From "Newsday.com":

WB Keeps Kidding Around
'Young Americans' adds a new wrinkle to teen TV

Marvin Kitman. E-mail Marvin Kitman at: MarvinKit manShow@att.net.

'YOUNG AMERICANS," which opens tonight (WPIX/11 at 9) on the WB, is a teen show. That has been defined by Liz Fink of Huntington as "yet another one of those shows where 40- year-old executives pretend to be in the know about teen life as portrayed by actors pushing 30 trying to look like teenagers." It has the additional misfortune of debuting just as the party seems to be over for teenage programing.

The Mighty Impotentates of Los Abismalos, Calif., those network CEOs who drink from the fountain of knowledge at the La Brea tar pits, declared the 1999- 2000 season to be the Age of Adolescent Angst, Anxiety & Acne, giving us endless nights on the rites of pubescents.

It was the period when American society appeared to be completely teenaged.

First, they were making brain-dead movies for brain-dead teenagers, and then they were making brain-dead TV shows for brain-dead audiences by brain-dead executives, who themselves were ex-brain-dead teens. Who can even remember "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane," "Jack and Jill," "Safe Harbor," "Get Real," "Ryan Caulfield" or "Wasteland"? Dedication to the revolution last year -which threatened to turn the nation into a teenocracy where whatever teens seemed to want, teens got-has taken its toll. WB, once the hot center of the teenist revolt, staggered by the failure of "Felicity" to take it to the next stage of arrested development after "Buffy" and "Dawson's Creek," is now a network up the creek without a paddle.

The decline of "Felicity" was blamed on her new 'do. Rubbish. The question should have been: Why were they giving teenagers so much programing power in the first place? The notion was based on two fallacies: No.1: Young people are loaded. In point of fact, 18-to-24s, as well as the even more important demographic, the NLETs (No Longer 18-24), are strapped for money. Between paying off college loans and condos, discretionary money for buying advertised products is more likely to come from the No Longer 18-to-49s.

No.2: Young people-whether 12-to- 18 or 18-to-24-know what they want.

Actually they are fickle, impatient, always ready to move on to the next big thing.

Anyway, it's such a burden to put on them. They can hardly make up their minds about which shampoo to use.

There was still a deeper crack in the networks' thinking. What would teens do if you didn't give them their own programs in prime time? Not watch TV? Go off to their rooms and curl up with the Great Books of the Western World? The Great Teen Meltdown of 1999-2000 will be reflected in the dearth of teen programs next fall. What we will be seeing this summer are the few dead-fish shows that got stuck when they emptied the pool.

All of this is especially sad for "Young Americans" because it happens to be one of the better high school shows. At least it's not about aliens and vampires in high school. This is probably the biggest knock against it for teens who use "Roswell" and "Buffy" as a guide to real life.

Created by feature film writer Steven Antin, "Young Americans" is an hour- long drama about life in a New England boarding school. It's the kind of place which the narrator-groan, yes, another one-says is a billionaire boys' club.

"And get this, kids-a high school with no parents." Rawley Prep has room for one scholarship student, the narrator. He's a charity case who's not only poor, but he wants to be a writer. "Rawley guys are only after one thing," one of the townies says. And you guessed it: deeper understanding of Shakespeare.

They also want to better themselves educationally, improve their self-image, learn how blue-collars and bluebloods can live together. Well, that's what I see in the premiere. Others will be more struck by the collection of hunks and hunkettes.

The series stars Rodney Scott as the poor boy who recently graduated from a three-episode "Dawson's" arc. Michael Famiglietti [Ahem. That's MARK Famiglietti. - Liz], the rich kid, is the new Michael J. Fox. Kate Bosworth is the gas station owner's daughter who loves to tinker with her truck without ever getting grease in her long, flowing mane.

The writing has all the cliches of good teenage drama, running the gamut from predictable to predictable. It's not that surprising there are no surprises. They don't want to end up like "Freaks and Geeks." There are signs of life beyond the cliches in "Young Americans." You can see it in Finn (Edward Quinn), the teacher who hopes to inspire students to shoot their arrows high in his classes on Shakespeare while he himself is having sex with the headmaster's wife. The word "Faulkner" is also mentioned in the premiere.

"Young Americans" is interesting. By that I mean I'd watch a second episode, which is more than I can say for the next big teen thing, "Opposite Sex," the dead fish premiering Monday on Fox.

E-mail Marvin Kitman at: MarvinKit manShow@att.net. And check out the Marvin Kitman Show Newsday Web page: www.newsday.com/mainnews /kitman00.htm.