The teen years are notoriously turbulent, rife with stresses, real and imagined. But at least you get more interesting television than your younger siblings do, as two new cable series demonstrate.
“Falcon Beach” (Mondays at 9 p.m. on ABC Family) features a bevy of young adults at a summer resort in New England who are dealing with romance, jealousy, beach parties, wigged-out parents, local cops – the whole soapy broth.
“Beyond the Break” (Fridays at 8 p.m. on the N channel) focuses on four young women, aspiring pro surfers who live in a communal house in Oahu, Hawaii, with a salty surfing vet (David Chokachi of Baywatch). The June 2 debut of the show, which is like the film “Blue Crush” with a sly streak of humor, drew more female teens than any other program on broadcast or basic cable.
What these series have in common, besides attractive casts usually decked out in bathing suits, is an inclination to deal with gritty issues like violence, drugs and bitter family dynamics.
That frankness is the primary difference between shows designed for teens (12 to 18) and those for “tweens” (8 to 12).
“We can do more with the older end of that demographic as long as the stories are told responsibly,” says Tom Zappala, senior vice president of scheduling and acquisitions for ABC Family. “It gives us the opportunity to tell more sophisticated stories and more intricately detailed stories.”
Tween programming, like the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” and Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101,” dwells in an adolescent utopia. The tone is usually lightly comedic and the worst problems you may encounter will result only in minor embarrassment. Teens hang in a tougher neighborhood.
Sean McNamara and David Brookwell, creators and executive producers of “Beyond the Break,” spent several years working on tween shows like “Even Stevens” and “That’s So Raven.” They’re glad their surf saga has taken them into deeper waters.
“It’s an extremely liberating experience,” McNamara says. “When you’re dealing with tweens, you can tell cool stories, but you have to be inventive. You can’t touch certain subject matters.
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“But with the age group watching the N, they’ve started hitting some hard subjects like alcoholism and teen sex,” he continues. “And the reality is that high school kids drink and high school kids do crazy things.”
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Both age brackets are fascinated with what the next stage of their lives looks like. So that’s what television serves them.
It certainly makes it easy to spot a tween show. From “Saved by the Bell” to “Boy Meets World” to “That’s So Raven,” one of their primary sets is always a bank of school lockers. This allows preteens to dream about what high school will be like.
“When the N launched (in 2002), we were originally a tween brand and we upped that to a teen brand,” says Sarah Tomassi Lindman, a vice president of programming and production for the channel. “That liberated us from all the hallway locker scenes.
“When you’re programming for the tween audience, their aspiration is always high school,” Lindman adds. “Teens are thinking about life after school. And when you get out of high school, the world gets really big.”
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Teenagers are the more lucrative market, spending more than $150 billion a year, according to a research study by Packaged Facts. But they’re a more fragmented and independent group. Tweens spend a fraction of that amount ($18 billion), but they influence an additional $145 billion in family expenditures. And they’re a more homogenous and loyal audience.
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“Tweens are quite childish and innocent,” writes Irma Zandl, the principal of a New York teen marketing and research group, via e-mail. “They are less cliquish. Their favorite TV shows, which include “That’s So Raven,’ “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ and “Full House’ reruns, are sweeter with a family orientation. … Each episode teaches a life lesson in a relatively stress-free way.”
“Teens are more worldly, rebellious, sometimes bratty and mean,” Zandl continues, stressing that her observations are more applicable to girls.
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“They are more likely to define themselves through subcultures, e.g., ‘the plastics’, goth, punk, prep, jock, art/drama, which brings up the difficulty of fitting in and being ostracized. They are into boys – which causes a lot of drama! Teens’ favorite TV shows include “One Tree Hill,’ “Degrassi’ and MTV reality shows like “Laguna Beach.’ They also watch lots of adult-oriented shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,’ “Law & Order,’ “Desperate Housewives’ and “Lost.’ Their TV tastes are much more edgy and progressive than what tweens watch.”
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The most intense teen show – indeed, one of the boldest programs for any age group on the tube – is the N’s “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” Over the last five seasons, this drama has dealt with cutting, date rape, school shootings, sexually transmitted diseases and a raft of other hard-hitting problems.
“When we tackle heavy issues, we bring in experts to take a look at how we are handling things,” Lindman says. “We do have the goal of being the authentic voice of teens, so we have to show things we know kids are dealing with in their lives.”
Whether we like it or not, today’s teens are more mature than previous generations. “Today’s teenagers are on the Internet and the world is more transparent to them than it ever was before in terms of information and overall connectedness,” says Kenny Miller, another vice president of production and programming at the N. “We think the difference between ages 12 and 13 and the ages 15 and 16 is light-years apart. You go from a place where you’re really a child to a place where you are beginning adulthood.”
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Like “Degrassi,” “Falcon Beach” is produced in Canada. That presents special challenges when you’re shooting a summer series.
“You don’t get much bright, beautiful summer weather in Manitoba,” says the series’ executive producer, Kim Todd. “Not as much as you need to shoot 14 one-hour shows.”
And despite the concerted effort to mirror contemporary social issues, we are talking about television. That means certain superficial details will always be paramount.
“The way we cast this show,” Todd says, “is we held this dynamic audition and then started asking, ‘What do they look like in a bathing suit?”‘
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AP-NY-06-23-06 1023EDT
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