My So-Called Life

Angela Chase is a 15-year-old high school student who lives in the fictional Pittsburgh suburb of Three Rivers with her mother Patty, father Graham, and little sister Danielle. Each episode, which is usually narrated by Angela, follows her trials and tribulations as she deals with friends, parents, guys, and school. ==Themes==

My So-Called Life dealt with major social issues of the mid-1990s, including child abuse, homophobia, teenage alcoholism, homelessness, adultery, school violence, censorship, and drug use. Many shows at the time used these themes as a one-time issue (a "very special episode") that was introduced as a problem at the beginning of an episode and resolved at the end, but on My So-Called Life these issues were part of the continuing storyline. The title of the show alludes to the perception of meaninglessness that many teenagers experience and encapsulates the main theme of the series. The show depicts the teenage years as being difficult and confusing rather than a light, fun-filled time.{{cite news|title= TELEVISION REVIEW; The So-Called World Of an Adolescent Girl, As Interpreted by One ==Cast==

as Jordan Catalano, A. J. Langer as Rayanne Graff, Wilson Cruz as Rickie Vasquez, Lisa Wilhoit as Danielle Chase, Devon Odessa as Sharon Cherski, Claire Danes as Angela Chase and Devon Gummersall as Brian Krakow ;Main cast • Bess Armstrong as Patricia "Patty" Chase, Angela's mother • Wilson Cruz as Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez, Angela's gay friend • Claire Danes as Angela Chase, a 15-year-old sophomore and narrator of the series • Devon Gummersall as Brian , Angela's socially awkward next-door neighbor • A. J. Langer as Rayanne Graff, Angela's new best friend, a rebellious alcoholic • Jared Leto as Jordan Catalano, Angela's crush • Devon Odessa as Sharon Cherski, Angela's childhood best friend • Lisa Wilhoit as Danielle Chase, Angela's 10-year-old sister • Tom Irwin as Graham Chase, Angela's father ;Recurring cast • Mary Kay Place as Camille Cherski, Sharon's mother • Johnny Green as Kyle Vinnovich, Sharon's jock boyfriend • Lisa Waltz as Hallie Lowenthal, Graham's business partner and potential love interest • Jeff Perry as Mr. Katimski, gay English teacher who takes Rickie under his wing • Patti D'Arbanville as Amber Vallone, Rayanne's mother • Danton Stone as Neil Chase, Graham's brother • Senta Moses as Delia Fisher, student who has a crush on Brian • Winnie Holzman as Ms. Krzyzanowski, school guidance counselor Tino, a friend of Jordan and Rayanne, is never actually seen but is mentioned in almost every episode as a running joke of the series. == Production ==

Development Marshall Herskovitz was approached by Showtime in the 1980s to write a show about teenagers. Herskovitz conceived of the series as a "very personal, very internal" story about a boy with the title Secret/Seventeen, but it was not picked up by the network. Herskovitz said, "We needed somebody who shimmered between beauty and sort of not formed yet. And in walks Claire. She read the scene in the pilot where she has a confrontation with her childhood best friend. There was a direction that said, 'Angela starts to tear up.' Claire gets to the moment. Her whole face turns red. She's having this intense emotional experience — and then pulls it back. Everybody was just knocked out." Wilson Cruz was cast as Rickie Vasquez, who was written in the script as "half black, half Puerto Rican, sexually ambiguous like Jodie Foster in ''Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore''". An enthusiastic response from ABC executives and TV critics raised producers' hopes for a series debut in the 1993–1994 TV season lineup; however, ABC delayed My So-Called Life’s addition as they pondered over the right time slot for the show. The series was filmed in the Los Angeles area. Scenes at the fictional Liberty High School were shot on location at University High School. Due to the show's rapid shooting schedule and the uncertainty of its future, producers "did not have the luxury of planning out the season's arc in advance," and story lines would unfold episode to episode. ==Reception==

Critical reception Upon its debut, My So-Called Life received critical acclaim. Critic Joyce Millman said the show "evokes the emotional turbulence of adolescence with breathtaking accuracy" and is also "unusually perceptive in its portrayal of the push and pull of mother-daughter relationships." Millman added the show has an interesting take on "midlife crisis and marital boredom", and concluded "with bittersweet clarity, My So-Called Life shows us that teen angst is something we never outgrow." Steven Spielberg lauded the show and called Danes "one of the most exciting actresses to debut in 10 years", likening her to Audrey Hepburn. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Season 1 has a 94% approval rating based on 53 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Effectively avoiding cliche and cheesy exposition, My So-Called Lifes realistic portrayal of the average American girl is ahead of its time". On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating, the show has a score of 92 out of 100 based on 19 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". It is the 20th highest rated television series on the website. In 2007, it was listed as one of Times "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME". It was number 33 on Entertainment Weeklys "New Classics TV" list of shows from 1983 to 2008, and as number 8 in the "25 Greatest Cult TV Shows Ever". TV Guide ranked the series number 16 on its 25 Top Cult Shows Ever list in 2004, as well as number 2 on its 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon". Awards and nominations Ratings For its original run in the United States, the show aired on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET against top-10 hit sitcoms — Mad About You and Friends on NBC, as well as the popular Martin, Living Single and New York Undercover on Fox, possibly 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. Although My So-Called Life drew adult fans in addition to teenage viewers, the ratings-focused ABC concluded not enough viewers of a particular demographic were watching the show during its initial network run. 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." When the network was considering canceling the show, producers Zwick and Herskovitz appealed to then-ABC President Bob Iger, telling him, "You should keep this show on the air because teenage girls have no voice in our culture, and the show is giving them a voice." In January 1995, it was reported the show averaged 10 million viewers per week, a number ABC president of entertainment Ted Harbert said was high, but still fell short compared to ABC sitcom Home Improvement, which averaged 30 million viewers weekly. Cancelation An online fan campaign attempted to save My So-Called Life, the first such event in the history of the World Wide Web. Bolstered by fans' support, Ted Harbert said he was prepared to bring the show back for a second season. In a 2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Danes insisted that she did not have enough power to cause the cancelation by herself. It is generally accepted that the show's cancelation was the result of a variety of factors, including low ratings and scant publicity from the network. Bess Armstrong said, "Actually, I don't think there were any bad guys. It was just a confluence of events. It was a perfect storm." Winnie Holzman theorized that the network was so on-the-fence about renewing the show in the first place that in some ways they used Danes' reluctance to return as a convenient excuse to not renew the series. ==Episodes==

Planned storylines Had the show continued, Winnie Holzman said a second season would potentially have seen Patty and Graham getting a divorce, Angela turning to Brian for comfort, Sharon dealing with a teen pregnancy, and Brian and Delia getting together at some point. == Cultural impact ==

My So-Called Life is seen as a groundbreaking television show for its realistic portrayal of adolescence and for launching a revolution of teen angst-oriented dramas on primetime TV. On a 2012 list of cult TV shows, critic Melissa Maerz wrote "it was the first teen drama that didn't feel like an after-school special. No one ever learned a very important lesson or uttered the phrase 'I love you, Dad.' Angela acted like a real 15-year-old, with all the crying jags and Buffalo Tom concerts that implies. What's even more impressive is that anyone who watched the show back in the '90s, when angst and Manic Panic felt totally of the moment, can now enjoy it on a very different level. Suddenly, Angela's parents are relatable. Dammit, we're old." Of the character types explored in the show, Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "[Winnie] Holzman took these stock types and made them complicated and real — you didn't need to be a girl to feel Angela's longing for Jordan, didn't need to be gay to connect with Rickie's coming-out journey." While doing publicity for the show at the time, Cruz made a point of communicating that he was gay in real life. Showrunner and Arrowverse creator Greg Berlanti called the series "the most painfully honest portrayal of adolescence ever on television." and is frequently included in lists of TV shows that were cancelled too soon. My So-Called Life also inspired a German version of the sitcom called Mein Leben & Ich, which ran for 6 seasons and a total of 74 episodes, 25 minutes each. ==Home media==

A subset of the episodes were released on VHS by BMG Video in 1998. On November 19, 2002, BMG released the complete series on a five-disc box set. On May 14, 2007, Universal Playback released the complete series in the United Kingdom in Region 2. On October 30, 2007, Shout! Factory re-released My So-Called Life on DVD in Region 1 in a six-disc box set with 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. 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. On June 10, 2008, Beyond Home Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Australia in Region 4. On December 3, 2008, Free Dolphin released the complete series on DVD in France in Region 2, with a 32-page booklet but no other special features. As of March 2021, Hulu is the official streaming service for the series. ==Soundtrack==

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

A sequel novel by Catherine Clark, My So-Called Life Goes On, was published in 1999 by Random House. ==References==