American High

First on Fox, then on PBS, this show was actually a documentary, not a manufactured "reality TV" show. Because of this of course, it couldn't survive despite it being extremely well-made and compelling.

The format was excellent, combining footage from third-person camerapeople with self-shot "diaries" directed by the stars themselves. I suspect this show would have really connected with a sizeable high school audience as well as a parents-of-high schooler audience, had PBS had enough money to let people know that the show existed.

Now that documentaries are getting such big audiences in America, PBS should try this again. Especially since PBS is on the verge of being dragged prematurely to its death.

I was utterly disappointed when it was announced that this show would be cancelled after just two episodes. Leave it to money-grubbing television executives to place immediate financial gain above long-term reputation building. Part of the reason I liked this so much is because it was filmed at Highland Park high school, my high school's cross-town rival, which I visited regularly. I even took summer school classes there. This made it all the more real: the kids appearing on the show were much like the ones I knew in high school, and I thought this show was probably the most realistic of the "reality" shows. Unfortunately, it was sent to the scrapheap in favor of contrived series' like "Survivor" and the latest seasons of "The Real World", whose participants are chosen more for their physical appearance and trendiness than anything else. American High was the last and the best of the true reality shows, a group that only includes the first two seasons of "The Real World" and the first season of "Road Rules".

While Fox didn't have the nerve to continue running this fine program, PBS picked it up and not only ran the entire season once, but is re-running it summer 2001 (check out pbs.org for local times). There's no way to compare this show to Big Brother or any other "reality TV" shows. This is not filmed on a studio soundstage or in a professionally decorated mansion with contestants who are trying to win $1,000,000 and/or start an acting career. These are real kids who are struggling with real issues. They're not driven by winning money or becoming a VJ. Because of this, they are probably the most fascinating characters on TV in the past few years.

The reruns that I saw in the summer of two-thousand-one on PBS were very interesting, seeing how other people live their lives, and what obstacles they had to face.

Now that I look back I wonder why FOX canceled this series, sure it does not have very much-- wait, actually it has no hype, but it's still a very good series.

If they happen to do something like this again, hopefully they will put some hype into it, it might make the show last longer. The idea was great, the content was good, I'd rate this show 3.5 of 4 stars.

The previous comment posted said that the season was canceled after two episodes, but I watched it on KET that year and saw the entire season. They were thinking about doing another season but ended up not. Which was sad, but I LOVED this show, it was so great and so real. It wasn't a reality show, it was life. All those reality shows aren't real, they are fake, but this wasn't. That's probably why it didn't see a second season. And KET is not that popular of a channel. But each of the episodes would focus on just a couple of the students, so you should see an entire episode and not see all the students that are a part of the series. They did one or two episodes on prom, and you got to see who everyone was taking and what everyone was thinking. You got to see into these students lives when they took the cameras outside of school, and a lot of the footage they shot themselves, especially the stuff outside of school.