A teen drama is a dramatic television series with a major focus on teenage characters. The genre was relatively non-existent for the first 45 years of television. It came into prominence in the early 1990s, especially with the popularity of the series Beverly Hills, 90210. After the show became a success, television writers and producers realized the potential for this new genre to reach out to a previously ignored demographic. In the past, most series with a focus on teenagers had been sitcoms, while adolescents in drama series were usually part of a larger ensemble that included adults and children.
Teen dramas, more often than not, have soap opera elements. The young characters must deal with the dramatic ups and downs of their friendships and romances while facing an array of "realistic" teen issues. There have also been many successful teen-based series with major themes of science fiction, fantasy, and action/adventure. Most shows have a substantial amount of comic relief.
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The most popular teen dramas are set in affluent locales (e.g. Beverly Hills, 90210, The O.C., Gossip Girl), or in fictional small town settings (e.g. One Tree Hill, Dawson's Creek). Most teen dramas have a cast of attractive characters who live privileged, upper-middle class lives. Shows that depict teen life in a more realistic manner tend not to do nearly as well, although there are exceptions, notable ones being the critically acclaimed, My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks, as well as the British teen drama Skins. The Canadian-produced Degrassi series (Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High and Degrassi: The Next Generation), have also been successful in Canada and the United States.
Some teen dramas can be sub-categorized into genres such as Science Fiction, Fiction or Comedy. Sci-Fi series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and Roswell show teenagers who are very different from normal people trying to fit into normal high school life.
The first teen-oriented shows didn't call themselves by the actual name "teen drama". One of the earliest was the single-season soap opera Never Too Young, which aired from 1965 to 1966. As the late 1960s and early 1970s progressed, younger viewers began to find relatable characters on more daytime soaps. In 1967, Love is a Many Splendored Thing premiered and quickly became a hit with teen audiences. It was soon followed by All My Children in 1970 and The Young and the Restless in 1973.
In primetime, various shows which centered on the whole family focused much of the attention on the adolescent characters. Such examples include Eight Is Enough, Family, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, and the short-lived James at 15. As a result, young stars like Willie Aames, Kristy McNichol, and Melissa Gilbert became youth icons.
One of the first shows centered solely on teens, Degrassi Junior High and later Degrassi High, became popular in both Canada and the United State while airing on PBS in the late 80s and early 90s.
In 1990, Darren Star created Beverly Hills, 90210 along with famous producer Aaron Spelling. The popularity of teen dramas in the 1990s and 2000s is most often attributed to the massive success of this primetime soap, which portrays the lives of a group of wealthy teens living in Beverly Hills, California. The stars of 90210, most notably actress Shannen Doherty and actor Luke Perry, became teen idols. The series became a pop culture phenomenon and drew a large audience. It remained popular through the first half of the 1990s, and remained on the air until 2000, longer than any other teen drama in history (though Degrassi passed as of it summer 2011 season.)
Another early '90s teen drama is ABC's 1994 series My So-Called Life, which launched the careers of young actors Claire Danes and Jared Leto. Although critically acclaimed for its realistic portrayal of teen life, it was not a success in ratings, mainly due to sharing a timeslot with NBC's Friends, and was canceled after its first season. Another series that was met with positive reviews but cancelled prematurely is the 1999 show Freaks and Geeks. Since their cancellation, both shows have gained a large cult following.
The creation of the teen-targeting The WB network in 1995 helped launch a new era for teen-oriented television. Within three years, Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer acquired large teenage fan bases. The UPN television network also targeted teens and created a few notable teen-oriented TV shows as well although most were comedies but, a few were dramatic programs one of the most notable being Veronica Mars.
Over the next few years, The WB's Everwood and Gilmore Girls became popular with teenage audiences. Smallville is another example of a successful WB show, as it focuses on the early teenage and young adult life of Superman Clark Kent. Degrassi: The Next Generation also began to have a growing fan base in the United States at this time.
In 2003, a new set of teen dramas arrived. That fall, The O.C. premiered on Fox and One Tree Hill premiered on The WB. The former became an instant hit among teens, while the latter started rather slowly, but has outlasted the former, now about to head into its ninth season on the CW.
In the late 2000s, the genre experienced yet another resurfacing with a number of networks. ABC Family launched a new set of teen shows, including The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Pretty Little Liars, both of which became popular with teenage girls. In addition, The CW contributed to the phenomenon with the creation of Gossip Girl, 90210, and The Vampire Diaries. The FOX show Glee has also become wildly popular among teens and young adults.
For the full list of teen dramas by country, see List of teen dramas
The United States has produced numerous teen dramas since the early 1990s. The most successful of these are often shown on youth-oriented stations such as Fox and The CW (formerly The WB) networks, while the least successful shows usually air on the Big Three networks; (CBS, NBC, and ABC). On cable television, most teen dramas can be found on such channels as TeenNick, MTV, Lifetime, and ABC Family. When the shows go into syndication, they usually air on networks like SOAPNet, WGN America, ABC Family, and TV Land.
In the UK, teen dramas are usually aimed at more mature audiences than their US counterparts. Examples being Skins, Nearly Famous, The Inbetweeners and Misfits and Hollyoaks, all airing on E4 and Channel 4. E4 also airs many US teen dramas, including One Tree Hill, 90210 and Glee. In the late 1990s Channel 4 was the first place to see US teen dramas like Party of Five, and BBC aired Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Now Channel 4's main rivals are: ITV2, which shows the teen dramas Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries; Channel Five which shows Australian soaps Home and Away and Neighbours; and more recently Five's spin-off Channel Fiver will start airing the new series of Melrose Place. Fiver has also shown 10 Things I Hate About You and the BBC makes its own popular teen drama Waterloo Road which is set in a school and popular with teens. The BBC also used to make its own teen dramas like Byker Grove and Grange Hill, both in the afternoon along with ITV's Children's Ward.
Soap operas aimed at a wide range of audiences like EastEnders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street, feature families with teenage children often shown leading more "normal" lifestyles.
Australia and New Zealand also produce teen dramas, such as Heartbreak High, Snobs, soaps like Neighbours and Home and Away are aimed at teenagers just like a majority of the Soaps in the UK.
Teen dramas are common on Japanese television. Some of the more popular ones are often adapted from anime or manga, like Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO), Nodame Cantabile, Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend) and Honey and Clover. Most teen dramas in Japan are in a high school setting like Proposal Daisakusen (Operation Love) and Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers).
There are some teen-oriented shows made in India, such as Miley Jab Hum Tum and Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani. They are set in colleges and follow the usual premise of a teen drama. They air on the Indian television channel STAR One. Humse Hai Life on Channel V.
According to Art Silverblatt in his book Genre Studies in Mass Media: A Handbook, teen dramas focus on "the theme of the adolescent's assertion of independence, which is characteristic of the adolescent stage of development."[1]