INPUT / … / … / The Drama and Passion of High School Teen Life Teachers and Parents. Creating must see co-watching series for students and their families.

The endless tension swirling in high schools is a rich environment for television writers. Add the frequent misunderstandings that happen between parents and their willful adolescent children and you have dynamic material for a TV series. Although these fictional worlds tend to be created by adults who are far away from their own teen years and are not tapped into the desires and concerns of modern teens. How did these creators grab their audiences and make these worlds feel authentic? In this session we analyze how these teams use the high school classroom to create content that appeals to both parents and their children. How did they nail the emotional aspect? How did they represent this universal yet unique experience? How do we create content that encourages creative and critical thinking and make the viewers want to learn more? How do these programs deal with the ever present and destructive on-line bullying? Have the rights and power of students changed? How do we represent diverse students who are not usually seen or heard from? Where do we find the balance between moving our audiences emotionally while also trying to educate them? Are public broadcasters moving beyond co-viewing at home to creating and promoting massive pandemic trendy virtual co-viewing events with larger audiences? Creating teens, teachers, and parents who aren’t one note characters. Let’s discuss the elements of making a series for immersive co-watching, where we are all teachers and we are all learners.