There was a teen movie called “Drive Me Crazy” from the late 90s that starred Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier. I think it captured quite a bit about the late 90s high school scene (of which I was a part) correctly…the writer (Rob Thomas) later went on to create Veronica Mars, which (apart from the teen detective driving plot) had a lot going for it, too.
Another vote for Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
I also think *Roseanne *dud a good job. Especially when the younger daughter went through her moody rebellious phase.
The Inbetweeners seemed to me to be very relatable to my own schooldays, even though it was shown 20 years later.
In my experience, Dazed and Confused portrayed a lot of places in 1976. Especially the field parties, a fixture of country youth at the time (do they still do these? I haven’t been 19 in a long, long time)
Another vote for the incredible My So-Called Life.
It’s interesting that no one has mentioned any John Hughes movies. I love them, but the archetypes and highly defined cliques never fit with my own high school experience. This is something Dazed and Confused did quite well. There were cliques, but they were not so narrowly defined. Kids like Pink didn’t belong to one single group. They hung out with jocks, nerds, stoners, etc. and it wasn’t a big deal.
I didn’t say AVERAGE experience. I thought it was clear I was talking about my own high school. What are you calling BS on, a claim that I never made? And even at my high school, there were still dorks that no one included in things. Perhaps we went to school together, after all?
That 70’s Show was closer to reality than many youth-oriented shows that aired in the 70’s, but that would partly be due to less censorship.
Most of the movies and shows being categorized as “real” were a lot more sexualized and drug-influenced than my own experiences. I didn’t know any middle-school aged lotharios getting high deflowering multiple virgins during a walk through the neighborhood or anything like that. Especially not ones lacking average intelligence or charisma. I also didn’t grow up in a huge city, or even really a “suburb” for that matter. So I’m sure my adolescence was different than kids in LA or NYC.
I really can’t think of any media that was close to my junior high or high school experience. The big thing they get wrong is overstating cliques, which, while they existed, were not nearly so strong. And the only real “loser” click are the people in Special Ed. That’s because, despite what they like to show on TV, most of the popular kids got fairly decent grades and were legitimately smart. At least half the advanced classes were always jocks, and you could see their actual work to know they weren’t just getting fake grades. Most of them also were fairly pleasant to be around–as you couldn’t really be popular if people didn’t generally like you.
I’ve not seen any depict what being in band or choir is really like. I’ve not seen any that get drama class right. I’ve seen a few teachers done well, but that’s about it.
Using an expansive definiton of “kids,” well…
I was bored silly through most of*** Dazed and Confused***, but Richard Linklater got all the details of Seventies teen life exactly right. The haircuts, the clothes, the music, the attitudes… that part he got exactly right.
Yeah, it’s true that most “popular kids” in real life are smart, motivated, emotionally intelligent and fun to be around, not dumb, lazy and vicious. Popular kids are popular because everyone likes them. Yes, there are dumb lazy and vicious bullies in schools, but it’s almost never the captain of the football team who’s beating up nerds, it’s a guy on the edge.
I’ll second “Freaks and Geeks”. It shows cliques and mean kids, but it also shows how fluid those cliques were. Hang out with the stoners for a few weeks and you’re part of their clique, even if you’re still going to honors classes and getting straight A’s.
Let’s not call others names outside of the Pit, even backhandedly.
Except for the hazing, that could’ve been my high school experience. That '70s Show did a good job of capturing that era, but D&C was dead on.
The movie “Bully” did a wonderful job of showing florida teenagers. Apart from the murdery parts.
Let the Right One In. Especially the vampire stuff.
…what…? I grew up in CLEVELAND, okay?
Wow.
So a lot of people are bringing up ‘That 70’s Show’. I never liked watching that program.
For one, the laugh-track is used way too liberally IMHO. Any time Red would say “ass”, they would use it. They always used a laugh-track sample that had the most uproarious response to jokes that weren’t that funny.
Secondly, (and more relevant to this thread), these “friends” are complete dicks to one another. It’s hard to believe they *were *friends. They would always mock one another and if someone was in potential trouble, they would always throw that person under the bus. I don’t know of any specific examples, but if one of the gang had a secret crush on someone, and asked those who knew to be quiet about it… the first thing they would do is tell that person. Or if someone was in some sort of trouble; they would squeal on them, even if they weren’t, themselves, avoiding being blamed for the trouble caused. They would just casually turn in their friends.
Maybe it is like real life… but I wouldn’t want to be friends with any of those jackasses.
Dazed and Confused was nearly spot-on for my high school, except for the paddlin’ and the drug use. In D&C, everyone did drugs, but it was only a fair percentage in my school. And there was no hazing at all.
Other than that - I watched it with a friend of mine who went to the same HS, and we were in total agreement which real life people the characters were most like. It was that true to life.
On the other hand, I was a high schooler in Wisconsin in the 70s, and That 70s Show couldn’t have been further from my experience. I didn’t even think it got period 70s details correct. I can’t speak for the entire run of the show, because I couldn’t stand to watch it after the first episodes.
Just don’t ever let her watch any of Bob Saget’s stand-up. She’ll be scarred for life. 
They had Dave Coulier on The Bob and Tom Show today and he said one of the dumber questions he’s ever been asked was if the actors on Full House knew each other.
I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a TV drama which represents youth more realistically than Degrassi Junior High (and its continuation, Degrassi High). The show may as well have been a documentary about being a (junior) high school kid in the late 1980s.
I got the impression that the excessive amount of hazing in D&C was a Texas thing and not necessarily reflective of other parts of the US. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe there are some Texas dopers who were in high school during the 70s who can set us right.