please don't cancel
my so-called life

a page for angela, rayanne, rickie, brian, jordan,
and everybody else at liberty high

Hi. I'm Genevieve, I'm sixteen, I'm a junior in Michigan, and I have seen every episode of My So-Called Life since the very first one on August 25th. All nineteen of them. Some of them eleven times. This page is here because nineteen episodes isn't enough, and because if enough of us write to ABC, maybe somebody there will listen. (The plaid is for Angela's flannel. And mine.)

why it matters

It's the only show on TV where teenagers sound like teenagers. Nobody on My So-Called Life has a laugh track behind them or learns a lesson in the last two minutes. Angela's voice-over says the things you think in the hallway and never say out loud. A whole episode can be about something that sounds small, like a zit, and it turns out it isn't small at all, because when you're fifteen it isn't.

The parents are real people too. Patty and Graham have their own problems, and you actually care about them, which never happens on TV. My mom started watching with me in October and now she likes it as much as I do, which is a little weird but mostly nice.

It was up against Mad About You and Friends on Thursday nights, so a lot of people never even found it. That isn't the show's fault. And Claire Danes won the Golden Globe in January for playing Angela, at fifteen years old. If that doesn't tell ABC something, I don't know what will.

how to write a good letter

1. Be polite. Nobody ever changed their mind for someone who yelled at them.
2. Write it yourself, by hand if you can. Don't copy somebody else's letter. One real letter is worth twenty form letters.
3. Say who you are. Your age, your grade, or what you do. If your whole family watches, say so. They want to know who's watching.
4. Be specific. Tell them which episode meant something to you, and why.
5. Mention the MTV reruns, and that you watch them.
6. Keep it to one page.
7. Send it to ABC Entertainment in Los Angeles. E-mail me and I'll send you the whole address.
8. Then get a friend to write one too.

who's who at liberty high

angela chase (Claire Danes)

Fifteen, hair dyed Crimson Glow out of a box, and the most honest person on television. She says what I think before I know I think it.

rayanne graff (A.J. Langer)

Loud and wild and funny, and sadder than she lets on. You want to be her friend and you're a little scared to be.

rickie vasquez (Wilson Cruz)

The kindest person at Liberty High. He deserves so much better than he gets.

brian krakow (Devon Gummersall)

The boy next door who knows everything except how to talk to Angela. Poor Brian. I'm on his side more than I ever thought I'd be.

jordan catalano (Jared Leto)

Leans on things. Says about four words an episode. All right, I admit it: I have a huge crush on Jordan Catalano. Everybody does. My best friend Stephanie says she doesn't, and she's lying.

sharon cherski (Devon Odessa)

Angela's old best friend. You think she's going to be the stuck-up one, and she isn't.

patty and graham chase (Bess Armstrong and Tom Irwin)

Angela's parents. Patty runs the family printing business and worries about everything. Graham cooks and is figuring himself out.

danielle chase (Lisa Wilhoit)

The little sister. Funnier than anybody gives her credit for.

my five favorite episodes

1. "life of brian." Brian's episode. You find out what goes on inside his head, and it hurts in a good way.
2. "halloween." Spooky and funny, and the best costume episode of any show, ever.
3. "so-called angels." The Christmas one, with Juliana Hatfield. I cried. My dad pretended he wasn't crying.
4. "self-esteem." The hallway. You know the scene I mean. I'm not saying anything else.
5. "in dreams begin responsibilities." The last one. The letter. It can't end like that. It just can't. That's the whole reason this page exists.

me and the other fans

I found the other fans online in January, after the last episode aired, and it's the nicest group of people I have never met. We write letters, we trade tapes, and we stay up way too late talking about the show. Stephanie and I watch the reruns on the phone together every night, and Brandi from my chemistry class has every single episode on tape with the commercials cut out. If you're a fan and you want to talk, e-mail me. I write back.

about the show

• Created by Winnie Holzman.
• From Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, who made thirtysomething.
• First episode: Thursday, August 25, 1994, on ABC.
• Nineteen episodes so far. (So far.)
• Liberty High is in Three Rivers, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh.