documentarian r.j. cutler and series "american high"

5/28/2018 Documentarian R.J. Cutler and series "American High"

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Scho0lFox PhotoDocumentarist and Great Necknative R.J. Gutler: "l learnedlrom them," he says ol thestudents in "American High."

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By F nexr LovncnIGH SCHOOL. Like teenagers every-where, suburban Chicago seniorsworry about dating, pimples, gettinginto a good college and making thatwinning field goal. Sure, one gay kidcomes out to his straight friend, aBMOC jock. But there's not even an"Afterschool Special" in it - hisbuddy is, like, hey, you're still you,we're still buds.So much for high school hell.Where are the bullies? The stoners?The "Clueless" cliques that wouldn't let the likes ofMT\ls Daria sit with them?If they exist, they're not to be found in the earlyepisodes of "American-High," the-new Fox reality

series premiering Wednesday at 9 p.m. onWNYW / 5. And that's OK. We know all about allthose types already, survived them already.Filmmaker R.J. Cutler, who produced the Oscar-nominated Clinton campaign documentary "TheWar Room" (1993), didn't enlist two small filmcrews plus 25 seniors with video cameras to shoot aschool year's worth of footage just to tell us whatwe already know. Beginning in the fall of 1999,Cutler, crew and kids amassed a mountain of oftensurprisingly raw and introspective material for theshow's scheduled 13 episodes."It's been 20 years since I graduated high school,"says Great Neck native Cutler, who in addition to"The War Room" produced MSNBC'S canceled cult-classic documentary series "Edgewise" and pro-duced and co-directed the 1996 Oliver North docu-mentary "A Perfect Candidate.""I was curious as to what extent kids havechanged and how coming of age is different now. I

almost expected to be on a different planet with adifferent species of teenager. But at the core," hesays, "the similarities are the predominant thing.Theyte acquired a very sophisticated language todiscuss issues of relationships and family and iden-tity. But they remain aware they are kids andthere's much to learn and much they dont know."Give a kid a camera and tell'em that what theysay matters," he adds, "and it's amazing whatthey'll say, how honest they'll be." Indeed, the sec-ond episode opens with a video-diary entry fromangry slacker Morgan - one of the series' 14 fea-tured seniors - who makes the "Malcolm in theMiddle" family look functional.'You're a lousy student," Morgan's professorial-looking father tells him with bitter disappointment,"and you live in a pigsty and you have rotten man-ners and you have no respect. You are an absolute-ly obnoxious kid and everything that's good aboutyou only surfaces with people outside this houseand with people that you want to impress." Morganthen turns the lens on mom and fires a sarcastictaunt: "Anything you got to say, mom? C'mon.You're the one that's full of worries."Among the others we meet in-depth are Robby,the aforementioned BMOC, and his girlfriend Sara,who realizes it's absurd to think she's met the loveof her life at 17, yet still believes it. There's studi-ous Duncan, gay Brad and guitar-playing songwrit-er Ka5rtee, goddess of the freaks and geeks, with asmile like Julia Roberts'. They each put forth, inone form or another, the youthful verity Sara articu-lates best: "I'm so not what people think."Partly, they're playing to the camera, even Mor-gan's parents, making their case before the public.Unlike the subjects of Frederick Wiseman's noted

A SCene lrOm documentaries "High School" (1969),,American and "High-Scbool II" (199_4), theH;il:;il; |;gl,'e*"iilHili$A"'fr:fiTfly,lirst of 13 self-censorable video diaries ttre kidsepisodes shot (for a yearlong video class theDremieres filmmakers set up, taught by es-irllednesdav le-emeddocumentaristJonathan;i il:; ;, ff"XtT;t) 3tl':;::t1;ff;131t";,Fox / 5. meetings with the school district andthetommunity.-"They wanted answers to veryspecific things: 'What if you wanna go into a class-room and the teacher thinks you're disruptive?''Then we won't frlm there."What if you're filmingsomeone and they ask you to stop?''Then we stop."'"The idea of the show," Cutler says, "wasn't thatteenagers have sex and that some drop X," refer-ring to the faddish drug Ecstasy. "I'll leave that to'20 120.'Sex and drugs and such come up withinthe larger context of relationships," Cutler adds."But we decided early on we weren't gonna shoot


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IltE FOR A popquiz: List the dozenmost notable TVshows primarily setin high school.Contrast and com-pare. You maybegin.

Franciscus as onother En-glish teacher at anotherJeffersofi High, this one inLos Angeles. The handsomeand idealistic Novakworked under Dean Jaggerand Burgess Meredith assuccessive principals; Mari-on Ross played the schoolnurse.Room 222 (ABC, 1969-74)- Idealism still held swaya few years later at WaltWhitman High School inLos Angeles. Lloyd Haynes,one of the first Afri-can-American series stars,played history teacher PeteDixon in this EmmyAward-winning "relevant"dramedy. Perky Karen

Valentine was a breakoutstar.Welcome Back, Kotter(ABC, 1975-79 - Multicul-tural before the term wascoined, this oh-so-'70 sitcomabout the "sweathogs" atBrooklyn's James BuchananHigh made a star of JohnTravolta as Vinnie Barbari-no. Gabe Kotter's (Gabe

Kaplan) remedial class alsoincluded Jewish PuertoRican Juan Epstein (RobertHegyes ), African-AmericanFreddy (Boom Boom) Wash-ington (Lawrence Hilton-Ja-cobs) and dim Arnold Hor-shak (Ron Palillo). A genera-tion of boys fell for MarciaStrassman as Kotter's wife,Julie.Saued by the Bell (NBC,1989-93) - Dumb as dirt,this Saturday morningsitcom nonetheless provedpopular as perhaps the firstto center on students ratherthan teachers - unlike theseries it grew from, theHayley Mills starrer "GoodMorning, Miss Bliss." Thisshow spawned two sequels.Its Bayside High alumni

include Tiffani-Amber Thies-sen ("Beverly Hills, 90210")and Elizabeth Berkley("Showgirls").Degrassi High (PBS; 28episodes, 1989) - The flip-side of "Saved by the Bell,"this 28-episode Canadianseries - part of a continu-ing story begun with "TheKids of Degrassi Street"

(1982-86) and "DegrassiJunior High" (1986-89) -tarred actual high-school-ers who helped supplyreal-life story ideas anddialogue. A hit internation-ally, it's often mentioned inKevin Smith frlms("Clerks," "Mallrats," "Chas-ing Amy").Palker lewis Gan't Lose

(Fox, 1990-93) - Highschool can be surreal. Thiswas the first surreal high-

school show. Corin Nemec,as the titular wheeler-deal-er, presided over the sort ofmagical realism pioneeredby the likes of "Moonlight-i4g" and still seen in showssuch as "Ally McBeal."Beueily Hills, 90210 (Fox,1990-2000) - The prime-time soap goes to highschool.Yearbook (Fox, 1991) -ears before "AmericanHigh," this verite seriesfrom Louis Gorfain similar-ly followed high schoolers atGlenbard West High Schoolin Glen Ellyn, Ill. No videodiaries, though.

ABC Photo by Mark Seliger, 1994Claire Danes in ABG's '90sollering, "My So-Galled Life"My So-Called Life (ABC,1994-95)

-It lasted only 19

episodes, but this unflinch-ing drama about a 15-year-old (Claire Danes) copingwith teen torment andtemptations was a critics'darling that finally reachedits target audience as a hitrerun on MTV.Daria (MTV, 1997-present)- The class divisions ofhigh school never were

sharper, in every sense ofthe word, than in this ani-mated series featuringqueen of alienation DariaMorgendorffer (voice ofTracy Grandstaff), the sar-donic Dorothy. Parker ofLawndale High. A TV movieis in the works.Freaks and Geeks (NBC,1999-2000)

- Forget thewalking Ralph Lauren adsof "Dawson's Creek." Themost notable recent fictionseries set in high school wasthis short-lived cult hit, setin 1980, in which kidslooked like kids, talkedliked kids and didn't sleepwith their teachers. TheFox Family Channel willrun the series weekly begin-ning Aug. 29 and will pre-miere the three unairedepisodes ofthe 18 produced.- Frank Lovece

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Oh, wait. We didn't giveyou the lesson yet. Silly usHere's what you need toknow.

Wally Gox was "Mr. Peepers"in NBG's '50s live silcom.Mr. Peepers (NBC,1952-55) - This live sitcomstarred Wally Cox as amild-mannered Englishteacher at Jefferson High inMidwestern Jefferson City.Tony Randall played hisoutgoing best friend, history

Eve Arden in "0ur MissBrooks" on CBS ip the '50steacher Harvey Weskit.Our Miss Brooks (CBS,L952-56) - Another trans-plant from radio, Eve Ardenplayed wisecracking Madi-son High English teacherConnie Brooks, constantlybattling her pompous princi-pal Osgood Conklin (GaleGordon). A young RichardCrenna played studentWalter Denton, who droveto school each morning withMiss Brooks.

Mr. llouak (NBC, 1963-65)- The first high schooldrama series starred James

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documentarian r.j. cutler and series "american high"

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