Up the Creek: Twenty Years of Teen TV

In the twenty years since teen television began it has seen an exponential increase in popularity and experienced significant changes in both its format and audiences. Many fans are now adults and have expanded the boundaries of the genre beyond its early demographic limitations, whilst teen television has become a space governed not by the particulars of setting or plot but by an all-encompassing idea of retelling the narrative of growing up. Up the Creek explores these fascinating developments whilst considering how a genre that is defined as much by scheduling practices as it is by textual content can be understood within today’s television landscape. Examining series such as Beverly Hills 90210 and The Gilmore Girls, Dr Hannah Ellison considers the ways in which teen television has contended with recurrent themes and modes of production, illuminating the continued use and reworking of familiar tropes such as adulthood and personal agency. Multidisciplinary in its approach, this book asks new questions about national identity, audience entitlement and the embracing of ever-changing new media landscapes.