Young Americans 

This series portrays life at Rawley Summer Academy, an elite school in Connecticut where boys with a bright Ivy League future spend the summer industriously in classes and rowing training ... See full summary »

Creator:

Steve Antin

Stars:

Mark Famiglietti, Kate Bosworth, Rodney Scott

Cast

Series cast summary:
Kate Bosworth	...	Bella Banks 8 episodes, 2000
Mark Famiglietti	...	Scout Calhoun 8 episodes, 2000
Katherine Moennig	...	Jacqueline 'Jake' Pratt 8 episodes, 2000
Rodney Scott	...	William 'Will' Krudski 8 episodes, 2000
Ian Somerhalder	...	Hamilton Fleming 8 episodes, 2000
Ed Quinn	...	Finn 8 episodes, 2000
Benjamin Gravitt	...	Extra 8 episodes, 2000
Rylie J. Neale	...	Bella's Friend 8 episodes, 2000
Matt Czuchry	...	Sean McGrail 5 episodes, 2000
Deborah Hazlett	...	Susan Krudski 4 episodes, 2000
Charlie Hunnam	...	Gregor Ryder 3 episodes, 2000
Jason Sweet	...	Mark Johnson 3 episodes, 2000
Gabrielle Christian	...	Grace Banks 3 episodes, 2000
Kathleen Bridget Kelly	...	Kate Fleming 2 episodes, 2000
Michelle Monaghan	...	Caroline Busse 2 episodes, 2000
Heather Barr	...	Rawley Girl 2 episodes, 2000
Tracy Howe	...	Brian Krudski 2 episodes, 2000
Cyndi Johnson	...	Paige Bennett 2 episodes, 2000
Naomi Kline	...	Lena 2 episodes, 2000
Matt Mulhern	...	Charlie 2 episodes, 2000

Storyline

This series portrays life at Rawley Summer Academy, an elite school in Connecticut where boys with a bright Ivy League future spend the summer industriously in classes and rowing training on the lake. It's mainly told from the viewpoint of Will Krudski, a gifted, genuinely inquisitive student and future writer, who feels guilty having cheated at the entry exams. His roommate, Scout Calhoun, is a school legacy who makes an effort to become friendly with some underprivileged local kids and falls in love with the daughter of a garage owner who turns out to be family. Most of his classmates are golden spoon boys, but still have their problems, among each-other, at home and sometimes with the locals. Actually Jacqueline 'Jake' Pratt is a girl pretending to be a boy as the only way to get in, causing great confusion for Hamilton, the school dean's son, who begins to fall for her.

---

Plot Keywords:

girl pretending to be boy | cross dressing | sexuality | series | short lived | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Official Sites:

Columbia TriStar

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 July 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Monkey Writer from Goonies

Filming Locations:

Agnes Scott College - 141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, Georgia, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mandalay Television,Columbia TriStar Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Short-lived spinoff of Dawson's Creek. The character "Will" appeared in three episodes at the end of Dawson's third season.

---

Connections

Spun-off from Dawson's Creek (1998)

---

Soundtracks

I Try
Written by Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim' and David Wilder
Macy Gray

User Reviews

My favorite TV mini series of all time was not given a chance by The WB

"Young Americans" was my favorite TV show mini series of all time. Each of the characters were interesting and developed very natural and I became a fan within the first fifteen minutes of the first episode.

Each episode of the series, which was set at a boy's college, contained some very positive lessons that were thoughtfully presented by the Professor Finn so as not to 'preach'.

Over the course of the 8 episodes that aired we became intimately involved in the lives of these people and became involved with them.

The WB Network really did not thoughtfully give this series a fighting chance, there were weeks when the show did not air in it's set time slot, which I believe is a must, if you want to develop an audience, and it was almost impossible to find out when it was going to be on, unless you watched The WB 24 hours a day and were lucky enough to catch the one or two promos for the next airing.

Unfortunately we will never know what happened in the interwoven lives of these characters because it was cancelled after only 8 sporadic episodes.

It would be nice if WB would put it out on DVD, as far as the music rights, the music was promoted on each episode, and if any of it is still available today, I would think the artists and labels (much of which was WB Records) should welcome the new publicity.