High School Reunion Show

From LoveToKnow Reality-TV

The High School Reunion show is a reality TV program that documents actual high school reunions across the United States. The show originated on the WB network, but moved to TV Land after three seasons.

Graduates reunite on High School Reunion.

High School Reunion Show Format

High School Reunion features old classmates reuniting, with interview clips and actual footage from the reunion events. The show labels some of the people that are featured, with titles such as:

Class Clown
The Bully
The Girl Next Door
The Drama Queen
The Gossip
The Rebel

The program airs like a documentary, but of course this is reality TV so the focus is on the drama that ensues when old high school secrets and emotions come back to haunt the people attending the reunion.

During most seasons, the reunions are held at a resort where the guests stay and attend various events and parties. One of these events is a prom, and includes all of the trappings of an actual high school prom.

Differences Between Networks

During the first three seasons when the High School Reunion show aired on the WB, the classes reuniting had graduated ten years earlier. Many of them had married, divorced, had children, and started on their career paths after finishing college. Leftover emotions and attachments from high school were still rather raw for a lot of the attendees.

When the show moved to TV Land, the target audience for this network was slightly older, since this network specializes in re-airing older programs and sitcoms. The graduating classes reuniting on High School Reunion were suddenly from twenty years ago.

The difference in age groups between the two series is interesting, because now those attending the reunions have more life experience behind them and have settled in to their lives post-graduation. Their memories and feelings from their teen years were just a little more muddled, causing some misunderstandings and confusion.

Coercion from the Crew

Though the show's production staff claims that all of the footage is raw and none of the people on the show are coerced to say or do things, it does seem that many of them are at least prodded toward their actions.

Often you'll see someone like the class "geek" try to hit on the prom queen, as he repeatedly tells the cameras that he never would have done this back in high school. This will come after he's already admitted that he's had a crush on this girl forever, and always wanted to approach her.

Other times, both men and women will talk of their high school boyfriends and girlfriends, and once the alcohol starts flowing, viewers get tearful admissions of cheating or still being in love. It seems very obvious to some viewers that these people are being led by a line of questioning that will reveal their secrets.

Drama, Fights, and Hookups

When you put a group of people who experienced the highs and lows of their high school days together again after ten or twenty years, you can expect the drama to begin almost immediately. High School Reunion delivers this drama in a big way.

Some of the emotionally charged moments shown on the program have included:

Former best friends giving each other the cold shoulder, only to erupt into arguing later.
Sensitive people deciding that the drama is too much for them, and returning home.
Secrets and vitriol being spewed out when too much alcohol has been consumed.
In one season, a woman accused her former best friend of being a prostitute.
High school sweethearts who married and then split up relive their courtship years, and sometimes reveal affairs.

It can be interesting to watch as some of these people struggle to come to terms with old feelings from their pasts as they try to look forward to the lives they've built since graduation.