All-TIME 100 TV Shows

Felicity

Everett

The finest, funniest and quirkiest of the ’90s explosion of young-adult dramas, this WB bildungsroman was a rare soap about a young woman in which her personal growth was as important as her love life. True, the title character (Keri Russell) moved across country to follow high-school crush Ben (Scott Speedman) to the University of New York (strongly based on NYU), and the hook of the series was her choice between him and her friend Noel (Scott Foley). But the real storyline—the way it is in college—was as much about discovering what she wanted to do, what her interests were and who she was. Unlike many teen soaps, Felicity recognized that its characters weren’t fully formed: they experimented, they made mistakes, they contradicted themselves and surprised you. Like My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks did for high school, Felicity took on college and aced the test.

Next: Freaks and Geeks