COLLEGE BOUND
How TV shows handle beloved characters after high school
Anthony Anderson’s piercing wail kicks off the newish ABC Spark series Grown-ish, a spinoff of ABC’s Black-ish that centres on the college experience of the Johnson family’s oldest child. Zoey (Yara Shahidi) has been at the fictional California University for just three days, but to her father, Dre, it feels like a lifetime.
Dre’s parental woes are familiar to many viewers. With any series fortunate enough to be renewed for multiple seasons, the teenage characters inevitably grow up and, often, go to college. Here’s how several popular comedies have dealt with the transition.
BLACK-ISH (2014-PRESENT) GROWN-ISH (2018-PRESENT)
Character: Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi)
What happened: Much to the distress of her father, Zoey is now navigating an increasingly political world on her own at Cal U. But Black-ish fans, fret not. The actress recently confirmed that she would still appear on the ABC series from time to time, and her TV parents might show up on ABC Spark, too. A few of Shahidi’s Grown-ish co-stars include famed Selena Gomez kidney donor Francia Raisa.
COSBY SHOW (1984-1992) A DIFFERENT WORLD (1987-1993)
Character: Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet)
What happened: A Different World is the most obvious precursor to Grown-ish, as each series — at least initially — focuses on the college experience of the oldest daughter in a middleclass black family. Denise figures prominently in the first season of A Different World, which takes place at the fictional Hillman College, but her character was written out around the same time that hippie-chic icon Bonet, newly married to Lenny Kravitz, announced her pregnancy. The series went on to have five more seasons, and Denise eventually returned full-time to The Cosby Show with a husband and stepdaughter, played by Raven-Symoné, in tow.
SAVED BY THE BELL (1989-1992) THE COLLEGE YEARS (1993-1994)
Characters: Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani Thiessen), Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Screech Powers (Dustin Diamond) and A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez)
What happened: California University appears to be quite popular in the TV universe, as half of Bayside High’s lovable troublemakers go on to attend the school in the ill-fated Saved by the Bell followup, The College Years. Zack, Screech and A.C. move in with three female students in the pilot, one of whom is swapped out in the second episode to make room for Kelly’s return to the franchise.
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (2003-PRESENT)
Character: George Michael Bluth (Michael Cera)
What happened: George Michael’s transition to college coincided with the series’ Netflix revival, in which each episode centres on a different character, and the show’s trademark style of interlocking storylines didn’t allow for an absence from Bluth family shenanigans. Though he drives off to UC-Irvine in the infamous stair car and then studies abroad in Spain for a year, George Michael is eventually forced to live with his father again upon his return to campus. The two even (unknowingly) date the same woman.
GLEE (2009-2015)
Character: Rachel Berry (Lea Michele)
What happened: While multiple members of the New Directions family move away from Lima, Ohio, after graduating from McKinley High in season 3, Rachel’s college journey is the most closely followed. The Barbra Streisand superfan attends the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts — or “NYADA,” as they seem to utter in every sentence — to pursue her Broadway dreams and faces a reality check while working with her intense dance instructor, Cassandra July (Kate Hudson). The latter three seasons of Glee split their focus between Lima and New York.
MODERN FAMILY (2009-PRESENT)
Characters: Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter) and Haley Dunphy (Sarah Hyland)
What happened: Haley, portrayed as the family airhead, finally goes to college in the fourth season of Modern Family, only to get kicked out for drinking and the (accidental) battery of a police officer. She ends up living at home and sporadically attending community college — a clever tactic to keep her in the show — while her nerdy sister, Alex, later goes to Cal Tech, but somehow almost always has a reason to stay with her family, like a case of mono that renders her homebound for months.