When television shows depict many teenagers, it is in a fashion that the following adjectives come to mind for the audience: wild, emotional, dramatic, rebellious, fun loving, substance abusing, and angst-driven. If producers are to successfully portray teenagers in this manner, they will have created an undoubtedly fascinating story that provokes a desire to follow the ups and downs in the lives of what may or may not be realistically portrayed characters.
Upper class youth represented in the medium of various television shows have much more in common than not. Looking at three shows that thoroughly present the most common image of “rich kids”, a trend appears notwithstanding the span of twenty years between the first and third. Beverly Hills 90210 ran from 1990-2000 (ten seasons), The O.C. from 2003-2007 (four seasons), and finally Gossip Girl, a show that aired in 2007. The trend includes reckless behaviour, lavish living, ridiculous spending, a taste for glamour, and most of all, a sense of being able to get away with much more than the average citizen could, due to family wealth.
The representation of upper class on television seems to mostly include the struggle of an individual; one who realizes that material riches are overrated and resists conforming to what society expects of that social status.
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