don't change with generations. That to me is the meaning ofmy show.

(in Owen 1997: 141-2)

Issues sutrounding sex and sexuality typically dominated proceedings, but the bteakdown ofher parents' marriage, which culminates in her discovery of her father's clandestine affair, provided an additional soutce of confu- sion and pain for the already angst-ridden Angela. As previously noted, My So-Called Life qnickly found favour with both adults and adolescents. 'I identified with Angela', Joyce Millman has writren in a retrospective piece seeking to make Dawson's Creek look poor in comparison:

I'm not saying that everything that happened to her happened to me when I was fifteen; what I mean is, there's a little Angela in every woman [...] My So-Called Life was the most soulful, realistic, wise and empathetic show about high school ever. [...JWatching itwas like being ambushed byyour secret self, the person you were before you became you.

(Millman 1998: web)

The fortysomething Wiunie Holzman suggested that this pan-genera- tional appeal could be put down to the fact that the show was not aimed at an exclusively teen audience:

I didn't think in terms of teenagers [...J; that's not my approach. I was thinking in terms ofhaving characters that would be interesting. I was attempting to be honest [...J-and I did not" want the teen characters to be

'Teensomething': American Youth Programming in the 1990s 165

cliches, but at the same time it was imponant to me that the parents not be cliche, and in manyways itwas harder.

(in Owen 1997: .140)

Whilst the problems of Angela Chase inevitably took centre-stage in a drama which by and large offered a world through her eyes, Mr and Mrs Chase were rarely represented as mere ciphers or stereotypical authority figures. Certainly, Angela has predictable run-ins with her mother- commenting memorably in one episode that 'lately [she] can't even look at [her] withoutwanting to stab her repeatedly'-but the complex, and hence arguably more realistic, dynamics of her relationship with Patty Chase are best highlighted by the uneasy cease-fire that closes this same episode which sees Angela curled up in her mother's bed apologizing for her bad behaviour of late. However, whilst such an apology might suggest that a reassertion of some kind of righteous adult order has occurred, what sets this and a number of other nineties teen shows apart from earlier shows featuring parent-child battles are serialized storylines which lend realism by resisting easy closure and moral lessons learned. These, then, are shows invariably scripted by adults, but crucially they do not always valorize or work to (re)establish the adult order. In the early 1980s, a colloquium investigating screen images of

adolescence questioned whether the full range of teenage experience was being dealt with on screen and what, if anything, might be missing from film and television portrayals. Concluding that screen-teens were often stereotyped, several members of the discussion group called for more realistic representations built around the predominant emotion of life during adolescence that they identified as ambiguity. Television, in particular, it was noted, seemed 'scared to death of ambivalence', pre- ferring wherever possible to 'answer all the questions' (Roth 1982: 33). Teenagers surveyed at the time-it was also noted-were desperate to see on-screen adolescents dealing with their own problems, not necessarily having adult authority figures asserting their dominance and control by solving problems and defusing crises for them. Yet, as TV Guide writer Sally Bedell pointed out, she had 'seldom seen an adolescent [on television] who goes through some kind ofsturm und drang come up with his own solution' (ibid.: 33). By the 1990s, shows like My So-Called Life had taken considerable steps to address this shortcoming, with teen characters shown tackling their problems with varying levels of success and competence. Indeed, one of the defining features of youth shows in the 1990s has been their focus on a supportive circle of friends as a

166 American Youth Cultures

replacement for ineffectual or possibly non-existent family units. Allied to this, parental figures like the Chases or the Leerys (Dawson's Creek) are pictured as fallible individuals with problems often far out-weighing those of their offspring, making it near impossible for them to demonstrate 'the necessity for renewed, coherent social order' identified as pivotal to the praxis of so many youth texts in the past (Campbell and Kean 1997: 217).

Despite the critical praise heaped upon it, My So-Called Life was cancelled after a run of just nineteen shows. Somewhat ironically, given American TV's slide towards narrowcasting in the 1990s, ABC decided that the show's ratings were simply not healthy enough to warrant its re-commissioning.S At Fox, however, the ratings success of 90210 led to the appearance of Party ofFive. Just as Fox had stood by 90210 while it struggled to find an audience in its first season, so the network indulged Party ofFive as it finished its first run ranked a less-than-impressive 99th out of 103 shows. Positive reviews for the new teen drama and-perhaps more importantly-evidence that it was a ratings success with teenage girls and young women in particular convinced Fox executives that it was worth persevering with.9 In contrast to its much-maligued stablemate, 90210, Party of Five was-and continues to be-regarded as 'qualiry' prime-time drama. Described in its inaugural season by TV Guide as 'the best show you're not watching' (Slate 1996: 10), it won a prestigious Golden Globe award for the BestTVDrama of 1995 ahead of the likes of ER. In the same year it also won a Humanitas Prize for its depiction of positive social values-an award which reinforces earlier comments made in this chapter concerning the broadly constructive, responsible and largely non-threatening nature of much contemporary youth pro- grammmg. The show's rather strained premise, which sees the five Salinger

siblings left to fend for themselves following their parents' death in a car accident, did not augur well. Party of Five 'reeked of high concept plotting' (Owen 1997: 144), appearing from the outset to promise little more than equally glutinous measures ofmelodrama and syrupy moralism. The prospect of a rather worthy and preachy show notwithstanding, the removal of parental figures from the outset undoubtedly proved an attractive draw to teen viewers, effectively counter-balancing any initial resistance many might have felt towards it. lO Of equal significance to an increasingly sophisticated and demanding demographic was the un- doubted high quality of both the writing and the acting. Acknowledging this, Time magazine christened the show 'a thirtysomething for teenagers

'Teensomething': American Youth Programming in the 1990s 167

and young adults' (Slate 1996: 10), further reinforcing the link between the clutch ofnineties teen dramas and their adult-oriented progenitor.

Party ofFive's writing team was adamant that the show should tackle the many problems facing the Salingers as directly and unsentimentally as the network would allow. As co-writer Amy Lippman acknowledges, the show has consistently dealt with 'some dark issues and grim overtones' (ibid.: 12). In addition to the obvious emotional struggles the orphaned children have had in coming to terms with their parents' untimely deaths, Party ofFive has explored drug abuse, teen pregnancy and abortion; HIV and AIDS, juvenile delinquency, and alcoholism. All this on top of the more typical crises each of the young Salingers has had to face as they grow older. Lippman and her fellow writers were also keen to avoid stereotypes. With this objective in mind they created characters like Charlie, the oldest but initially least responsible sibling, and the non- maternal oldest daughter, Julia. By series five, the combination of the broad range of ages represented by the show's principal protagonists and those non-teen-specific issues tackled was working to take Party ofFive out of the realm of the 'teensomething'. As the elder Salingers entered the working world, embarked on 'serious' relationships, and in a couple of cases even got married, it became apparent that the show was moving at pace into narrative spaces occupied by adult dramas.

Parental Discretion Advised-Dawson's Creek as Teen Drama Par Excellence At the time ofwriting, Dawson's Creek is argnably the highest profile teen drama on American television. Initially turned down by the Fox network, who feared it was too similar to their Party ofFive, the show premiered on the fledgling Warner network on 20 January 1998. Critics argned that an aggressive and cynical multi-million dollar pre-publicity campaign focusing on the principal actors' movie-star looks, the creative involve- ment of 'hot' Hollywood script-writer Kevin Williamson (Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Scream 2), and the promise of plenty of teen sexaccounted for the show's higher-than-might-be-expected Nielsen ratings.ll In contrast to My So-Called Life, Dawson's Creek has been almost universally condemned by adult critics, who tend to see it as little more than an over-heated melodrama lacking the 'startling "Hey, that's me" emotional resonance' of the former (Millman 1998: web). If-as one reviewer gratefully declared-Party of Five offers blessed relief from

168 American Youth Cultures

youth TV's raging 'hormonal gulch' (Loynd 1994: 30), then the 'hyper- ventilating [...] Freudian misadventure of boiling libidos' (Richmond 1998: 71) that many seek to argue is Dawson's Creek arguably returns its teen audience to just such a place. In appearing to concentrate all of its characters' energies on sex and relationships to the near-total exclusion of other issues that might be expected to intrude on young American lives, critics have argued that the show risks descending into the self-conscious campy territory staked out by shows like Fox's 90210 offshoot Melrose Place. Episodes entitled 'Carnal Knowledge' and 'Sex, She Wrote' did little to dispel the perception that Dawson's Creek was sex-obsessed. Fifteen-year-old Pacey's much-heralded first series' sexual relationship with his high school teacher, Ms Jacobs, probably did not help either. However, the show's subsequent re-scheduling from the original 9 to 10 p.m. (EST) slot it occupied in its first season to the earlier 8 to 9 p.m. 'family hour' it occupied in its second would appear to suggest that the show billed as 'the frankest depiction of teenage sexuality ever seen on the small screen' (Fretts 1998a: web) is perhaps not nearly so threatening to the nation's moral well-being. Dawson's Creek might not introduce 'issues' as explicitly as some of its

predecessors, but it is marked by an intelligence and seriousness that clearly confers membership of the teensomething roster upon it. In stark contrast, for example, to a teen-utopian-Hughesian world of adolescent pleasure and liberating hedonism at all costs, Dawson's Creek rarely shows its teens enjoying themselves.I' In fact, theirs often seems a world of perpetual crises and angst, in which youthful joie de vivre is noticeably absent. As one critic of the show noted, in contrast to the wise-cracking, full-blood[i]ed and vivacious characters featured in Warner's other big teen drama success, BufJY the Vampire Slayer, the young protagonists in Dawson's Creek come across as rather morose and jaded.

Once again, certain key ingredients are combined to concoct what is almost the perfect recipe for the nineties teen drama. Set in the photo- genic fictional Massachusetts coastal town of Capeside, Dawson's Creek centres on the coming-of-age traumas of a mutually protective circle of four 15- to 16-year-old friends and high school classmates: Dawson Leery (James van der Beek), Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson), Joey Potter (Katie Holmes), and Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams). As with the character of Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, the dilemmas of Dawson Leery provide this show with its focal point-and sometime focalizer-around which/whom the lives and loves of the friends can revolve. At fifteen years old, Dawson is a Spielberg-obsessed, would-be movie director, but with

'Teensomething': American Yonth Programming in the 1990s 169

more ofa talent for talking than film-making. Mnch like the similarly aged Holden Caulfield in]. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, Dawson loves nothing better than to analyse. The show's official website describes him as 'a charmingly obsessive and passionate' young man. Yet, in this 'outlandishly analytical milieu' (Richmond 1998: 71), Dawson is not a 'freak', since all the Capeside teenagers demonstrate the same precocious willingness to dissect their own and others' lives. As an example of this, in one episode the equally thoughtful Joey explains to the pre-teenage sister of a schoolfriend that whilst growing up is never easy, it is made bearable by those rare and special moments which help alleviate all the pain and suffering. Joey is fifteen years old. In Dawson's Creek, then, the viewer is 'emersed in the teen equivalent of a Woody Allen movie-a kind of Deconstructing Puberty' (ibid.: 71).'3 Dawson in particnlar is crippled by a near-debilitating introspection-resulting in an 'inertia' which he himself typically acknowledges as a 'profoundly unattractive' trait. Of course, the teenager's propensity to contemplate his or her own metaphorical navel is both a recognized facet of the adolescent experience and an established fixture in many youth narratives.'4 As Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker pointed out in an otherwise unfavourable piece, 'one of the best things about the show is that it's not afraid to make its young protagonists look the self-absorbed hypocrites teens can so often be' (Tucker 1998a: web). Although it is certainly the case that Dawson and his peers possess an almost unnatural gift for verbalizing their innermost thoughts and feelings-to the extent that we might argue that it is the scriptwriters and not their characters who speak to us-it is also the case that such verbosity merely works to position them in a line of teen protagonists stretching all the way back to Alcott'sJo March and Twain's Tom Sawyer. Those who criticize the show's wordiness are missing a crucial point about both Dawson's Creek specifically and teen narratives in general. Since adolescence is arguably the most self-absorbed of all life stages, texts which examine the teen's propensity to self-obsess- or which, as Joey says of Dawson, 'spend all [their] time analysing [their] sad adolescent lives'-are surely guilty of little more than nailing down the adolescent experience.15

In Dawson's Creek the teenager's struggle to narrate that is featured in so many youth texts is here symbolized and, iu part, actualized through Dawson Leery's film-making-a process through which he can seek to assert some measure of control and authority over/in the world. As an example of the drive for self-expression and articulation, it stands as an archetypal facet of the youth narrative-a variation on those texts in

170 American Youth Cultures

which youthful narrators aspire to be writets carefully attempting to construct a world in their own language. We might look at Dawson's film-making, then, as evidence of the desire 'to order the world, to exercise power and to control aspects of reality' (Campbell and Kean 1997: 230). Dawson's film-making projects frequently centre around self- definition. They are autobiographical, therapeutic and entirely consistent with aims ofadolescent narrators for whom 'to write [or film] is to control material and empower the self' (ibid.: 230). In the episode 'High Risk Behaviour', for example, we see Dawson hashing his entire relationship with Joey into a movie script; and in 'His Leading Lady', this teenage auteur is casting for aJoey-esque lead for his autobiographical film. In addition to exploring the need for self-definition and expression, the

Dawson's Creek remit clearly includes an examination of the collision between youth and various manifestations of authority. Typically, these centre around the young characters' frequent clashes with parents and educators. In the case of the clash between parents and children, however, what is most immediately noteworthy is the extent to which the task of 'teaching and preaching' is one more than likely to be carried out by the latter in a effort to improve the behaviour of the former. Far from coming across as a study in teen delinquency, it often appears that it is in fact the adults of Capeside who are the delinquents being observed here.'6 Even the show's doomed teen villain, the vindictive Abbie Morgan, has a dysfunctional family life to account for her behaviour. Writing in Time Michael Krantz commented that:

Williamson's kids may talk like therapists but they act like guarded and wounded 15 year-aIds whose cell phones and videotapes stand in for a sadly absent adult institutional authority.

(in Crosdale 1999: 127-8)

Similarly, Williamson himself has pointed out that although his teen creations appear to have 'all the answers [...J their behaviour is that of a 15 year-old, inexperienced and not so sure of their next step' (Johnson 1998: web). Whilst Dawson must struggle to come to terms with his parents'

failing marriage and eventual decision to separate, his closest friends face arguably more difficult tasks in dealing with parents who patently fail to match their offspring's demands. It is thus ironic, given the critical mauling the show has received for its perceived portrait of teen immorality, that what comes across most forcefully in Dawson's Creek is

'Teensomething': American Youth Ptogramming in the 1990s 171

the commitment each of the main players displays towards the sanctity of family and the sheer amount of energy they expend in seeking to demonstrate this commitment. For example, arguing with Mr McPhee over what is best for the mentally ill Andie, her boy-friend Pacey is ultimately forced to concede that family overrides 'the whole support system' friends can ptovide and reluctantly accepts that she must leave Capeside to receive the best medical attention her father can supply. As further evidence of such committnent, in 'Reunited' we wimess Joey and Jen's well-meaning and semi-successful attempt to engineer a meeting between Dawson's estranged parents, Gail and Mitch, with the hopeful intention of making them see the ertor of their adultetous ways. This highlights the way in which it is the kids who act as active 'fixers' and seekers of stable family environments. Far more than sex, it is the family that obsesses Dawson and his

friends, as they battle to sustain meaningful relationships in the face of near constant parental shortcomings. In this way, we could argue that Dawson's Creek explores territory not dissimilar to Rebel Without A Cause, particularly in delivering the apparent message that it is parents and not their children who need to mend their ways. As in Rebel, Dawson's Creek exposes parental failure to the harsh gaze of teens who remain convinced that the ideal is workable in practice. Just as Jon Lewis has argued that Nicholas Ray's genre-defining movie ultimately functioned to 'reinscribe the family ideal' (Lewis 1992: 27), so Dawson's Creek appears to engage in similar work in the 1990s. In the closing episode to the show's second season-'Parental Discretion Advised'-Dawson confronts Joey's father over the latter's return to drug-dealing. Urging the just-patoled Mr Potter to give the criminal life up for good, Dawson proceeds to deliver a lecture about family obligations and love to a man more than twice his age who in his defence pleads for some consideration of life's 'greys'. However, like Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause before him, Dawson is committed to honesty at all costs-a commitment which sees Mr Potter back behind bars by the episode's close, but which also results in him losing the love and friendship of on/off girlfriend Joey, who berates Dawson for seeing the world in 'black and white' and finds him responsible for ruining her chance of rekindling a meaningful father-daughter relationship. Here then, Dawson exhibits the archetypal teen ptotagonist's qualities

of naivety and idealism that peers and elders alike can find infuriating. 'I don't understand how someone can be so self-aware and yet so utterly clueless', says an exasperated Joey to Dawson in an early episode; whilst Mitch Leery passes judgement on his son's idealism by pointing out to

172 American Youth Culrures

him thar '[i]n reality, people have flaws'. One of the show's key plotlines is surely Dawson's exposure to these 'flaws'. By the end of the second series, Dawson's construction of a white picket fence outside his girlfriend's house still tells the viewer more about his own continued commitment to innocence and a desire to return to simpler times than it does about the strength ofhis love for her. Clearly, it means so much more to Dawson-a character described as a 'reality rejecter' by one of the show's perceptive young fans. A faith in the sanctity of family life lies at the very heart of Dawson's

Creek. As might be expected, the episode that closes the show's second series seeks to resolve at least some of its loose ends by reasserting this faith. Following a falling out that has resulted in her moving away, Jen Lindley, for example, returns to her grandmother's house seeking her guardian's 'support not [her] judgement'. With Jen's plea for a family answered by her grandmother's tears and hugs, this particular narrative strand is-for the time being-resolved. Throughout the first two series, Pacey and his sheriff father have battled over what the former sees as the latter's lack of affection and the latter views as the former's wilful rebellion. In the episode titled 'Uncharted Waters', Dawson and Pacey take a fishing trip with their respective fathers which rapidly becomes a formn for the boys to air their grievances over parental failings and in particular dysfunctional paternal relationships. During the course of the trip Pacey is constantly belittled or iguored by his father, who he begs in desperation to love him unconditionally irrespective of his shortcomings. Yet, Mr Witter becomes so drunk that his son's appeal passes him by. Pacey catches the day's largest fish; but in a moment that typifies his attitude toward his son, his father merely lets him keep the fish with the crushing observation that it will probably be the sum total of his life's achievement.

Somewhat predictably, Pacey's relationship with his father comes to a head in series two's curtain-call episode, 'Parental Discretion Advised', when Sheriff Witter verbally and then physically assaults his son in front of his work colleagues. Humiliated, Pacey fights back, knocking his father unconscious with a punch that finally alerts Mr Witter to the error of his parenting ways. 'I deserved your punch,' he tells an angry Pacey. Crucially, he admits he knows very little about his son. The key line here is surely his admission that 'I've not been the kind of dad you can talk to', since being unable to talk is one of the greatest 'crimes' in Dawson's Creek. Joey's discovery that her father is back dealing drugs prompts a similar

father-child confrontation, in which the elder person is positioned as the

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prospective recipient of any lessons learned. When Joey asks her father why he has once again jeopardized their future as a family unit, Mr Potter claims he did it to make money for them all to live as a family. Mr Potter tells his daughter that he is 'haunted by the knowledge that I've failed you', and admits that he is 'weak'. Like Pacey's father, his real crime is perhaps that he too cannot or will not 'open up' to others and express himself. The cathartic value of talking, together with the superior status con-

ferred upon those who can actually do it, is further emphasized when Dawson hands out advice to his mother on how to handle her failing marriage. What is of interest here is perhaps not so much the nature or quality of that advice, but rather the illuminating fact that Glil Leety actively seeks advice from her neophyte son. In a genre-defining inversion of expectation, all three parent-ehild confrontations described here show teenagers acting as responsible counsellors to errant and/or confused adults. On one level it might be possible to argue that Dawson's Creek exposes

and passes judgement upon the Boomer values of the generation who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s.l7 Certainly, it is the children who display a greater committnent to ideals that might well label them more conservative than those who are their elders (but in the context of the show's value-system hardly their 'betters'). In 'Alternative Lifestyles', for example, Dawson is appalled to discover that his parents are con- templating an open marriage, following the disclosure of Gail Leety's infidelity. In his hysterical attack on Hollywood, Michael Medved accuses it of 'promoting promiscuity [...Jmaligning marriage [...J encouraging illegitimacy and handing over control to kids who know best' (Medved 1993: 147). He argues that contemporary popular culture helps 'poison relationships between parents and children', since:

[NJo notion has been more aggressively and ubiquitously promoted in films, popular· music, and television than the idea that children know best-that parents are corrupt, hypocritical clowns who must learn decency and integrity from their enlightened off-spring.

(ibid.: 147)

However accurate this assessment might appear to be, given what occurs week-in-week-out in many 'teensomethings', it hardly stands as a major narrative departure. The idea that children 'know best' has always been a staple of pre-electronic mass media youth texts. It is, furthermore,

174 American Youth Culrures

arguably rooted in a national myth dating back to the emergence of the Republic, in which independence itself was figured as a youthful attempt to break free of the parental grip of the British. Notwithstanding this, Medved's attack on the formula which pits 'evil parents vs. enlightened kids' (ibid.: 148) surely misses the point. As a close analysis of Dawson's Creek demonstrates, nothing could be further from the truth. Those critics of the show who would argue that it is disrespectful ofadult authority and an advertisement for teenage promiscuity unaccountably overlook the obvious-namely, that for all the superficial trappings of rebellion on display, the young Capesiders are a fairly moral bunch and that they are in fact earnest advocates of traditional ideals, values and instinrtions. Once again, a useful comparison might be drawn with the movie Rebel Without A Cause, in which the teenage protagonists appear 'more moral, more upstanding and law-abiding than anyone else' (Biskind 1983: 200).

Whilst Medved accuses teen-targeted shows of depicting 'young people as creatures who cannot possibly restrain their lustful impulses' (Medved 1993: 115), Dawson's Creek cannot be found guilty of this charge. For all its talk of and about sex, the show actually demonstrates what Medved in fact calls for when he urges Hollywood to acknowledge that teen attitudes towards sex are both 'complex and conservative' (ibid.: 115).[8 Perhaps no greater illustration of this can be found in the juxta- position between a theme tune entided 'I Don't Want to Wait' and the fact that through a combination of choice and circumstance Dawson does. Commenting on Dawson's virgin status, Joey points out that 'there are popes who have had more [sexual] experience'. Yet, such one-liners aside, the show does not lionize the sexually experienced teen. Pointedly, the teen with the most sexual experience, Jen Lindley, regrets that she was 'sexualized way too young'. VVhilst there is, therefore, some accuracy in Pacey's semi-serious assessment of his best-friend Dawson as the last of a dying breed-'You take in stray animals. You help old ladies across the street. You just say no. You are Jimmy Stewart'-given the opportunity, each of the main protagonists demonstrates a similarly old-fashioned commitment to the view that sex without love is meaning- less. Emphasizing this, Dawson's Creek's 47-year-old producer, Greg Prange notes that, whilst:

it was daring of the show to tackle the fact thatJen lost hervirginity at the age of 12, [...Jthe generation of teens we have today are more conserva- tive. I think it was wilder when I was a teen than it is now.

(quoted in Crosdale, 1999: 139)

I

'Teensomething': American Youth Programming in the 1990s 175

Yet, in keeping with many youth texts down the years, Dawson's Creek mixes liberal and conservative values that are themselves reflective of the teenager's own set ofoften conflicting desires and emotions. The linked episodes 'To Be or Not To Be .. .' and '... That is the

Question' cover more conventional ground, in featuring an archetypal show-down with school authority, emergent sexuality, and that staple of many youth texts, the idea(l) of personal sincerity or integrity. With the possible exception of the diso'acted Pacey, Dawson and his friends are conscientious students who worry about their grades and future employment prospects.!9 As the self-explanatory episode 'All-Niter' demonstrates, they are academically self-motivated. When class-mateJack McPhee is forced by his English teacher, Mr Peterson, to read out loud a confessional poem with apparently homosexual overtones as punishment for in-class indiscipline, he can only get so far before embarrassment gets the better of him and he runs out of the classroom close to tears. The following day, with rumours and innuendo concerning Jack's sexuality flying around the school, Mr Peterson once again forces Jack to read his poem. This time Pacey intervenes and, supporting his friend, asks the teacher why he 'gets off on tormenting' his pupils. Ordered out of the class for insubordination, Pacey spits in Peterson's face before exiting. Hauled before the school principal and asked to apologize, he refuses-

Making a student cry, embarrassing him, stripping him ofhis dignity was not right. And while I respect this system, I do notrespect people like you, Mr Peterson. I don't.

As a result ofhis principled stand he receives a week's suspension. Whilst Pacey admits that spitting at his teacher was wrong, he is determined to expose what he sees as his teacher's bullying, and this determination eventually pays offwhen diligent research uncovers Peterson's violation of numerous pedagogical rules. The outcome is entirely consistent with the show's inversion of the traditional adult-child power axis, as Pacey's discoveries result in Mr Peterson's 'decision' to opt for early retirement rather than face the possibility of a public reprimand. The poem and the very public debate it generates forces JackMcPhee

to admit to his homosexuality. Jack's coming-out also brings into sharp focus yet another instance ofparental failure, as his father flatly refuses to accept his son's sexuality, but instead promises to get him all the 'help' he needs by urging him to see a professional about his 'problem'. On one level, Dawson's Creek is undoubtedly a slick and 'soapy'

176 American Youth Cultures

example of Hollywood product. Yet, as the 'edgiest depiction of teendom since My So-Called Lift' (Sellers 1998: web), it is clear that for many of its young fans it can-and indeed does-function more constructively at the critically undervalued level of emotional realism.2o

Conclusion In Teenagers and Teenpics, Thomas Doherty concludes his examination of Hollywood's post-war drive to tell and sell the teen experieuce with an assessment of teenpics at the tail end of the 1980s:

Up against a parent culture that is ever more accommodating and appeasing, ever less authoritative and overbearing (not to mention present) the teenage rebel faces a problem [...Jnever anticipated. [...JOne of the most fascinating undertones of teenpics since the 1960s is their palpable desire for parental control and authority, not adolescent independence and authority. [...JParents today are more likely to be condemned for being self-centred, weak, and uncertain than for being overbearing, intrusive, or present. [...JIn a culture of loose rules and relative morality, the teenage rebel has lost his best foil. [...JToday's teenpic hero is more often a weird or wimpy one, more liable to flash watery eyes than snarling lips. He is a hapless kid seeking direction, not a tough rebel fleeing restriction.

(Doherty 1988: 237)

Doherty's definition of the archetypal teenpic plot and its main pro- tagonist could apply to the television dramas discussed here. He might well, for example, be describing Dawson Leery or even Angela Chase when he refers to a 'hapless kid seeking direction'. Yet, the contention that 'teensomethings'-like big-screen teenpics-privilege a 'conscious- ness [that] is emphatically adult' (ibid.: 236) should be problematized, if not openly challenged. For whilst these are not revolutionary texts, neither do they advocate acqniescence. Close readings would suggest that they are more complex and less resolution-driven. As viewers, we are not simply delivered to a point at the close ofeach episode with the efficacy of adult values demonstrated, proven and our wayward teens tamed. Like Dawson, it appears that viewers and critics alike must come to terms with the 'greys'. Allied to this point, one of the principal reasons for the pan-

generational appeal of shows like Dawson's Creek and My So-Called Lift is

I

l

'Teensomething': American Youth Programming in the 1990s 177

surely that many of the values usually ascribed to youth have become indistingoishable from those espoused by mainstream adult society. As Doherty himself observes, from the 1960s onwards youth comes to be increasingly defined by a 'movement [...J away from a term denoting chronological age or a developmental phase [...j toward an ever more ephemeral experimental realm', which as it 'progressed upward, not downward' becomes 'a concept not a chronology' (ibid.: 232). Thus, teenage culture becomes the more inclusiveyouth culture and membership swells}!

A brief look at today's schedules confirms that, much as in Hollywood where movies appear to be 'geared unequivocally and unapologetically to the young' (ibid.: 233), a similar transformation has taken place in American TV in the 1990s. It too has become an increasingly 'juvenilised industry' (ibid.: 235). However, part of this chapter's brief has been to suggest that such juvenilization should not be regarded as necessarily detrimental to television's general well-being or representative·of a 'dumbing down'. Just as recent teenpics like Cruel Intentiom, 10 Things I Hate About You, Go and Clueless display far greater energy, wit, and acting and writing talent than many contemporary adult movies, so 'teensomethings'-their small-screen siblings-exhibit such qualities in equal measure. In this instance, juvenilization does not have to mean infantilization.

Notes 1 In his book Demographic Vistas David Marc defines demographics as a 'name of a social science that purports to describe audiences for a particular cultural item, in tenus of salient marketing characteristics-age, sex, income level, education level, religion, race, etc' (Marc 1996: 216).

2 In comparison, ABC's average viewer is aged 35, NBC's 39, and CBS's 48. J Nielsen surveys confinn that girls aged 12-17 and boys aged 12-17 (in this order) remain the demographic units that watch the least television.

4 Predating the arrival of Fox by some five years, cable channel MTV demonstrated the economic viability of an exclusively youth-oriented service; and, whilst ratings were comparatively low compared with those garnered by the major networks, MTV was arguably all about who was being reached and nothow many.

5 The charge that teen shows like Beverley Hills 90210 and Dawson's Creek glamorize what they profess to caution against is a familiar criticism levelled at youth texts down the years. In the 19505, for example, movies like The

178 American Youth Cultures

Blackboard Jungle, The Wild One and Rebel Without A Cause met with similar attacks.

6 The ease with which Winnie Holzman moved from scripting this show to writing My So-Called Life lends support to such a view.

7 It is also worth pointing out that thirtysomething was itself a highly successful example of a show clearly targeted at a potentially lucrative-to-advertisers niche audience. As National Public Radio critic Elvis Mitchell wryly observed, 'I've never seen such a blatant pitch to demographics outside Saturday morning TV' (Feuer 1995: 61): Demonstrating the rewards to be had from homing in on a specific demographic, thirtysomething surely paved the way for the nnapologetic narrow-casting signalled by shows like My So-Called Life.

S There were rumours that Claire Danes's unwillingness to sign a new contract helped hasten and harden the network's resolve to cancel a show which garnered respectable ratings in a highly competitive Wednesday evening slot. It should be noted here that My So-Called Life's Nielsen numbers were as healthy as those currently are for both Party ofFive and Dawson's Ct·eek.

9 December 1998 Nielsen ratings placed Party ofFive 11th with American teen viewers.

IO Party ofFive replicates the basic premise found in S. E. Hinton's 1967 novella The Outsiders, in which the three Curtis brothers struggle to remain a family unit after their parents are killed in a road accident.

11 December 1998 Nielsen ratings for Dawson's Creek showed that it was ranked 5th among teenage viewers. With all four shows placed ahead of it on the ratings non-teen specific, Dawson's Creek can justifiably claim to be the current number one made-far-teens show. Its total audience numbered on average between 6 and 7 million people, confirming healthy cross-generational appeal. Crucially for advertisers and sponsors, research revealed that the show was ranked 1st among teenage girls-traditionally the most elusive demographic.

12 This could be considered a little unexpected, given that Kevin Williamson is on record as identifyingJohn Hughes as his 'hero'.

13 Dawson Leery even sounds like Woody Allen at times. 14 See Chapters 4, 5, and 6 in particular. 15 Creator Kevin Williamson has acknowledged that his characters sometimes 'talk like they've had ten years of therapy', but is adamant that this 'heightened' dialogue does not go above the heads of the show's young audience.

16 In this it is reminiscent of Rebel Without A Cause, which focused at length on parental shortcomings. In his book The Cinema ofAdolescence, David Considine argues that the movie diagnosed the state of the middle-class, suburban family, as opposed to dealing with working-class, urban delinquency. Indeed, it is reported that a full-page advertisement for the movie placed in Variety ran with the headline: 'Maybe the police should have picked up his parents instead!' Writing in the Motion Picture Herald in 1957 Walter Brooks observed of the

'Teensomething': American Youth Programming in the 1990s 179

America that JD movies purported to reflect that 'it's hard to tell if our problems are with adult juveniles or juvenile adults' (in Doherty 1988: 230).

17 Whilst Howe and Strauss identify a tendency to bemoan the excesses and downright selfishness ofBaby Boomers as acharacteristic ofGeneration X, this chapter is not concerned with the ultimately reductive practice of seeking to pigeonholemillions ofAmericans. However, ifitwere, it should be pointed out that the likes ofDawson Leery and his friends do not qualify for 'membership' of Generation X by birthdate, since they fall outside the commonly accepted 1961-81 band. Americans born from 1982 onwards have been tagged members ofthe Millennial Generation (see Introduction).

18 Medved should also take heart from the comments ofTV critic Bruce Fretts, who in defending Dawson's Creek against charges ofan unhealthy sex-obsession, wrote: 'Frankly, I'm more concerned aboutAmerica's youth aping South Park's foul-mouthed cartoon hooligans than the comparativelywholesome Creek kids' (Fretts 1998b: web).

19 It is tempting to view the class clown Pacey as Huck Finn to Dawson's Tom Sawyer. After all, Pacey is more of an outsider figure-under-achieving at school, abused at home, socio-economically 'beneath' his best friend, and sexually experienced at the hands ofa woman more than twice his age. By the close of the second season, however, Pacey is shown knuckling down to his studies and relishing his first 'A' grade term paper, and crucially being 'civilized' by the love ofa good woman in the shape ofAndie McPhee.

20 Viewer feedback registered on the show's official and unofficial websites confinns a high level of interaction and identification with the characters and their dilemmas. Producer Paul Stupin has gone so far as to admit that such feedback can 'help plan how we're going to proceed' (in Crosdale 1999: 136).

21 Typically, Michael Medved blames the 1960s for Hollywood's obsession with and uncritical valorization of all things 'youth" and its concomitant advancement of-what he calls-'the principle of puerile power' (Medved 1993: 151). For Medved, 'the anti-adult messages that characterised that era have remained a fixed and prominent feature' of Hollywood's output (ibid.: 155).

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1945, Fort Worth/Orlando: Harcourt Brace. Wax, R. (1991) 'teensomething', Emmy 13(5): 37--40.

A Note on Materials Dawson's Creek is easily available on compiliation video tapes, The Best ofDawson's Creek Volumes 1 and 2 (1998), ColumbialTriStar Home Video.

Websites http://www.dawsons-creek.com http://www.foxworld.com/po5/show.htm http://www.geocities.comITelevisionCity/Studio/4809 http://UltimateTV.com