Talk:My So-Called Life

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[edit] Early discussions

"the only television series ever to use character development and metaphor to drive the plot"

Of course, and Jewel in the Crown or I, Claudius were just glorified soap operas.

Get rid of this hyperbole.HBR

Should the names of the characters be wikified? Seems like it makes the page a big hyperlink mess to me. Jeversol 18:26, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

What do you find not appropriate about them? --Liberlogos 05:10, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I agree with Liberlogos. Articles about characters are encouraged. See Luke and Laura Spencer or Donna Beck for examples. Mike H 05:12, Aug 25, 2004 (UTC)
The Angela Chase wiki-link just redirects back to this page though - there doesn't seem to be any point to that.sheridan 10:10, 2004 Dec 1 (UTC)

isn't it the case that MSCL was aired against the hugely popular & established 60 minutes, contributing to its downfall? Also, it was nominated for 5 Emmys and Claire Danes won a golden globe

MSCL did not air against 60 Minutes (Sundays at 7:00 P.M. on CBS). It aired on Thursday nights at 8:00 P.M. against four hit sitcoms. Top ten hits, 'Mad About You' and 'Friends' on NBC as well as the popular 'Martin' and 'Living Single' on FOX. This was for it's original run in the United States. In the spring of 1995 MTV started running MSCL in a atempt to save it. As explained in 'Entertainment Weekly' this would have worked, but Clair Danes wanted to appear in fewer episodes in order to launch a movie career. The fans of MSCL launched the first big Internet 'save our show' campaigns. Later, after it was announced the show would not return, and Clair Danes decision...MSCL fans flamned various message boards. this was mentioned in USA Today in the late spring of 1995.


the link to 'bedford falls production company' no longer works & should be removed81.79.90.42 20:07, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Better yet, it should be fixed. Bedford Falls is an important production company responsible for several well-regarded shows. MrBook 15:17, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The cancellation

The cancellation shouldn't be simply chalked up to low ratings.

The fact is, at the time of the cancellation, the head of the efforts to save the show stated with anger and hurt that it was Claire Danes' fighting its renewal that made the difference. This created a great deal of controversy at the time, but is backed up by a recent Entertainment Weekly article in which, for the first time, Claire admits she expressed to the network through her agent a desire not to return and Ted Harbert, who made the cancellation decision, says Claire's reluctance was decisive.

Please site the EW article or remove the section on Danes' reluctance from the entry. Alvis 05:37, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
Here is the URL of the interview about it: http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,692296-4-5_3||233618|1_,00.html. I'm going to try to put the citation in, but it will be the first time I've added a citation to a Wikipedia article; so if I fail to get it right, I'll leave adding the citation for someone else to do. But if anyone doubts the veracity of the claim, whether I manage to make the citation in the article or not, just check out that link.
Okay, I believe I've cited it properly.

It's true that had the ratings been high enough the show would have survived regardless, and it's also true that one can't be completely certain that Harbert would have renewed the series anyway. What is clear is that Claire played a role, and this role and the controversy surrounding it should be mentioned.

I have been adding large chunks of backstory about the genesis and production of the show. I just wanted to thank the users/editors who went through and cleaned up the structure (Bensin?) and added hyperlinks.

[edit] Region 2 Release

Perhaps it might be worth including something about the series (finally) getting a Region 2 release? It's currently scheduled for release on May 14th :-

http://play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3305738/My_So_Called_Life_The_Complete_Series/Product.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Called-Life-Jared-Leto/dp/B000N39I0M/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/203-7590118-7422302?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1176127822&sr=8-1 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.159.4.54 (talk) 14:11, 9 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] "Episodes" section

Is there any significance to the "<"s next to eps. 10 and 14? --zenohockey 01:04, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Probably not. I'll remove them. --Bensin 01:09, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV

Some of the (uncited) text in the sections toward the end of the article is massively POV, describing people (mostly Claire Danes) as 'genius' and such. --38.100.222.81 11:48, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. I have cleaned up some of the main body of this article, mainly by correcting unprofessional prose and deleting repeated information. There were a few sentences which I removed completely because they were obviously written from a biased standpoint, were critique rather than informative, and no sources were provided. What remains is still relatively biased, however, made up mostly of quotes without sources. Without knowing the sources, there's not much more I can do. Clockster (talk) 04:49, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Themes

Mention needs to be made of the parallels which many, if not all, stories had between the life of the parents and that of the children. A case in point is the episode in which Angela "pushes [her dad] off her pedestal, instead of 30 years too late like [her mom does her grandfather]." It was always clear to me that they were trying to write for the parents as well -- an observation underlined by Winnie Holzman's quoted statement: "I didn't see it as a teen show. I wasn't writing it that way." —Preceding unsigned comment added by P00r (talk • contribs) 13:40, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bertha Reynolds

The following information was added by User:Shalom sheet in this edit.

"Bertha Reynolds was a character to be played by aspiring young actress Suzanne Cobb. The character was supposed to be Angela's rival of sorts when it came to Jordan's affections. Bertha was going to be a character around throughout the series, who went by her middle name "Rae". This character would have an edgy feel and was described as "a blonde haired vixen who had been on and off with Jordan and still held his interest" Suzanne Cobb was the only actress picked for the role and when she dropped out due to casting issues (she had to go star in the upcoming film "Ravenous Stupor") the role of Rae was put aside. It was later decided that she was too typical of a role and that the series would be more realistic without her."

I think a reliable source is needed for this to be included. --Bensin (talk) 23:29, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tino never seen?

I don't remember seeing that :) Jordan had a number of friends which he hung around with and exchanged shorter dialogues with - sure that not one of them was Tino?`Sponsianus (talk) 00:21, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Overrated

Someone should say something on how this show sucks ass cheese on ice. Its for all the little emo douchebags. I couldn't stomach more than 8 mins before I deleted it. Bloody little emo cow Claire Danes whining "my parents don't get me, my best friend is anorexic, i'm not popular, i'm not good enough, i luv the skool h0ttie, my mom sucks, waaaaah". Its like they took every single high school cliche' and stuck it in 8 mins of tv. No wonder this pathetic series was axed. Freaks and Geeks is 10,000x better. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.186.67.131 (talk) 08:04, 19 May 2008 (UTC)