12 Most Underrated TV Shows Ever
7. TV 101
Airing on CBS in the 1988/1989 season, TV 101 only managed to get thirteen of the seventeen episodes that had been filmed on the air before it was cancelled, amid lowering ratings and some mild controversy. It was a drama about a recently divorced TV newsman who returned to his old high school to teach, and decided to get the kids to channel their creativity and individual passions by putting together their own weekly cable news show instead of the more passé school newspaper. The protagonist had been a troublemaker at school, and the principal didn't remember him fondly: it was a concept made in Kids-From-Fame/Dead-Poets-Society heaven.
What TV 101 had - besides young versions of Stacey Dash, Teri Polo, Alex Désert and a pre-anything Matt LeBlanc - was authenticity, something most teen shows lacked (written, as they were, by old people). The younger characters were intelligent, ethnically varied, ethical and self-aware, and up to date with the latest technology and cultural innovations, while the show itself was both hip and cool. The music was written and produced by Todd Rundgren, for god's sake.
None of that kind of thing ever happened on television back in the eighties. Why didn't it last? Well, it was placed squarely against the competitions top-rated shows, Roseanne, Who's The Boss and Matlock. More than that, people just didn't associate CBS with anything cutting edge - they still dont. Today, TV 101 is remembered by the cast and crew... and by sad old anoraks like me who feel the need to bring thirty-year-old TV trivia up in polite company and embarrass their wives.