Ranked!: Top 10 High School TV Shows

For this week's Ranked!, we're taking a look at our ten favorite high school tv shows. What was your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

10. My So-Called Life

When this show premiered in the mid '90s, people weren't quite sure what to make of it. The most popular high school show before it had been Beverly Hills, 90210. And the two shows couldn't have been more different. Sure, those fancy-zipcode kids dealt with "real" issues (teen pregnancy, drugs, yaddah yaddah yaddah), but main character/angsty princess Angela Chase, played with raw sweetness by Claire Danes, actually felt things. She was one of the first teenagers on TV who seemed so real, you'd swear you saw her in the halls at your own school, hugging the walls between classes.

Angela's teenage adventures were served up with real pathos. She did what kids did and still do: told her parents everything but how she was actually feeling. Dyed her hair and felt it was an act of extreme rebellion. Snuck out at night, and felt bad later. Pined for the beautiful blue-eyed boy in class.

My So-Called Life has aged extremely well. It still holds up, maybe because some things about adolescence simply do not change. Watch it and see. Just be prepared to have your heart broken several times when you do.--Didactic Pirate

9. Smallville

Because it lasted for ten seasons, Smallville obviously didn't spend its entire existence as a high school show, but it did start out that way. Depending on your point of view, Smallville was either Dawson's Creek with super powers, or The Adventures Of Superman under the effects of Teen Angst Kryptonite. One of its most effective aspects in the first few seasons was that it dealt with all of the typical problems of high school and puberty that everybody faces and showed you how much more difficult those problems are if you happen to be from Krypton and all of your super powers started developing along with everything else. (The episode where Clark's infatuation with a sexy substitute teacher causes him to inadvertently discover his heat vision is classic.)

Obviously, the show evolved along with the characters. Arguably (after a rough patch around Season 6), the show evolved into a much better superhero show. But it also lost its original focus a bit: exploring Clark Kent's life before he becomes the world's greatest superhero, and how his close friendship with Lex Luthor turned into one of the greatest rivalries in comic book history. Sure it got a little sappy and soap opera-y... but, for its first few seasons, Smallville was definitely one of the most unique high school shows ever made.--Dave

8. Daria

I would've loved to have dated Daria in high school. Partially because I've never gone out with an animated character before, but mostly because I know we could've been great friends. She was sarcastic, witty, and intelligent and could see her high school classmates and the cliques around her for what they really were. I wish some network would show reruns of this show. Even though it's been a long time since high school, I can still relate to Daria.--Chris

7. 21 Jump Street

It's hard to believe, but the FOX network has only been around for twenty-five years. Along with Married... With Children and three years later, The Simpsons, 21 Jump Street brought a new network to the eyes and ears of the American public. 21 Jump Street was about a bunch of baby-faced cops forced to go undercover at area high schools to deal with drug dealers, gangs, cults, and even murder. It was a little over-the-top, a little heavy-handed, and at times laughable, but damn it, it was our cop show. Hell, it even begat a spinoff, Booker. And of course, it also launched the careers of Holly Elizabeth Robinson Peete and Johnny Depp. God, why can't they show reruns of this as well?--Chris

6. Glee

Glee is, at the same time, one of the most accurate portrayals of high school life and one of the most outlandish.

I have to admit that what first drove me to watch this show was the singing. I'm not a fan of all musicals--I find the sappy '50s musicals like Oklahoma and Carousel intolerable--but I've always felt that life might be a little more fun if everybody spontaneously broke into song 2-3 times a day. Nothing clears the head and gets the blood pumping like a good production number! And that's exactly how it is at William McKinley High. Whether performances by the glee club on stage or in rehearsal or fantasy musical numbers in the characters' minds, there's plenty of music in every episode. It's fun! (Plus, because I stopped listening to new music somewhere around 1989, it serves as my only insight into what people who aren't stuck in a time warp like myself are listening to.)

That, of course, is the outlandish part. What makes Glee really work is not the music, but its grounding in actual high school life. The characters, despite the fact that they participate regularly in lavish musical numbers, are portrayed as real teenagers with real teenage problems. Without this dose of reality between songs, Glee would probably have crashed and burned after less than a season. But these are characters that the audience can identify with.

Like any high school-based show, the characters are getting older and moving on and, as a result, Glee is losing its focus a bit. But, even so, I has established itself in the ranks of the best high school shows ever made. With songs.--Dave

Ranked! Top 20 High School Movies

For this week's Ranked, we decided to rank our twenty favorite high school movies. Did we get it right? Forget any? Let us know in the comments.

20. Better Off Dead

"I've been going to this high school for seven and a half years. I'm no dummy." --Charles de Mar

Apart from being one of the funniest movies ever made, Better Off Dead is high on my list of best high school movies ever. This is one of those movies that I watched back in the day and said, "Man... I wish that was MY high school." By the time I saw the movie (I didn't catch it in the theaters), I was an avid skier. I would have LOVED to have a ski team in high school. Of course, in Maryland, it would have sucked... but, still.

Skiing and absurdities aside, Better Off Dead also fit the "geeky underdog wins in the end" theme that I tend to like in my high school movies. Nobody plays a geeky underdog better than John Cusack.--Dave

19. Can't Hardly Wait

Ah, Can't Hardly Wait. I used to go to the movies to watch this when I needed a break from my exams back in 1998. I couldn't wait for them to be over, so the title spoke to me. The central story of Ethan Embry's unrequited love for Jennifer Love Hewitt at her perky-boobed, big-haired peak was the least interesting thing about this film, considering so much happened at the post-graduation house party full of jocks, cool chicks, wannabes, and outcasts, played by an impressive roll-call of actors: Seth Green, Lauren Ambrose (no one could forget the classic line, "There's a mirror right there. Take a look. You're white."), Jaime Pressly, Melissa Joan Hart, Peter Facinelli, Selma Blair, Jerry O'Connell, Clea DuVall, Freddy Rodriguez, Sara Rue, and Jason Segel (he was the guy who offered Jennifer Love Hewitt some watermelon). In short, that’s a damn successful graduating class. Plus, I can't listen to Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City" without remembering the kid from Hook grabbing the mic and ripping off his shirt. Remember this line? "Nobody drink the beer. The beer has gone bad!" I'm so watching this movie again tonight!--Bree

18. Election

Tracy Flick is one of the greatest overachievers ever. Her win-at-all-costs attitude, coupled with her sugary sweet outward appearance, makes her a deadly foe. This satire openly mocks politics and high school.

We've got the tough principal, the dumb jock, the teacher who appears to be phoning it in, the good-two-shoes lead, infidelity, scandal, and more. If you haven't already seen it, it probably sounds pretty awesome based on the above, right? Check it out. It's awesome.

Pick Flick!--Chris

17. American Pie

My high school and college years fell smack in the middle of the golden age of the T&A Teen Movie craze. Porky's, The Last American Virgin, Porky's 2, Caddyshack... These were films that ostensibly had a plot, but were really about a bunch of horny teenage boys getting laid. In the '80s, it seemed like a new Porky's wannabe film opened every week.

This film genre fell by the wayside in the ensuing decades, and wasn't properly resurrected until American Pie hit the theaters in 1999. Light on plot, heavy on likable (if shallow) characters, and even heavier on comical sexcapades, American Pie was the first film in over a decade to get the formula right. It was a modernized take on those R-rated "gems" that my friends and I liked to rent on VHS and watch on Saturday nights back in the day.

None of the sequels quite managed to capture that lowbrow magic that the original had, but American Pie opened the door for other even better films of this type, like Superbad (which, arguably, has a great deal more substance and transcends the genre). At any rate, American Pie still stands up as a fun film 14 years after it was made. (Doesn't seem that long ago, does it?)--Dave

16. Rushmore

Out of all the movies on this list, this probably felt the least like a high school movie, which is weird because a lot of the scenes actually take place in school. Rushmore is the story of Max Fischer who, like Election's Tracy Flick, is an overachiever. He belongs to every club in school, and he started half of them. He's in love with a teacher at the school, who actually likes Max's fifty-year-old best friend (Herman Blume). This is a sweet movie with a vicious side. Watching Max and Herman go at it, laying booby traps for each other, is one of the highlights of the film.

But yes, this film is also about school. There is a secondary plot which involves Max trying to become friends with kids his own age while putting together the world's greatest high school theatrical production ever.

Max Fischer is my hero.--Chris

First Look: High School

Who doesn't love a stoner comedy?