From: kieran@world.std.com (Aaron L Dickey)
Subject: Re: Class of '96 only so-so...
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 05:27:11 GMT

pschleck@cwis.unomaha.edu (Paul W Schleck KD3FU) writes:

>I suppose the college experience (or at least the liberal-arts 
>college experience) is accurately portrayed in this show.  What really
>stuck out in my mind was the almost total lack of trappings of a modern
>campus.  Very few personal computers (let alone E-mail or Internet) to be
>found.  Heck, everyone was typing papers on *IBM SELECTRICS* for crying
>out loud! 

Welcome to reality, my friend.  There are, unfortunately, still VERY FEW
schools with hardwired Internet connections in the dorms and the like; in
fact, I'd estimate than something over 50% of the schools in this country
still don't offer access of ANY kind to their computer systems to students
unless they're taking computer courses, and then of course the accounts
are only good for one semester.  As for IBM Selectrics, I'll admit that is
kind of pushing it, but the vast majority of my college friends only own
"word processors", which are basically electric typewriters with tiny
little video screens to you can at least correct your typing mistakes
before any key hits paper.  The few who do own computers almost all own
Macs, and the cheap Classics at that.  Both my roomie and I happened to
have our own Mac IIcx'es, and we were considered technical elites.

>Far from being a show to appeal to youth, it struck me as a
>pleasant ride down memory lane for 30ish and 40ish Yuppies about their
>college days.  Most of the students I seem to remember (and still run
>into) are paying their own way through college and combine full or
>part-time work with school.  Everyone in this show seems to have daddy
>paying their way.

Well, *this* college senior sure doesn't think much of the show, and I
don't know anyone my age who's watching it.  I predict it'll be gone
within six months.  As for the money situation, it *is* supposed to be an
elite private school, so I guess we can assume they must have endowments
out the wazoo, so maybe they're all on scholarships or something.  And we
all know how New England liberal arts schools attract rich snobs.

>And did I miss something in college, or are relationships a lot harder
>to find than portrayed in this show?  (Mix in a few more shaved-heads,
>lesbian avengers, and general airheads, and you'd have the college mix I
>remember :-).  We need more conflict.  More protests.  More breaking
>windows and date-rape.  Then you'd begin to come CLOSE to being
>realistic about your typical college social scene. 


I don't know if we need riots or anything like that (you don't know the
meaning of the word "apathetic" until you've spent a few days on a campus
in 1993), but of course the show is completely false; it's on FOX, for
God's sake.  Everyone knows that you don't exist on Fox unless you're
beautiful and perfect (or animated).

>Biggest pet-peeve:  Technology and technology-minded students
are >ever-so-subtely ridiculed in this show.  This includes the "evil
>chemistry lab" that made weapons, the fact that the only student who
>appears to have a computer is some sort of social misfit dweeb who
>engages in endless bargaining and favor-trading (translation:
>techies are conniving and dishonest), as well as the graduate student
>who is using him for a research project being portrayed as a
>stereotypical "white-coat."

Just goes to show that bigotry in America runs far, far deeper than simple
racism and sexism.

>I'm not saying literature and liberal arts doesn't have its place, but
>this is hardly a realistic example for young people (or even something
>that should be held up as "THE" experience).  Those students are going
>to need a lot more than Moby Dick to cut it after graduation.
>Steady-cam shots of "hallowed halls" covered in ivy and hackneyed
>phrases about "finding yourself" are just a little too much to take
>seriously.  But then, considering that many secondary schools around the
>country are mandating courses in "multiculturalism" and "environmental
>studies" when it's not at all clear that they are even grasping the
>supporting math, science, history and English, maybe these mushbrains
>*ARE* today's youth!

Please, let me assure you, they aren't.  First of all, most of them are,
in typical Fox style, in their mid- to late-20s.  Secondly, I know of no
real students that come close to the hackneyed surface-level characters on
the show.  The settup is completely without a basis in reality, and any
teenager to watched this show and expects his/her college life to be one
IOTA similar to the "Haverhurst experience" will probably committ suicide
before their first midterm.

>But, the show is new, so I will reserve further
judgement.  And after >all, it's JUST a TV show! :-)

Hopefully, it'll be JUST CANCELLED faster than "The Heights."

--Aaron

Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv