Markup View

Author: Shrikesnest

Jun 10th 2012 at 2:22:20 PM

Since American teenagers have tons of disposable income and few obligations to spend it on, advertisers and media target them heavily.  Since much of American entertainment is funded by advertising, this means that a lot of shows get outright designed and produced in order to appeal to certain demographics.  This means that a sizable chunk of American culture is aimed exclusively at the interests and attitudes of teenagers.  This much is pretty indisputable.

This next part is where it gets hazy.  Either as a result of this, concurrent with it or proceeding from it, the media image of America (and likewise some facets of American life) revolve around the high school years.  Kids want to be teenagers, adults want to be teenagers, and teenagers themselves are often led to believe that they are experiencing the best years of their lives.  Whether this is the ultimate goal of most marketers is hard to say, but it definitely serves their purposes.

As a result, you see a lot of shows essentially treat the characters like teenagers, even if the characters ([[DawsonCasting let alone the actors]]) are a decade or more out of that age range.  Kids on TV have the [[FreeRangeChildren freedoms]] that teenagers would have, as well as the attendant responsibilities (such as overcomplicated school assignments.)  This can give children an expectation of their teenage years that quite simply will never be met.

As far as info for the actual trope goes (and not me just rambling like seventy year old):

Much of this has to do with the constant headache that is using very young child actors (when that's even an option.)  It's almost always cheaper and easier to get an adult or at least a teenager to act in your children's show than it is to cast preschoolers, even if you could get them to learn and deliver their lines correctly.