Here are the stories of some of the most popular shows about cool teenagers that aired in the
1990s — and the reasons they had to grow up, move on, and leave the airwaves.
Good Morning, Miss Bliss, a short-lived Disney Channel vehicle for former child star Hayley
Mills about an Indiana teacher was revamped by NBC into Saved by the Bell, a show about
supercool Bayside, California, teen Zack Morris.
The fourth-wall-breaking, Ferris Bueller-like character was supported in his schemes by
his inner circle: mega-nerd Screech, jock A.C. Slater, fashionista Lisa Turtle, overachiever
Jessie Spano, and sometimes-girlfriend Kelly Kapowski.
They also had a band called the Zack Attack and hung out in a diner called the Max, run
by a magician.
Saved by the Bell was kind of weird, but it was a smash hit on NBC's Saturday morning
schedule from 1989 to 1993.
So why did it have to end?
"I'm sorry, Zack.
I wish there was a way we could still put on the show so you could be in it."
The characters on the show aged in real time, and four years is as long as high school lasts.
Not only were they scheduled to move on from Bayside High, but Tiffani Thiessen and Elizabeth
Berkley left the show midway through the 1992/1993 season.
NBC wasn't ready to say goodbye, so it launched the primetime continuation Saved by the Bell:
The College Years, which found Zack out of his element as a freshman at California University,
along with most of his high school friends.
Viewers apparently weren't interested in a non-Bayside High Bell, and the show bombed,
ranking at #88 in the ratings for the 1993-'94 season… which was its only season.
Undaunted, the studio launched yet another spinoff, Saved by the Bell: The New Class,
which actually ended up outlasting every other iteration of the show during its seven-season
run.
Proving your high school years are always a part of you, members of the original cast
reunited for a Saved by the Bell revival in 2020, streaming on NBC's Peacock platform.
Beverly Hills, 90210 was arguably the starting point and inspiration for all '90s teen culture.
Not long after its premiere on Fox in 1990, the soap became the hottest show on the air
for millions of young Americans.
Fans needed to know what happened in the social lives of Brandon and Brenda Walsh, Minnesota
transplants who moved to a certain ritzy Los Angeles suburb, along with their various friends
and romantic partners.
Brenda's relationship with Dylan became iconic for millions of teens, who bought magazines
and posters featuring the show's photogenic cast.
Beverly Hills, 90210 proved so popular, and vital to the rise and continued success of
Fox, that the network kept it on the air.
It evolved from a high school show to a college show, then simply one about the lives of young
adults.
By the year 2000, ten years after its debut, 90210 was the longest-running drama on American
nighttime TV, although much of the original cast had long since left and been replaced
by new, similarly good-looking people.
With the show long in the tooth and its characters nearing their 30s, Fox canceled the once-mighty
teen soap after nearly 300 episodes.
Like many long-running series, Beverly Hills, 90210 spawned a series of spinoffs, the most
popular of which, Melrose Place, became one of the defining shows of its era in its own
right.
That tradition continued in 2008 with 90210, a spinoff that focused on the lives of a different
group of teens in the ritzy area code; after that show left the air in 2013, yet another
series, BH90210, reunited the original cast in 2019 — this time with the actors playing
fictionalized versions of themselves.
It's an appealingly weird idea, but viewers weren't interested: BH90210 left the airwaves
after only six episodes.
"Now we get to sit around and wait to see if we get picked up."
"That's a formality, right?
I mean, it's the reboot of 90210, no brainer."
At the peak of Beverly Hills, 90210's success came My So-Called Life, an extremely low-key
drama about a girl right in the middle of the social chain struggling with adolescence
and her parents' expectations and perceptions of her — stories told with copious narration
from 15-year-old Claire Danes, who starred as quiet, introspective Angela Chase.
"I've been kissed three times.
No, four times.
No.
Three times."
The show became a cult hit and critical darling, praised for its sensitive, non-condescending,
and realistic portrayal of teenage life, and Danes became one of the youngest performers
to ever be nominated in a lead acting category at the Emmy Awards.
However, My So-Called Life was not even remotely a hit, ranking as the 116th-most-watched show
of the 1994/1995 TV season and the least watched program on ABC overall.
That's probably because the network scheduled it Thursdays at 8 against NBC's juggernaut
"Must See TV" sitcom lineup.
My So-Called Life went head to head with Mad About You and a brand-new sitcom called Friends,
which would become iconic for the generation at whom My So-Called Life was directed.
After one season, ABC canceled its groundbreaking teen drama.
When Clarissa Explains It All hit Nickelodeon in 1991, it was like nothing else on TV at
the time.
Melissa Joan Hart starred as adolescent Clarissa Darling, who talked to the audience to explain
her life, the actions of others, and any other number of quirks of the human existence.
Clarissa became a role model for her creative flair, abundant confidence, and wacky sense
of humor.
Plus viewers could relate to the trials of having goofy parents and an annoying little
brother.
During Clarissa Explains It All's fourth season, Nickelodeon decided that it wasn't going to
order more episodes.
Why?
At 17, the character of Clarissa was too old to be starring in a Nickelodeon show... but
not cool enough to star in a show on sibling network MTV.
Creator Mitchell Kriegman told Mental Floss:
"In those days, Nickelodeon stopped at 14 and MTV started at 15 or 16, and there was
no middle ground.
They didn't cross that line, 'cause that was MTV territory, and the attitude of MTV was
way different than the attitude of Nickelodeon."
Kriegman attempted to skip the demographic pigeonholing altogether, and in 1995 pitched
to CBS a continuation called Clarissa, in which the college-age title character lands
an internship at a New York newspaper.
It never became a series.
The early Fox network took some chances, airing shows far edgier and more unusual than the
stuff seen on the other major broadcast networks.
In 1990, it aired the surreal high school comedy Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
Later shortened to just Parker Lewis, the show starred Corin Nemec as an extremely cool
teen doing constant battle with his principal with the help of his friends: a rocker named
Mikey and a nerd named Jerry whose trench coat pockets held a treasury of bizarre gadgets.
Shot in the film-like single-camera format, when studio audiences and laugh tracks were
the norm, Parker Lewis' quick cuts, weird camera angles, and special effects certainly
put it ahead of its time.
After three seasons, both show and network were changing rapidly.
Co-creator Clyde Phillips told The Hollywood Reporter:
"The danger when you do a high school show is that your characters have to grow and in
fact they have to grow out of high school."
As for Fox, the network was, quote, "looking a bit to [...] get more adult," co-creator
Lon Diamond said, explaining that the network was, at the time, aiming for more serious
teen content.
Fox pulled the plug in 1993, after three seasons.
Teenaged singer Brandy was everywhere in the mid-'90s, releasing a slew of R&B-tinged pop
smashes like "I Wanna Be Down," "Baby," and "The Boy is Mine."
In 1996, UPN capitalized on Brandy's high status with teenagers and gave her a sitcom,
signing her to star on Moesha as Moesha, a Los Angeles teen going through the normal
trials and tribulations of American adolescent life.
At a big event at New York's Madison Square Garden in May 2001, UPN announced its big
moves for its slate of programming set to debut the following fall.
It was nothing short of an overhaul, what with the cancellations of its two longest-running
shows: Star Trek: Voyager, which had been on the air since 1995, and Moesha, ending
its five-year run.
The reason?
Moesha had, quote, "run its course," according to CEO Dean Valentine, who said:
"It was time to freshen up the night."
Getting rid of Moesha may have also been a way to make room and set aside some cash.
During the same media confab where the show was officially canceled, UPN announced that
it had acquired two series from rival mini-network The WB: Roswell and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Most movies and teen shows about teens are about the rich and popular kids.
MTV's animated hit Daria had plenty of those characters, except that they were a source
of derision for the heroes: brutally sarcastic and proud social pariah Daria Morgendorfer
and her best friend, aspiring painter Jane.
The series brutally mocked high school and all its social conventions, with Daria delivering
her vicious and pointed criticisms at the jocks, cheerleaders, and her popularity-obsessed
sister Quinn.
"You can't go, you'll ruin everything!"
"You know, I really should broaden my social horizons."
Daria, which debuted in 1997 as a spinoff of MTV's Beavis and Butthead, came about when
the network needed a show to attract female audiences.
Showrunner Glenn Eichler was left mostly to his own devices, and MTV offered him and his
team full creative freedom to make the show they wanted.
That also meant he got to end it on his own terms when he was ready, and he wrapped up
after five seasons with a TV movie about Daria's graduation.
But there's a good chance Daria wouldn't have made it to another season, even if Eichler
had wanted to do that.
He told Variety:
"Not too long after the series ended, MTV animation imploded, so I don't know if we
would have even made it to a sixth year."
Ryan Murphy has created a lot of shows.
In addition to provocative stuff for grown-ups like Nip/Tuck, Pose, and American Horror Story,
he's probably best known for getting Glee on the air.
But he honed his teen TV chops with his first ever series, the darkly comic high school
soap Popular, which hit The WB in 1999.
It was about two very different teenagers, cheerleader Brooke and school newspaper editor
Sam forced into togetherness when their respective single parents marry.
Popular seemingly fit right in with the WB's late '90s lineup of teen fare like Dawson's
Creek and Roswell, but Murphy later claimed that there was a disconnect between his progressive
vision for the show and what the network wanted it to be.
He told Entertainment Weekly:
"They never got me and they kept trying to turn me into something else.
They would give me notes, like, 'The Mary Cherry character, like, could she be less
gay?'"
"Even though I'm depressed and feel life has no meaning since that editorial, this restroom
always makes me feel so pretty."
Overall, he, quote, "didn't have a good experience" making Popular.
Despite his following the network's every suggestion, the show still got canceled after
two years anyway.
The hit 1995 movie Clueless concerned a clothes-obsessed, Beverly Hills teen named Cher Horowitz who
just wants to get her driver's license, hang out with her friend Dionn, and give new student
Tai a life-changing makeover.
The cheery and casual dynamic, along with the film's popularity, made a TV version almost
a foregone conclusion, and Clueless the show wound up on ABC's TGIF lineup in the fall
of 1996.
Several cast members of the film reprised their roles, while Rachel Blanchard took over
for Alicia Silverstone as the lead.
Despite moderately high ratings — it ranked #53 for the year — ABC canceled it, only
for the teen-skewing UPN to seize it.
The change in venue to the generally little-watched smaller network hurt the show: viewership
fell, and after the third season of Clueless saw another ratings drop, UPN canceled the
show.
Buffy, a vampire slayer played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, constantly faced danger, violence,
and death in the line of duty — and Buffy the Vampire Slayer the show outlasted almost
as many threats.
It survived a rescinded cancellation, the second death of the title character, a network
switch from the WB to UPN, the exit of popular characters Angel and Cordelia to the spinoff
Angel, and consistently poor ratings, never ranking higher than 120th place in the annual
Nielsen tally.
"Huh?"
Nevertheless, Buffy's crew produced 144 episodes of what would become one of the biggest cult
shows of all time, chock full of action, stunts, and serious acting.
That amounted to a tremendous grind for Gellar, and by 2003, she'd had enough.
"I quit.
I resign.
I'm fired."
She told Entertainment Weekly:
"I'm 26.
I'm married.
I never see my husband [...] You want to pick up and go, try other things, live in different
places.
It feels right, and you have to listen to that."
Without Buffy, there could be no Buffy, and so UPN wrapped up the series.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.