MovieChat Forums > My So-Called Life (1994) Discussion > Funny how life looks different when you ...

Funny how life looks different when you grow older

posted 12 years ago by zuckermor
7 replies | jump to latest

I was 15 when I became obsessed with this show. I lived in Israel at the time and it wasn't as easy to get a hold of the show from there. I had to ( VCR!!) record it and they didn't air all the episodes, so I ended up printing out transcripts of all the episodes that I missed and reading them like a book over and over again.
I loved Jordan Catalano. I used to fantasize he was my boyfriend. I ended up watching the whole season when I was 18. I still loved Jordan. I loved Jordan until reruns of the show came up on The Sundance Channel. I am now 30 and I can honestly say I don't understand Jordan's appeal at all! I found myself this time around rooting for Brian. He was sweet and smart and a good friend. It amazes me that my 30 year old self can see this but my teenage self could not. Age does bring wisdom. I found these reruns truly self enlightening.

[–] blaque108 12 years ago

My dad was stationed in Okinawa, Japan most of the 90's and that is where we (my family was living). Anyways I'm glad we got cable in 1995 on the base and I discovered My So Called Life and I fell in love with the show. I think at the time the show came on MTV I could be wrong. Like you I would tape this show on VHS or by VCR I didn't get every episode I did get some and still have some episode on VHS. Jordan was a hottie on the show I thought Ricky was cute but he was gay.

[–] manofsteel4455 12 years ago

Ahhh the old MTV days :(.

You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

[–] latebar7609 12 years ago

I remember watching it when it first aired. I was about 26 and I thought, "How can I like this show so much when I am way too old to be watching it?" Now I realize that it appeals to all age groups because we can still identify with the characters and what it was like to be a teenager.

[–] redwood-1 12 years ago

I miss programs like this one. Television these days is SO insipid and inane with stupid sitcoms that are unrelatable. I think you may just see shows like "My So-Called Life" making a comeback now that we have a new generation who was either born on or after 9/11 starting to come of age themselves.

[–] ckanelevy 12 years ago

We look for very different things in a companion at ages 15 or 18 as opposed to 30. And when we become parents of teenage daughters, we especially like Brians more than Jordans. A lot more. It just works out that way.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Manth_Sigdaw 12 years ago

I was about 18 when this show first aired. I actually graduated the year before in 1993, but I could still connect with the kid characters on this show. I continued to watch teen shows till the rest of the 90s from what I remember, since I still felt closer in age to the kids then the adults.

I think every generation of kids think they are the coolest kids that ever existed and they invented angst, confusion and their world is the first and only screwed up world that ever existed. They think b/c they have better technology they are somehow dealing with stuff previous generations never did. It's not like a teenager in the 1920s was anymore confused and weirded out b/c they had a fancy new Model T car around compared to older generations horse and carriage, or kids in the 1880s were so cool and different riding their new steamboats down the Mississipi. Everyone knows what history says kids from the 1950s-70s acted. We all acted that way back in the day and you see it with kids today. Time is unforgiving, no matter how cool the technology you think you grew up with or how violent you think your world is, you'll eventually get older and hopefully more wiser.

But yeah today I'm 30s and it's weird to think I'm either the same age as the parents or closer to the parents age then the kids. Hell I think the dad was only 36 and the mom was 41. TV show parents to teenagers are always young and in their 30s it seems. Anyway I probably couldn't stand to watch this show today as an adult as I'd probably relate to the parents way, way more then the kids. Ofcourse, it's only with age that I realize there is nothing different from me and any generation before me, they all worked, loved and died just like us.