Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television

Glassman, entertainment editor at the website SheKnows, debuts with a fun, nostalgic look at how classic teen TV shows have influenced modern television. Teen shows of the past few decades were often culturally groundbreaking, Glassman writes, such as in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s depiction of a Black family with “a totally different level” of wealth and positive perspective on hip-hop. My So-Called Life had the first teenager to come out on television, and Dawson’s Creek protested California’s Prop 22 with an “anti-prom” episode that featured the first kiss between two men on network television, earning the program two GLADD awards. Other shows expanded the structural and tonal possibilities for network teen television, notable examples being Freaks and Geeks’ “independent feature film” style and Friday Night Lights’ sometimes ad-libbed, sometimes overlapping dialogue, which Glassman contends helped leverage the show into a “leading contender in prestige TV.” While some chapters don’t delve as deep as others (the discussion of Glee, for instance, is monopolized by the show’s numerous scandals and tragedies), Glassman offers enough tantalizing, behind-the-scenes scoop to keep readers hooked, peeling back the curtain on writers’ processes, casting decisions, and on-set gossip. This look at teen TV classics will delight anyone who loves to “did you know” their friends while rewatching a favorite. (June)