The Teeny Bopper Element in Sci Fi Shows

[aretood2]

At least the Doctor wasn't living at home with his parents and could hold down a job.

It's kinda hard to live with your parents when they are dead...

[The Flyattractor]

It's kinda hard to live with your parents when they are dead...

Thats not my experiance...unless you forget to buy the airwick...

[The Urban Spaceman]

As a middle-aged fan of realistic science fiction genres I am a bit disappointed in the heavy element of what I would call a "teeny bopper" element in the Canadian-American shows such as Warehouse 13, Continuum and Alphas.
I guess they have sacrificed realism to targeting an audience under 40. Why do they have to have the majority of main characters young women just out of their teens??

Bigods you're right. Someone roll Shatner out of retirement, we need someone old to make up for the youthful aspects of today's Sci-fi shows. And Shatner is such a fantastic actor, he's sure to improve the quality of whatever sci-fi programme/TV ad he appears in!

[The Flyattractor]

I used to wonder what was wrong with the Studios and such as in "What is Wrong with them" since because of they way they make shows nowadays.

But then I realsied. They are just pandering to their target audience...So the real question is..

"WTF is wrong with KIDS TODSAY!?"

[Naonak]

In terms of TV viewing habits, nothing that isn't similarly represented in adults.


The problem is on the network/writing side. A lot of them seem to think that young people won't watch a show if there isn't someone their age in it, so teenage characters get forced into prominent positions on shows where they aren't needed - see Terra Nova or V. This isn't a new problem either - look at Wesley Crusher on TNG. Hell, Super Friends. A cartoon about the freaking Justice League of America and someone thought "Nope, need some kids in there." This is clearly a flawed idea. Nobody's going to tune out of a show about dinosaurs or an alien invasion or Batman because there's no characters under 20 in it.

Even then, the real problem is normally that they're badly written (and often poorly acted) characters, not their age. They're often treated as idiotic plot devices rather than actual characters.

Teenage characters are not intrinsically a problem. There are plenty of decent and/or non-annoying teenage characters on TV. Homeland. Awake. Game of Thrones (hell, the 10 year-old girl on GoT is one of the best characters on a show filled with great characters). The first season of 24. In these cases, the show is designed with the young characters in mind, rather than having them shoehorned in.

[Snowman37]

There have been some shows with interesting teenage regulars. A few examples...

Firefly (was River Tam suppose to be a late teen or a young adult?)
Jericho (the teenage characters serve to augment the desperation of the town)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Wesley Crusher, I found him interesting at least)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Jake Sisko & Nog)
Star Trek: Voyager (Kes, not a teenager, but a one-year-old alien who's lifespan is only nine years. Can we count this?)
Surface (Miles and his friend, very realistic teenage kids)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (16-year-old John Connor, played by an older actor, but still an interesting character)

[P-90_177]

In terms of TV viewing habits, nothing that isn't similarly represented in adults.


The problem is on the network/writing side. A lot of them seem to think that young people won't watch a show if there isn't someone their age in it, so teenage characters get forced into prominent positions on shows where they aren't needed - see Terra Nova or V. This isn't a new problem either - look at Wesley Crusher on TNG. Hell, Super Friends. A cartoon about the freaking Justice League of America and someone thought "Nope, need some kids in there." This is clearly a flawed idea. Nobody's going to tune out of a show about dinosaurs or an alien invasion or Batman because there's no characters under 20 in it.

Even then, the real problem is normally that they're badly written (and often poorly acted) characters, not their age. They're often treated as idiotic plot devices rather than actual characters.

Teenage characters are not intrinsically a problem. There are plenty of decent and/or non-annoying teenage characters on TV. Homeland. Awake. Game of Thrones (hell, the 10 year-old girl on GoT is one of the best characters on a show filled with great characters). The first season of 24. In these cases, the show is designed with the young characters in mind, rather than having them shoehorned in.

To be fair in Game of Thrones case the kids were written in the books like that. Having said that though, the kids who play the characters are perhaps the best young actors I've ever seen. I think actually a lot of the time it does come down to just bad acting from kids, which is just down to lack of experience or even just how "cute" the studio decide they look to get the "awww" factor.
Boxy from the original BSG springs to mind for that sort of unfortunate decision making.

There have been some shows with interesting teenage regulars. A few examples...

Firefly (was River Tam suppose to be a late teen or a young adult?)
Jericho (the teenage characters serve to augment the desperation of the town)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Wesley Crusher, I found him interesting at least)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Jake Sisko & Nog)
Star Trek: Voyager (Kes, not a teenager, but a one-year-old alien who's lifespan is only nine years. Can we count this?)
Surface (Miles and his friend, very realistic teenage kids)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (16-year-old John Connor, played by an older actor, but still an interesting character)

Wesley? Really? Granted he was a good role model and I liked him when I watch TNG as a kid. Now I'd rather punch him in his smug face.
Jake and Nog were much better characters I think simply because you had a much more realistic friendship and too realistic characters. (Friendships were something DS9 always did well though)

River Tam was 16 for the record as well so yeah you can count her as a kid I guess.

I think though that often times the problem with child characters or teenage characters is that they are just....there. They don't grow as characters, they're just there for the other regulars to play off of. This isn't that much of a surprise since young actors just don't have the chops a lot of the time to act next to the big stars but nevertheless studios do keep trying and I think that it is getting better.
Take Molly Quinn playing Alexis in Castle for example. She was only 14 in the first season but she performs beautifully. But of course, it is slightly different for teenage actors than it is for the real little'uns.

[Naonak]

To be fair in Game of Thrones case the kids were written in the books like that. Having said that though, the kids who play the characters are perhaps the best young actors I've ever seen.

Having the source material is obviously an important factor with Game of Thrones, but (allowing for the different needs of TV/books) the same basic principle sort of applies to the books themselves - GRRM obviously didn't stick the young characters in there just to hit a demographic.