Teenage Show
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Teenage Show
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The best teen drama series capture at least one aspect of the high school experience enough to keep both adults and teenagers riveted. Shows like Gossip Girl , Friday Night Lights , and Veronica Mars had enough of the realism of the world at large to keep people of all ages entertained. And these days, everyone with an HBO subscription is hooked on Euphoria , which touches on teen drama themes past and present.
That’s not to say that every teen drama has to be realistic to be good. Sometimes, realism is the last thing you want out of a teen drama: just ask Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Riverdale . After all, if you can't fully relate to a 16-year-old or 17-year-old, you might as well take it one step further and add dark magic or spooky creatures into the mix, right?
No one wants to go back to real high school, but everyone wants to live in a teen drama version of it. Here are the best teen TV shows of all time .
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Home TV The 50 best teen shows of all time
By EW Staff May 10, 2021 at 12:00 PM EDT
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The teen years are both the best and the worst. You're experiencing so many firsts — first love, first real friendship, first time driving a car — as your whole future sits in front of you. But you're also trying to piece together who you are while feeling all the things, navigating the horror that is other teens, and then there's homework. And yet, the same reasons why the teen years are so complicated to live through are why they make for such dramatic, compelling television.
To kick off EW's I Want My Teen TV series, we've ranked the 50 best teen television shows of all time. Before you start telling us all the reasons we're wrong, let us lay out our guidelines for how we defined a "teen show."
We chose to include shows that prominently feature characters between the ages of 13 and 19 and tackle what we deem as "teen issues." That means you'll see a bit of middle school on this list, and a bit of college. It also means you'll see shows that focus a lot on the parents, such as Friday Night Lights or Gilmore Girls . One thing you won't see? Anything we felt classified more as a "family show," with much of the drama taking place inside the family unit and therefore, inside the home. (Think 7th Heaven and Blossom .) Admittedly, a couple of these shows toe the "family show" line — we're looking at you, Fresh Prince and Party of Five — but you'll find all of our reasonings in the blurbs below.
(Netflix, 2018) A motley crew of Black and brown teens is searching for hidden treasure and themselves in Netflix's On My Block , a much-needed series centering on underserved communities whose high school experience is often relegated to the background. At the center of the L.A.-based tale are Monse (Sierra Capri) and her crush Cesar (Diego Tinoco), two kids from the same inner-city neighborhood who find love amid gang wars and family trauma. It's definitely not all doom and gloom, especially when fully immersed in their wild adventures are friends Jamal (Brett Gray), Ruby (Jason Genao), and Jasmine (Jessica Marie Garcia). But a mysterious character named Chivo (Emilio Rivera) is often lurking around and he has homies of his own that rival the teen squad. As literal ceramic gnomes (known as gnomies), it's easy to dismiss them but it's worth noting how they're never too far away from the mayhem. — Rosy Cordero
(E4, 2007) Skins dared to be bold. Over three generations of characters, the British series provided a new look at the lives of teenagers. It showed viewers a slice of life in Bristol, a grittier tale compared to other stories about young people. Fans will remember when Chris (Joe Dempsie) is taken away too soon; Naomi (Lily Loveless) and Emily (Kathryn Prescott) bravely admitting how they feel about each other, and the many of the show's powerful arcs and moments. Although some had issues with the sex scenes and partying lifestyle displayed, Skins often showed the consequences of risky behavior. What that doesn't take into consideration is the poignant storylines and how well it tackled controversial topics. From bullying to adolescent sexuality, mental illness, and more, Skins never shied away from the subject matter it delved into. In the end, Skins ' legacy is in its stars, which include Daniel Kaluuya , Hannah Murray, Dev Patel , and Jack O'Connell , who went on to have incredible careers. — Alamin Yohannes
(ABC, 1965) Don't be a square. Gidget might be the oldest entry on this list, but making surfing and hanging out at the beach a priority while chasing boys under the golden California sun? With her phone line and lots of sass, Gidget ( Sally Field ) feels just as relatable today as a precocious teen who tries to explain the mysteries of youth to her bewildered dad (Don Porter), older sister Anne (Betty Conner), and hapless brother-in-law John (Pete Duel). Gidget and her father share a real warmth for each other, underpinned by strong performances by both Porter and Field in what would be a star turn early in her career. ABC may have prematurely axed Gidget after one season, but the suits with the roots knew they needed more Sally Field on TV, and quickly booked her on a show ( The Flying Nun ) with fewer bikinis and "sexteens" as Anne accidentally calls Gidget's beach bum buddies. — Sarah Sprague
(Netflix, 2017) This fantastically crass animated series may be populated by hormone monsters, talking pubic hair, and the ghost of Duke Ellington, but its vision of puberty is disarmingly real. Somehow combining gross-out period jokes and insightful lessons on sexuality, Big Mouth feels a bit like the funniest, filthiest sex ed class you never took, following preteen friends Nick ( Nick Kroll ), Andrew ( John Mulaney ), Jessi ( Jessi Klein ), and Missy (previously Jenny Slate , now Ayo Edebiri) as they learn to navigate new relationships and their changing bodies. Add in Kroll and Maya Rudolph as the voices of the aforementioned hormone monsters, and you've got one delightfully gross ode to the weirdness of growing up. — Devan Coggan
(Hulu, 2019) Hulu's surreal sitcom was only included in our ranking after much conversation about when, precisely, a kid becomes a teenager. But that ambiguity cuts to the emotionally delicate core of this seventh-grade saga. Co-creators Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine are grown-up performers playing fictionalized versions of their junior-high selves. The characters Anna and Maya are best friends caught together in the nightmare landscape between childhood and adulthood: crushes, changing bodies, R-rated movies, an oncoming divorce, and the lawless mood of up-all-night sleepovers. Millennials can appreciate how Konkle, Erskine, and fellow co-creator Sam Zvibleman capture every micro-detail of Y2K life. But the stunning leads transcend nostalgia and evoke a palpable edge-of-puberty awkwardness. PEN15 has a dreamy side, but the performances carry a painful realism. By comparison, even some great shows on this list look like twentysomething model mixers. — Darren Franich
(Netflix, 2018) Some teen dramas provide a fantasy: a castle-like campus, complete with Abercrombie & Fitch model-like students and flashy vehicles, like The O.C. and Beverly Hills 90210 . Others are steeped in sex, drugs, and general dysfunction — cough, Euphoria — as kids battle against overwhelming odds to make it to graduation. One is unattainably aspirational, the other an important reflection of many people's reality. Derry Girls falls into neither category and is excellent because it's so universally relatable — even if you didn't attend Catholic school or grow up with your extended family living in your home. The coming-of-age comedy, set in '90s Derry, Northern Ireland, follows a group of teen girls (and one boy) who are refreshingly average. They're curious about sex in so far as it's something on the periphery that they'll get to, they try to assert their individuality by refusing to wear their blazers to school, and they get excited by pop concerts and fried foods. The show unabashedly explores that in-between part of life that you can't wait to escape because it just seems so torturous at the time, and instead of glorifying it, reveals it for what it truly is: a necessary mess. — Ruth Kinane
(MTV, 2002) Many teenagers find themselves struggling to live up to their potential, but it makes sense that the problem would be even worse for literal clones of Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi. Clone High 's inventive premise — that the U.S. government secretly cloned every major historical figure they could think of, but then had no idea what to do with these pubescent legends other than sticking them in a high school together — only made 13 episodes before the inclusion of Gandhi sparked outrage in India and the animated series was canceled. Even so, that single season survived on YouTube thanks to its absurdist take on teen-culture tropes (such as when Spanish conquistador Ponce de Leon pops up for one episode so that he can die and inspire a Very Special Message about the dangers of littering). No wonder creators Phil Lord and Chris Miller ( The Lego Movie , Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ) went on to expand the possibilities of 21st-century animation. — Christian Holub
(CW, 2018) All American brings a myriad of Black experiences to TV in a way few shows ever have. Based on the life of NFL player Spencer Paysinger, the drama follows teen athlete Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) as he moves from Crenshaw to Beverly Hills to achieve his dreams of playing professional football. Seeing the lives of folks in both Crenshaw and Beverly Hills, separately and when they come together, adds to the spectrum of Black experiences the show can showcase. For example, when Layla Keating (Greta Onieogou) is coming to terms with her depression, the show spends a season deeply exploring her struggle. All American also tackles topics including gang violence and teen pregnancy. Plus, it's fun! (We'll never forget the Black cotillion.) While balancing the joy and stark realities of being Black in America, the drama has been doing the inclusive storytelling that many hope to see more of. — Alamin Yohannes
(ABC, 1975) First airing in the late '70s and then garnering new pupils in syndication, Welcome Back, Kotter was a celebration of mediocre students and the teacher saddled with them. Mr. Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) gets his name in the sitcom title as the beleaguered educator working at his old high school, but the "Sweathogs" — the group of lovable delinquents who give him a hard time and occasionally learn something — are the real heads of the class. Leading that pack is a young John Travolta as Sweathog-in-chief Vinnie Barbarino, the role that would launch his career, seated amongst classmates that reflect the show's diverse Brooklyn setting (among them Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs' Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington and Robert Hegyes' Juan Epstein). In addition to Travolta, the series' four-year run also gave viewers the unforgettable voice of nerdy, naïve Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo), made John Sebastian's "Welcome Back" theme a hit, and brought forth the insult "up your nose with a rubber hose!" (Which deserves full marks in its own right.) — Jessica Derschowitz
(ABC Family/Freeform, 2010) Following behind Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars took the teen mystery to the next level. Based on Sara Shepard's book series, Pretty Little Liars follows high school best friends Aria ( Lucy Hale ), Spencer ( Troian Bellisario ), Emily ( Shay Mitchell ), and Hanna ( Ashley Benson ) as they deal with the disappearance of their other bestie, mean girl Alison DiLaurentis ( Sasha Pieterse ) … and her yellow tank top. But when the girls start receiving mysterious text messages from an anonymous sender, the question becomes: Is Alison actually dead? The series, which revolutionized using social media to interact with a fandom, delivered countless shocking twists and multiple major reveals — including more than one "A" — in its seven seasons. And although its later seasons lost some of the spark of the original mystery, its impressive run earns it a place on this list. — Samantha Highfill
(Disney Channel, 2001) Growing up can be hard, but in the words of Lizzie McGuire 's enduring theme song, sometimes all you can do is figure it out on the way. This Disney Channel staple captures early-aughts adolescence in all its awkwardness, following the quirky, fashion-focused Lizzie ( Hilary Duff ), her best friend Miranda (Lalaine), and her lovesick pal Gordo (Adam Lamberg). The 13-year-old Lizzie learns how to navigate middle school, from begging her parents for a bra to trying to avoid the mortal sin of being — gasp! — an outfit repeater. But what sets the show apart from its similarly sunny Disney Channel counterparts is Duff's charming and all-too-relatable performance: She plays both live-action Lizzie and her animated alter ego, who narrates the show and always pops up in that familiar pink tank top and orange platform flip-flops. (Hey, it was the early '00s!) — Devan Coggan
(MTV, 2011) The only thing MTV's Teen Wolf series shares with the 1985 Michael J. Fox film of the same name is just that — its name. Otherwise, showrunner Jeff Davis' dark, violent supernatural teen drama couldn't be more different from its
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