By Sean T. Our long national nightmare of a summer is finally over, making the start of school as close to a happy occasion as it's ever been. But the small screen has always been happy to hear those morning-class bells ring. As one of the few genuinely universal experiences shared by audiences in every demographic group, the classroom has proven an irresistible setting for television shows of every conceivable kind, from comedies for kids and hard-hitting dramas for adults to shows that speak directly to those experiencing the teen turmoil they depict.
When it comes to depicting the ins and out of middle-to-high school, institutions of higher education or simply good ol' campus hijinks, these 20 shows are all valedictorians. There's a thin line between clever and stupid, and Saved by the Bell straddled it with day-glo style. Plus the leering presentation of its young hunks and babes — which undoubtedly flew over the heads of many of its young viewers — actually felt true to the relentless horniness of actual teenagers, no matter how silly the stories got.
Don't even get us started on the tell-all biopic. Unconvincingly old-looking undercover cops infiltrate a high-school hotbed of crime — let's face it, you know this show revolved a famously dopey idea. But it was flashy, and in the early Nineties that's what Fox was known for.
It also made Johnny Depp a star and formed the basis of the funny-on-purpose movie starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill years later. It was primarily a vehicle for comedian Gabe Kaplan and his Groucho Marxisms, but the show had two major things going for it: John Sebastian's lilting earworm of a theme song, and the Sweathogs, the core group of four ne'er-do-well outer-borough students led by a young, on-his-way-to-superstardom John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino.
Loaded with catch phrases "Up your nose with a rubber hose! Why more shows haven't taken the piss out of the sketchy semi-pro world of college athletics we'll never understand. But until the networks catch up with the reality, there's always Coach, the long-running nine seasons! Nelson as the head of a fictional Minnesota Division I-A program.
