Secret Life of the American Teenager

This week we watched Supernatural and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Both had visible elements related to religiosity. For me, personally, I hated Supernatural. I’m not really into the whole millennial sci-fi television. The Secret Life of the American Teenager, while corny during parts, was still a show that I could see myself watching either when I was younger or when there might be nothing on TV. When I was thinking about my belief that I would watch it when I was younger, it made me think about whom this show was geared towards. Interestingly enough, it is on the ABC family, so it fits into their “whole new type of family” scheme.

From looking up information online about the show, I learned that the show certainly did not have an easy time hitting the market. The creator of the show, who was also, interestingly enough, the creator of 7^th heaven, tried to sell it to numerous stations before ABC Family picked it up. Despite the initial lack of confidence in the storyline, the show has enjoyed huge success.  One of its season two episodes became ABC family’s most watched telecast ever in the 12-34 age range. This fact blew my mind and shows the appeal of such a controversial show.

While the show is seen as a catalyst of ABC Family’s “New type of family” motto, I want to call that into question. Certainly, teenage pregnancy is not the norm, but in the episode we watched, besides the teenage pregnancy, there are a lot of traditional familial aspects. A striking aspect for me, was the not one, but two, 4 person families who sat down for dinner together. This is one of the most standard symbols of a traditional family and in this sense, ABC family is doing nothing to change viewers perspective of that familial symbol.

The Pew Forum article gives many examples of how millennials seem to be much more open in their views and even suggests that them seem to be, in general, less tied to religion. Strauss and Howe had a completely opposite interpretation of the millennial generation, believing that they were “increasingly returning toward/ identifying with religion” (Stein 1.12). Stein bridges the gap between these conflicting views by arguing that “according to the many varying analyses, blog posts, books, and newspaper articles, millennials seek a return to tradition and organization, yet want less dogma and more acceptance of diversity” (Stein 1.13). This interpretation would certainly help explain the popularity of The Secret Life of the American Teenager which exposes many aspect of the Christian religion, yet at the same time, has its own unique, modern and millennial spin that seems to be resonating with millennial viewers.