# 25-Year-Olds Playing HS Students on TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541 "2006-07-29T14:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/21 "2006-07-31T19:48:40Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] Isn’t the actress who plays Moaning Myrtle in the HP movies in her 40’s? [/QUOTE] [Yep, but only just.](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0376602/) But between her very young looks and the makeup/effects it sorta works. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/22 "2006-07-31T20:23:15Z")
I just find it amusing that now that I’m almost 32, I **finally** look like a college student. Thank you, Hollywood. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/23 "2006-07-31T21:12:15Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Without being inside the minds of casting directors, part of it may be because of labor laws that apply to child actors. If the actor is under a certain age then there are limits as to how many hours a day he or she may work. That’s why babies and very young children are often played by twins. There may also be required tutors on-set and other regulations which increase the overall cost of production. [/QUOTE] That’s exactly it. Former professional father here. SAG has very strict rules on this, and the company has to hire tutors also. The general rule is, unless you are in a continuing series or really, really well known, you might as well forget working between 14 and 18. 18 year ols and above who look young, on the other hand, do very well. **Lizard** , I know that’s a joke but you couldn’t be more wrong. Child actors who aren’t totally professional don’t work. No one is going to waste money holding up a production for some difficult kid. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/24 "2006-07-31T21:23:15Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Mila Kunis played 16 yr-old Jackie Burkhart when she was only 14! When she auditioned the casting people asked how old she was; she responded “I’ll be 18 on my birthday.” She just didn’t say _which_ birthday. [/QUOTE] Let’s see. Kunis was born August 14, 1983. That’s 70s Show hit the air in September 1998. So the first episodes were shot when she was 14, but she was 15 when the show hit the air. And she was supposed to be a year younger than everybody else. So she was playing a 15-year-old to their 16-year-olds. That makes up for **wolf\_meister’s** nitpick. I worked to correct IMDb’s listing of Steve Franken to the correct Stephen and missed entirely that I wrote Franklin for his last name. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/25 "2006-07-31T22:09:18Z")
[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin] Luke Perry is 40. [/QUOTE] Since Beverly Hills, 90210 started in 1990, that would have made him 24. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/26 "2006-07-31T22:19:08Z")
[QUOTE=An Arky] I always thought it sucks that TV shows do that because your average teenager has enough hangups about their looks without having to see model-perfect 25 year olds as the standard their looks have to measure up to. [/QUOTE] That’s why the Good Lord invented _Degrassi Junior High_ and _Degrassi High_. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/27 "2006-08-01T03:00:57Z")
With the “only on the SDMB” nitpick that Charisma was 26 when BtVS was first shot, what I really meant about “cheating” was that I’m not sure the characters were put through seven years of show time during the seven years of the actual time of the series. If they had, it would have been about or even past time for some of them to graduate from college, as they had to be at least sophomores at Sunnydale HS when the series started. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/28 "2006-08-01T03:19:17Z")
The chance to dress up twenty and thirty year old hotties in teeny bopper gear certainly never crosses the minds of casting directors, and producers. Tris ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/29 "2006-08-01T03:50:40Z")
[QUOTE=Cardinal] With the “only on the SDMB” nitpick that Charisma was 26 when BtVS was first shot, what I really meant about “cheating” was that I’m not sure the characters were put through seven years of show time during the seven years of the actual time of the series. If they had, it would have been about or even past time for some of them to graduate from college, as they had to be at least sophomores at Sunnydale HS when the series started. [/QUOTE] Buffy spoilers ahead: Well, Xander never attended college. Buffy dropped out (to take a job when her mother died), and Willow went to England after she went all veiny and evil, and I don’t think the Watcher’s Council had an exchange student program… Seriously? I think they just realized that the college wasn’t that interesting, so they stopped writing about it. But they did all age. Buffy had a birthday episode (nearly?) every January around the 20th. They were indeed sophomores in high school (except for Oz, who was a year ahead of them) when the show started, so IF they had stayed in school, they might have been graduating at the end of season seven. If Sunnydale U had still been standing, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/30 "2006-08-01T03:58:39Z")
I know it was not a TV show, but the 33 year old Stockard Channing playing a high schooler in Grease was funny, especially because she looked like she was in her early 40’s. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/31 "2006-08-01T04:23:48Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] Not sure what you mean by cheated, but of the original main high school student characters, Buffy was the only one who was anywhere near her character’s age. The first season was their second year of high school, so the characters were around 15 or 16. Actual ages: Buffy: 20 Willow: 23 Xander: 26 Cordelia: 27. [/QUOTE] Then of course, we have Dawn who, as of the beginning of Season 7, was played by a 16 or 17 year old and was supposed to only be a year and a half. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/32 "2006-08-01T12:40:11Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] They were indeed sophomores in high school (except for Oz, who was a year ahead of them) when the show started, so IF they had stayed in school, they might have been graduating at the end of season seven. If Sunnydale U had still been standing, of course. [/QUOTE] Yes, but still open is the question of whether the Buffyverse went through 7 years of show time during the series. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/33 "2006-08-01T14:01:28Z")
[QUOTE=Cardinal] Yes, but still open is the question of whether the Buffyverse went through 7 years of show time during the series. [/QUOTE] I don’t understand. Every season started in the fall, and ended with the beginning of summer break (just like kids’ “years” really do). Buffy has a birthday every year, and ages accordingly - 7 years older at the end than when we started. There’re Halloween and Thanksgiving episodes that aired right around our holidays. When Buffy dies, her headstone reads the current year, and the year of her birth, and the math works out. They move up grades, graduate high school, start college or get jobs, rent apartments and pay mortgages, even become surrogate parents…how is time not passing or the characters not aging realistically? They certainly wouldn’t have been “past time for some of them to graduate”, unless we’re talking an AA, AS or accelerated BS. First season - sophomore in high school Second season - junior in high school Third season - graduation from high school in the season finale Fourth season - admission to college - in “Fear Itself”, Xander refers to himself as “‘didn’t go to college’ boy”. Fifth season - sophomore year of college - Buffy drops out, in the episode “Tough Love” Sixth season - junior year of college - whether Willow attends is never really addressed. But at the end of the season, she’s packed off to England for the summer. We don’t see Sunnydale U again. Seventh season - first possible graduation year. But no one was attending anymore! ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/34 "2006-08-01T19:34:32Z")
Allen Ruck was 30 when he played high school senior Cameron Frye in [Ferris Beuller’s Day Off](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042/). I’ll throw that one out there as the presumed record. Co-star Matthew Broderick was 24, and Jennifer Grey, who played his younger sister, was 26. No wonder they wanted to skip school. ---
**Author:** ![Dpimi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Dpimi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dpimi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/35 "2006-08-01T20:28:02Z")
I do see the point but I wouldn’t _exactly_ agree with the premise of the question. There are too many examples of teenagers being played by teens.\* Diff’rent Strokes\*, _Facts Of Life_, _Donna Reed_, _Brady Bunch_, to name a few. Perhaps the comedies were different from the dramas Though I could be mistaken, I recall Dobbie Gillis alays being set in High School or beyond. Some of it may be relative. In _Grease_ for example once John Travolta signed on for the lead it made sense to cast 30 something Olivia Newton-John and Stockard Channing so the age difference would be less apparent than if Travolta was playing opposite a real 17 year old Plus children aren’t the only ones. On _I Love Lucy_, Lucy was playing 10 years younger than she actually was. Vivian Vance, only 2 years older than Lucy was playing MUCH older. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams were both playing character 10 years younger then themselves. Sometimes it is painful to watch. On the _Lucy Show_, Danny Thomas is the guest. And Lucy tries out for the part of a chorus girl. It is ludicrous for Lucy to be competing against girls in their early 20s for a chorus girl and WINNING. And when Danny says “young lady” to Lucy you want to cringe. Same as on _Laverne and Shirely_, when 38 year old Penny Marshall, playing Laverne is talking about going to a 10 year reunion. It’s laughable. So while there are examples of older people playing kids, there more examples of kids playing roughly their own age, and lots of other actors that are older and don’t play their age. (Think Golden Girls) ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/36 "2006-08-01T23:06:39Z")
[QUOTE=anson2995] Allen Ruck was 30 when he played high school senior Cameron Frye in [Ferris Beuller’s Day Off](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042/). I’ll throw that one out there as the presumed record. [/QUOTE] Nope. See post#10. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/37 "2006-08-02T00:12:41Z")
[QUOTE=Kat] Nope. See post#10. [/QUOTE] My bad. I guess I didn’t watch enough of that show to realize she was playing a high school student. The few episodes I saw showed her as married (with a baby) and her husband was in law school. Guess that was later in the series. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/38 "2006-08-02T03:13:05Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I don’t understand. Every season started in the fall, and ended with the beginning of summer break (just like kids’ “years” really do). Buffy has a birthday every year, and ages accordingly - 7 years older at the end than when we started. There’re Halloween and Thanksgiving episodes that aired right around our holidays. When Buffy dies, her headstone reads the current year, and the year of her birth, and the math works out. They move up grades, graduate high school, start college or get jobs, rent apartments and pay mortgages, even become surrogate parents…how is time not passing or the characters not aging realistically? [/QUOTE] This is exactly what I was asking. This is exactly the information no one had even come close to mentioning yet, but was the answer (if you’re right). It’s not a dumb question if you don’t have the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541/39 "2006-08-02T04:06:10Z")
[QUOTE=Cardinal] This is exactly what I was asking. This is exactly the information no one had even come close to mentioning yet, but was the answer (if you’re right). It’s not a dumb question if you don’t have the answer. [/QUOTE] Well, someone did mention her birthday being celebrated just about every season around January 20th, but I think this is the first time most of the rest was mentioned. Also, Willow was the only one attending college in Season 7, though she apparantly dropped out in the 6th season (presumably around when she hit her rock-bottom about a third of the way into the season), she is talking to one of her professors about re-enrolling after she returns to Sunnydale in S7. It amuses me though, to find that of the original Scoobs, only Xander seems to have become consistently sucessful, working as a construction foreman in Season 6 and 7. (It IS worth mentioning that most of his business apparantly comes from repairing Buffy’s house or the high school). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25-year-olds-playing-hs-students-on-tv/366541.md?page=1)