My hope is that when it was pulled from Fox it would have been re-edited into a feature; the matteral is here for an intresting, complex and rich documentry, and thats exactly what it is. Now it's found a home on PBS, where it has held my attention. It isn't reality based TV, and to dismiss the work of an acclaimed documentry crew as another exercise in reality based TV isn't fair, given the nature of American High. American High cares more about characters than pay offs, much like the film Our Song. What interesting characters these are as well although some are underdevoloped for the sake of time. The relationships are also interestingly portrayed, something not seen in American Telivision, rich, real realtionships, it's all about one-liners in sitcoms vs. established characters. In fact American High, and NBC's reality based romantic comedy seres ED may be the only TV shows to show natural relationships without being forced with a plot in mind. My only hope is American High isn't lost, and that the series comes out on DVD, it's a story I'd like to own, it's characters much like the ones in every suberban culture, and thats why most Americans can relate to it instead of the idiotic Survivor rip-offs (ironically produced by Fox, the same network that funded this show), Big Brother, and banal sitcoms. Watch this if your serarous about good documentry filmmaking.
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Chad-119 July 2001
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adrianpskb21 September 2009American High was one of the most touching and intimate portrayals of adolescent coming-of-age in television history and one that will always stay close to my heart. It's been nine years since the show was first aired on FOX, canceled, and then re-aired on PBS in it's entirety a year later. I'm sure that everyone on the show has their own special story to tell about how the show affected their lives and where they are now in their lives. For that reason, I invite EVERYONE who is a fan of this show to come join my facebook group. I've also invited most of the cast to join and I hope that they'll contribute some fond memories, poems, songs, videos, and whatever they wish to share. Just copy and past the URL below onto your address bar and you'll be sent to my group page. The more the merrier so, please, don't be shy.:-D
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=16017&uid=152736729975#/gr oup.php?gid=152736729975 -
matlock-67 May 2001I was utterly disappointed when it was announced that this show would be cancelled after just two episodes. Leave it to money-grubbing television executives to place immediate financial gain above long-term reputation building. Part of the reason I liked this so much is because it was filmed at Highland Park high school, my high school's cross-town rival, which I visited regularly. I even took summer school classes there. This made it all the more real: the kids appearing on the show were much like the ones I knew in high school, and I thought this show was probably the most realistic of the "reality" shows. Unfortunately, it was sent to the scrapheap in favor of contrived series' like "Survivor" and the latest seasons of "The Real World", whose participants are chosen more for their physical appearance and trendiness than anything else. American High was the last and the best of the true reality shows, a group that only includes the first two seasons of "The Real World" and the first season of "Road Rules".
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buffbabe2314 June 2001I have to say that when I first read/heard about the premise of this show, I thought that it would be simply crap. I've viewed quite a few of these "reality" shows (eg. "Survivor", "Big Brother",...) and some of these shows are almost laughable. I didn't even bother to check out the first couple of episodes of "American High" that were shown on Fox. I had no idea what I was missing out on. I was surfing through channels, unable to find anything good to watch at 10 PM on a Wednesday night. I stopped on PBS, which is a very rare occurrence, and I found a show that actually held my attention. I had no idea what I was watching until a little bit into the show. I was very surprised at how good this show actually was. I think it's very interesting and informative to see so many different types of teenagers. Whether you love them or hate them, you get a good look at what their lives are really like. Now I really look forward to watching this show every week (It's on for an hour, but it only seems like twenty minutes to me). I never got to see the beginning of this series, and I hope that PBS either re-runs the series in it's entirety or that they start all over again, following new teens. This show has really been an enlightening pleasure to watch. This show gets 10 stars in my book.
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hmm_17 November 2001The reruns that I saw in the summer of two-thousand-one on PBS were very interesting, seeing how other people live their lives, and what obstacles they had to face.
Now that I look back I wonder why FOX canceled this series, sure it does not have very much-- wait, actually it has no hype, but it's still a very good series.
If they happen to do something like this again, hopefully they will put some hype into it, it might make the show last longer. The idea was great, the content was good, I'd rate this show 3.5 of 4 stars. -
Dr Mysterioso30 January 2001American High is one of the worst TV shows I have ever seen.
First off, they try to capitalize on the success of Survivor, by making a million knockoffs of it, without realizing what a terrible show itself it is. And they have the most godawful camerawork known to man. It is bad, but in a good merit, it makes it seem more realisitic, not like Survivor.
But that's not what makes the show terrible. What does is the fact that every single kid on this show is an obnoxious, self-destructive loser who all do nothing but party. An excellent example of this is the character Morgan. He introduces us to the show by saying "Blow your arm off, and suffer the consequences". Then he says "never do homework, and just party". Then, he says, "my biggest fear is not becoming something in life". That is the most bizarre and ironic thing I have ever heard.
Oh, and they only show the glamorous side of high school. Every character is happy, is always having fun, and has a girlfriend/boyfriend, or they play sports, an so on. Okay, sure. -
One of the best documentaries about high school students and their families I have ever seen. Having raised my own kids, it was a relief to see that other parents struggled with the same issues. I am going to use this film in the documentary film class I will be teaching at community college.
Everything was in the documentary: the gay student, the clown, the divorced family, the alcoholic family, etc.
Spoiler: I loved the episode where the boy tells his mother he's failing gym. "Gym! How can you fail gym? That's like failing Lunch!" "Mom, I'm pleased to tell you, I'm getting an A in Lunch." Later in his bedroom, alone, he says into the camera: "Don't they know I'm yelling at myself? Why do I need them to yell at me?" I cried. -
Many people who have reviewed this show have called it "just another reality show," well, I say it isn't. "American High" is not only a documentary, but is actually one of the best ever. While the "reality shows", if the warped situations they create can even be classified in with the same world which we dwell in, create absurd situations for the paid actors to entertain us, "American High" simply stands back and watches the action unfold without disturbing the situation. Anyone who is or has ever been a teenager can easily identify with at least one of the characters on "American High." The highlight of this show for me at least was Kaytee, the horn-rimmed glasses wearing, guitar player, who's songs so eloquently express the difficulties of growing up, as well as the absurdities of it. In conclusion, watch this show, now! You won't be sorry!
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brittney-johnson8 October 2005The previous comment posted said that the season was canceled after two episodes, but I watched it on KET that year and saw the entire season. They were thinking about doing another season but ended up not. Which was sad, but I LOVED this show, it was so great and so real. It wasn't a reality show, it was life. All those reality shows aren't real, they are fake, but this wasn't. That's probably why it didn't see a second season. And KET is not that popular of a channel. But each of the episodes would focus on just a couple of the students, so you should see an entire episode and not see all the students that are a part of the series. They did one or two episodes on prom, and you got to see who everyone was taking and what everyone was thinking. You got to see into these students lives when they took the cameras outside of school, and a lot of the footage they shot themselves, especially the stuff outside of school.
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PencilNeckedGeek17 June 2005First on Fox, then on PBS, this show was actually a documentary, not a manufactured "reality TV" show. Because of this of course, it couldn't survive despite it being extremely well-made and compelling.
The format was excellent, combining footage from third-person camerapeople with self-shot "diaries" directed by the stars themselves. I suspect this show would have really connected with a sizeable high school audience as well as a parents-of-high schooler audience, had PBS had enough money to let people know that the show existed.
Now that documentaries are getting such big audiences in America, PBS should try this again. Especially since PBS is on the verge of being dragged prematurely to its death. -
davbanff10 August 2001While Fox didn't have the nerve to continue running this fine program, PBS picked it up and not only ran the entire season once, but is re-running it summer 2001 (check out pbs.org for local times). There's no way to compare this show to Big Brother or any other "reality TV" shows. This is not filmed on a studio soundstage or in a professionally decorated mansion with contestants who are trying to win $1,000,000 and/or start an acting career. These are real kids who are struggling with real issues. They're not driven by winning money or becoming a VJ. Because of this, they are probably the most fascinating characters on TV in the past few years.
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Trevor-1212 September 2000While I only watch the first two episodes shown by Fox and it's hard to say much. I must say this was a rather interesting show while it lasted. It was like the Real World (the MTV show), only more interesting. What I really liked about this show is seeing real teens instead of flat stereotypes we see in the movies. It's a shame that Fox decided to pull the plug before giving it a second chance. Fox could had been showing the rest of the series last summer instead of re-running the same nine episodes of Titus over and over again.
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inverteddaffy14 January 2002Although all of the things that happened in the series were actual events it did not seem all that realistsic because a whole year was crammed into an hour. The only enjoyable part of the show was seeing all of my friends and all of the places i go to on tv.