Do You Remember: life as we know it

Back on October 7, 2004, the teen drama life as we know it debuted on ABC. The series, created by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (the guys behind NBC’s The Night Shift) and based on the novel “Doing It” by British writer Melvin Burgess, was set at Woodrow Wilson High School in Seattle, Washington, focusing on three high best friends: Dino Whitman, Ben Connor and Jonathan Fields.

Dino, played by Sean Faris (Pretty Little Liars and the Hallmark Channel movies A Veteran’s Christmas, Christmas With Holly and The Lost Valentine), was a star ice hockey player while Ben, played by Jon Foster (Windfall and Accidentally on Purpose), was a competitive academic and Jonathan, played by Chris Lowell (Veronica Mars, GLOW, Graves and Enlisted), was a “nervous soul.”

The cast also included Missy Peregrym (former Ms. Zachary Levi, and star of Rookie Blue) as Jackie Bradford, Dino’s on-again, off-again girlfriend and school soccer player; Jessica Lucas (Gotham) as Sue Miller, Jackie’s best friend and another very competitive academic and Kelly Osbourne (daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne) as Deborah Tynan, Jonathan’s girlfriend.

Among the adults on the show were D.B. Sweeney (The Cutting Edge), as Dino’s dad Micahel, Lisa Darr (the box office movie This Is 40) as Dino’s mom Annie and Marguerite Moreau (Shameless and Grey’s Anatomy) as Monica Young, the high school teacher who was having an affair with one of her students: Ben.

Among the recurring and guest stars of this one-season TV series included:

Sarah Strange (Garage Sale Mysteries and Aurora Teagarden Mysteries franchises)
Martin Cummings (Riverdale and When Calls the Heart)
Craig Ferguson (TV host)
Meghan Ory (Chesapeake Shores and Once Upon a Time)
Crystal Lowe (Signed Sealed Delivered franchise)
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)
Connie Britton (Nashville, Friday Night Lights and Dirty John)
Jessica Harmon (The 100)
James McDaniel (NYPD Blue)
Busy Philipps (Cougar Town)
Jeffrey Nordling (Proven Innocent, Nashville and Big Little Lies)
Pascale Hutton (Sancturary and When Calls the Heart)
Andrew Francis (Chesapeake Shores)

One of the unique aspects of the show was breaking the “fourth wall” by having characters step out of the scene – which proceeded behind them in slow motion – talking directly to the camera. While the show was set in Seattle, Washington, it was actually filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The show was pulled by ABC during the important November sweeps, but was rerun on MTV in November and December, earning good ratings for the cabler, but was ultimately cancelled by ABC, airing only 11 of its 13 episodes. It ended on January 20, 2005 with the unaired episodes being available on the DVD that was released later in 2005. The show did also air in over 12 countries, including the U.K., Italy, France, Finland and Spain [among others].

You can actually watch the 13 episodes on YouTube here.

Do you remember life as we know it?