''Yearbook'' was a documentary

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that aired on the

Fox Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

in 1991. It is one of the earliest examples of a

reality series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

as it chronicled the school and home lives of various students of

Glenbard West High School Glenbard West High School is a public four-year high school located at the corner of Ellyn Avenue and Crescent Boulevard in Glen Ellyn, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Glenbard Township High School Distri ...

Glen Ellyn, Illinois Glen Ellyn is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. A suburb located due west of downtown Chicago, the village has a population of 28,846 as of the 2020 Census. History Glen Ellyn, like the neighboring town to the east, Lomba ...

, a suburb about 30 miles outside

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The critically acclaimed series was filmed over a six-month period, five days a week by Chicago videographer Ned Miller in the

Betacam Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. All ...

video format. Inspired to make a "real life" version of John Hughes films, co-executives Lou Gorfain and Chuck Bangert shot a ratio of "150:1", 150 minutes to one minute of usable footage, comparing waiting and observing to capture unscripted moments to "

panning for gold Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts especi ...

". ''New Screen Concepts, Inc.'', a Connecticut-based independent film company chose Glenbard West after considering 100 high schools across the nation to represent a "typical American high school". They began filming in October 1990 with the permission of the administrators, pupils, parents, and

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

. The series premiered on

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

, back-to-back with the popular American teen drama series original, ''

Beverly Hills, 90210 ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (often referred to by its short title, ''90210'') is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling under his production company Spelling Television. The series ran fo ...

,'' to ride a surge in second-season viewership; and aired regularly Saturdays 8:30 pm EST / 7:30 pm CST. Among the subjects covered include

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

, teen pregnancy, sports competition, dating, the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, and personal tragedy. The premise of the show was repeated in another Fox reality series, '' American High'', which was filmed in 2000 at another suburban Chicago school, Highland Park High School in

Highland Park, Illinois Highland Park is a suburban city located in the southeastern part of Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,176. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located o ...

References

External links

* 1990s American reality television series 1990s American high school television series 1991 American television series debuts 1991 American television series endings Fox Broadcasting Company original programming English-language television shows Television series about teenagers Glen Ellyn, Illinois {{US-reality-tv-stub