American Dreams | |
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Created by | Jonathan Prince |
Starring | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 61 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company(s) | Once a Frog Dick Clark Productions NBC Studios (Seasons 1-2) Universal Network Television (Seasons 1-2) NBC Universal Television Studio (Season 3) |
Distributor | MGM International Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Original release | September 29, 2002 | – March 30, 2005
American Dreams is an American television drama program broadcast on the NBC television network from 2002 to 2005. The show tells the story of the Pryor family of Philadelphia during the mid-1960s, with many plotlines centered around teenager Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow). The show often featured contemporary musicians performing as popular musicians of the 1960s. Season one takes place in 1963–64, season two in 1964–65, and season three in 1965–66.
The series was created by Jonathan Prince and developed by Josh Goldstein and Prince; the latter was also one of the executive producers with Dick Clark. It debuted on September 29, 2002 and initially aired on Sundays at 8:00 pm Eastern time, but moved to the same time on Wednesdays from March 9, 2005, to the third-season finale (March 30, 2005). The show was known as Our Generation when it debuted in Australia; however, it was changed back to American Dreams when it returned for the second season.
The theme song "Generation" was written and performed by Emerson Hart, lead singer of the band Tonic. The song earned Hart an ASCAP award for Best Theme Song of Television in 2003. The show was the 2003 TV Land Awards "Future Classic" winner.
In the pilot episode, set in November 1963, Meg and Roxanne win the opportunity to join the dancers on the TV show American Bandstand, filmed in Philadelphia. Passing note is made of the JFK assassination and funeral. Bandstand immediately becomes the principal creative pillar of American Dreams, with each episode featuring recreated versions of several musical acts that originally appeared on the real Bandstand, often rendered by modern singers.
JJ Pryor, a running back for the East Catholic Fighting Crusaders football team, tries and fails to earn a full athletic scholarship to play at the University of Notre Dame, so he later applies for and is accepted to Lehigh University. A nagging ankle injury curtails his football career, so he enlists in the United States Marine Corps to pay for school. Meanwhile, JJ's on-again, off-again girlfriend Beth chooses to attend the University of Pennsylvania in order to be near JJ.