by Emily Maesar, Associate TV Editor

The TV season of 2001-2002 brought with it a revival series of note and the start of the superhero live-action show craze. They both ushered in types of television, in both the teen space and outside of it, that would be replicated in the future. However, it’s totally fair to argue that the superhero teen show kicked off harder than revival TV show, especially revival shows that carry through continuity, but they’re both pretty solid pitches in TV of the last decade. 

First, let’s talk about the revival show! Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian half-hour and the fourth in a long-running series that started in the late 1970s with The Kids of Degrassi Street. There was a ten-year gap between the third series in the franchise of Degrassi, Degrassi High, and the new entry, which allowed the “high school reunion” storyline of the adults to exist in the pilot. While it aired on CTV in Canada, it was a prominent series on Noggin’ in the United States, where many a teen and pre-teen in the early 2000s watched a mantle pass in the hallowed halls of Degrassi High. Well, technically, they watched it on The N, the teen-specific block of shows put on by Noggin’. (It was also where syndicated re-runs of previously discussed teen shows Clueless, Dawson’s Creek, My So-Called Life, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch would also air.)

The show follows the children of previous Degrassi High characters who are starting high school, though the two-part pilot is set prior to the school year beginning as the adults are setting up a high school reunion. The pilot, and the first season largely, is much more adult forward than the rest of the show would, ultimately, end up being. It makes sense because while the subtitle of the series is The Next Generation, the initial premise is based on the previous generation still being present (and being played by the original actors). It’s a mix of nostalgia bait, but also the start of a long-running series that would help raise a generation of people my age. 

The pilot of Degrassi: The Next Generation is actually quite topical for the time period, and for the eventual world we would find ourselves in, as the internet began its steep road to cultural dominance. The teen storyline, other than a few of the main cast getting to know each other, is largely about Emma wanting to meet up in person with another teen she met online, while he’s in town on a field trip. All her friends think it’s a terrible idea because she doesn’t actually know this guy and, when she eventually slips out to meet him, they’re proven correct because it’s actually a creepy adult man who basically kidnaps her in his hotel room. Her friends figure out where she went and get Emma’s mother and their future teacher, both Degrassi High alumni, and let the adults take care of it. Nothing horrible happens to Emma… but something very clearly could have. It’s this delicate balance of the truth of the internet, but also deep parental fears—real or imagined. And it’s kind of the perfect way to jump start a Degrassi series in a new generation. I mean, it’s a show that has the website URL on the logo in the opening credits, after all!

Degrassi: The Next Generation was a show absolutely hellbent on being topical for the modern teen and pre-teen. And it didn’t matter if it was the Canadian teen or the American teen because the show was simulcast in both countries and was deeper concerned with showing the (however melodramatically told) truth of being a modern teen. You’ve got the stranger danger internet pedophile of the pilot, but there’s also drug use (which had to be edited in the US), abortion (a banned episode in the US for a long time), and the very American issue of a school shooting. The tagline for the series was “It Goes There” after all, and go every which where it certainly did. So, while the show can often be a bit goofy, melodramatic, and after school special-y a lot of the time, it was being as honest and truthful as it could imagine being, which earned it an iconic spot in modern teen television. 

The 2001-2002 TV season might have given us the start of a 14-season ultimate teen show that eventually did four seasons of more than 40 episodes each, but it also gave WB another hit with the superhero series Smallville. The story of a young Clark Kent and company, Smallville ended up with a pretty strong following, premiering to over 8 million viewers. The pilot of the series marked a record for highest premiere viewership for The WB, and the first season held pretty steady with a season average of 6.41 million viewers.  It was also one of the shows that made the eventual leap from The WB to The CW, with half the series on each iteration of the network. 

The pilot, and the series at large, really intertwines Clark and Lex’s storylines by having Clark save Lex’s life after a nearly fatal car accident. It marks the first time many DC superheroes were seen in live-action, and the series was largely praised for its depiction of both Clark Kent, but of the DC universe at large. It was also often considered one of the best superhero adaptations for television and while the teenage (and eventually adult) melodrama was often mocked, it was also beloved in equal measures. 

But more than anything, Smallville’s legacy was squarely on The CW and the future of DC’s television adaptations. In season six, once the series was on the new network, there were conversations about doing a spin-off with that show’s Green Arrow, but actor Justin Hartley declined. However, the network was set on making a show with Oliver Queen at its center. Enter Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim who developed Arrow and kicked off the Arrowverse, which became the major brand for The CW. It’s a universe that eventually encompasses Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl (when it made its eventual leap from CBS despite being technically in a different universe), Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman, and the only currently running (though ending soon) show: Superman & Lois. Smallville might have had 10 seasons and 217 episodes, which is nothing to sneeze at, but its legacy is 7 shows, spanning 40 seasons of television and over 700 episodes.

Smallville was largely responsible for building The CW’s eventual brand and it helped capture the elusive male teen and young adult audience. At the time on The WB the biggest shows were 7th Heaven, Charmed, Dawson’s Creek, Felicity, and Gilmore Girls. Even without Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell, both of which had moved to UPN during this TV season, there were no clear-cut shows aimed at teenage boys or young men. Angel: The Series existed, but it was neither aimed at teens nor did it come without the potential baggage of needing to watch Buffy. But Smallville? It was perfect and it worked like a charm. It was what the network needed, and it became the backbone of the future of the network when it merged with UPN, even up to today. As The CW is taking back all its grand plans of being a network for teens and young people and aiming for an older demographic, the last vestige of the network’s former intent is what will be the final season of Superman & Lois. 

Both huge shows from the 2001-2002 TV season are iconic and are really nice indicators of what the media landscape currently looks like to some degree. Which, as always, kind of proves that teen shows are sometimes ahead of the ultimate curve—if only because teens are a demographic that allows for real trial by fire. If it works, then you’re good to go much wider with the kind of show you’re trying, but if it doesn’t… you’re dead on arrival and you should be ashamed you ever thought you could do it. 

However, the 2002-2003 season was a rather quiet one, but animation on non-broadcast networks really tried to capture the teen and pre-teen audience to some immediate success and largely to future cult success. But that’s for next time!