Top 11 TV Shows Set in Schools
- CJ Tiernan
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
By CJ Tiernan
Remember School? That was crazy, huh? We basically worked a 9-5 (well, 7-3) everyday but, unlike most jobs where you learn what you’re supposed to do and it gets easier, we had to keep learning new stuff. Like, all the time. A constant barrage of new stuff. It was tough! Throw in cliques, bullies, and hormones and you’re talking about running through a non-stop, ruthless gauntlet at an impressionable age. However, now that it’s in the past, there is a wistful longing for those days. It didn’t feel like it then, but it was unmistakably a simpler time. We look on those days through rose-colored glasses and ignore (some of) the drama that felt so important in the moment. That’s perspective, and it’s what allows us to watch someone else go through school without breaking out in hives or gnashing our teeth or punching a hole through the flatscreen. As Mel Brooks once said, “tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” When the drama hits someone else: it’s funny. When it hits us: the sky is falling. Thus, watching people navigate school can actually be entertaining, instead of just reminding us of all the atrocities. Below is my list of my Top 11 Favorite TV Shows that are Set Primarily in Schools (Elementary all the way through College). Enjoy!
1. Community
When I was in college, I was party to a few group projects wherein we had to meet up outside of class and execute an assignment. The way we did it was almost always an email-based, divide-and-conquer strategy that involved very little in the way of working together. The fact that such a diverse group of human beings met up for Spanish class and stayed glued together as long as they did is beautiful. As a bonus, this is one of the funniest shows of all time and they have a Luis Guzmán statue.
2. Stranger Things
This show is probably the one on this list that takes place inside of an actual school the least. In defense of the students, they were kinda preventing world annihilation… repeatedly. They don’t give grades for that. It’s very much a pass-fail situation. Betwixt the ‘80s vibe and the endless mystery, this show is one of the greatest shows to ever take place (period, not just in a school). If not for the Hoosiers National Championship out of absolutely nowhere, it would be the greatest thing to ever happen in Indiana.
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
What can we say about Buffy? She saved the world a lot. We watched her (and her misfit army the Scoobies) navigate both High School and College in the mystical land of Sunnydale, California. When you go through High School, you’re gonna face a few demons. When your school is parked on top of a Hellmouth, you’re gonna face more than your share. We should all, like the majority of the class of ’99, stand and clap for the great service that Buffy performed. Thank you for your service.
4. American Vandal
A Mockumentary TV show! Courtesy of the post-Office (the show The Office, not the government snail-mail institution) boom, a mockumentary is not a rare thing in and of itself. However, unlike most mockumentaries, this one is satirizing true-crime documentaries. It plays it very straight, to the degree that it may not be properly identified as a mockumentary by the uninitiated. In season 1 (the superior of the 2 seasons) there is one simple question at play: who drew the dicks? Jimmy Tatro is a stand-out performer but everyone nails the assignment.
5. Suburgatory
Jeremy Sisto has one of the deepest voices in history. I know that isn’t most people’s takeaway from this show, but it is so deep. He’s like James Earl Jones out here. In the show, he plays a single father to Jane Levy (of Zoey’s Extraordinary Family and the Evil Dead remake fame) who bemoans giving up the city life in New York for the ‘burbs. There is culture clash and High School drama, but the supporting characters steal the show. Alan Tudyk, Cheryl Hines, Allie Grant, and Parker Young all make this show a can’t miss (and after years of no way to stream it, it recently dropped on Netflix so – No excuses! Play like a champion!).
6. Abbott Elementary
The rare show that takes place in an elementary school. I would think making a TV show in an elementary school would be really tricky because you need a lot of young kids who, in this case, are largely extras. Just thinking out loud here. Anyway, this beautiful brainchild of Quinta Brunson is absolute comedy gold. I imagine, as was the case for me with Superstore when I worked retail, this show really hits home to teachers out there. There is a laid-bare honesty with the behavior of the teachers. I don’t get the principal, though. All of the characters seem grounded-ish and realistic-ish, and then Janelle James as Ava just goes hog wild every episode with very little control over the school or her own budget. I don’t know. I’ve never been to a school in Philly. Maybe that’s just how it is over there.
7. Glee
This show has a level of drama that I would normally reject out of hand. Instead, I’ve seen every episode multiple times. Why, you ask? Because of the music! They churn out banger after banger in this one and even made a few up themselves (Loser Like Me is the best original song). Plus, some of the characters are so over-the-top that they’re entertaining. There is a distressing track record of young fatalities among the main cast, as though the movies Poltergeist or The Conqueror passed on their curses. It is a melancholy rewatch but, if you haven’t seen it, ignore all this and go watch it right now!
8. A.P. Bio
Glenn Howerton (Dennis Reynolds in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) plays a High School teacher who doesn’t want to be there and finds that he’s too good for the place. He left behind his Harvard professorship in disgrace and is relegated to Toledo, OH (of hometown to Katie Holmes fame). He is a largely useless teacher to overly eager students. This show is so criminally underrated (or at least under watched). The ensemble of kids in this show (the actors are all 18+ but they’re playing High Schoolers so we’re going with kids) is second to none. They are incredible! But if that doesn’t do it for you, Patton Oswalt plays a toothless principal and Paula Pell steals every single scene as his try-hard secretary.
9. Boy Meets World
This show aired from 1993 to 2000. During that time, I went from 5 years old to graduating 6th grade. You throw in the countless reruns and I grew up with Boy Meets World. It was part entertainment and part road map. Shawn Hunter was the coolest dude on the planet to me as a kid (and to be fair, the actor that played him, Rider Strong, has just about the coolest name on the planet). I adopted the center-part hairstyle he rocked after I graduated from a buzzcut just to taste his essence. I don’t think it translated (I didn’t have the brooding, bad-boy vibe to go with it). Nevertheless, the show was impactful to an entire generation of little humans and the advice of Mr. Feeny continues to rattle around in our now-fully-formed brains to this day. The best one? “Believe in yourselves. Dream. Try. Do good.”
10. Veronica Mars
Like the movie Brick (which the premiere of this show preceded by a year), Veronica Mars is a High School neo-noir. It is a fun idea to place Chinatown in the hands of a 17-year-old. She isn’t just a kid solving the case of “The Dog Who Ate the Homework” either. She’s working on murders and car crashes and stuff. It is heavy-tension material, but they do have a delightful mix of characters to inject some level of humor. I love me some Wallace (played by Percy Daggs III, another cool name) and who doesn’t root for a dude named Piz? Kristen Bell, as is always the case, is excellent as the title character.
11. The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
What do M*A*S*H and Jimmy Neutron have in common? It’s a pretty standard question and the answer is probably a whole bunch of stuff, as they’re both overloaded with wacky characters. However, the one I’m thinking of is they’re both TV shows that are based on a movie. From the second that I was introduced to this universe (and Sheen) in the movie, I was hooked. Throw in a robot dog, an asthmatic redhead sidekick, a beverage called Purple Flurp, and a father figure with a one-track mind for pie (well, two tracks. He also loves ducks) and you’ve just created a winning formula. He’s nerdy enough to be relentlessly bullied but smart enough to solve nuclear fusion. You gotta appreciate that dichotomy in this economy.
Final Thoughts
School is hard, but it’s also a collective experience. We’ve all hung out with friends, been in the classroom, engaged with bullies, tried taking notes but got caught up daydreaming about our crush, rode the bus, and gave up on everything and decided to live a life on the road because we had so much homework only be to be talked off the ledge by a loved one. It is part of growing up. It is fun now to look back on those times with the benefit of hindsight and perspective and appreciate the good and gloss over the bad. TV shows like this help us do that. They help foster that sense of universality. They play on our worst fears (back then and now) and do so with both humor and tenderness. I’m sure that you have certain shows that you’ve connected with for one reason or another because of your experiences. If those shows didn’t make my list, please let me know in the comments. I left a few that just missed my list down below. Thanks! Have a great day!
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