Fringe and Doll House

We mentioned last week about two new Fox shows we are already eagerly awaiting the network to cancel. JJ Abrams' Fringe (like the X-Files meets science) and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (like Alias meets, um, a dollhouse. Or something. We're not really sure.)

Anyway, promos are already flooding the networks and Youtube. If you're interested, here's Fringe:

And here's Dollhouse:

90210 and all of its greatness

We recorded the next PopCast today, and the question was asked, would we watch the new 90210 slated for next fall? We evaded the question outwardly to look cool. While inwardly we were saying, um, yes. Definitely. Like, you don't even have to get all of the sentence out. "Are you going to watch 9..." "Yes!"

We watched every episode of the original series up until the last couple of years, just before Dylan came back and Brandon left and a bunch of people we didn't know and didn't care about was on the series. It just wasn't that fun anymore. Plus, we were older.

Now, we're much older, and can't wait to see the new series, debuting next fall. Which says a lot about us. And nothing good.

Anyway, here's your first look at 90210 Pt. II:

We weren't really blown away by that promo, but we'll still watch. We're a sucker for those John Hughes-ian looks at teen/college life. The battle between the haves and have mores. It's cheesy fun. You have Dynasty, we have 90210. Just, please, let one cast member have sideburns. Come on.

In honor of the new 90210, here are the top five greatest teenage tv shows ever. Three exclusions: 1. Buffy is clearly the greatest show of this genre, but we didn't include it, because it transcended the genre and was about the teenage years without actually directly being about the teenage years. This isn't what we're going for. Same with Veronica Mars, another show that spoke about the teenage experience without actually being about it. 2. No Gossip Girl or Friday Night Lights. Both good shows. But too soon. 3. No reality shows. No Hills. No Laguna Beach. Just no.

What didn't make the list

We never really got nor liked My So-Called Life. Ditto One Tree Hill. We stopped watching Dawson's Creek after season two. Smallville falls into the Buffy zone. That '70s Show was really good for several seasons, but we so hate Ashton Kutcher now, it's tainted. We don't watch anything Canadian, so no Degrassi. Gilmore Girls was less about the teen years and more about the mom/daughter relationship. And, yes, we put a lot of thought into this.

5. Saved by the Bell

We almost pulled this because of the That '70s Show corollary. When you start to hate the present actors who played the characters it makes it difficult to fully embrace the awesomeness of the past show. It’s a lot to overcome our dislike of Dustin Diamond and Mario Lopez but, you know, when you wake up in the morning and your clock gives off a warning and you don’t think you’re going to make it on time ...

Plus, how can we turn our back on a show that gave us Kelly Kapowski. And Zack Morris. And this very special episode about the dangers of speed:

4. Party of Five

This is easily the most overlooked teen drama of the mid-’90s. It was a critical fave when it aired, but since then, it’s been lost among reruns of 90210 and Dawson and One Tree Hill and all of the shows that came before and after it that never quite managed to capture its unique blend of pathos and angst and overwhelming sadness.

That’s what happens when a show’s premise STARTS with the death of parents and the crippling of a family unit. It doesn’t get much brighter from there. Although the title song was really great.



Still, you had Scott Wolf doing his best “Tom Cruise at 21” impression, the great Matthew Fox and his mullet and beard that never seemed to grow beyond scruff and Neve Campbell, who we always sort of found annoying but, you know, whatever.

You also had scenes like this, which were alternately heartbreaking and powerful and really, really moving without being cheesy:



3. The OC

We didn’t start watching The OC until it was cancelled and aired its last episode and started rerunning shows on the Soap Network. So by the time we got to the end and were thoroughly mad the show went away so early, we were about eight months too late.

The show wasn’t perfect. In fact, there were a lot of subplots we could have done without. Like, anything with Marissa and her gradual fade to the dark side, we were OK without. Like when she started hooking up with Volchok, that drug-addicted surfer who never wore shirts. And the Did Ryan Father a Baby Out of Wedlock stuff was just annoying. And Oliver. And every time Ryan packed up his stuff to return to Chino. And the Dean Hess stuff. And most of season 3. And any subplot involving Mr. and Ms. Cohen contemplating cheating.

But, still, we LOVED the show. Mainly because of the Ryan/Seth dynamic. And Rachel Bilson. And for Mr. and Ms. Cohen, two well-written, colorful, yet warmly loving adults. On a teen show. Even Julie Cooper, in the end, was humanized. And the show had a way of introducing new, fresh characters that surprised us in the way they overcame the initial stereotype they were introduced with, like Kaitlin and Zach and Anna and Luke and, especially, Taylor, who really owned season 4 and made it sort of special and brilliant and colorful.



In fact, the final season was easily our favorite. Just before it was cancelled. It focused less on angst and drama of the week and more on relationships and family and humor. Plus, it ended on one of the best musical montages to close a show ever:

2. 90210

We realize 90210 is not a great show. And it’s such a product of its time (like Saved by the Bell) that you probably can’t introduce someone to it now and have them understand how horribly bad/great it was to watch.

First, it was the Beverly Hillbillies of its generation, except we, the viewers, were the hillbillies, looking at the kid of West Beverly High as they ate caviar for dinner and drove Porsches to school and swam in their fancy cement ponds. We bought that kids out THERE looked like this and acted like this and had lives like this. We bought it. It was real. And it had the Peach Pit.



Drug addiction? Check. Underage sex? Check. Sideburns at 15? Of course. Cool perms and snazzy retro ‘50s clothes? Yes. We had none of that in our small lives, but those kids, out THERE, they had it all. And it was awesome. And so we watched every week and laughed and told each other we KNOW it is a horrible show, while secretly we loved it and wanted to move into our TV for a least one episode.

(Although, if we were in 90210, we’d probably be David’s cowboy friend from season 1. The geeky kid who gets left behind and eventually accidentally shoots himself with a six shooter in a very special episode. That’s us.)

OK, enough jibber jabber, here’s a clip:

1. Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared

Long before Knocked Up and 40-Year-Old Virgin, Judd Apatow brought these two shows, which we’ve lumped together, because they share casts and directors and general comedic sensibilities. Plus we wanted to get them both in and not choose between them.

Freaks gets the most pub. It’s set in 1980, high school, and shows the lives of the freaks (the stoner burnouts, led by James Franco) and the geeks. The show is covered in the Apatow fingerprints, that unique blend of razor humor and pathos, and rambling scenes that go on a bit too long, yet feel like they’re unrehearsed and entirely improv.



Undeclared was more the traditional sitcom. Sort of. It’s 30 minutes and a bit more surreal. The show is about a group of freshmen and their transition to college. Rogan is back and Jason Segal, as is a few other Apatow players (Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller). It never got the pub that Freaks did, but watch the whole run on DVD and the show is great. We’d argue it lacks the heart of Freaks, but is funnier and more compact.

OK, what do you think? What should make it, and what should be taken off? Discuss.