“The Bedford Diaries” (2006, WB) is the answer to a fun trivia question: It was the last show to debut on The WB. The eight episodes aired in the spring of 2006, the last season before the network merged with UPN to become The CW. In another example of bad timing, viewers weren’t quite ready for “The Bedford Diaries” in 2006, but the similarly themed “Gossip Girl” launched a year later and became a big success.
Barely before its time
Like “Gossip Girl,” “The Bedford Diaries” is set in a specific neighborhood of New York City – in this case Bedford, with most of the action taking place on the Bedford College campus. And it focuses on relationships, but not in a soapy way. Rather, it approaches the subject analytically and intellectually (or at least it tries to), with each episode centering on a theme introduced in Professor Macklin’s (Matthew Modine) human sexuality class.
The characters are asked to record video diaries relating to their experience in the selected topic, be it “secrets,” “manipulation,” “passion” or “compassion.” It’s an appropriate final series for a network that “Dawson’s Creek” – known for its frank talk about sex – helped put on the map.
“The Bedford Diaries” (2006)
WB, 8 episodes
Creators: Tom Fontana, Julie Martin
Stars: Milo Ventimiglia, Penn Badgley, Victoria Cartagena
There is a lot to like about “The Bedford Diaries” right off the bat. The pilot episode, filmed in the winter in New York City, looks like a picture postcard. There’s something about seeing the characters’ breath and beet-red ears that makes the show seem real.
Milo lands a lead role
Milo Ventimiglia, currently starring in “This Is Us,” is suave as Richard Thorne, editor of the Bedford Bugle. The portrayal of the student newspaper is a notch better than on most TV shows, particularly in a conflict where the school threatens to pull its share of the funding if Richard doesn’t ax a controversial column.
Richard, noting that “democracy is best served by a press that isn’t too cozy with the current administration,” resolves to keep the paper afloat without abandoning that principle. On the other hand, when student president Sara (Tiffany Dupont) flat-out tells him what stories to cover, he doesn’t shoot down her presumption.
Beyond Ventimiglia – in his first opening-credits role, as this was just before “Heroes” – another standout performer is Corri English as Natalie Dykstra, the girl known for jumping off a campus building in a failed suicide attempt. It’s disappointing that we never learn how she survived that attempt completely unscathed whereas many other people died doing the same thing; in the back of my mind, I wondered if she’d be revealed as a ghost in the final episode.
Other than Ventimiglia, though, it’s “Gossip Girl’s” Penn Badgley, as Sara’s younger brother Owen, who is most recognizable. The class is rounded out by sexually promiscuous virgin (no, that’s not a typo) Zoe (Victoria Cartagena) and father-to-be Lee (Ernest Waddell), whose online Texas Hold’em addiction firmly places “Bedford” in 2006.
That game was so ubiquitous in the mid-Aughts that I added a Texas Hold’em section to the entertainment guide I compiled every week for the newspaper I worked at.
A convenient syllabus
As I noted, “Bedford” tries to be analytical about its topics-of-the-week. It just so happens that at the very same time Macklin’s syllabus arrives at, for example, secrets, everyone is keeping a secret. And coincidentally, many of the relationships are between class members.
Obviously, executive producers Tom Fontana and Julie Martin aren’t necessarily expecting us to buy this hook, line and sinker; they are no doubt aiming for a heightened reality like the Kevin Williamson years of “Dawson’s Creek.”
The problem is that what we’re seeing is never remotely believable, even when – no, especially when – the students bare their souls in video diary entries that will only be seen by the professor. I don’t hate any of the characters, but I don’t necessarily like them either (even if Ventimiglia and English are easy to watch); they come off as actors in one of those talky, too-on-the-nose stage plays about human nature.
A prime example is when Richard dates his professor’s ex-wife Katrina (Dagmara Dominczyk), a student-older-than-average at Bedford College. (Katrina is allegedly much older than Richard, but fun fact: Dominczyk is only one year older than Ventimiglia. Still, I admit that she seems quite a bit older than him.) Richard’s goal is to manipulate Macklin in a clever approach to the assignment on “manipulation.”
“Bedford” might’ve worked better if the writers weren’t attached to the idea of the each week’s theme being illustrated by the characters’ current experiences. Flashbacks to past experiences, at least in some cases, might’ve provided needed verisimilitude.
Too much talk
And as I noted in my review of “Summerland,” another “TV show lost to history,” relationship drama rings hollow if it consists entirely of talking about the relationship. There has to be other plots. “Bedford” has some; in the best one, Natalie works to save the free campus clinic from being shut down.
Others are a little more been-there-done-that, like Lee’s gambling addiction and subsequent cheating on an art-class paper. But mostly, it’s talking and false conflicts, such as Owen breaking up with Natalie because he’s frustrated by his search for a place to crash.
“Bedford” admirably remains committed to its video-diary premise throughout the eight episodes – all of which were filmed before the first one aired – but I gradually found it sillier and less substantive as the series moved along. Although the seven episodes after the pilot are set in the spring, “Bedford” still leaves me a bit cold.
But it’s fun to revisit this forgotten Ventimiglia series, and also to see early guest turns by Krysten Ritter (“Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23”) and Scott Porter (“Friday Night Lights”). And since it had such a short run, armchair TV historians might want to check out this proto-“Gossip Girl” that got squeezed out by The CW changeover.
This blog post is part of a series about great short-lived TV shows that haven’t been released on DVD or digital or streaming services, and are rarely – if ever — shown in syndication. While some of these shows can be found somewhere on the Internet, fans of great TV want to see them get a proper release. If you’re one of those fans, your best bets are to vote for the show at TVonDVD.com or to request information from Amazon.com in the event the show gets released. This will let the copyright holder know of your interest.
Main image: WB publicity photo