TV Smackdown! The Best Show About School

There was a popularity ladder at school? Damn, I was told they were devinely appointed for life. If I’d only known back then what I know now, life would have been much different.

I’ll throw a little love towards Saved By the Bell for a weird reason – the PG nature of high school on that show was actually closer to my experience than the sex/alcohol fueled series like O.C., 90210, or even Friday Night Lights….not to say it was more “real”, but it does hold a special place in my heart.

Right now, I’m all about Friday Night Lights, though. What a show…

Buffy. Absolutely. Escapist, but it showed the truth of the high school experience. But there was a show in the late 80′s called TV 101 with Sam Robarbs that I thought was terrific in showing a realist high school setting. And White Shadow as well felt authentic.
And, if it’s ok now to admit it — I never loved Freaks and Geeks either even though it overlapped my high school years (maybe because it did.) I thought it was good but smug and I was given the dvd a year ago but still haven’t rewatched it. Now when the My So Called Life dvd comes out later this fall I think I am going to dive into reliving that world right away.

Buffy, no question – Hellmouth over the high school, ’nuff said. Followed closely by Freaks and Geeks and Veronica Mars. Greek (set in college) started this summer and was quite good, except for the really awful episode with the crazy chick from Cappie’s summer camp.

Gosh! They did a TV series of “Lord of the Flies?” Maybe it was a mid-season replacement that I missed…

Buffy. Followed a long long way behind by Veronica Mars.

I’m tempted to say all of the above; aside from Freaks and Geeks, which I haven’t seen, they are all favourites. In a way, all these American shows seem like escapism to me, since the whole high school experience just appears to be wildly different from going to school in rural or suburban Norway.
A couple of favourites from my early-to-mid teens: The British Press Gang, which I believe would still be watchable today, and the Australian Heartbreak High, which I suspect was more fluff than anything else, even though I loved it at the time.

Freaks and Geeks wins for most realistic, which I liked. I like shows like The O.C. and Veronica Mars but I grew up in small town New England so that wasn’t exactly my experience.

I agree with Chaddogg for the Saved by the Bell love. Not so much that that’s how school was for me, but I watched that show while in school and we’d all take on a persona of one of the characters the next day in class.

But yeah, Freaks and Geeks, no contest.

Buffy, though I preferred the later years of that
show.

Personally, I hated high school and the metaphor or the Hellmouth resonated with me.

Granted not all of the series actually took place within the walls of Capeside High, I still love Dawson’s Creek. Teen angst at its hyperverbal best.

This one’s kind of unconventional, but remember that show The Sentinel? One of the main characters was a teaching graduate student in Anthropology, and academia was a pretty subtle but constant influence on the show. (Personally, it was kinda inspirational. It helped me change my major, for one thing.)

Oh, hey, and A Different World!

Personal favorite is My So Called Life (If you’ve never watched it, you should) and Buffy runs a close second.

Buffy’s number one, as always. I will definitely support you on Felicity. And as much as you may make fun of Boy Meets World, it holds a special place in my TV heart as a “favorite”, even if not as a “best”.

(With the whole “other bloggers” thing in the intro, I thought you were going to mention Tim Goodman’s similar post a few weeks ago: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=24&entry_id=19703 .)

Currently, Friday Night Lights, which reminds me…James, are you going to do FNL watches? Seems like it would be a great way to kick off a Monday morning.

In the past, Dawson’s Creek until Pacey and Joey sailed away. I did like when they involved football with the Jack. The whole gay man on the football team was a great storyline especially given where America was on gay rights issues at the time.

Finally, Saved by the Bell. It was the first TV show I returned to watch again and again because I was interested in the characters and what would happen to them next thereby setting the stage for rest of my life.

To add to my earlier comment, I will put a vote in for Felicity as well. And also, I can’t believe I forgot Once and Again. Although it’s remembered as Sela Ward’s and Billy Campbell’s show, the kids (including the now moved on to the movies Evan Rachel Wood) and what they were going through in school and at home were the real heart of the show. And Eric Stolz’s turn as Grace’s teacher was, I thought, one of the best guesting runs on television.

@Drew: Good chance of FNL Watch, often if not every week. As I’ve said, I don’t want the blog to become nothing but Watches–and there are only so many hours in a day–but it would be one of the better choices.

How bout this one?! Square Pegs w/Sarah Jessica Parker – never watched Freeks and Geeks, but maybe this was an earlier version….

Don’t forget the funniest high school show ever: Welcome Back Kotter. It set the mold for every high shcool sitcom to come later.

For us oldsters, Welcome Back Kotter and Our Miss Brooks probabaly top the list. And yes, this topic is a total ripoff of Tim Goodman’s The Bastard Machine a while back, at SFGate.com

But it’s always good to get another perspective. What about school movies, James?

@Wizard64: Dazed and Confused. Which probably has a thing or two in common with FNL, come to think of it.

“That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older. They stay the same age.”

Okay, here I am, representing. I loved Boy Meets World, at least in the early years. Of course, it helped that they were the same age as I was. My interest in it faded as we all got older, and the show got less funny. (Oddly, Cory and friends started sixth grade with me as the Class of 2000, but somehow ended up graduating as the Class of 1998 – and the fact that I know this probably shows I watched a few too many reruns while in college.)

Also a huge Saved by the Bell fan. But of the dramas, my vote has to go to Friday Night Lights.

Room 222 anyone?

Agreed with Lisabeth! Once and Again, I thought, did a very good job portraying the schooling life of the kids. Eric Stoltz was great. Off-topic here, but Patrick Dempsey also had an Emmy-nominated guest-starring turn as Lily’s brother. Just a great show and a great acting showcase for the wonderful cast.

My son’s at school, so I’ll represent the “Boy Meets World” love for him. He started watching it in reruns on the Disney Channel, and got some of the DVD’s. He likes it because for the most part, it’s a nice show, not snarky or mean.

While it wasn’t my cup of tea, I did enjoy William Daniels as Mr. Feeny.

F&G obviously…

others:

Square Pegs
Degrassi jr high AND next generation both genius