Many times the school year drives a lot of plot: back to school awkwardness, prom, college applications. But sometimes when you stop and think how old these character are supposed to be, it can not only be a reality check but also expose some consistency issues.
Did you know the original Beverly Hills 90210 showed junior year twice? When the series began in fall 1990, the characters (except for David) were starting their junior year of high school. The show ventured into hit status when they showed new episodes during the following summer and producers decided they needed to milk the high school years. So in fall 1991, it was junior year all over again. Season 3 was senior year and the college years followed with each subsequent season until they graduated from that, too.
Dawson’s Creek started with sophomore year but since the show debuted in January of 1998, we saw sophomore year last a year and a half on our calendar, in season 1 and season 2. Season 3 was junior year and in season 4 we saw them as seniors. Seasons 5 and 6 gave us the first two years of college.
The O.C. is also a bit confusing. When Sandy first meets Ryan in jail, he compliments Ryan on his SAT scores. This takes place during late summer. If Ryan’s already taken his SATs, he must’ve been at least a junior the previous school year. But let’s work backwards for a second: season 3 begins with senior year and takes place a few months after season 2, making 2 junior year. Season 2 takes place a few months after season 1, meaning 1 is actually sophomore year. Why had you already taken the SATs, Ryan?
One Tree Hill make things easy and hard by having seasons 1 and 2 be junior year and seasons 3 and 4 senior year. Whereas BH90210 didn’t have season 2’s junior year be a continuation of season 1’s, OTH did and managed to get four real-world years out of high school while having the characters be older than the freshman and sophomore age.
Gossip Girl began with junior year and followed a straight-forward timeline, giving us college year number 1 in the 3rd season.
It seems the new 90210 learned from the original’s mistake and kicked things off as sophomores. Although in season 2 we’ve seen Naomi preoccupied with getting into CU, she’s only a junior. If there’s a season 3, that should be senior year.
Whew! That was exhausting. Maybe one day there will be a teen drama that only takes place during summer!
TeenDramaWhore 
like summerland!
even though i remember like 2 episodes that took place in the beginning of the school year.
That is a bit comfusing!
Dawson’s Creek made sense though because the 2nd season continued right off from where we ended in the 1st season, and the 1st season only had 12 eps, so it made sense to just keep going!