My Mother found an old Season One Copy she had purchased at a sale a few years ago and thanks to the Chinese Virus, I was stuck at my house so I watched it, I then binge watched season 2 and 3 and this is my take.
The problems with the show were immense, the most glaring being the deviation from the real timeline and mixing of songs and social mores from much later on in the Sixties. I am someone who was playing my Mother's old 45's from the 1950's/60's I got my first record player at age 3, got tired of read along books and so she gave me her old 45's which were scratched but I dug them. I read books, talked to everyone about the era and consider myself an amateur historian. For starters, the constant tie in with Bandstand was all wrong, Bandstand filmed its last Philadelphia show on Sat Feb 1, 1964 and moved to Los Angeles the following week. Meg and Roxanne in reality would have danced on Bandstand for at most 4 months. Keeping it going all through the show became tired, but Dick Clark liked it and was the Executive Producer so accuracy be d-d. Another thing that literally made me want to scream was the mixing of singers and bands from much later in the Sixties and their music instead of sticking to the time period. Now Philadelphia, like all the Eastern cities from Baltimore to Boston, has a gigantic Italian population and Italians love Doo Wop like they love good Spaghetti and Sunday Gravy. Now as an old listener to Sunday Doo Wop Night on AM 1210 from Philly when it was WOGL in the late 80's and early 90's believe you me to do a show about Philly ca 1963, the rotation should have been heavy on Fifties Doo Wop. Only after the Beatles came to America did Doo Wop slowly begin to fade, but even as late as 1966 NYC girl groups like the Chiffons were still putting out records.
Brittany Snow is a pretty girl, she's 34 now and still pretty. That being said either because of the writing or Brittany herself, she does seem to lack that one thing that separates good actresses from great ones and that is charisma. There were a whole bunch of them that hit in the late 1990's, good actresses but no charisma. She reminds me of Kristen Bell in a away, blonde and a good actress but she doesn't draw you in. To this day people want to see old movies with Jean Harlow or Hedy Lamarr, who was impressive as she was a Austrian Jewish Actress who couldn't speak but a bit of English but mastered it quickly once coming here. Jean and Hedy are only two of many but you can go back and watch them now and they draw you in to themselves. Sadly no one will ever say this about either Kristan or Brittany.
Brittany did well in the first season playing the vulnerable teenage girl, she was 16 herself when the show began, but she never grew. She remained that same naive silly 16 yr old to the bitter end of the show. When the show starts, her character is barely 15. Now she as Meg gets onto Bandstand, but do either her or Roxanne suddenly become hot commodities? No, for some reason they don't show any real interest in guys with status, aside from Meg's failed date with Jimmy Riley. Now two sexy young women, Meg and Roxanne and you're telling me they aren't literally falling into JJ's friend Tommy DeFelice's lap? This is Philadelphia for heavens sake, everyone knows Irish Catholic girls and Polish girls like Roxanne literally worship Italian guys thats just how it is on the East Coast. Instead Meg goes for losers like Luke Foley and an aloof College boy Drew Mandel and Roxanne just does whatever. Trust me guys like Luke Foley don't get with girls who look like Meg or Roxy in real life High School, maybe when they're 30 and divorced sure, but in HS and College, good looking girls want status men. Think about it JJ has all these handsome football friends and sisters always like their brothers friends and Meg never makes a serious play for Tommy? Now this odd part of Meg's personality continues, she goes from Jimmy Riley, to low status Luke, to being sort of friends with the blk kid Sam, to Drew and finally to this loser guy Chris Pierce played by Milo Ventimiglia and turns into some radical? This is 1966 Philadelphia this isn't California or New York Meg's cultural background and the fact in real life she would have been dating guys like Tommy DeFelice, no way any slimeball like Chris Pierce, who Tommy would have broke his neck like a twig, would have ever dared talk to her. Now after some time at College on LSD and Pot, sure Chris would have a shot but not in HS. The sad thing was by the end of the 3rd season, Meg was so annoying with her silly idealism and naivete about boys and life her character was totally one dimensional. Whereas the other family characters, Roxanne, and Henry's family all had deep back stories and depth and were much more interesting to watch.
All in all, I liked the first two years of the series, but by the third it went off the rails mostly because Brittany Snow was set up to be the main protaganist but by Season 2 was outshone by everyone. Few TV shows survive their main character losing control of the show to a lesser character, Happy Days being a major exception and this was because Ron Howard has real charisma so the Fonz could take over and Ron could play off him no sweat. Brit/Meg's utter lack of all charisma made this impossible. At the end of the series, I scratched my head thinking how either poor casting or poor writing took a home run and turned it into a strike out. I honestly wonder if the writers had something against jocks or cool guys because how they were downplayed to the point of irrelevence was criminal
The problems with the show were immense, the most glaring being the deviation from the real timeline and mixing of songs and social mores from much later on in the Sixties. I am someone who was playing my Mother's old 45's from the 1950's/60's I got my first record player at age 3, got tired of read along books and so she gave me her old 45's which were scratched but I dug them. I read books, talked to everyone about the era and consider myself an amateur historian. For starters, the constant tie in with Bandstand was all wrong, Bandstand filmed its last Philadelphia show on Sat Feb 1, 1964 and moved to Los Angeles the following week. Meg and Roxanne in reality would have danced on Bandstand for at most 4 months. Keeping it going all through the show became tired, but Dick Clark liked it and was the Executive Producer so accuracy be d-d. Another thing that literally made me want to scream was the mixing of singers and bands from much later in the Sixties and their music instead of sticking to the time period. Now Philadelphia, like all the Eastern cities from Baltimore to Boston, has a gigantic Italian population and Italians love Doo Wop like they love good Spaghetti and Sunday Gravy. Now as an old listener to Sunday Doo Wop Night on AM 1210 from Philly when it was WOGL in the late 80's and early 90's believe you me to do a show about Philly ca 1963, the rotation should have been heavy on Fifties Doo Wop. Only after the Beatles came to America did Doo Wop slowly begin to fade, but even as late as 1966 NYC girl groups like the Chiffons were still putting out records.
Brittany Snow is a pretty girl, she's 34 now and still pretty. That being said either because of the writing or Brittany herself, she does seem to lack that one thing that separates good actresses from great ones and that is charisma. There were a whole bunch of them that hit in the late 1990's, good actresses but no charisma. She reminds me of Kristen Bell in a away, blonde and a good actress but she doesn't draw you in. To this day people want to see old movies with Jean Harlow or Hedy Lamarr, who was impressive as she was a Austrian Jewish Actress who couldn't speak but a bit of English but mastered it quickly once coming here. Jean and Hedy are only two of many but you can go back and watch them now and they draw you in to themselves. Sadly no one will ever say this about either Kristan or Brittany.
Brittany did well in the first season playing the vulnerable teenage girl, she was 16 herself when the show began, but she never grew. She remained that same naive silly 16 yr old to the bitter end of the show. When the show starts, her character is barely 15. Now she as Meg gets onto Bandstand, but do either her or Roxanne suddenly become hot commodities? No, for some reason they don't show any real interest in guys with status, aside from Meg's failed date with Jimmy Riley. Now two sexy young women, Meg and Roxanne and you're telling me they aren't literally falling into JJ's friend Tommy DeFelice's lap? This is Philadelphia for heavens sake, everyone knows Irish Catholic girls and Polish girls like Roxanne literally worship Italian guys thats just how it is on the East Coast. Instead Meg goes for losers like Luke Foley and an aloof College boy Drew Mandel and Roxanne just does whatever. Trust me guys like Luke Foley don't get with girls who look like Meg or Roxy in real life High School, maybe when they're 30 and divorced sure, but in HS and College, good looking girls want status men. Think about it JJ has all these handsome football friends and sisters always like their brothers friends and Meg never makes a serious play for Tommy? Now this odd part of Meg's personality continues, she goes from Jimmy Riley, to low status Luke, to being sort of friends with the blk kid Sam, to Drew and finally to this loser guy Chris Pierce played by Milo Ventimiglia and turns into some radical? This is 1966 Philadelphia this isn't California or New York Meg's cultural background and the fact in real life she would have been dating guys like Tommy DeFelice, no way any slimeball like Chris Pierce, who Tommy would have broke his neck like a twig, would have ever dared talk to her. Now after some time at College on LSD and Pot, sure Chris would have a shot but not in HS. The sad thing was by the end of the 3rd season, Meg was so annoying with her silly idealism and naivete about boys and life her character was totally one dimensional. Whereas the other family characters, Roxanne, and Henry's family all had deep back stories and depth and were much more interesting to watch.
All in all, I liked the first two years of the series, but by the third it went off the rails mostly because Brittany Snow was set up to be the main protaganist but by Season 2 was outshone by everyone. Few TV shows survive their main character losing control of the show to a lesser character, Happy Days being a major exception and this was because Ron Howard has real charisma so the Fonz could take over and Ron could play off him no sweat. Brit/Meg's utter lack of all charisma made this impossible. At the end of the series, I scratched my head thinking how either poor casting or poor writing took a home run and turned it into a strike out. I honestly wonder if the writers had something against jocks or cool guys because how they were downplayed to the point of irrelevence was criminal