Xavier Lassiter – Arts & Entertainment Editor
Papers to write, notes to take, applications to submit—the school year is in full swing, and what better way to celebrate than revisiting your favorite school-themed shows?
#5 Boy Meets World
Corey. Shawn. Topanga. Those three names might as well have been the holy trinity for prepubescent kids of the 90s and early 00s. Corey was the good-hearted underachiever that made the brillow pad hairdo awesome. Shawn, the other-side-of-the-track poetic slacker, was basically the archetype that every future art student would adopt. And Topanga, the smart and beautiful girl next door, whom every guy wanted and every girl wanted to be. The show spanned from Corey’s days in middle school all the way through college, and served as a model for kids everywhere. They should make Man Meets World so he can teach us how to set up our 401k’s.
#4 Daria
Every snarky, insecure, angst-riddled teenager could relate to Daria. With her bold frames, trench coat, and boots, she was a loner who hilariously ripped on her high school cliques with priceless adolescent wisdom. Daria was Mike Jude’s follow up to Beavis and Butthead, but where the foul duo would expose Middle America’s faux pas through foolish antics, Daria would dryly articulate them in an unforgiving manner. Her droning sarcasm lampooned the youthful ideals of her peers, yet she never came off as mean or condescending. Her greatest line may have been came when asked what she wanted to do after high school, “My goal is to not wake up at 40 with the bitter realization that I’ve wasted my life on a job I hate because I was forced to decide on a career in my teens.” Us too, Daria. Us too.
#3 A Different World
This show combined The Cosby Show’s depiction of middle class black America with Spike Lee’s youthful hip-hop flavor. It was an important show because it dealt with many issues that had never been seen on a primetime sitcom: racism, sexual assault, and HIV. Perhaps the most illuminating episode was when Kim, a proud young black woman, was called Aunt Jemima for wearing an African kanga. The episode confronted the tragically racist image of the “mammy” and questioned the depiction of beauty in white-dominated media. It was a show that made me proud to be black because for once we had something that depicted us as intelligent and socially conscious college students.
#2 Beavis and Butthead
Crass, illiterate, and borderline insane, the famous duo somehow turned out to be spokesmen of the generation X counterculture. Beavis and Butthead lived the young slacker dream of lounging around a trashy house devoid of parents while watching music videos all day. The show may seem tame by today’s standards, but it was victim of hate mail from parents claiming the characters were bad role models for children. However they’re remembered, the show helped pave the way for adult animation.
#1 Freaks and Geeks
James Franco, Seth Rogan, Jason Segal all star in a new show this fall. If you told that to audiences today, Freaks and Geeks would have undoubtedly been a smash hit. But while the show didn’t blow up, it was the seed director Judd Apatow planted that would one day grow into a stoner comedy beanstalk. Freaks and Geeks followed nerdy burnouts through 80s high school, its unique and presently familiar humor developed a cult following over the years with only 18 episodes to its credit. Though, that hasn’t stopped it from being a staple of the college dorm DVD collection.
Photo Credit: Charlie Barker
Andy Zeigert
Gwendal Uguen
