Top 10 Shows Set at School

With next week’s premiere of Bad Teacher on CBS, I got to thinking about other shows that take place in schools. Maybe its nostalgia, maybe its familiarity, maybe its masochism, but everybody loves a show set at school. I’ve taken it upon myself to compile a list of some of the most remarkable, , memorable, and rewatch worthy. This list is an excerpt of shows that highlight our school years – no matter when you graduated.
FAME |
Singlehandedly making jazz hands cool, the Debbie Allen-directed-and-choreographed, series ran from 1982-1987 and was closely based on a real performing arts high school. With a diverse cast featuring many actors of color, this show broke ground and was one of the few shows promoting such diversity among its casts. And it also did wonders for the leg warmer industry. Everybody knows the theme:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV9ajjn46dY[/youtube]
GOSSIP GIRL |
While technically set in high school, these Upper East Siders often forgot they were only teenagers. Indulging in every vice under the sun, this sudsy teen-soap scratched every guilty-pleasure itch in its five year run on the CW. Kristen Bell provided the voice of the omniscient blogger with all the salacious dish on the happenings at the Upper East Side’s premier private school. Launching the careers of some of our favorite abs and cheekbones, Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, and Chace Crawford, Gossip Girl became America’s fantasy.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/7j_qRgDsq7Q[/youtube]
SAVED BY THE BELL |
People of a certain age, who came of age in the 90s, probably spent their formative years enjoying the neon crop-tops antics and acid-washed dreams of the gang at Bayside High. For me, it was always, Zach Morris, and this spawned more than one heated, Saturday-morning debate. What started as Good Morning, Miss Bliss turned into four years on NBC Saturday mornings, two spin-offs (The College Years, and The New Class) and a 2013, critically-acclaimed musical Bayside! The Musical! . Some folks from Saved By The Bell have gone on to make names for themselves far beyond Zach, Kelly and Slater – you can catch Mark Paul Gosselar, Tiffany Thiesen, and Mario Lopez on shows now; others, however, have not.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/bflYjF90t7c[/youtube]
For the rest of the list, visit The Community at Entertainment Weekly and tweet me what you think @sroseholt or leave me your suggestions in the comments.