young americans is a show that on the surface seems like any other teen drama but beneath lies a complex and serious presentation of the complexities of life.
young americans' cast includes many who would go on to be rather well known. Probably the most famous initially was Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush, Superman Returns) who portrayed Bella Banks, the sweet townie girl. Coming a close second would be Katherine Moennig (the L word, Three Rivers) who portrayed Jake/Jacqueline, the cross-dressing girl hiding in a boys' school in hopes of getting her mother to notice her; falling in love with the Dean's son was not part of the plan. Rodney Scott (American Dreams, Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story) portrayed the main character, the down-on-his-luck-but-trying-to-make-it townie Will Krudski who cheats his way into summer scholarship at Rawley Academy; Mark Famiglietti (Flash Forward, Eyes) portrayed Scout Calhoun, the son of a senator who is also Will's roommate and has a crush on Bella, who may be his half-sister by way of his father having an affair (as most senators do :P ); Ed Quinn (Eureka, Crossing Jordan) portrayed Finn, the history and literature professor and crew coach. These days they all pale in comparison to Ian Somerhalder (The Vampire Diaries, LOST, How to Make Love to a Woman) who portrayed the Dean's son and Jake's boyrfriend, Hamilton Flemming.
This intriguing teen drama was not afraid to address big issues. Will cheated his way into Rawley Academy because he was tired of his father's mental and physical abuse. A cross-dressing girl falls for a boy who thinks he is falling for a boy and is rather ok with that. He is more shocked to find out his 'boyfriend' is really a girl. What is often missed is that the entire show is told in retrospect. Will-the-narrator is looking back on this summer of his life and is actually much older than the Will we see in the show. If they had not been afraid to re-connect the shows it would have been the ideal time to introduce Will-the-narrator when Dawson's Creek advanced forward in time for its series finale.
If you like Damon Salvatore then check out the first lead role from one of the 2011 People's Choice Award nominees for Favourite TV Drama Actor.
young americans was created and executive produced by Steven Antin (Burlesque [director], Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious [executive producer], NYPD Blue [recurring guest star] ) and comes from Mandalay Television and Columbia TriStar Television.
It has been over 10 years since The WB cancelled young americans. It is a bit late to save the show but you can sign the petition in hopes that those in charge decide to finally release an official DVD set. We all have home-made recordings on VHS or/and DVD but wouldn't it be nice to get a quality transfer and maybe some commentaries? The petition to save the show can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/wbya/petition.html and yes it is still alive as of April 2011. Some good news, of sorts, in that young americans has moved up the list on TVShowsOnDVD.com's ranking for demand of unreleased shows. In April 2010 young americans ranked 55th on the list. In September 2010 young americans had climbed to 49th thanks to a combination of demand and some other unreleased shows getting released. In April 2011 young americans is 43rd on the list for demand of unreleased shows. When shows that have also been released are factored in young americans ranks 275th, which is damn high considering all of the TV shows that have made it to a store near you when people didn't want to buy it.
