TV's Target

The Journal News

By David Hiltbrand, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Published:  June 28, 2006

The teen years are notoriously turbulent, rife with stresses, real and imagined. But at least you get more interesting television than your younger siblings do, as two new cable series demonstrate.

"Falcon Beach" (Mondays at 9 p.m. on ABC Family) features young adults at a summer resort in New England who are dealing with romance, jealousy, beach parties, wigged-out parents, local cops — the whole soapy broth.

"Beyond the Break" (Fridays at 8 p.m. on the N channel) focuses on four young women, aspiring pro surfers who live in a communal house in Oahu, Hawaii, with a salty surfing vet (David Chokachi of "Baywatch"). The June 2 debut of the show drew more female teens than any other program on broadcast or basic cable.

What these series have in common, besides attractive casts usually decked out in bathing suits, is an inclination to deal with issues like violence, drugs and bitter family dynamics.

That frankness is the primary difference between shows designed for teens (12 to 18) and those for "tweens" (8 to 12).

"We can do more with the older end of that demographic as long as the stories are told responsibly," says Tom Zappala, senior vice president of scheduling and acquisitions for ABC Family.

Tween programming, like the Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana" and Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," dwells in an adolescent utopia. The tone is usually lightly comedic and the worst problems you may encounter will result only in minor embarrassment. Teens hang in a tougher neighborhood.

Sean McNamara and David Brookwell, creators and executive producers of "Beyond the Break," spent several years working on tween shows like "Even Stevens" and "That's So Raven." Their surf saga has taken them into deeper waters.

"It's an extremely liberating experience," McNamara says. "When you're dealing with tweens, you can tell cool stories, but you have to be inventive. You can't touch certain subject matters.

"But with the age group watching the N, they've started hitting some hard subjects like alcoholism and teen sex," he continues. "And the reality is that high school kids drink and high school kids do crazy things."

Both age brackets are fascinated with what the next stage of their lives looks like. It certainly makes it easy to spot a tween show. From "Saved by the Bell" to "Boy Meets World" to "That's So Raven," one of their primary sets is always a bank of school lockers. This allows preteens to dream about what high school will be like.

Teenagers are the more lucrative market, spending more than $150 billion a year, according to a research study by Packaged Facts. But they're a more fragmented and independent group.

Tweens spend a fraction of that amount ($18 billion), but they influence an additional $145 billion in family expenditures. And they're a more homogenous and loyal audience.

"Tweens are quite childish and innocent," writes Irma Zandl, the principal of a New York teen marketing and research group, via e-mail. "They are less cliquish. Their favorite TV shows, which include 'That's So Raven,' 'The Suite Life of Zack and Cody' and 'Full House' reruns, are sweeter with a family orientation."

The most intense teen show is the N's "Degrassi: The Next Generation." Over the last five seasons, this drama has dealt with cutting, date rape, school shootings, sexually transmitted diseases and a raft of other hard-hitting problems.

"Today's teenagers are on the Internet and the world is more transparent to them than it ever was before in terms of information and overall connectedness," says Kenny Miller, a vice president of production and programming at the N. "We think the difference between ages 12 and 13 and the ages 15 and 16 is light-years apart. You go from a place where you're really a child to a place where you are beginning adulthood."

Like "Degrassi," "Falcon Beach" is produced in Canada. Despite the concerted effort to mirror contemporary social issues, it's still television. That means certain superficial details will always be paramount.

"The way we cast this show," says the series' executive producer, Kim Todd. "is we held this dynamic audition and then started asking, 'What do they look like in a bathing suit?"'