PBS gets real with 'American High'

By ERIC DEGGANS

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 2, 2001

He faces the camera, pouring passion into the lens, looking for all the world like many parents' worst nightmare.

"These are the years when you're supposed to go f--- wild . . . blame it all on your parents or society, not have to suffer consequences," says high school student Morgan Moss, whose close-cropped blond locks lend a look uncomfortably close to shock rapper Eminem.

"Have unprotected sex, go and do drugs, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, watch porno, rent porno movies, do whatever the hell you want," he says, in a diatribe recorded in his own home by a small camcorder. "These are your teen years . . . and what are you sitting at home having to do? Homework."

These are the words that kick off what may be PBS' most subversive series yet: American High.

Originally aired on Fox last August, American High died a quick death trying to compete with more sensational "reality TV" experiments such as CBS' Big Brother and the megahit Survivor.

But PBS came to the rescue, offering a partnership of mutual benefit. Public TV needed a series to hook preteens and teens -- an audience its lineup of documentaries and fine arts programming rarely hooks -- while American High creator R.J. Cutler needed a new network.

And so, public television becomes the new home for Cutler's seemingly simple project: following 14 youths around a suburban Chicago high school for the 1999-2000 session Real World style -- handing the subjects camcorders to record more personal footage, in addition to the stuff camera crews observed.

"I'm just proud to have (once) been on the same network as Temptation Island," deadpanned Cutler in a press conference with TV critics in January.

"This television show really is the story of the kids who are in it: their voices, their point of view," adds the executive producer, who snagged an Oscar nomination for his documentary on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, The War Room. "Working with 2,800 hours of footage, we put together 13 episodes that really tell the stories of what it's like to be a kid coming of age in America right now."

With three kids of my own, I couldn't help seeing the American High episodes through a parent's eyes, particularly in the scenes featuring Moss, a troubled kid with attention deficit disorder who uses an in-your-face, party-hearty attitude to deflect serious fears of failure in life.

One telling bit, delivered once again through his camcorder "video diary," shows Moss taping his mother shouting at him to clean his room and his father noting, "You're an absolutely obnoxious kid, and everything good about you only surfaces with people outside this house."

"Like I said," Moss concludes after insulting his father and running out of the room, "my mom and dad are real pr--."

But I saw something beyond the shouting: two parents who had grown so weary of Moss' acting out and willful rule breaking (he tells his little brother to stop doing homework because "those F's should stand for fun") that stale anger was the only response they had left.

"Fox decided to . . . make me the poster child for the Disabled Parents of America," says Morgan's father, Alan Moss. "(But) our entire focus for over 18 years has been trying to give him some self-esteem and help him succeed. So if it takes some screaming and yelling and some heartache, it's part of being a parent."

Of course, American High isn't about parents. For much of the series, adults exist on the periphery -- like the unintelligible, squawking voices in Charlie Brown cartoons -- shoved to the sidelines so these vibrant, expressive, deep-feeling teens can show what their lives are really like.

The cast includes: Kaytee, a talented singer-songwriter who finds a fear of failure may keep her from following her muse; Brad, a gay teen who came out to his friends in junior year; Pablo, a charismatic poet from a dysfunctional home whose taste for parties and controlled substances is a problem; Robby, a star lacrosse player who will soon head to college and leave his beautiful girlfriend Sarah.

As the show progresses, we see them fall in and out of love, negotiating a wild world of influences and possibilities that feel familiar to those of us who've been there, yet strangely unfamiliar (I didn't have a cell phone or luxury SUV when I was growing up, for example).

Still, the language and some situations aren't necessarily for the faint of heart, which is why Tampa PBS station WEDU-Ch. 3 decided to delay American High's episodes from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesdays. PBS will air two half-hour episodes back-to-back every week.

Stephen Rogers, WEDU president, resisted suggestions the time change would make it tougher for high school kids to see the show -- despite the fact that some area high schools start their days as early as 7:20 a.m.

"We had our community advisory board look at the better part of two episodes . . . and they felt many of our viewers would find it offensive," Rogers says. "We hope this show is going to create some discussion (among parents and teens). We need to recognize that this is the way our youth interact with each other."

Doubtless, some of American High's moments will draw criticism from the same concerned parents I see at every speech I give these days.

Watching their children wallow in media that can feature a live boar killing on the radio (courtesy of WXTB-FM) and footage of a man cheating on his wife (in the syndicated show Cheaters), they have one question.

How do we stop the sex and violence in modern media?

They're rarely comforted by my answer: Get used to it.

Just as parents in the '60s worried about the Rolling Stones and in the '70s about Led Zeppelin, we worry about Jerry Springer, Eminem and MTV's Jackass.

Today, modern media make their bones by pushing content severe enough to shock, but not to repulse. Fox-TV's Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? made the mistake of going too far in demeaning an institution many still value; the network's recent reality TV success Temptation Island (four couples encouraged to cheat on each other at a tropical resort), had no such problems.

Yes, the stakes feel higher now than ever. But watching the youths of American High go about the business of growing up in the modern age, you realize it's also part of an age-old dance -- one parents can best balance by simply connecting with their children, the best way they can.

Toward that end, this critic's prescription is a dose of American High every week -- to be consumed by parents and high school-age children together -- using the episodes as a springboard to meaningful discussions and deeper connections.

"It may not always be comfortable . . . but these are important discussions to have," Rogers says. "And if public TV isn't doing this, who will?"

-- To reach Eric Deggans, call (727) 893-8521, e-mail deggans@sptimes.com or see the St. Petersburg Times Web site at http://www.sptimes.com.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.