The Glorification of Teenage Pregnancy. Boy, gotta love the millenial generation and their attitude of 'lets keep the baby wheee'. You can 'thank' the pro-lifers and other religious types for ruining sex ed, not allowing free condoms in schools. and bringing jesus into our schools for teenage pregnancy.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-06-29-abc-family_N.htm'Secret Life' of ABC Family won't be kept quiet
Updated 6/30/2008 10:42PM |
"7th Heaven with sex": Shailene Woodley, left, plays a pregnant 15-year-old, with India Eisley as her sister and Molly Ringwald as her mother, in the new series.
Enlarge image Enlarge By Michael Ansell, ABC Family
"7th Heaven with sex": Shailene Woodley, left, plays a pregnant 15-year-old, with India Eisley as her sister and Molly Ringwald as her mother, in the new series.
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
The teen years pose challenges, but they also can yield rewards.
The Secret Life of the American Teenager explores the former, a 15-year-old's pregnancy. ABC Family hopes the new drama (Tuesday, 8 ET/PT) brings the latter: more attention and viewers, especially teens and young adults.
Once lost in the giant Disney clan, ABC Family has established itself by seeking viewers ages 14 to 28, bridging the gap between Disney Channel's "tweens" and adults who watch ABC. "We went, 'Let's target those Millennials,' " network president Paul Lee says.
The cable network has raised its profile with original movies and series, including the popular Greek and Kyle XY. In the past five years, ABC Family is up 75% in viewers 12 to 34 and 46% among those 18 to 49.
ABC Family saw an opening with scripted drama ("escapist, optimistic, bright, smart storytelling," Lee says), as age-group competitors such as MTV scored with reality and as WB, once a magnet for young drama viewers, disappeared. Lee has hopes for September's Samurai Girl, a three-night series about a girl who trains to fight her adoptive father's criminal empire, and comedies are planned.
Lee says success has helped attract talent that might not have come to ABC Family before, including Teenager creator Brenda Hampton (7th Heaven) and a cast that includes Molly Ringwald, John Schneider and Ernie Hudson. Teenager comes at a time when teen pregnancy has been featured in film and Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy became a story. (He says the series idea came "way before" the film Juno became a phenomenon.)
Teenager, which Hampton calls "7th Heaven with sex," opens with Amy (Shailene Woodley), a smart but vulnerable high school student, discovering she is pregnant after a first-time tryst at band camp. Her story opens the door to numerous character relationships involving students and their families.
"It's a lot of people, but that means there's a lot of stories to pick and choose from," Hampton says. Amy would not have her baby until after the 10-episode first season, if Teenager is renewed.
Ringwald, the '80s teen-movie queen (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink) who plays Amy's mother, says her role illustrates the variety of stories. "One of the reasons my character, who is pretty intelligent and fairly liberal, doesn't pick up on something in front of her is that she's focused on the demise of her marriage."
In addition to marital problems and unplanned pregnancy, Teenager will explore other tough topics, such as a student who tries to deal with childhood sexual abuse. Some teens will be sexually active; a main character is a Christian committed to abstinence.
Hampton says Teenager will handle sex "in a very clean way," although some topics may be too much for preteens. The show is "a love story, but also a very long and interesting cautionary tale."
Teenager can deal with those topics and still fit the network's family-friendly approach, Lee says.
"We're going to tell it in an optimistic, relatable way, and we're going to be responsible about it. Our story lines are going to resolve in a way that makes it quite clear what's the right thing to do."
Many of Teenager's topics, including pregnancy, aren't that different from the days of Ringwald's earlier films, says the actress, who played a pregnant teen in For Keeps?. Some parents "are still really unwilling to talk about sex frankly with their kids," she says. "It's so much better to talk about it with your kids, and I hope this show opens that dialogue. It really is perfect for ABC Family."
