"Racy" Teen Drama - A very short retrospective.

IS GLEE TOO RACY? Seattle Times Article.
One of the popular teenage drama programs at the moment is Glee. A television show about a glee singing club in an American high school.


It deals with issues such as teen pregnancy, bullying and homosexuality. It is broadcast at 7.30pm on Channel 10 and is classified "PG" (Parental Guidance). But some critics have said that the show is too racy. The Parents Television Council in the United States have slammed Glee as being unsuitable and "explicit". However, compared to some 1980s and 90s teen television drama, it barely scratches the surface.

When I was in my early teens, one of the popular teenage dramas at the time was a Canadian program called Degrassi Junior High . The young teens (and pre teens) came across as relatively authentic and they seemed to deal with "real issues". The program, and the sequel series Degrassi High, was made between 1987 and 1991 and was broadcast as part of the afternoon children's television line up on the ABC. It dealt with issues including teenage pregnancy, drugs, suicide, homosexuality, abortion and AIDS. Although, incidently Degrassi did encounter some moral panic in the UK, when the BBC refused to broadcast any more of the series, due to the program addressing the topic of homosexuality . However, only a couple of years later, the UK had the popular teenage drama Press Gang that dealt with similar controversial issues relevant to teenagers, such as solvent abuse, child abuse and teenage suicide. This too became part of the ABC's afternoon children's line up in the early 1990s. Additionally, Australia produced its own gritty teen drama, that also dealt with such topics, called Heartbreak High. It was critically acclaimed for its openness to deal with these issues.

As with anything like this, Lumby and Fine (2006 p. 71) point out "like all activities, television watching needs to be supervised by adults. It needs to be limited in a way that is age appropriate... and adults need to be available to talk to kids about what they have just seen". So, yes, these shows may be controversial, but that is the point. They aim to generate critical discussion about sensitive issues that are relevant to teenagers and bring these out into the open for dialogue between parents and trusted adults.

Elizabeth

REFERENCES:
Lumby, C. & Fine, D. (2006). TV villains: media panics. In C. Lumby & D. Fine (Eds.), Why TV is good for kids: raising 21st century children (pp. 55-96). Sydney: MacMillan

Noveck, J. (2010) Is Glee to racy for tweens? The Seattle Times Sunday May 23rd 2010. Retrieved October 1st 2010 from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/television/2011922968_glee24.html?syndication=rss 

Wikipedia (2010) Degrassi Junior High retrieved October 1st 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrassi_Junior_High