Get in the ‘Back To School’ spirit with these 15 TV shows, including classics Breaker High, Degrassi, Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek and 90210.
Breaker High
Join the students of Breaker High, a high school on a cruise ship, while they experience fun and adventure, love and heartache, with good times and bad as they explore the high seas and get an education. Starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel Wilson.
The young lives on Degrassi Street are always rife with problems. Whether it’s about sexuality, growing up, drugs or parents, there’s always something going on in the high school and at their homes. The long-running, multiple award-winning series follows the characters in a soap opera-type format as they endure the pangs of transitioning from childhood to adulthood.
Freaks And Geeks
Growing up circa 1980, a misfit high-school student and his pals are probably destined to become new media millionaires, but right now they’re stuck in school, where all the girls are a foot taller and bullies terrorize the gym class. Meanwhile, his older sister is flirting with the dope-smoking bad boys, cutting classes and questioning the point of getting good grades.
One of the definitive shows of the 1990s, “90210” originally follows the lives of Brandon and Brenda Walsh, and their friends through high school and college into adulthood. In addition to making sideburns momentarily cool again during its run, the show deals with a steady stream of love triangles and other romantic entanglements, and occasionally touches on more serious issues as well.
This drama series chronicles the lives of wannabe filmmaker Dawson Leery, his best friend Joey, who has been in love with him since childhood, close friend and slacker Pacey, and new girl next door Jen. Additional friends come and go, feelings change, and Dawson must suffer through growing pains.
It has been one year since Alison, then the queen bee of the bunch, went missing. Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily have gone on with their lives, though they’ve grown apart. Now in high school, each girl finds herself facing a new set of challenges when anonymous text messages from A’ threaten to expose all of their secrets – both old secrets the girls were sure only Alison knew, and newer secrets developed after Alison’s disappearance. Who isA’ and how does he or she know the things he or she knows? `Pretty Little Liars’ is based on the series of novels by Sara Shepard.
Privileged teens living on the Upper East Side of New York can hide no secret from the ruthless blogger who is always watching. Gossip Girl shares text-messaged scoops on scandals and heartache and stirs the pot. From executive producers Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Leslie Morgenstein, Bob Levy and Joshua Safran.
The show is set in the fictional town of Tree Hill in North Carolina and initially follows the lives of two half-brothers, Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty), who compete for positions on their school’s basketball team, and the drama that ensues from the brothers’ romances.
After being ousted as Dillon High’s football coach, Coach Eric Taylor must build a team from the ground up at East Dillon. Eric’s wife, Tami, also is challenged in her role as principal at West Dillon, as the parents of students who were zoned out of the district blame her for their kids being thrust into a less-than-desirable situation at East Dillon. While dealing with issues at their respective jobs, Eric and Tami also face challenges in their family life with teenage daughter Julie.
Bizarre things start happening in the little New Mexico town where UFOs were spotted in 1947. Cut to 1999, when a cute high-school student saves the life of a teenage waitress. Surrounded by cliques of clever, angst-filled classmates, the two form a bond that threatens the survival of a secret universe involving superhuman powers, a yen for hot sauce and an alien gene pool.
While navigating the troubled waters of romance, school and family, Archie and his gang become entangled in dark Riverdale mysteries. Betty Cooper unravels her feelings for Archie, and her family secrets. Veronica Lodge is the new girl, who is a threat to cheerleading captain Cheryl Blossom, Jason’s twin sister. Based off of the ‘Archie’ comic book series
Sarah Michelle Gellar takes on the role of Buffy Summers in this TV version of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Buffy is a Slayer, one in a long line of young women chosen for a specific mission: to seek out and destroy vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy establishes a group of supportive friends who aids her in her battles with evil, including Willow, Xander and Cordelia. Her battles with evil are frequent, since Sunnydale, where Buffy and friends live, sits atop a gateway to the realm of the demons.
This modern soap opera mines the intertwined lives of the Cohen, Cooper and Nichol families for drama, with a contemporary music soundtrack adding to the proceedings. Ryan, a teenager from the wrong side of the Chino tracks, finds himself in well-to-do Newport Beach — an enclave of Southern California’s Orange County. Taken in by a lawyer and his family, Ryan winds up in the midst of snarky, wealthy high schoolers and their sun-drenched angst.
Optimistic teacher Will Schuester heads up McKinley High School’s glee club — New Directions — a place where ambitious and talented students can find strength, acceptance and their voice. As the students find themselves, they also enjoy a respite from the harsh realities of life. Mr. Schuester hopes to help the kids in every way he can, and also dreams of taking the group to nationals. As Schuester and the glee club pursue their goal, they face opposition from a conniving cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, who tries to sabotage the group at every turn.
A few months after their parents are killed in a tragic car accident, Elena Gilbert and her brother, Jeremy, are trying to come to terms with their grief. For Elena, formerly popular and involved with school and her friends, it’s a struggle to hide her sadness. She finds herself drawn to a handsome and mysterious new student, Stefan, unaware that he is a centuries-old vampire doing his best to live peacefully among humans. His brother, Damon, however, is the embodiment of vampire stereotypes, including violence and brutality, and the two brothers wage a war for the souls of Elena and everyone else in her small Virginia town. `The Vampire Diaries’ is based on the series of novels by L.J. Smith.
Did we miss one? Let us know your favorites in the comments below!
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