Entertainment Weekly's THE 50 BEST TEEN TV SHOWS EVER

Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks and Friday Night Lights. several others were guilty pleasures

1. My So-Called Life
2. Freaks and Geeks
3. Never Have I Ever
4. Happy Days

Haven't seen Friday Night Lights. Saw some of The O.C. early on in the run; is there anything good about it beyond Adam Brody?

10. Dawson's Creek (WB, 1998)
14. The Wonder Years (ABC, 1988)
29. The Facts of Life (NBC, 1979)
46. Pen15 (Hulu, 2019)
47. Big Mouth (Netflix, 2017)

Never saw Dawson's Creek. I sat through the whole of The O. C. It was trash but I enjoyed watching it. Haven't see any of the other ones mentioned except Freaks and Geeks, which was pretty great

I appreciated Felicity more after seeing Keri Russell in The Americans. Gossip Girl was clearly the successor to The O. C.

pen15 at 46 is so low!!

fnl is a good choice for number one, but it’s buffy. revolutionary show in so many ways

fnl is a good choice for number one, but it’s buffy. revolutionary show in so many ways

oops

Beavis and BUtthead

Always liked the video segments of B&B (on Flaming Lips: "uh, I think these guys went to college") way better than the narrative stuff.

great top 2. i would go buffy as well but FNL is excellent.

we tried my so-called life again recently and i could not get with it at all. like half of each episode is about the stupid parents.

Still have to see Pen15. One of my best friends who's opinion I respect really liked Buffy, but that show didn’t do it for me. Glee was good for only about a half dozen episodes if that. Beverly Hills 90210, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and My So Called Life aired during periods where I couldn’t be bothered

these are the ones i've watched a lot of
9. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (NBC, 1990)
11. Daria (MTV, 1997)
14. The Wonder Years (ABC, 1988)
21. That 70's Show (Fox, 1998)
23. Boy Meets World (ABC, 1993)
25. Happy Days (ABC, 1974)
26. Saved by the Bell (NBC, 1989)
31. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (ABC/WB, 1996)
32. Beavis & Butt-head (MTV, 1993)

teen soap operas were always insufferable imho

i'd go with beavis & butt-head.

where's TMNT and Power Rangers?

xp you clarified it for me, I guess the teen soap operas were my favorites

I enjoyed Freaks n Geeks, So called life, Wonder Years and a couple others, but I kept scrolling figuring there'd be a show that was more worthy of my vote. Nope. Voted So called life just cause I was contemporaneous with Angela.
Googled AJ Langer cause I had such a crush on her and was curious how she looks now. She's a Countess!

my picks by life stages

pre-teen: saved by the bell, wonder years
early teens: fresh prince
later teens: ??
20s: freaks and geeks (was a teen when it was out, didn't watch it like everyone else until later)
current: pen15

One Tree Hill was incredibly sappy and I only saw a bit of it but I remember it vividly for some reason

I know you all won't agree, but I think We Are Who We Are (35) was really complex and interesting and I voted for that

didn't see it at first

Glad to see A Different World here, underrated.

The top two are my top two, with the order switched

Dwayne Wayne!

Never saw Dawson's Creek.

I never saw about 46 of these and the few I did see were some episodes in syndication, not the original broadcasts. just fyi, those few I did watch were more out of desperation for some type of distraction than from real interest and enjoyment. they were all pretty crappy. buffy came closest to justifying its existence, but I only saw maybe six or eight episodes total, so I may be wrong about it.

even as someone who grew up in the 90's I thought That 70's Show really captured what it was like to be 16. even the adult characters came off like what a teenager perceives an adult to be like. definitely not the best show on the list but I have a soft spot for it

Disney and Nickelodeon are noticeably absent among the choices and, I get it, but The Adventures of Pete & Pete and You Can't Do That On Television should 100% be in this list.

Beverly Hills 90210, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and My So Called Life aired during periods where I couldn’t be bothered

― Dan S, Friday, September 3, 2021 9:30 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is so funny to me because of all the shows on this list, these are probably the 3 that feel most indelibly embedded in my childhood and were probably most beloved to me as an actual preteen/young teen. Although I always loved the Wonder Years.

I think I love Freaks and Geeks the most but it suffers by having so few episodes. I always think of it as My So Called Life if done in the style/tone of the Wonder Years.

xp agreed, Nickelodeon deserves something on there. Those would both be worthy choices, Johnny Fever. Clarissa Explains it All also deserving of an honorable mention. Hey Dude loomed large in my childhood but it wasn't exactly a quality show.

In the early days of their original programming Nick had a very bad teen soap opera called Fifteen, that I remember being like if you took the plots from 90210 and played them out on a soundstage Saved by the Bell type set with scripts straight out daytime soaps. Hadn't thought about that show in probably 20 years till now.

I don’t think FNL should count, that’s a prestige family drama.

Buffy and Veronica Mars are a toss-up IMO.

Dawson’s Creek is the best of the true teen series (drama is all drawn from the well of teen and young adult angst).

2. Buffy - tried this a couple times, couldn't get into it. possibly i should skip ahead a season or something idk
7. My So-Called Life - remember liking it back in the day but little else
11. Daria - ditto
15. Party of Five - ditto
21. That 70s Show - great up until circa Donna goes blond; the replacement Eric is abominable
32. Beavis & Butthead - i don't even really think of this as a show? would have liked it better if it had been just videos tbh
45. Derry Girls - this is great but i've only seen S1

FNL was overwhelmingly young-person driven, though, unlike most prestige shows. The decision whether or not to include it would be tough, but if the answer is "yes" then it has to go in at #1.

haven't seen FNL but my understanding is that the breakout stars of the show are the coach and/or his wife?

Felicity might get in on a technicality, but it's a college show from the jump. Sure, it was some freshmen who were probably still teens, but the fundamental part of being a "teen show" necessitates some presence of high school.

haven't seen FNL but my understanding is that the breakout stars of the show are the coach and/or his wife?

Maybe outside the context of the show, but inside the universe of the show I don't feel like that was the case. It was a finely balanced ensemble.

Square Pegs (CBS, 1982) I thought was a great show, though it only lasted one season. It felt kinda true to life.

Square Pegs (CBS, 1982) I thought was a great show, though it only lasted one season. It felt kinda true to life.

If I hadn't done a full series re-watch of The Wonder Years a few years ago, I'd probably have voted for it on instinct and nostalgia, but I can't do that with it fresher in my memory (it has captial F FLAWS), so I'll probably throw a vote at Freaks & Geeks.

I haven’t watched wonder years since it came out! And a couple re-runs. What were the Flaws on your revisit?

Mainly inconsistencies with characters from season to season (and sometimes week to week). Also, Kevin Arnold is way more of a bitch than you remember, and Winnie Cooper sucks. So maybe not flaws so much as false memories.

Which, in a weird way, makes the teenage experience VERY accurate.

oh kevin arnold is the ultimate bitch

i see him as my god-father in some ways, he's such a fucking asshole. winnie cooper sucks and is also by far the best thing happening in the neighborhood, it's hyperrealistic

The Wonder Years remake is going to make some dumb people very mad.

are there characters in the background who are like FUCK KEVIN AND WINNIE? I don't remember them, as a kid, other than the occasional bully in the show or whatever (and the older brother, who is trump dominating in Louisiana in 2016), but in general it seemed like the message was that you were supposed to root for them. but you know what? fuck kevin and winnie

This is Buffy, but Elite and Euphoria are both great fun and I wish I had had shows like them when I was a teenager.

kevin's whole message and storyline is that he wants all these things handed him to him. winnie demands absolute perfection. the older brother just logrolls over the entire thing while the feckless dad votes against unions and the mom is on every pill of all time. it is a great show

My impression watching the show as a kid was that the oldest sister Karen was a flake, but upon rewatching she was one of the only people in the whole Wonder Years universe that had her head on straight.

buffy.

“never have I ever” being on this list as high as it is is weird

The Wonder Years remake is going to make some dumb people very mad.

Oh yeah, when the trailer dropped a few months ago, there was some real ugly shit on twitter (but what else is new?). Imma check it out, though.

41. Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family/Freeform, 2010)

this show sucked ass

I found every character on F&G dislikable, a core piece of the teen TV world is that even villains aren't supposed to be wholly terrible (even if it requires a gay dad controversy for redemption).

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, September 4, 2021 5:49 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

kids suck!

Mainly inconsistencies with characters from season to season (and sometimes week to week).

I watched a bunch of Boy Meets World episodes recently and funnily enough, there's a similar diregard for continuity (Corey Matthews is Kevin Arnold's little brother irl). I don't think it matters that much, the show is heavily stylized and the dialog is strangely expositional. But clearly it wasn't designed for binge watching.

Only seen about half of these shows.

Any excuse to post this will do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXipPKsbUHA

But clearly it wasn't designed for binge watching.

This is a great point. Not only could you not just pull up an entire series on Netflix or whatever, but you couldn't even really buy shows by the season until dvd—some series came out on vhs, but only very select titles like Twin Peaks, etc—so the producers of these dgaf about continuity because why bother.

Freaks and Geeks was the best fuiud

I loved F&G so much two decades ago I am a little afraid to even think about it now, especially given the later careers of the various principals.

same here

I’m old. Square Pegs. The gay surfer guy with the headphones was my hero. And never forget Buffy and her little Nicaraguan orphan.

my niece was just a little younger than Rory growing up, and she also had that super-bonded relationship with her mother (my sister). They loved Gilmore Girls so it meant a lot to me

Not only could you not just pull up an entire series on Netflix or whatever, but you couldn't even really buy shows by the season until dvd—some series came out on vhs, but only very select titles like Twin Peaks, etc—so the producers of these dgaf about continuity because why bother

Kind of related, but I was recently going back though random WKRP's, and was reminded that they had to do a clip show for their 8th or 9th ep because they'd been taken off the air for a couple months, and that was the easiest & cheapest way to relaunch the show.

Just remembered that Topanga on BMW had like three different sets of parents (one of her dads was Peter Tork!).

I was hardly a regular viewer, but I don't remember Boy Meets World being anything but terrible. I do have to wonder, though: does it represent possibly the last time that one of these shows could be so blatantly homoerotic without (as far as I can remember) ever feeling the need to seriously acknowledge the existence of queerness?

Out of the dumb stuff I watched passively as a kid - Dawson's Creek

Out of the stuff I actively searched for in later life - Big Mouth

Buffy or Daria. Probably going to the former but I hope the latter gets some votes. Not seen any of the most recent ones - I sort of liked the look of Derry Girls from the ads but no idea if it actually would be for me.

I watched a couple of episodes of Derry Girls and enjoyed it, thought the cast were talented, but ultimately I’m not in the mood for that kind of shit now. It gets harder to watch these shows the further away you get from your own teens. When I was in college I watched 90210 and Saved by the Bell ironically, with no emotional connection to them. Beavis and Butthead I thought was legitimately great though. Daria looked interesting at the time but I kind of felt I already knew everything about the culture it was trying to comment on.

Big Mouth easily.

Gilmore Girls or My So-Called Life, no contest.

Although with Gilmore Girls I very quickly tired of anything to do with Rory's love life (so the main "teen" aspect of the show). I much preferred all of Lorelei's relationships (w/ Rory, w/ her boyfriends, w/ the grandparents) and the quirky bucolic small-town semi-plots. A very comforting show.

Big Mouth easily.

― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Sunday, 5 September 2021 21:43 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

FP

is there anything problematic about Big Mouth?

big mouth is genuinely one of the most aesthetically repellent things i've ever attempted to watch lol

the Sex Education snub is what you'd expect from a US-centric list but I'd have probably voted F&G anyway, a show that doesn't need to hammer home the interior lives of its characters but expresses them with exquisite subtlety

American Vandal S1 was amazing, got about 2 minutes into S2

one of the most aesthetically repellent things

Can't argue with that. Still almost voted for it.

a whole show about horrifically ugly children constantly jacking off

Step By Step isn't on the list bruh

Voted for Daria but hadnt spotted Big Mouth was in the list dammit

Also why is Degressi nextgen there but not Degrassi HIgh?

Because EW staff skews millennial rather than gen x-er I assume. What a bunch of broomheads.

Yeah, there's like one old person on staff who threatened to resign if Happy Days, The Facts of Life, Welcome Back Kotter, and Square Pegs weren't included.

tbh, as much as I love Sally Field, including Gidget feels like pandering to the over 60s in the readership. It was NOT good. If they were going back that far, they should've opted for the Patty Duke Show.

I never felt like Happy Days was a "teen show" in the way the others on the list were.

1. Friday Night Horse (NBC/DirecTV, 2006)
2. Buffy the Vampire Horse (WB/UPN, 1997)
3. The H.O.R.S.E. (Fox, 2003)
4. Beverly Hills, Horse (Fox, 1990)
5. Freaks and Horse (NBC, 1999)
6. Gilmore Horse (WB/CW, 2000)
7. My So-Called Horse (ABC, 1994)
8. Veronica Horse (UPN/CW, 2004)
9. The Fresh Prince of Horse (NBC, 1990)
10. Dawson's Horse (WB, 1998)
11. Horse (MTV, 1997)
12. Degrassi: The Next Generation (CTV, 2001)
13. Horse (WB, 1998)
14. The Wonder Horse (ABC, 1988)
15. Party of Horse (Fox, 1994)
16. Horse (UPN, 1996)
17. The Vampire Horse (CW, 2009)
18. American Horse (Netflix, 2017)
19. Gossip Horse (CW, 2007)
20. A Different Horse (NBC, 1987)
21. That 70's Horse (Fox, 1998)
22. Never Have I Horse (Netflix, 2020)
23. Boy Meets Horse (ABC, 1993)
24. Horse (HBO, 2019)
25. Happy Horse (ABC, 1974)
26. Saved by the Horse (NBC, 1989)
27. Square Horse (CBS, 1982)
28. Everwood (WB, 2002)
29. The Facts of Horse (NBC, 1979)
30. Horse (Fox, 2009)
31. Sabrina, the Teenage Horse (ABC/WB, 1996)
32. Beavis & Horse (MTV, 1993)
33. Horse (WB, 2001)
34. One Tree Horse (CW, 2003)
35. We Are Who We Horse (HBO, 2020)
36. Sister, Horse (ABC/WB, 1994)
37. Horse (CW, 2017)
38. Horse (Netflix, 2018)
39. Teen Horse (MTV, 2011)
40. Lizzie Horse (Disney Channel, 2001)
41. Pretty Little Horse (ABC Family/Freeform, 2010)
42. Welcome Back, Horse (ABC, 1975)
43. All Horse (CW, 2018)
44. Clone Horse (MTV, 2002)
45. Derry Horse (Netflix, 2018)
46. Horse15 (Hulu, 2019)
47. Big Horse (Netflix, 2017)
48. Horse (ABC, 1965)
49. Horse (E4, 2007)
50. On My Horse (Netflix, 2018)

Missed one :)

12. Degrassi: The Next Horse (CTV, 2001)

Dammit

28. Horse (WB, 2002)

horrifically ugly children constantly jacking off
Which show are you referring to? Please be more specific.

^gotta be Welcome Back Kotter

Well they jack it a looot

Big Mouth was designed that way to repel pedophiles.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/WeightyCavernousAgouti-size_restricted.gif

Beaver & Buffcoat

Big Mouth was designed that way to repel pedophiles.

― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Tuesday, 7 September 2021 12:24 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

whaddaya tryina sayyyyy

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

in the end it was between Gilmore Girls and Friday Night Lights for me, ended up choosing Gilmore Girls since I know it won’t get as many votes

Write in vote for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Maynard G. Krebs 4evrrr.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

gossip girl beat gilmore girls….. my powers work

I just opened this thread a couple hours ago and voted for F&G. Glad I could push it to 1st. Surprised at B&B's high showing, though it is deserved.

glad Freaks and Geeks won. The love for Beavis and Butt-head is incomprehensible to me and makes me suspicious of ilxors' opinions on every other subject

I forgot to vote for Dawson's Creek.

At the last minute I went with my heart and voted for The O.C. I'm glad I did.

44. Clone High (MTV, 2002) 0

:(

in the end it was between Gilmore Girls and Friday Night Lights for me, ended up choosing Gilmore Girls since I know it won’t get as many votes

― Dan S, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 00:16 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Should fp this but wont