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The pioneering teen drama ABC has only lasted one season, but what producers and actors have achieved over these 19 episodes still shows what it means to be a teenager in America. The show portrays confused – and intelligent – teenagers looking for love and acceptance while battling family problems, addiction, homophobia, unrequited love shared and treatment of violence at school.
"They [ABC] Winnie Holzman, the creator of "My So-Called Life", told CNN that "for a long time, I was interested in a show featuring real teenage TV shows." "They said," What if you had to write a teenager who we did not try to stereotype or make perfect? " It was giving them permission to be honest and it was stimulating. They said, "We just want you to be honest, write it from your heart. When people say that's a powerful thing. "
Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the show. To mark the event, I watched the series again and it remains as relevant and relevant as it did more than two decades ago. Here are five episodes that stand out, with a glimpse of Holzman in each of them.
1. "Driver" (Season 1, Episode 1)
We meet Angela Chase, who is in her second year at Liberty High, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She wears plaid shirts and combat boots with dresses and tints her hair in dark red. While sailing in high school, she tries to shake her best childhood friend, Sharon Cherski, apparently very good two shoes, in favor of Rayanne, played by A.J. Langer and Rickie Vasquez, played by Wilson Cruz. Angela tells most episodes and this one establishes her love for the bad boy Jordan Catalano.
"I did not come to this idea myself," says Holzman. "I was in collaboration with Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (who produced" Thirtysomething ") .They approached me and we all had in mind this old series entitled" Family "in which Kristy McNichol played the role of The school's goal is to try a new personality, as the pilot says when Claire says, "How do I know it's really me?" But the question of how I really know who I am was really at the heart of it all, these are things that are part of the growth so it's not like I've invented anything. "
2. "Guns and Gossip" (Season 1, Episode 3)
"Everyone knows that there are about 50 firearms in the school at any time," says Rayanne in this episode. At the time, it was rare that a teen drama broadcast on a major network covers violence at school.
A shot is fired in a locker of Liberty High and Rickie is suspected of having brought him to school after being bullied for gay. Angela comforts Rickie in his car during a storm after seeing him jostling. Angela explains that her life is not perfect, like Rickie's, and that rumors that she slept with Jordan were going to school. "I hate everyone," she says.
Holzman says that she was able to succeed moments like this because the producers trusted her.
"These guys who were advising me said, write down what you think," she recalls. "On the emotional level, a lot of the series came from me and from my emotions, but it's not my autobiography." All the idea that it's fully dimensional, it means that the whole world around it must also be multidimensional. "
3. "Why Jordan Can not Read (Season 1, Episode 7)
Jordan Catalano will break your heart in this episode. During a school outing in a museum, Jordan starts talking to Angela, telling him that he drinks his "black coffee, with three or four sugars" and that the way she questions him at About coffee will make you feel bad.
Angela continues to write him a five-page love letter, addressed to him by name. He finds it and returns it, saying that he only reads "parts" because it was boring. Angela lies on the fact that a dead boyfriend is really the subject of the love letter, but she quickly understands that Jordan can not read because she's smart like that.
"You could not read it, is not it?" Angela asks.
"I've never told anyone before," he says.
Later in the episode, he drives her back to her car and kisses her to wish her good night. She is so happy that she turns around her door before coming home. (Again, cue the tears of the viewer.)
"They allowed writers to take small moments that you would normally reject and give them the depth they had," says Holzman.
4. "Self-esteem" (Season 1, Episode 12)
"Why are you like this", is perhaps the most famous line of the series. It comes from Angela when Jordan only wants to meet her privately and refuses to recognize her with her friends.
"Like that?" Jordan asks
"Like you," she said.
Earlier, Jordan had turned his back on a pool table, telling him that she was pressing him. Angela suffers so much that you feel her pain when she challenges him to look at her. She turns around and goes home, where she cries on the couch.
In this multi-level episode we see a lot of Angela's parents exploring their lives and their identities. A new teacher encourages Rickie to join the drama club and begins to understand that he has problems at home. Angela tries to defend herself. In 2009, TV Guide ranked episode number 44 on its list of the 100 greatest episodes of all time.
"I [did get] emotional writing, of course, of course. "I was not sitting there sobbing," laughs Holzman. "It was more like when I write, if I feel emotional, I know I'm on something."
5. "So-Called Angels" (Season 1, Episode 15)
You can actually feel Christmas in Trois-Rivières in this episode, which deals with Rickie's family life. After being kicked out of his home because he's gay, Angela defends his own mother, Patty, to help her. He shows up at their house with a black eye, then Patty finds him later in the church, where the whole family ends up – with his neighbor Brian Krakow. Rickie goes home with the Chase to spend Christmas with them.
"It allowed small moments to have their full value," Holzman says. The teenager herself in our culture can be dismissed and despised. Whatever the level of the series, at a certain level, no, you can not neglect it, its complex and fascinating qualities. "
The series also dealt with mother-daughter dynamics, as well as betrayals of friendship and intimidation.
The show is currently airing on Hulu.
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