The 15 best TV shows set in schools

With such a wide array to choose from, it's hard to pick the best TV shows set in schools. But film and TV critic Jo Berry (author of the newly published The Essential Guide to TV on DVD) has done just that. Here are her top 15 - with a marked bias towards those from the US...
(By the way, School Gate's Sarah would have put Fame and Grange Hill much higher, and definitely have included the fantastic Press Gang!)

1) Veronica Mars
Veronica (Kristin Bell) used to be one of the popular girls at school, with a hunky rich boyfriend named Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn), and his sister Lily as a best friend. But Lily was murdered and Veronica's dad – then the local sheriff – accused Duncan and Lily's father of the crime. Now Veronica is a social outcast, helping her dad on the occasional case (he was fired due to the Kane accusation and is now a private detective) while trying to find out who really killed Lily. The first season of this terrific school/detective show dealt with the Kane crime, while new puzzles needed to be solved in the later seasons – all while Veronica was still at school. Witty and smart – think Buffy without the vampires.
Watch a scene.....

2) Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Talking of which.....This was one of the most original TV series to come out of the US in the nineties. It told the story of a teenage girl named Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who was selected to be ‘the chosen one’ - a slayer of the vampires and demons who seem in endless supply in her Californian home of Sunnydale. The series followed Buffy as she dealt with the usual teen angst problems of school work, dating and fitting in, but turned the conventional ideas on their heads (Buffy's true love, Angel, is a two centuries old reformed vampire, for example, which poses a whole new set of romantic problems).
Watch the tribute video to the last year of Buffy above....

3) Freaks And Geeks
Fans of Judd Apatow (writer/director of Knocked Up and The 40-Year Old Virgin) would love this terrific teen series that made his name. Set in the 1980s at McKinley High, the comedy drama follows two sets of teens – the Freaks, with cool Daniel (James Franco) and tomboy Lindsay (Linda Cardinelli) and the nerdy Geeks, with Lindsay's younger brother Sam (John Francis Daley) among them. Sharply written, brilliantly played, this only lasted one season but it's a true gem.
Watch this Spin the bottle scene...

4) Dawson's Creek
Set in the fictional town of Capeside, this teen show featured elaborate vocabulary – causing detractors to proclaim teens didn't really talk so intelligently – much grown-up soul searching and a nice dose of wit and realism.
Watch the final montage.

5) Degrassi Junior High
1979 saw the launch of a Canadian children's series named The Kids Of Degrassi Street. It was so successful enough in its native country, it lasted seven years, but wasn't well known outside of Canada. However, its follow-up, Degrassi Junior High, became a hit in the US and was subsequently shown on BBC1. It focused on a group of teenage students experiencing sex, drugs, rock and roll (and accompanying problems such as teen pregnancy) for the first time, and won acclaim for its realistic and often gritty portrayal of teenage life. The performances were also terrific, especially when you consider most of the cast were the age they were playing.
Watch the theme tune here.

6) My So-Called Life
This US TV series only ran for 19 episodes, but launched the careers of Claire Danes and Jared Leto, and over a decade later is still considered one of the best teen series ever made. The series introduced us to 15-year-old Angela Chase (Danes, in a role originally earmarked for Alicia Silverstone), who is going through the usual adolescent crises. She doesn't like school, is becoming a stranger to her parents and is in love with handsome hunk Jordan (Leto) while unaware how much geeky pal Brian is in love with her. Smartly scripted ("My parents keep asking how school was. It's like saying, "How was that drive-by shooting?" You don't care how it was, you're lucky to get out alive. ") and just a touch downbeat.
Bring back those teenage years of love and longing with this clip.

7) Grange Hill
Any child of the seventies and eighties (definitely GH's golden age) will probably still have a favourite pupil or teacher from Phil Redmond's sharp school-set show. It might be from the earliest cast which featured ruffian Tucker Jenkins, Trisha Yates, with her permanent scowl and wind-defying flicked-back hair, and decidedly unfit-looking sports teacher 'Bullet' Baxter, or from those eighties episodes when the series got grittier and covered such subjects as bullying and drug abuse (who can forget – no matter how hard they try – the Grange Hill anti-drugs pop song 'Just Say No!', endorsed by First Lady Nancy Reagan, no less?). A groundbreaking show in its depiction of life at a London comprehensive, it was originally aimed at teenagers but in the final years became more light-hearted as it moved from BBC1 to under-12s channel CBBC.
Watch classic 1985 Grange Hill with Gonch, Hollo and Trevor Cleaver...

8) Bromwell High
An animated adult comedy from Channel 4, this deliciously rude series depicted life at a fictional South London comprehensive. Among the students are Natella, an Asian prodigy born in London who was sent to live in a tiny, poor and remote village in India before coming to Bromwell High (which perhaps explains her superior intellect, since she previously avoided the British education system), Keisha, who had been expelled from every school in South London by the age of eight, and Latrina (Conti), so named because her mother gave birth to her on the toilet. And if you think they sound bad, wait till you meet their teachers, who include Iqbal the headmaster, who won the school in a poker game, Mr Bibby, who has links with the slave trade, and Mr Jackson, who took five years to be appointed to the role of Head Of Mathematics, despite being the school's only maths teacher...
Watch a discussion of Pride and Prejudice - on the bus.

9) Please, Sir!
A fun sitcom set in an South London comprehensive, Please, Sir! ran for four years and starred John Alderton as Bernard Hedges (nicknamed 'Privet' by his class), the newly qualified teacher of class 5C. While most of his fellow teachers have abandoned all hope in their students, Hedges is determined to find the good in his pupils, often to the annoyance of headmaster Mr Cromwell (Noel Howlett).
Watch the (very old!) opening credits and theme tune.

10) Waterloo Road
Footballer's Wives creator Ann McManus is a former English teacher, so drew from experience for this drama set in the fictional Waterloo Road Comprehensive - but it angered some headteachers for allegedly damaging the reputation of British schools. Beginning when the headmaster has a nervous breakdown, leaving his deputy to take on the role, the series follows the staff and pupils of a failing school as attempts are made to turn it into a decently performing one.
Watch Brett arrive at Waterloo Road.

11) Teachers
Any parent with a child at secondary school watched this comedy drama with a mixture of horror and hands-over-eyes amusement. Following a group of school staff inside and outside the classrooms, the show depicted a collection of hapless teachers no sensible parent would want within a million miles of their child, from sex kitten Penny (Tamzin Malleson), mid life crisis-suffering Bob (Lloyd McGuire) and atheist Religious Studies teacher Ben (Mathew Horne) to lazy biology teacher Lindsay (Vicky Hall) and childish new games teacher Simon (Andrew Lincoln). Fun for the first couple of series, this also featured a rather impressive supporting performance from a donkey...
Watch the festive season with Teachers...

12) Hope & Glory
Comedian Lenny Henry showed his more serious side for this BBC drama set in a run-down comprehensive. Based on a real man – acclaimed head teacher William Atkinson – Henry's character, Ian George, leaves his job as head of a well-funded, exclusive school to take on the thankless task of turning Hope Park Comprehensive around. And it's not easy – the sixth form room is derelict following an arson attack, the previous head teacher (Peter Davison) delivers a farewell speech in which he comments on how worthless his students are, and George is faced with staffing, funding and disciplinary problems from his first day. Quite realistic, then...
Visit Lenny Henry's website.

13) Fame
A spin-off of the hugely successful 1980 movie musical, Fame the series began in 1982 and told the story of a group of students who just want to dance/sing/act/play music at the High School Of Performing Arts in New York. Many of the characters were taken from the film and transplanted to the small screen (with some of the movie's actors continuing their roles, too), including dance teacher Lydia Grant (Debbie Allen), and dancer Leroy (Gene Anthony Ray). The plots were often similar to the old Mickey Rooney 'let's put on a show' idea (so that the episode could feature at least one song and dance number) but there was a good dollop of moralising thrown in with the two-stepping as the kids learnt about life, competitiveness and not starving themselves to fit into a skimpy leotard.
Who could resist Doris singing Hi Fidelity?!

14) One Tree Hill
A soap opera that owes a debt to Dawson's Creek (with a bit of Rich Man Poor Man thrown in), this revolves around hunky Lucas Scott (Murray), a high school teen raised by single mom Karen. She was dumped by Dan, her high school sweetheart when she was pregnant, while he went on to marry Deb and have a son, Nathan (Lafferty), who was given all the luxuries Lucas didn't have. The boys attend the same school in the small town of Tree Hill, and come to blows when Lucas joins the school basketball team (Nathan, of course, is the star player). Oddly, aside from Dan/Deb/Karen, there are very few parents around, so these kids seem to be rather grown up for their supposed ages, living in apartments, getting married and starting up businesses in between cheerleader and basketball practice.
Watch every Naley kiss in 1 minute!

15) Beverly Hills 90210
The teen drama that charted the loves, lives and daily traumas of a group of teens living in Los Angeles' swankiest suburb. Created by Aaron Spelling (could this be why his daughter Tori was cast as one of the leads? Surely not!), the series began with Minneapolis twins Brandon (Jason Priestly) and Brenda (Shannen Doherty) transferring to West Beverly High and learning they weren't in hicksville anymore. A new 21st century version has just debuted on US TV, with Garth and Doherty in recurring roles.
Watch the opening of the first ever season!

Read Jo Berry's 20 movies which make you wish you'd gone to college!

Read School Gate on:

The 15 most inspiring teachers in films

The 15 worst teachers in films

The 15 best characters in Grange Hill

The most realistic films set in a school

The 10 best educational TV programmes

The eight best high school musicals

Comments

[D]

Surely "Daria", the MTV animated series based at Lakewood High School, should be included.

[Harvey]

no Saved By The Bell?? :(
brings back fond memories of all the fun and frolics of being a teenager!

[Felicity Davies]

I can't believe the inbetweeners isn't up there!

[becky]

concur with the PRESS GANG miss.. yes it all took place in a 'newsroom' but the school-show themes were still there and it's probably the best written teen show ever apart from My So Called Life.

Ohhhh Spike and Linda... how I loved them!

Good work with MSCL, Freaks and Geeks, and Buffy..

you should be shot for One Tree Hill though..

[ksm]

Square Pegs which starred Ally sheedy. My fave US school show.

A classic BBC Tom Brown's Schooldays should be here but ho hum.

[Elizabeth]

Love Veronica Mars! But really confused about One Tree Hill's inclusion on the list. I bought the complete series on DVD and threw it out before I'd watched them all (lived in China and it cost about £1 in case that sounds extravagent). Every aspect of that show is rubbish. If you're going down the mainstream U.S. route, go for Gilmore Girls or even Gossip Girl instead.

[miscanthus]

How about To Serve Them All My Days?

[bored out of my mind]

Only the first 3 seasons of Buffy are based in high school, and it still owns over every other show on this list. As a matter of fact, it owns over every other show in existence. Never has a show been so dynamic, arfutfully done, rich with metaphors, filled with intriguing character development and witty unique dialgoue. Not to mention it has horror, action, romance, drama, and humor (lots and lots of it!). Other shows wish they could live up to Buffy :P

[Rafaella]

Press Gang. Press Gang Press Gang Press Gang. Before my time, but the magic of DVD persists- seriously, what else could you want from a series that combines Julia Sawalha's debut, the writing of Stephen Moffat and everything bad about 80s fashion?

[Quint]

I think the best teen/school storylines and show of all time was All My Children in the early 80's in the days of the Jenny/Greg/Jesse/Angie/Liza/Amanda/Tad crowd. They were the front and center of AMC circa 1981-1984.

Those teen storylines were fantastic and they actually had parents who were very integral in the kids lives and were a huge source of conflict unlike alot of other shows which act like the kids have no parents at all.

[Chris]

Buffy, Freaks and Geeks, Veronica Mars, and My So-Called Life are all undisputed gems, my only quibble is that the gorgeous and poignant Friday Night Lights series isn't even on the list. It's the best thing on tv right now.

[Margo/Mom]

I never got into either Dawson or Buffy (although my daughter did). But when I saw that you included My So Called Life, I was enticed to click on the link. Two others of equally high quality that I would include (and of very similar format to So Called Life--follow the kids life, but also follow the parents) would be Joan of Arcadia and The Secret Life of the American Teenager (which I hope to see back for a second season).

[Michelle]

FINALLY! Someone got it right! (Although, I would have put My So Called Life above Dawson's Creek.) Buffy is brilliant. I love that show with a passion. But Veronica Mars owns me. One of the most beautifully-written, seamlessly crafted mystery shows ever. Even Joss Whedon was a fan. But I will say Buffy opened the door for shows like Veronica Mars. Let's hope that door stays open.

[Steve]

Thats got to be a typo, Buffy's should be at number 1. It's ok you can fix it.

[TOM]

Dawson's Creek that high? Dawson's Creek at all? Are you kidding me? That show sucks big time.

90210? One Tree Hill? Really? What kind of list is that?

What about the sharp and witty Gossip Girl? Too new to make the list?

And Buffy should have been first. Period.

[Jethro]

Hardwicke House!

[Sam]

Are we kidding? Buffy is numero uno, not this other show. It just encompassed everything you could ever want from a series.

What about Sabrina the Teenage witch? Salem is the funnies thing ever!

[David]

I'm 47 and I thought Buffy was BRILLIANT. Funny, witty, thought-provoking, well acted and wonderfully scripted. I have the box set for my 8 year old son, when he's old enough. The BEST show set in a school ever

[Tisiphone]

Behind the Bike Sheds?
Who Sir, Me Sir?
Heartbreak High?

PRESS GANG?

I can't believe none of these made it onto a list which includes Dawson's Crack!!!

[Jon]

So we're only looking at the third series onwards of Teachers? What about Kurt and Brian??

[AndyD]

What about the outstanding Parker Lewis can't Lose?

A classic cult show that Sony have refused to release on DVD for years now.

"Synchronise swatches"

[Tom]

How about Summer Heights High? It's absolutely fantastic. Hilarious, but also a fairly accurate portrayal of aspects of school life. The Jonah character in particular is spot on.

[kluu]

I have fond memories of Room 222.

[Brendan]

No love for The Wonder Years?

[Rich Johnston]

Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang. Press Gang.

Missing Press Gang off is like missing Citizen Kane off a Top 15 Films list.

[Siv]

Buffy the serie is best.

[Tom Daylight]

The US Veronica Mars DVDs are already region-free - they work on ANY dvd player, even Region 2 only ones. Wonderful stuff! (Try and find a deal on them, I got the first two seasons at $15 each a year ago.)

[Mister Teacher]

Um, anybody remember Misfits of Science??

[John Eley]

The Japanese anime, Azumanga Daioh! beats all!

[Mike]

I like to read some sedate book or other when this show is on and look up and go "cripes!What is that?!"

[Amy]

Erm, where is Saved by the Bell? So bad it was excellent!

[kizzle]

OMFG GOSSIP GIRL IS THE BEST

AND THE 90210 IS HOTTT SHIZZ!

[Jo Berry]

Sorry that Press Gang and Heartbreak High weren't included - I also thought about Boston Public and a little-seen show called TV101 (about kids in a media class) but the list would have gone on and on and on! More are mentioned in my Essential Guide To TV on DVD (shameless mention of new book!)

In answer to the questions about whether Veronica Mars and Freaks And Geeks were on British TV - Living TV and Trouble TV (on satellite/cable) showed Veronica Mars, while Freaks And Geeks was shown late night, I think on ITV. Fingers crossed they will come out on DVD here - but if you have a multi-region player, they are available to buy on US DVD...

Was Veronica Mars ever shown in Britain? What channel? I have heard a lot about it but it doesn't seem to be on dvd.

I think Freaks & Geeks was on in the middle of the night on ITV for a while.

[Hol]

Buffy should be number one - it broke down the doors for not just Veronica Mars but a whole host of shows where female leads could be witty, savvy and strong. Veronica's good but Buffy's an icon! Plus the writing on Buffy was unparalleled for wit, intelligence and emotion - I miss Joss Whedon's presence on TV. Even Buffy's worst episodes were much better than your average TV fare

Though I won't lie, I also had a crush on David Boreanaz who played Angel from the first second I saw him. More than ten years later it hasn't died yet *lol*

[inky]

why is press gang not on this list? the story was based around kids from norbridge comp... a classic children's (and adults!) show and it should be on this list!

also regards 'teachers' and "childish new games teacher Simon" did you ever watch this show? simon was the main character for the first season (and was never 'the newcomer') and he was an english teacher... something that was a big part of the storylines... don't you have researchers?

[Lauren]

Richard Milne - I was just reading this post and wondering whether I had completely dreamt Chalk! It was very funny and the lead character, whose name escapes me (but who played the parson in the BBC Pride and Prejudice) was excellent.

Also; Heartbreak High was probably the best series EVER set in a school and it hasn't even merited a mention in this post! Criminal.

[noughtpointzero]

Why is Waterloo Road in this list? Have you actually seen it?

[Richard Milne]

"Chalk", a short-lived but wonderfully silly comedy from Stephen Moffat (Coupling, Dr Who) is worth a mention.

And what about Whacko and Billy Bunter

[Dissolved]

Freaks and Geeks!

Such a wonderful show, such a shame it was killed off after only one season!

[beowulf]

Press Gang
Heartbreak High
Boston Public

Buffy, Freaks and Geeks...two very good shows.

[AK]

What about "The Worst Witch"?

[Jarrad]

Freaks And Geeks takes the prize by a country mile...has it ever been shown in Britain?

Genius show that absolutely nailed the teenage years. So they cancelled it.

Obviously.

[Whimsey]

" A new 21st century version has just debuted on US TV,"

I thought 'debut' was a noun in English.

[Laurie]

Where is the marvellous Britannia High????!