My So-Called Life

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My So-Called Life
Genre Teen drama
Created by Winnie Holzman
Starring Bess Armstrong
Wilson Cruz
Claire Danes
Devon Gummersall
A. J. Langer
Jared Leto
Devon Odessa
Lisa Wilhoit
Tom Irwin
Narrated by Claire Danes as Angela Chase
Devon Gummersall as Brian Krakow
Lisa Wilhoit as Danielle Chase
Country of origin  United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 19
Production
Running time approx. 43 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run August 25, 1994 – January 26, 1995

My So-Called Life is an American television teen drama created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995. Set at the fictional Liberty High School, it follows the emotional travails of several self-aware teenagers. The critically acclaimed, but short-lived, show ended in a cliffhanger with the expectation that it would be picked up in an additional season, but it was officially canceled on May 15, 1995.

The show placed #33 on Entertainment Weekly's "New Classics TV" list.

Contents

[edit] Themes

My So-Called Life deals with issues much discussed in the mid-nineties, including child abuse, homophobia, teenage alcoholism, homelessness, adultery, kinky sex, school violence, same-sex parenting, censorship, and drug use. While a lot of shows brought up these themes as a one-time issue (a "very special episode") that would be introduced as a problem at the beginning of an episode and resolved at the end, in My So-Called Life they are just a part of the continuing fabric of the storylines. The title of the show alludes to the perception of meaninglessness that many teenagers experience, and therefore encapsulates the main theme of the series. The show depicts teenage years as difficult and confusing as opposed to a light, fun-filled time of pranks and jokes.

[edit] Style and legacy

The world of My So-Called Life was devoid of last-minute miracles, (aside from an angel in the Christmas episode) of simple resolutions and instant revelations.

The interior voice-overs in My So-Called Life came, with two exceptions, from Angela's point of view; creator Winnie Holzman has said, "Even though it was perceived that way by some, I didn't see it as a teen show. I wasn't writing it that way. That implies some exploitative or objectifying view of it." The rise in popularity of adolescent and youth programming in the wake of the show has led some to suggest that Holzman and the show's producers, Zwick and Herskovitz, were pioneers. Herskovitz has said, "We take comfort in knowing the show was ahead of its time and that feels good." Holzman added, "I wrote this show from inside the experience. It was a personal experience. By being personal a writer can evoke authentic, emotional responses from the audience. The experience of creating this show changed me in that it gave me an understanding of how hungry people are for an experience where they do feel connected to a story on a deep level. That [fans of the show] felt this story touched them on that deep level was very touching to me and it makes me want to do it more. I was able to see the depth of that played out in my own life and I could see that what we had done was real for millions of people. They were responding to stories and characters which so much love and need. I was very touched by that."[citation needed]

My So-Called Life was also the basis for Mein Leben & Ich ("My life & me"), a German television program.[citation needed]

[edit] Characters

  • Angela Chase, played by Claire Danes, is a 15-year-old sophomore at Liberty High School in Three Rivers, Pennsylvania, a fictional suburb of Pittsburgh. Like most teens in the throes of self-evaluation, Angela is attempting to discover and assert her identity. To do this, she distances herself from her past, pulling away from her parents and her childhood friends, Sharon Cherski and Brian Krakow. In their place, she befriends Rayanne Graff and Rickie Vasquez. Angela has a crush on Jordan Catalano and admires him from afar until they begin dating; they eventually break up but remain friends. With these new relationships, Angela finds herself in several precarious and sometimes dangerous situations; however, despite temptation, she always remains true to her values. Angela's voice-over narrates 17 of the 19 episodes in the series.
  • Patricia "Patty" Chase, played by Bess Armstrong, is Angela's mother. Unlike many TV couples, she is the main bread-winner and, at the beginning of the series, even employs her husband. She is opinionated and often can't help but express her strongly-held beliefs, which at one point leads to a confrontation with the free-spirited mother of Rayanne.
  • Graham Chase, played by Tom Irwin, is Angela's father. Graham is the more affectionate and understanding parent who cooks and is far less strict than his wife. He's relatively soft-spoken and continues to struggle with his role in the household and the direction of his life in general. In an effort to broaden his horizons, he decides to take a cooking class, which sparks a friendship with a female classmate, causing tension with Patty. He eventually is invited to teach the class and makes plans to open a restaurant with his classmate.
  • Danielle Chase, played by Lisa Wilhoit, is Angela's younger sister. There is an emphasis on how much she is ignored by her family. She is constantly being kicked out of rooms and situations where the action and dialogue are taking place. She has a crush on Brian and secretly yearns to be more like Angela, whose life and friends fascinate her. In the episode "Halloween," she dresses up as Angela and fools her parents for a brief moment with her near-exact replication of Angela's red hair, clothes, and demeanor. Danielle's voice-over narrates the penultimate episode, 'Weekend'.
  • Rayanne Graff, played by A.J. Langer, is Angela's new best friend at the beginning of the series. She is wild, sexually active, and irresponsible. Parented by a negligent single mother (radiology technician, tarot enthusiast, and hedonist Amber, played by Patti D'Arbanville-Quinn), Rayanne's freedom is costly, resulting in a flighty sexual life and bouts with drugs and alcohol.
  • Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez, played by Wilson Cruz, is Rayanne Graff's other best friend. He is a gay bi-racial (Hispanic-Black) 15-year-old boy raised by his uncle, who physically abuses him. In 1994, Rickie is as openly gay as a teenager could be in his circumstances. Rickie wears eyeliner and bright clothing and feels most at home in the girls' bathroom with Rayanne and Angela. When his uncle kicks him out of the house, he is fostered briefly by the Chases; he is then fostered by gay English teacher Richard Katimski (played by Jeff Perry), who becomes a mentor to Rickie.
  • Sharon Cherski, played by Devon Odessa, was Angela's best friend throughout childhood, until Angela became friends with Rayanne. Sharon's and Angela's mothers are best friends from high school. From Angela's point of view, Sharon represents a suffocating world of boredom and conventions, in stark contrast to the wild world of Rayanne Graff. Sharon is very conventional and academically minded, as well as active in school groups, including the yearbook committee and concert band. During the series, she becomes sexually active with her football-player boyfriend Kyle and develops a grudging friendship with Rayanne by the last episode.
  • Brian Krakow, played by Devon Gummersall, is the geek of the show. He is remarkably intelligent and conformist. Despite his high IQ, he lacks emotional intelligence and is often socially awkward and self-righteous. This, more than anything else, alienates him from his peers. Much like Sharon, he is often mistakenly believed by other characters to be devoid of emotion. The other characters usually turn to him only when they have an academic or technological query. Brian is a yearbook photographer and plays both the flute and the alto saxophone in the high school concert band. He is in love with Angela; however, he has no hope of her noticing him in that way, as he knows that his peers perceive him as awkward and unattractive. Brian has known Angela and Sharon since they were all very young. He makes friends with Rickie towards the middle of the series. His voice-over narrates the episode "Life of Brian," in which we learn more about his inner and outer worlds. He is Jewish, and his parents are psychiatrists.
  • Jordan Catalano, played by Jared Leto, is one of the best-remembered characters of the show, though he was possibly the least seen and had the fewest lines of dialogue. He is good-looking, popular, and rebellious; he is a major slacker who constantly cuts class and is on the brink of being expelled. Jordan is nearly illiterate due to dyslexia, and he is mistakenly believed to be stupid because of this. Angela is in love with him, and during the series they begin an on-again/off-again relationship. Although he appears to belong to a group of rebellious teens, he is tired of the meaningless acts of vandalism that his friends commit for fun, yet he has no reason to believe that his life will change. He reveals his emotional depth in his songwriting ability and occasional — and seemingly accidental — profound thoughts. He writes a song called "Red," which Rickie and Angela think is written about her because of her dyed red hair; however, it is actually about Jordan's red convertible car.
  • Tino was an oft-mentioned character who was never actually seen. He was a friend of Jordan and Rayanne. Over the course of the show, Tino's name is mentioned in almost every episode. Tino was also the lead singer of Jordan's band, Frozen Embryos (later Residue), but he never actually appeared on-screen. In the Academy Award winning 2008 film Juno, the titular character is asked if her band will get back together and she replies "Once Tino gets a new drumhead we should be good to go." This was confirmed as a reference to My So-Called Life by screenwriter Diablo Cody on the DVD audio commentary.

[edit] Production

[edit] Preparation

Winnie Holzman was an award-winning writer but had not written much for television and was not making a living with writing at the time she got the idea for My So-Called Life, a project she had initially been calling 'Someone Like Me'. Holzman spent time at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles (through a program with the Writer's Guild in which writers could guest teach) as research for writing the show.

Her brother Ernest Holzman had been working as a cinematographer with producers Zwick and Herskovitz on their hit show thirtysomething when he introduced his sister Winnie to the producers, who grudgingly agreed to look at her "spec" script for what would become the pilot of My So-Called Life. They were pleasantly surprised that the draft pilot was brilliant and worked with Winnie to shape the show. Ernest Holzman went on to work as director of photography on several episodes of My So-Called Life. Zwick and Herskovitz, in many ways pioneers of the type of naturalistic television characters that distinguish the shows they have produced, had worked on the TV series Family in the mid-seventies and had struggled to develop a young female character that was played by Kristy McNichol on the show. They have said that in some ways, the character of Angela Chase on My So-Called Life was a "spiritual descendant" of the earlier character and that the chance to portray a young woman honestly in a television drama drew them to the project.

The genesis of Angela Chase's signature voice-over was in Winnie Holzman's struggle to write. The producers encouraged Holzman to write in the voice of a character as if she were writing a diary. Much of what was written for this exercise was used in Angela's voice-over dialogue in the pilot for the show.

[edit] Casting and production

Sixteen-year-old actress Alicia Silverstone was one of the actresses who read for the lead part of Angela[citation needed] and was very good but was deemed to be too polished and too self-possessed to effectively play a character who could project a sense of doubt and anxiety about her place in the world. A 13-year-old Claire Danes had appeared only in one small part on the show Law & Order, but on the strength of her appearance was noticed by casting directors and was brought in to read for the part of Angela Chase while she was in Los Angeles reading for a Steven Spielberg project. The producers and casting director were impressed by the depth of Danes's audition and knew she was the one to bring the character of Angela to life. However, they had grave concerns about having a 13-year-old actress in the lead on an hour-long drama shot on film, as her working hours would be so restrictive as to make production very challenging. To that point, most shows about young teenagers were played by actors over 18. The producers argued about this issue and eventually decided to take a risk and cast Danes in the lead. The limits of Danes's working hours turned out to serve the show as the producers were forced to expand the screen time of the ensemble actors, making a richer dramatic structure. The producers settled on a four-act formula in which there would be at least two major scenes in which Danes's character would not appear. This challenged the writers to expand and develop additional characters, like Rickie Vasquez, played by Wilson Cruz. The alienation felt by the character of Rickie only mirrored and added depth to that felt by Angela, adding to the complexity of the show.

The young cast of My So-Called Life

Jared Leto was not initially envisioned as a series regular, having been originally hired only for the pilot, but the casting director and producers were impressed with his auditions and early performances. They said they "could never catch him acting." In fact, for a while he did a good job of fooling the producers into thinking he was somewhat like the dimwit he played as he often remained in character between shots. They were genuinely surprised to discover that Leto was such an articulate, intelligent person. He did not initially see himself as being on a television series, as he was mostly interviewing for film work at the time he landed the role.

By design the parent characters were written flatly in the pilot, as that was how the lead character Angela perceived them. However, Bess Armstrong and Tom Irwin were such strong actors and brought so much to their portrayals that it was difficult to keep them that way.

The show was written gradually as the network ordered additional episodes. Holzman has said that she did not allow herself to think too far ahead but instead she wrote "in response to what [she] was feeling and seeing on the set as characters were developing." She was very interested in "polarized people who come together." The characters of Rayanne and Sharon were created as two opposing forces who were gradually brought together to great dramatic effect. The relationship between these opposing characters was something that was decided upon well into the season.

Production of the show was spread out over an unusually long period of time. More than two years lapsed between the shooting of the pilot and the final episode of the show. The pilot itself was not picked up until after the normal time the networks made their orders for shows for the fall 1994 season. The network was still unsure about the show after picking up the pilot, thus they only ordered the production of six episodes, as opposed to the standard order of a half-season of 13 or a full season of 22. Each time the network made a request for new episodes they only ordered six or seven shows at a time. This often caused long gaps in production. Vigilant viewers may notice some subtle changes in the appearance of various actors (especially Devon Gummersall, who had the most dramatic physical change) and in some of the sets. Despite the uneven production schedule, episodes were generally shot in sequence, though there were one or two episodes (such as the Rayanne-overdose episode, 'Other People's Mothers') that were flipped in sequence and aired in a different order than they had been shot. However, as the storylines for each of the episodes were self-contained and were not contingent on dependent narrative elements, continuity was not affected.

The producers developed a strong working relationship with ABC from having created and produced thirtysomething. Zwick and Herskovitz were allowed to rely on their own judgment and were not subjected to interference or pressure from the network brass, which is a fairly rare situation in network television.

Scott Winant, director of the pilot and several episodes of the season, had been a member of the Bedford Falls family and worked with Zwick and Herskovitz on Thirtysomething. He was already an accomplished director at the time he began working on My So-Called Life. When the producers screened the show's pilot, they were astonished at how much his work was an advance even for him. Zwick said, "Scott took the material and ran with it. He understood it and brought to it his own alienated understanding of that particular moment in adolescence. But it was not retro. It was very present. Something remembered but also something very contemporary. What impressed me most was when I saw what he had done with his focus on the flickering fluorescent lights in Angela's homeroom. That was in itself a metaphor for the show: of something shorting out....something not working."

Holzman says "Shooting the pilot was magical. Everyone could feel how good it was going to be. It had a lot to do with Claire and how amazing she was. One of my favorite memories was the night we grabbed that long shot on the street near the end of the episode. We were under so much pressure because we were going to lose Claire at any moment [due to union work rules and laws that pertain to underaged actors]. It always felt like the production was just about to lose Claire. She was always running off to take a French test or something. We always had to rush to get something shot. But that says a lot about her incredible talent because she's just come in without a lot of rehearsal and she'd just do it. And she was only this 14-year-old girl. She was that remarkable. Anyway, that night Claire was tense. Her parents were tense. We were running out of time. But my brother [Ernest Holzman] stayed focused and saw the beauty and romance in that long shot on the street with Angela and Brian. It was he who was pushing to get that shot. He was instrumental in finding that moment, in seeing it and in pushing to get it. It became one of the most iconic images from the show."

The producers were routinely impressed with Danes's natural acting talent. Danes's audition was a scene that appeared in the pilot in which Angela Chase confronts her best friend Sharon Cherski (later played by Devon Odessa) in the bathroom at school. The producers said that when Danes read the part, her face flushed red and her eyes filled with tears as she read the scene. They were impressed by the physical reaction and authenticity she was able to conjure. Danes repeated the exact reaction when she read a second time for the producers, a third time for network executives, and then when they shot it numerous times during the actual production of the pilot.

Producer Ed Zwick recalled how he marveled at Danes's acting ability during a scene in which she had to tell her mother "to an embarrassing degree" that she was not having sex with Jordan. "We were shooting the scene in the parents' bedroom. The only direction I gave Claire was to sort of put her hand over her face sheepishly as her mother was talking. We started to roll and she just nailed it. She was incredibly natural. We shot the master in one take. Went around the other side. Did one take of coverage on Bess and then one on Claire and we had it. I had never worked so fast before."

Holzman: "We were shooting in an actual high school in LA that was actually open and had students in it (The school scenes were shot on location at University High School). They gave us, like, a wing of the school. I remember the crew having to hold [our shots] for the bells. I was smoking at the time and I was always having a tough time finding a place to smoke because they wouldn't let you smoke there. Being in that high school was so surreal. I saw a projector in one of the classrooms that looked just like the ones that they had in my high school in the 1970s. Everything was the same. It was so bizarre because there I was back in high school, looking as if nothing had changed, and my brother was there with me and I was sneaking off to smoke cigarettes. It was almost as if everything had contrived to make me feel like I was right back in high school again."

While filming the scene in the pilot in which Angela, Rickie, and Rayanne are unable to get into the nightclub 'Let's Bolt', Wilson Cruz approached Holzman and in a candid moment confessed that he was incredibly intimidated watching Danes work as her performances were so natural and they apparently came so easily to her. Holzman told him that he should not be intimidated but should learn from it as it was truly a gift.

Holzman has said there was something wonderful about working in the presence of someone so talented. She said that all of the young actors gave 110% percent of themselves and that there was great pleasure in writing the show because everyone in the cast and crew was so strongly behind it. There was something magical about using kids who were actually in such a stage of growth and transition. She saw it as one of the key advantages of using actors who were authentically the ages they were portraying.

The producers have said that Danes possessed such genius, maturity, and a sense of inner grace that they often were at a loss to know where to pitch their sensibilities with her.

The show's final episode was written at a time when producers thought they would very likely be picked up for a second season. Holzman said, "That's why it was written that way."

[edit] Low ratings

For its original run in the United States, it aired on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET against four top-10 hit sitcoms — Mad About You and Friends on NBC, as well as the popular Martin and Living Single on Fox, undoubtedly contributing to the series' low ratings.

The producers said that they could not fault ABC for the creative freedom and support they gave them during production, as there were probably few networks that would have even put My So-Called Life on the air in the first place. However, it was clear that ABC had tremendous difficulty in effectively promoting the show.

My So-Called Life was produced at a time that predated the explosion of youth and teen programming. The culture of television would change significantly in the years that immediately followed, most notably with the rise of The WB and UPN, networks which would eventually cater to the teenaged audience My So-Called Life sought after, in the late 1990s and early 2000s (The WB and UPN launched just two weeks and one week respectively before My So-Called Life's run on ABC ended). However, in the 1994-95 season ABC simply did not understand that there was a market for a show that appealed to 15-year-old girls. Holzman never intended the show to be exclusively for teens. This may have been even more confusing for the network in terms of placement and promotion as the show clearly was of interest to a broader audience. In the end, not enough viewers of any age were watching the show during its initial network run. ABC was more focused on larger ratings numbers and wider demographics. Holzman said, "It is one thing to have huge ratings, but it is quite another to have smaller ratings but with an extremely passionate following. I don't understand why the network did not understand that."

In conversations with then ABC President Bob Iger, producers Zwick and Herskovitz told him that by broadcasting My So-Called Life the network was giving a voice to millions of young women who otherwise had no voice on network television. The show was making money for the network, and, as such, they told Iger he should keep the show on the air for no other reason than "good corporate works"; yet ABC could simply not yet see the economic appeal of an audience of teenage girls.

[edit] Cancellation

The cancellation was in large part due to low ratings and ABC's inability to promote the show. However, actress Claire Danes was also a strong catalyst for the show's demise. Producer Marshall Herskovitz said in an interview in 2000 that "such a long time had passed since Danes had signed on to the pilot that she was ready to leave and do film."

Not insignificant was the arduous schedule and the mental and physical demands of the production of episodic television, especially for young actors who must balance school work with rehearsal and time on the set. Herskovitz said Danes and her parents approached the show's creators and told producers that she did not want to be involved with the show moving forward if they were picked up for a second season. The producers were fully committed to continuing the show. In perhaps one of the first times in the history of the new and burgeoning World Wide Web, fans were using the new technology as a tool for grassroots mobilization of fan support. Fans also took out expensive advertisements in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter urging ABC to renew the show, yet they had no way of knowing about the internal strife in the show's last days.

Once Holzman heard that Danes was no longer behind the show, her attitude changed as well. She said, "When I realized that Claire truly did not want to do it any more, it was hard for me to want to do it. The joy in writing the show was that everyone was behind it and wanted to do it. And I love her. So part of the joy and excitement and happiness would have gone out of me if she had not been on board 100%. I wasn't able to say this at the time, but in retrospect it was a blessing for it to end at a time when we all enjoyed doing it. That's not to say that if the network had ordered more shows that I wouldn't have given it my best. But there was a rightness in how short the season was. This was a show about adolescence and sort of ended in its own adolescence. There was an aura about how short the series was like all things that die young. The show ended at a point that it was still all potential."

The rumors of the end of the show strongly divided its passionate fans. Flame wars raged across the Internet[1], especially after Steve Joyner of Operation Life Support (the group that worked so hard to save the show), as well as some cast members, confirmed the rumors—angrily themselves, in some cases. Joyner's letter was entitled "Claire Danes Brings Death to 'Life'." Fans were sharply divided between those who believed or disbelieved the reports, and those who thought it was forgivable in any event for a teenage actress to find a way out of a long contract. Others believed Danes's desire to leave was not acceptable, especially given her public stance of support for the movement to save the show. Many fans felt betrayed due to having spent significant time and money to save the show when its star was secretly working against them.

In a September 2004 edition of Entertainment Weekly, Danes admitted her role in the show's demise, while insisting that she didn't have enough power to cause the cancellation by herself.[2] It is generally accepted that ABC seriously considered bringing it back for a second season and may have even intended to—as then-executive Ted Harbert claims—because of its devoted fanbase, its quality, and its critical acclaim. However, the low ratings combined with Danes's reluctance to return ended the series. ABC had no interest in getting into a public quarrel with a 15-year-old actress. Winnie Holzman theorized that the network was so on-the-fence about renewing the show that in some ways they used Danes's unwillingness to return as a convenient excuse not to renew the show.

[edit] Episode list

  1. "Pilot" - 8/25/1994
  2. "Dancing in the Dark" - 9/1/1994
  3. "Guns and Gossip" - 9/8/1994
  4. "Father Figures" - 9/15/1994
  5. "The Zit" - 9/22/1994
  6. "The Substitute" - 9/29/1994
  7. "Why Jordan Can't Read" - 10/6/1994
  8. "Strangers in the House" - 10/20/1994
  9. "Halloween" - 10/27/1994
  10. "Other People's Mothers" - 11/3/1994
  11. "Life of Brian" - 11/10/1994
  12. "Self-Esteem" - 11/17/1994
  13. "Pressure" - 12/1/1994
  14. "On the Wagon" - 12/8/1994
  15. "So-Called Angels" - 12/22/1994
  16. "Resolutions" - 1/5/1995
  17. "Betrayal" - 1/12/1995
  18. "Weekend" - 1/19/1995
  19. "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" - 1/26/1995

[edit] DVD and online release

On November 19, 2002, BMG released My So-Called Life: The Complete Series on DVD in a 5-disc box set. This set has gone out of print, as BMG lost the distribution rights for the show. The distribution rights are now owned by Buena Vista.

On October 30, 2007, Shout! Factory re-released My So-Called Life on DVD in Region 1 in a 6-disc box-set that features a disc of special features, including an interview with series star Claire Danes. Shout! Factory is a distribution company that has released short-lived shows in the past.[3]

In promotion of the October 2007 DVD release, ABC posted the My So-Called Life pilot on its online Full Episode Player on Friday, November 30, 2007. The second episode, entitled "Dancing in the Dark", was released the subsequent Friday, followed by the third episode, "Guns and Gossip", the next Friday. Each episode was available online for two weeks.[citation needed]

On September 13, 2007, Eurovideo released the complete series on DVD in Germany in Region 2; The 5-disc boxset featured German and English soundtrack but no special features. [2]

On June 10, 2008, Beyond Home Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Australia in Region 4. [3]

On December 3, 2008, Free Dolphin released the complete series on DVD in France in Region 2, [4] with a 32-page booklet but no other special features. [5].

[edit] Soundtrack

Atlantic Records released a soundtrack of the show, which originally released on August 25, 1994, then re-released on January 24, 1995.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Well.com
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Shows on DVD

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: My So-Called Life
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