Talk:My So-Called Life

Early discussions
"the only television series ever to use character development and metaphor to drive the plot"

Of course, and Jewel in the Crown or I, Claudius were just glorified soap operas.

Get rid of this hyperbole.HBR

Should the names of the characters be wikified? Seems like it makes the page a big hyperlink mess to me. Jeversol 18:26, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * What do you find not appropriate about them? --Liberlogos 05:10, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)


 * I agree with Liberlogos. Articles about characters are encouraged. See Luke and Laura Spencer or Donna Beck for examples. Mike H 05:12, Aug 25, 2004 (UTC)


 * The Angela Chase wiki-link just redirects back to this page though - there doesn't seem to be any point to that.sheridan 10:10, 2004 Dec 1 (UTC)

isn't it the case that MSCL was aired against the hugely popular & established 60 minutes, contributing to its downfall? Also, it was nominated for 5 Emmys and Claire Danes won a golden globe

MSCL did not air against 60 Minutes (Sundays at 7:00 P.M. on CBS). It aired on Thursday nights at 8:00 P.M. against four hit sitcoms. Top ten hits, 'Mad About You' and 'Friends' on NBC as well as the popular 'Martin' and 'Living Single' on FOX. This was for it's original run in the United States. In the spring of 1995 MTV started running MSCL in a atempt to save it. As explained in 'Entertainment Weekly' this would have worked, but Clair Danes wanted to appear in fewer episodes in order to launch a movie career. The fans of MSCL launched the first big Internet 'save our show' campaigns. Later, after it was announced the show would not return, and Clair Danes decision...MSCL fans flamned various message boards. this was mentioned in USA Today in the late spring of 1995.

the link to 'bedford falls production company' no longer works & should be removed81.79.90.42 20:07, 11 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Better yet, it should be fixed. Bedford Falls is an important production company responsible for several well-regarded shows.  MrBook 15:17, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

The cancellation
The cancellation shouldn't be simply chalked up to low ratings.

The fact is, at the time of the cancellation, the head of the efforts to save the show stated with anger and hurt that it was Claire Danes' fighting its renewal that made the difference. This created a great deal of controversy at the time, but is backed up by a recent Entertainment Weekly article in which, for the first time, Claire admits she expressed to the network through her agent a desire not to return and Ted Harbert, who made the cancellation decision, says Claire's reluctance was decisive.


 * Please site the EW article or remove the section on Danes' reluctance from the entry. Alvis 05:37, 8 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Here is the URL of the interview about it: http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,692296-4-5_3||233618|1_,00.html.  I'm going to try to put the citation in, but it will be the first time I've added a citation to a Wikipedia article; so if I fail to get it right, I'll leave adding the citation for someone else to do.  But if anyone doubts the veracity of the claim, whether I manage to make the citation in the article or not, just check out that link.


 * Okay, I believe I've cited it properly.

It's true that had the ratings been high enough the show would have survived regardless, and it's also true that one can't be completely certain that Harbert would have renewed the series anyway. What is clear is that Claire played a role, and this role and the controversy surrounding it should be mentioned.


 * I have been adding large chunks of backstory about the genesis and production of the show. I just wanted to thank the users/editors who went through and cleaned up the structure (Bensin?) and added hyperlinks.

Region 2 Release
Perhaps it might be worth including something about the series (finally) getting a Region 2 release? It's currently scheduled for release on May 14th :-

http://play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3305738/My_So_Called_Life_The_Complete_Series/Product.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Called-Life-Jared-Leto/dp/B000N39I0M/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/203-7590118-7422302?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1176127822&sr=8-1 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.159.4.54 (talk) 14:11, 9 April 2007 (UTC).

"Episodes" section
Is there any significance to the "<"s next to eps. 10 and 14? --zenohockey 01:04, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Probably not. I'll remove them. --Bensin 01:09, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

POV
Some of the (uncited) text in the sections toward the end of the article is massively POV, describing people (mostly Claire Danes) as 'genius' and such. --38.100.222.81 11:48, 28 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed. I have cleaned up some of the main body of this article, mainly by correcting unprofessional prose and deleting repeated information.  There were a few sentences which I removed completely because they were obviously written from a biased standpoint, were critique rather than informative, and no sources were provided.  What remains is still relatively biased, however, made up mostly of quotes without sources.  Without knowing the sources, there's not much more I can do. Clockster (talk) 04:49, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

I was the author of a majority of the article from where the Production section begins on down. Much of my information was based on a rare interview with the creator and producers of the show that was included with a very limited production of the very first boxed set of MSCL discs that was released in 2002. All of the quotes I have used are from my own transcription of the interview. Cjboffoli (talk) 01:36, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Themes
Mention needs to be made of the parallels which many, if not all, stories had between the life of the parents and that of the children. A case in point is the episode in which Angela "pushes [her dad] off her pedestal, instead of 30 years too late like [her mom does her grandfather]." It was always clear to me that they were trying to write for the parents as well -- an observation underlined by Winnie Holzman's quoted statement: "I didn't see it as a teen show. I wasn't writing it that way." —Preceding unsigned comment added by P00r (talk • contribs) 13:40, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Bertha Reynolds
The following information was added by User:Shalom sheet in this edit.

"Bertha Reynolds was a character to be played by aspiring young actress Suzanne Cobb. The character was supposed to be Angela's rival of sorts when it came to Jordan's affections. Bertha was going to be a character around throughout the series, who went by her middle name "Rae". This character would have an edgy feel and was described as "a blonde haired vixen who had been on and off with Jordan and still held his interest" Suzanne Cobb was the only actress picked for the role and when she dropped out due to casting issues (she had to go star in the upcoming film "Ravenous Stupor") the role of Rae was put aside. It was later decided that she was too typical of a role and that the series would be more realistic without her."

I think a reliable source is needed for this to be included. --Bensin (talk) 23:29, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * It appears that User:Shalom sheet has only ever made two edits on all of Wikipedia, firstly, the edit you mention above, and secondly, this edit, which she made two days later:


 * Rae Reynolds Rae is a character that never officially made it to the cast of My So Called Life. Winnie wrote this character as a more filled out version of the character Cynthia Hargrove, who slept around with jordan and is mentioned toward the end of the series. Originally this character was going to be in a few episodes, much like Cynthia's. However, Winnie then decided to make her a rival of Angela's when it came to Jordan's affections. Her character was described as "blonde, buxom, a vixen in her own right, a mentor of sorts to Angela- to her hatred" This character was written exclusivly for the young canadian actress Suzanne Cobb, who matched the character description to a T. Cobb was 16 at the time, and was extremely interested in the role. However, at the last minute cobb dropped out in order to play a biology professor slash erotic dancer in the film "Vivacious Dissection" and the part of Bertha "Rae" Reynolds was scrapped, diluted later to the pale original version of Cynthia Hargrove.


 * When one Google searches "a blonde haired vixen who had been on and off with Jordan and still held his interest", this talk page is the only hit. If this is supposed to be an exact quote, it appears nowhere on the Internet.


 * When one Google searches "blonde, buxom, a vixen in her own right", one gets zero hits. If this is supposed to be an exact quote, it appears nowhere on the Internet.


 * When one Googles "Suzanne Cobb" with "Ravenous Stupor", this talk page is, again, the only hit. I'd say, therefore, that it is extremely unlikely that any actress named Suzanne Cobb ever appeared in a movie called Ravenous Stupor.


 * When one Googles "movie" with "Ravenous Stupor" or "film" with "Ravenous Stupor", one comes up with a few hits, but absolutely nothing (other than this talk page) to indicate that a film with that title was ever even made.


 * When one Googles "Suzanne Cobb" with "Vivacious Dissection", one comes up with zero hits, making it extremely unlikely that any actress named Suzanne Cobb ever appeared in a movie called Vivacious Dissection.


 * When one Googles "movie" with "Vivacious Dissection" or "film" with "Vivacious Dissection", one comes up with a few hits, but absolutely nothing to indicate that a film with that title was ever even made.


 * When one Googles "actress named Suzanne Cobb", one comes up with zero hits. When one Googles "actress Suzanne Cobb", one comes up with two hits: this talk page, and an IMDb page indicating that "Suzanne Cobb" was the name of a fictional character in some 1994 made-for-t.v. movie.  I can find no strong evidence on the Internet that anyone named Suzanne Cobb has acted.  In fact, the closest thing to "evidence" I could find online that anyone named "Suzanne Cobb" may've acted was this Whois page.


 * When one Googles either "Bertha Reynolds" with "My So-called Life" or "Rae Reynolds" with "My So-called Life", one turns up no evidence (other than this talk page) that this potential character was ever even a consideration.


 * Moreover, it is extremely suspicious that the two edits User:Shalom sheet made were contradictory.


 * While it is not impossible that this Reynolds character was actually a consideration, I'd be more inclined to suspect that User:Shalom sheet simply made-up this information. I agree with Bensin that, in order for this information to be included, some sort of reliable source must be dug up.


 * Sincerely, allixpeeke (talk) 13:14, 24 August 2013 (UTC)

Tino never seen?
I don't remember seeing that :) Jordan had a number of friends which he hung around with and exchanged shorter dialogues with - sure that not one of them was Tino?`Sponsianus (talk) 00:21, 16 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Absolutely. In fact, we rarely if at all hear the names of Jordan's friends and band mates other than Tino, who we never see - something I always thought was pretty cool. (I think another name or two pops up in a couple episodes - not sure; maybe the guys in Frozen Embryos, Residue or Between Names.) I've seen every episode too many times - Tino never appears. Also, it was discussed on the DVD extras that the viewer never sees Tino.


 * Cheers, Rico402 (talk) 08:34, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Discussion
i was just rewatching my so called life on hulu and got on to see if i could find info about where the series would go, but i noticed an error. jordan is not dyslexic. when angela finds out he can't read well she asks him this and he says no, he doesn't think that is it, that he can read, just not well. towards the end of the series when brian is tutoring him he tells angela that brian figured out he is a remedial reader with low literacy skills. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.203.10.94 (talk) 06:22, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I created this new userbox
The code is:

Grundle2600 (talk) 19:00, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Unsourced Material Archive
The article has been tagged for needing refs for over two years. Consequently I have moved unsourced material here. Please feel free to reincorporate the material into the article with proper sourcing! Doniago (talk) 17:38, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%;font-size:88%;text-align: left; border: 1px solid silver; margin-top: 0.2em;" ! style="background-color: #CFC;" | Production == Production ==
 * style="border: solid 1px silver; padding: 8px; background-color: white; " |
 * style="border: solid 1px silver; padding: 8px; background-color: white; " |

Preparation
Winnie Holzman was an award-winning writer but had not written much for television and was not making a living with writing at the time she got the idea for My So-Called Life, a project she had initially been calling Someone Like Me. Holzman spent time at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles (through a program with the Writer's Guild in which writers could guest teach) as research for writing the show.

Her brother Ernest Holzman had been working as a cinematographer with producers Zwick and Herskovitz on their hit show thirtysomething when he introduced his sister Winnie to the producers, who grudgingly agreed to look at her "spec" script for what would become the pilot of My So-Called Life. They were pleasantly surprised that the draft pilot was brilliant and worked with Winnie to shape the show. Ernest Holzman went on to work as director of photography on several episodes of My So-Called Life. Zwick and Herskovitz, in many ways pioneers of the type of naturalistic television characters that distinguish the shows they have produced, had worked on the TV series Family in the mid-1970s and had struggled to develop a young female character that was played by Kristy McNichol on the show. They have said that in some ways, the character of Angela Chase on My So-Called Life was a "spiritual descendant" of the earlier character and that the chance to portray a young woman honestly in a television drama drew them to the project.

The genesis of Angela Chase's signature voice-over was in Winnie Holzman's struggle to write. The producers encouraged Holzman to write in the voice of a character as if she were writing a diary. Much of what was written for this exercise was used in Angela's voice-over dialogue in the pilot for the show.

Casting and production
A 13-year-old Claire Danes had appeared only in one small guest role on the show Law & Order, but the strength of her appearance was noticed by casting directors, and she was brought in to read for the part of Angela Chase while she was in Los Angeles reading for a Steven Spielberg project. The producers and casting director were impressed by the depth of Danes' audition and knew she was the one to bring the character of Angela to life. However, they had grave concerns about having a 13-year-old actress in the lead on an hour-long drama shot on film, as her working hours would be so restrictive as to make production very challenging. To that point, most roles in shows about young teenagers were played by actors 18 years old or older. The producers argued about this issue and eventually decided to take a risk and cast Danes in the lead. The limits of Danes' working hours turned out to serve the show as the producers were forced to expand the screen time of the ensemble actors, making a richer dramatic structure. The producers settled on a four-act formula in which there would be at least two major scenes in which Danes' character would not appear. This challenged the writers to expand and develop additional characters, like Rickie Vasquez, played by Wilson Cruz. The alienation felt by the character of Rickie only mirrored and added depth to that felt by Angela, adding to the complexity of the show.

thumb|right|250px|The young cast of My So-Called Life

Jared Leto was not initially envisioned as a series regular, having been originally hired only for the pilot, but the casting director and producers were impressed with his auditions and early performances. They said they "could never catch him acting." In fact, for a while he did a good job of fooling the producers into thinking he was somewhat like the dimwit he played as he often remained in character between shots. They were genuinely surprised to discover that Leto was such an articulate, intelligent person. He did not initially see himself as being on a television series, as he was mostly reading for film work at the time he landed the role.

By design the parent characters were written flatly in the pilot, as this was how the lead character Angela perceived them. However, Bess Armstrong and Tom Irwin were such strong actors and brought so much to their portrayals that it was difficult to keep them that way.

The show was written gradually as the network ordered additional episodes. Holzman has said that she did not allow herself to think too far ahead but instead she wrote "in response to what [she] was feeling and seeing on the set as characters were developing." She was very interested in "polarized people who come together." The characters of Rayanne and Sharon were created as two opposing forces who were gradually brought together to great dramatic effect. The relationship between these opposing characters was something that was decided upon well into the season.

Production of the show was spread out over an unusually long period of time. Nearly two years lapsed between the shooting of the pilot (March, 1993) and the final episode of the show (December, 1994). The pilot itself was not picked up until after the normal time the networks made their orders for shows for the fall 1994 season. The network was still unsure about the show after picking up the pilot, thus they only ordered the production of six episodes, as opposed to the standard order of a half-season of 13 or a full season of 22. Each time the network made a request for new episodes they only ordered six or seven shows at a time. This often caused long gaps in production. Vigilant viewers may notice some subtle changes in the appearance of various actors (especially Devon Gummersall, who had the most dramatic physical change) and in some of the sets. Despite the uneven production schedule, episodes were generally shot in sequence, though there were one or two episodes (such as the Rayanne-overdose episode, "Other People's Mothers") that were flipped in sequence and aired in a different order than they had been shot. However, as the storylines for each of the episodes were self-contained and were not contingent on dependent narrative elements, continuity was not affected.

The producers developed a strong working relationship with ABC from having created and produced thirtysomething. Zwick and Herskovitz were allowed to rely on their own judgment and were not subjected to interference or pressure from the network brass, which is a fairly rare situation in network television.

Scott Winant, director of the pilot and several episodes of the season, had been a member of the Bedford Falls family and worked with Zwick and Herskovitz on thirtysomething. He was already an accomplished director at the time he began working on My So-Called Life. When the producers screened the show's pilot, they were astonished at how much his work was an advance even for him. Zwick said, "Scott took the material and ran with it. He understood it and brought to it his own alienated understanding of that particular moment in adolescence. But it was not retro. It was very present. Something remembered but also something very contemporary. What impressed me most was when I saw what he had done with his focus on the flickering fluorescent lights in Angela's homeroom. That was in itself a metaphor for the show: of something shorting out....something not working."

Holzman says, "Shooting the pilot was magical. Everyone could feel how good it was going to be. It had a lot to do with Claire and how amazing she was. One of my favorite memories was the night we grabbed that long shot on the street near the end of the episode. We were under so much pressure because we were going to lose Claire at any moment [due to union work rules and laws that pertain to underaged actors]. It always felt like the production was just about to lose Claire. She was always running off to take a French test or something. We always had to rush to get something shot. But that says a lot about her incredible talent because she'd just come in without a lot of rehearsal and she'd just do it. And she was only this 14-year-old girl. She was that remarkable. Anyway, that night Claire was tense. Her parents were tense. We were running out of time. But my brother [Ernest Holzman] stayed focused and saw the beauty and romance in that long shot on the street with Angela and Brian. It was he who was pushing to get that shot. He was instrumental in finding that moment, in seeing it and in pushing to get it. It became one of the most iconic images from the show."

The producers were routinely impressed with Danes' natural acting talent. Danes' audition was a scene that appeared in the pilot in which Angela Chase confronts her best friend Sharon Cherski (later played by Devon Odessa) in the bathroom at school. The producers said that when Danes read the part, her face flushed red and her eyes filled with tears as she read the scene. They were impressed by the physical reaction and authenticity she was able to conjure. Danes repeated the exact reaction when she read a second time for the producers, a third time for network executives, and then when they shot it numerous times during the actual production of the pilot.

Producer Ed Zwick recalled how he marveled at Danes' acting ability during a scene in which she had to tell her mother "to an embarrassing degree" that she was not having sex with Jordan. "We were shooting the scene in the parents' bedroom. The only direction I gave Claire was to sort of put her hand over her face sheepishly as her mother was talking. We started to roll and she just nailed it. She was incredibly natural. We shot the master in one take. Went around the other side. Did one take of coverage on Bess and then one on Claire and we had it. I had never worked so fast before."

Holzman has said that they "were shooting in an actual high school in LA that was actually open and had students in it (the school scenes were shot on location at University High School). They gave us, like, a wing of the school. I remember the crew having to hold [our shots] for the bells. I was smoking at the time and I was always having a tough time finding a place to smoke because they wouldn't let you smoke there. Being in that high school was so surreal. I saw a projector in one of the classrooms that looked just like the ones that they had in my high school in the 1970s. Everything was the same. It was so bizarre because there I was back in high school, looking as if nothing had changed, and my brother was there with me and I was sneaking off to smoke cigarettes. It was almost as if everything had contrived to make me feel like I was right back in high school again."

While filming the scene in the pilot in which Angela, Rickie, and Rayanne are unable to get into the nightclub Let's Bolt, Wilson Cruz approached Holzman and in a candid moment confessed that he was incredibly intimidated watching Danes work as her performances were so natural and they apparently came so easily to her. Holzman told him that he should not be intimidated but should learn from it as it was truly a gift.

Holzman has said there was something wonderful about working in the presence of someone so talented. She said that all of the young actors gave 110 percent of themselves and that there was great pleasure in writing the show because everyone in the cast and crew was so strongly behind it. There was something magical about using kids who were actually in such a stage of growth and transition. She saw it as one of the key advantages of using actors who were authentically the ages they were portraying.

The producers have said that Danes possessed such genius, maturity, and a sense of inner grace that they often were at a loss to know where to pitch their sensibilities with her.

The show's final episode was written at a time when producers thought they would very likely be picked up for a second season. Holzman said, "That's why it was written that way."
 * }

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Lisa Wilhoit redirects here
I believe this is incorrect as no information about her is found her 2600:1700:BA3:880:ED89:2252:4C91:B8B6 (talk) 00:08, 10 February 2023 (UTC)


 * Lisa Wilhoit played Danielle, and has more mention here than in any other article in Wikipedia. Her name was redirected here after the discussion in Articles_for_deletion/Lisa_Wilhoit. Dan Bloch (talk) 00:47, 10 February 2023 (UTC)