Sadly Over-hyped

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Just as I thought Friday night TV wouldn't get any better in 1997, I was channel surfing and came across "Teen Angel." I thought to myself, "Oh, this is probably going to be another one of those kiddie-coms with 'dumb' humor in it" (think "Full House" and "Family Matters"). Not so in this case: "Teen Angel" was indeed funny, and (unlike those other two shows) it managed to be without having to beat you over the head to get a laugh. (I was in my late 30's when "Teen Angel" first aired.) As with a few other IMDbers, my favorite episode had to be the fourth one in which Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa in "The Simpsons") was the science teacher and Tim Curry was the voice of the frog; what was especially funny in this episode was when the frog did his Rex Harrison impression from "My Fair Lady" and when the teacher screamed, "All right! Anybody who doesn't do the dissection gets an F!" to the class. The eighth one, in which Steve tries out for the lead in the school play (with a Kool-aid commercial parody in between the action), is my choice for the runner-up. I have to force myself to save those two episodes for when I have a not-so-hot day so I can laugh my brains out when I watch them again! (The only two episodes I wasn't crazy about, however, was the one where Marty gives Steve a singing voice so he could be the lead singer in the school choir, as well as the one where Steve was forced to take his younger sister Katie on a camping trip.) Just as I was beginning to enjoy "Teen Angel," in February 1998 ABC unceremoniously yanked the show, with the lame excuse it was "on hiatus." Then three months later, "Teen Angel" reappeared in reruns, so, remembering what somebody once said in a Chicago Tribune TV question-and-answer column:"If you want to save it for posterity, you'd better videotape (this show) yourself before (it) vanishes forever." I also figured it'll be a miracle before Disney/ABC either syndicates the reruns (fat chance, since only 16 episodes were produced; in order for any network series to qualify for syndicated reruns, there has to be at least 95 episodes made. Sadly, "Teen Angel" also didn't achieve any kind of cult following like "Bosom Buddies" and the Classic 39 episodes of "The Honeymooners" did, thus precluding any chance of this program joining that exclusive club of one-season wonders in Rerun Heaven as well) or releases them on either VHS or DVD (even fatter chance; VHS tapes were still popular in mid-1998 but were to be eclipsed by DVDs four years later, about the time the current trend to release box sets of TV shows on DVD began).So, I DID videotape ALL 16 episodes of "Teen Angel" in the summer of 1998 when they were repeated before they "vanished forever." I remember I even made a special trip to visit my family in Davison, Michigan one Friday just so I could videotape one of those episodes; the Detroit ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV, Channel 7, blithely denied everybody of said episode that week - airing a boring locally-produced sports special during that time slot - while the Flint ABC affiliate, WJRT-TV, Channel 12, which itself had just been purchased by Disney/ABC, DID show it, so now I have every episode of "Teen Angel." As I said in another posting, thank the Lord for network-owned TV stations, as well as having relatives in the right place at the right time. So I've had the show "for posterity" on VHS tape for the last 9 1/2 years, and now - to ensure even longer "posterity" - I recently transferred all 16 episodes onto a DVD, so I can enjoy them ad infinitum. As I said before, who knows if and when Disney/ABC will ever put "Teen Angel" on DVD commercially? And now, 10 years later, what does ABC air in that time slot on Friday nights? ADULT GARBAGE! (I would explicitly name the show currently occupying "Teen Angel's" former slot, but said program has developed a "following" among today's teens - very sad - so, as the saying goes, some things are better left unsaid. Ironically, that show, like "Teen Angel," is also produced by Disney/ABC under their ABC Studios banner.)Whatever happened to ABC's commitment to good, clean family entertainment on Friday nights?

teen angel was exactly what it was supposed to be: a fun 30 minutes on Friday nights, on a channel that devoted Friday night's early prime time hours to programming for young watchers. since we had children in that category, we, as parents watched or listened to most episodes. many episodes had laugh out loud moments. our favorite? the science class with the talking frog! that was tremendously clever. the voice used was genius. we had quite a laugh! the science teacher was a hit too. it was fun seeing marcia-marcia-marcia, all grown up since her '70s Friday night "family show" days. of course the star, steve or corbin allred was great casting too! so all in all, we would have happily supported another season of this clever program.

So, I think that this show was fabulous!!!!! I was in 7th grade, and needless to say, the tag line of eating a "skanky burger" really caught my eye. I watched it every week, and I'm not afraid to admit that .....yes.....my best friend and I both had crushes on both Marty Depolo and Steve Beauchamps. It was very sad (at least to my friend and myself) when it went off of the air. Where else are you going to find an all star cast of the former Marsha Brady, and the fat lady from Mr.Deeds? No where! So anyone who thinks that this show was lame, remember who the target audience was, and know that it definitely hit the bullseye.

Here in Canada, our Family Channel(a lot like Disney Channel with more late 80's and early 90's movies) have picked up this show and "You Wish!", which was much better than this, but that's still not saying much.Marty, a teenager, dies and is assigned to be guardian angel to his best friend Pete, who is the only one who can see or here him. The jokes were less than standard Friday night pre-teen/family comedy, which is not great to begin with. You Wish! had much the same weirdness to its' plot but pulled it off a lot better.I'd definitely reassign the roles of Pete, his Mom, his Aunt, and his little sister(man, she's a good actress, but got an annoying part!). They all don't seem right for their roles. I think part of it is the friendship between Marty and Pete isn't believable, maybe by their characteristics, maybe becuase of the poor acting. I think Marty, though he could have used a name more suited for his personality, was greatly acted to the script, though.I think the series was short lived mostly because of it's boring plots and bad acting. You can stand the jokes, but Marty was the only one who displayed emotion. It couldn't have lasted much longer.