Line #49 Series/AmericanDreams


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AD_6420.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Top row: J.J., Jack, Beth, Helen, Henry, and Sam; Middle row: Roxanne, Meg, and Will; Bottom: Patty]]
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4	A FamilyDrama series which ran on Creator/{{NBC}} from 2002 to 2005 before getting [[{{Cancellation}} cancelled]] due to low UsefulNotes/{{ratings}}. Regrettably, it was CutShort in the middle of a StoryArc. The first of its three seasons was released on [=DVD=] in 2004.
5
6	Set in Philadelphia during TheSixties, the series follows the Catholic Pryor family. Major characters included:
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8	* Meg Pryor (Creator/BrittanySnow): The ''de facto'' protagonist, Meg is a HighSchool[=-aged=] NaiveEverygirl as well as a dancer on ''Series/AmericanBandstand''. Her ComingOfAgeStory was more-or-less the centerpiece of the show.
9	* Roxanne Bojarski (Creator/VanessaLengies): Meg's [=BFF=] and a fellow ''Bandstand'' dancer. A bit of a GoodBadGirl, she supplies Meg with some ToxicFriendInfluence.
10	* Jack Pryor (Creator/TomVerica): Meg's dad. Generally humorless, but has occasional Moments Of Awesome.
11	* Helen Pryor (Creator/GailOGrady): Jack's {{Housewife}} and a bit more open-minded to the changing times than he is.
12	* J.J. Pryor (Creator/WillEstes): Meg's older brother, who spends most of the second and part of the third seasons in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.
13	* Beth Mason/Pryor (Creator/RachelBoston): J.J.'s girlfriend and later wife. A little "oops" happens as per the LawOfInverseFertility, resulting in Birth and Wedding Episodes during the third season.
14	* Henry Walker (Creator/JonathanAdams): A business associate of Jack. He is black, which is a Big Deal considering this is the '60s.
15	* Sam Walker (Creator/ArlenEscarpeta): Son of Henry and classmate to the Pryor kids. He eventually gets a {{UST}}-filled relationship with Meg. Of course, being black is an even Bigger Deal here.
16	* Patty Pryor (Creator/SarahRamos): AnnoyingYoungerSibling to Meg[[note]](Roxanne didn't call her "Bratty Patty" for nothing)[[/note]], Patty is TheSpock, complete with SpockSpeak. Towards the end of the show, she got old enough to start getting teenage storylines.
17	* Will Pryor (Creator/EthanDampf): Youngest Pryor, who becomes the LittlestCancerPatient when he got polio.
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19	The show is perhaps best remembered for its StuntCasting gimmick of using the ''American Bandstand'' portion of the show to have a 2000s celebrity singer dress up like a 1960s celebrity singer and sing their SignatureSong. Throughout the series, they had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw2_8TXFACA Brandy singing "Heard It Through The Grapevine" as Gladys Knight]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om8nbGgop4o&feature=related Charlotte Martin singing "Downtown" as Petula Clark]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaJuNvDJisw&feature=related Fefe Dobson singing "River Deep - Mountain High" as Tina Turner]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wptVpkXAU3s&feature=related Hilary Duff singing "Leader of the Pack" as Mary Weiss]], and Kelly Clarkson as Brenda Lee ''twice'' singing "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6I9ujDPopg&feature=related Rock Around The Christmas Tree]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkm33cszmZQ&feature=related Sweet Nuthin's]]". And those are just ''some'' of the ones that are easy to find on Website/YouTube -- towards the end, they did this pretty much OncePerEpisode.
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21	Not to be confused with the film ''Film/AmericanDreamz'' or the [[ComicBook/AmericanDreams2021 comic-book series of the same name]].
22	----
23	!!This series provides examples of:
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25	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: At least Meg does, as evidenced by her relationship with Chris Pierce in the third season.
26	* AmericanTitle
27	* AnachronismStew: While vaguely advancing from 1963 to 1966 over its three seasons, the show tended to mix-and-match elements from different points in the decade. The biggest part of this may have been the acts themselves: getting appearance dates ludicrously wrong, or even putting acts on ''Bandstand'' that never appeared on the show.
28	* TheArtifact:
29	** The ''Series/AmericanBandstand'' portions. Oddly, they had a ready excuse to drop them - ''Bandstand'' moved from Philly to L.A. in the mid-60s. [[spoiler: Instead, Meg moves to L.A. during the last season.]] However, given that one of the executive producers was Mr. ''Series/AmericanBandstand'' himself, Creator/DickClark, losing that part of the show was never going to happen.
30	** Giving us the OncePerEpisode ritual of seeing a '60s hit performed on ''Bandstand'', either in StockFootage or by the '00s-singer-of-the-week-playing-the-'60s-singer-of-the-week. Throughout this, we get cutaway shots of Meg and Roxanne in the audience, where they can easily hold a conversation over the music. Funnily enough, no one else in the audience ever tries to hold a conversation. Optional are accompanying scenes with the other main characters elsewhere, possibly with the musical-act-of-the-week playing on a TV in the background. A scene of this description nearly always -- if not ''always'' -- took place shortly after the opening credits.
31	* BettyAndVeronica: Meg and Roxanne follow this trope so well [[DeadpanSnarker Luke]] actually {{Lampshades}} it in an early episode.
32	* CatholicSchoolGirlsRule: Averted as basically all teenage females on the show were Catholic schoolgirls by default.
33	* CutShort: The series was cancelled on a cliffhanger at the end of its third season.
34	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Being set in the early sixties, the show plays with this trope extensively. While it contains a certain amount of nostalgia, there were pains taken to give characters realistic attitudes in regards to things like race, sexuality and war. There was also a fair amount of care taken to avoid Strawmen (although there were some arguable examples) and people's attitudes and actions were often conflicting. Pete Pryor was shown to be casually racist in his dealings as a cop but also seemed to genuinely respect Henry, his brother's black friend. Jack Pryor might have somewhat archaic views on women but allows his wife to work and offers to help his daughter attend college despite his initial misgivings. Even borderline MartyStu JJ objects to his sister's budding inter-racial relationship.
35	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Of the "non-joke, non-sexual" variety. A show that begins with a shocking national tragedy, and eventually sees the characters become in involved in a controversial war. It debuted while September 11, 2001 was still a fresh memory and aired during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
36	* DraftDodging: Helen uses her travel agent job to help at least one boy escape to Canada and it was also implied she helped others. Had the show continued, she would have been arrested for her trouble. The show also had dealt previously with Nathan a Nation of Islam follower choosing to serve jail time rather than violate his pacifist beliefs.
37	* FamilyDrama: Arguably half the reason the show failed was because NBC insisting it was a TeenDrama.
38	* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Meg is the Pretty Sister and Patty is the Smart Sister.
39	* GrammarCorrectionGag: Patty's response to going on ''American Bandstand'' and seeing Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} perform "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"? Correcting their song's grammar... ''on air''.
40	* HappilyMarried: Jack and Helen.
41	* MarketBasedTitle: In Australia, the first season aired as ''Our Generation'' (it later reverted to the original title).
42	* NaiveEverygirl: Meg Pryor, though some might argue [[{{Flanderization}} she became a complete idiot in the third season]].
43	* NothingButHits: Of course.
44	%%* PopularHistory
45	* PreviouslyOn: Running Sundays from 8-9 PM, it would run a ''mid''-episode recap, presumably for people just changing over from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
46	* RealityIsUnrealistic: Meg's uncle Pete is a cop, and bronze-colored Philadelphia police cars feature prominently. Real Philly cop cars in the early/mid '60s were ''red'' but the producers apparently felt this would look too much like fire department cars.
47	* {{Retraux}}: The show's '60s-styled theme song "Generation", sung by Emerson Hart.
48	* SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack: Everyone occasionally, Will especially.
49	* TheSpock: Patty Pryor.
50	* SpockSpeak: Patty constantly talks in a monotone.
51	* StockFootage: Oh, the show ''loved'' this trope. One expects they made Jack run a TV store just so they could show as much vintage TV footage as possible. Not to mention the opening title sequence was full of it.
52	* ShotgunWedding: It's revealed in one episode that Jack and Helen got married because she was pregnant.
53	%%* StoryArc
54	* ToxicFriendInfluence: Roxanne sometimes borders on this in her friendship with Meg. Occasionally subverted -- although she was normally the "good girl", Meg was quite capable of doing dumb and/or rebellious things all on her own.
55	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: An epilogue set in 1969 -- three years after the last season -- was filmed after the show was canceled. NBC didn't feel like airing it. It was finally shown in public to attendees at a reunion panel for the series (featuring much of the cast and crew) at the ATX Television Festival on June 9, 2013. The crowd was also shown the ultimately unsuccessful sizzle reel series creator Jonathan Prince had put together to try and get NBC to pick up the series for a fourth season.
56	* YoungFutureFamousPeople: We see an audition from a teenage, unknown Linda Ronstadt.

Context Series / AmericanDreams