In August 1994, “My So-Called Life” debuted on ABC and presented American viewers with a radically different version of adolescence than had ever been seen on television.
Set in suburban Pittsburgh, the coming-of-age drama starred Claire Danes as Angela Chase, an angsty 15-year-old sophomore with a wardrobe of flannel and hair dyed a Manic Panic red.
What made the series unique wasn’t just Angela’s grungy style, it was the fact that the story unfolded from her point of view. In voice-over narration, Angela shared her innermost thoughts — sometimes eloquent, sometimes inane but always authentic to the volatile experience of being a teenager.
The show, from executive producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick — creators of the polarizing yuppie drama “Thirtysomething” — was a critical darling that floundered and landed near the bottom of the Nielsen ratings. It was canceled after just 19 episodes.
Thirty years after its short but memorable run, “My So-Called Life” is widely regarded as a touchstone of ‘90s popular culture that perfectly captures the era’s competing strains of irony and earnestness.
The show established Danes, who was just 13 when she was cast in the pilot and earned an Emmy nomination for the role, as one of the finest actresses of her generation. It also launched the career of future Oscar-winner Jared Leto, who played Angela’s monosyllabic love interest, Jordan Catalano.
Thanks to cable reruns, DVD box sets, streaming and now social media clips, the show’s reputation has grown over the past three decades. It is firmly ensconced in the TV canon with other bold, inventive, gone-too-soon network shows of the era, like “Twin Peaks.”
In a recent interview, the show’s creator, writer Winnie Holzman, said, “Angela didn’t present in a way that men understood. She wasn’t there or on display for their pleasure.” Unlike so many other young women on television, then and now, “she was a sexual creature, not a sexual object.”
