School Daze: TV Shows in High Schools Quiz

Answer: Head of the Class

"Head of the Class" featured ten genius teens enrolled in an Honors Program at Monroe High School. Jawaharlal Choudhury (Joher Coleman) was a good-natured and witty kid newly arrived from India. Their teacher, Charlie Moore (Howard Hesseman), introduced the bookish group to real life via sports, journalism, and musical productions. Coleman played the first East Indian character in a US situation-comedy. Choudhury was stereotypical and underused, but nonetheless broke a longstanding race and ethnicity barrier on television.

In 1988, "Head of the Class" was also the first US sitcom filmed in the Soviet Union, when the Honors Program students went to Moscow to meet gifted Moscow teens. The show ran from 1986 to 1990, with changes in the cast, including Mr. Moore, in the final season.

Answer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Buffy Summers was one of a long line of female slayers fated to fight demons and vampires. Each slayer had a guide and trainer called the Watcher. By day Buffy, Watcher and friends went to Sunnydale High School, where under the library yawned the mouth of a demon portal! At night they fought evil beings. Symbolically, perhaps, did Buffy triumph over the emotional and interpersonal challenges teenagers face, represented as demons and monsters? Running from 1997 to 2003, "Buffy" aired in Britain, Ireland and the US.

The show made "Time" magazine's list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".

Answer: Degrassi Junior High

"Degrassi Junior High" was a heavy duty high school show (1987-1989) praised for its realistic approach to teen suicide, school shootings, infidelity, teen pregnancy, and cancer, as well as many other salient teen issues. The show won the 1987 International Emmy in the Children and Young People category for an episode on teen pregnancy. Produced in Canada, it was aired in the UK, Australia, and Western Europe, though the BBC in Britain screened only one season, and declined to transmit an episode about homosexuality. The show was part of a larger "Degrassi" series.

Answer: 21 Jump Street

Johnny Depp played undercover Officer Tom Hanson in "21 Jump Street", which ran from 1987 to 1991. His small team of bobbies (police officers) posed as students in order to track and solve school crime. Created by Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen Cannell, this was an early hit for the new station called Fox. With a young, attractive cast including the DeLuise brothers, Holly Robinson, and Richard Grieco, the show was a hit with youth. Big names of the day such as Brigette Fonda, Brad Pitt, Jada Pinkett Smith and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made guest appearances. Depp left the show in 1990, saying that he wanted to be a serious actor, not just a teen idol.

Answer: The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

"The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" was among the first television series on teen life in high school. It featured Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) who often sat alone on a park bench and shared his dilemmas with the viewers. He was obsessed with "creamy, soft" and unattainable girls, much to the annoyance of his hard-working father. "That's all I want," Gillis said aloud from his bench, "one lousy girl!" The show helped launch Bob Denver (who played Maynard, Dobie's sidekick) and Warren Beatty (an antagonist at school) into stardom. Airing from 1959 to 1963, the show was adapted from a short story collection of the same name by Max Shulman.

Answer: The Secret Life of the American Teenager

In "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" Molly Ringwald (once a teen in "The Breakfast Club") plays mom to teen Amy Juergens (Shailene Woodley). Amy becomes pregnant after a one-night stand, and she, the father Ricky, her friends and her family spend the first season coming to terms with the unexpected pregnancy. Amy has to juggle motherhood and attendance at Ulysses S. Grant High School in the second season, while realizing that nearly all the teens at her high school have one secret or another. Created by Brenda Hampton, the show's 2008 pilot episode had the most viewers ever for ABC Family, and earned a Teen Choice Award.

Answer: Friday Night Lights

"Friday Night Lights" featured high school football coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), his family and his team. Conceived from a book and a film about real-life events in Odessa, Texas, "Friday Night Lights" brought viewers into Texas lifestyle and perspectives (e.g. "barbecues build morale") on marriage, childcare, community and laundry mingled with player injury, dirty tactics, ego, and parents and scouts who both supported and interfered.

The show ran from 2006 to 2011. It won numerous awards and prizes, though it never gained a massive audience. A memorable scene included male, adult advice to a teen who was sweet on a girl: "If you're into a chick, you can't pay any attention to her! Trust me on this." Season 5, episode 7 proved how that advice panned out. (Oh, all right, I'll tell you. "It totally worked," the teen said.)

Answer: Room 222

From 1969 to 1974 Mr. Dixon (Lloyd Haynes) took viewers into "Room 222" at Walt Whitman high school. An idealistic African-American history teacher, the much-admired Mr. Dixon often used current events of the '60s and '70s as classroom fodder, including the Vietnam War, women's rights, gay harassment and Watergate.

The show won many awards, and "Room 222" youngsters became successful actors, writers and directors down the road.

Answer: Boston

Steven Harper (Chi McBride) oversaw Winslow High in "Boston Public" (2000-2004). The show dealt with realistic and heavy issues such as ambition and frustration in working adults, funding cuts in administration, school violence, and racism in both adults and teens.

The school employees were weary and tough, with tender hearts and a sense of humor. Created by the award-winning David E. Kelley ("The Practice"), Kelley's "Boston Legal" brought us lawyer Denny Crane in 2004, just as "Boston Public" was ending.

Answer: Glee

"Glee" is set in fictionalized version of Lima, Ohio, where the Glee Club, when they aren't being beat up or tossed into dumpsters, compete in singing competitions. Comedienne, actress and singer Jane Lynch plays the cheerleading coach, a meanie always looking to best and bully the Glee Club students and their director. Lynch's role was originally written as occasional, but Sue Sylvester became a regular character we love to hate. "Glee" has won an impressive number of Emmy Awards, Satellite Awards and dozens of others, as well as taking the Golden Globe for Best Television Series--Musical or Comedy more than once.