#freshtv

(04/23/2025)

Why did they make Damien audition for Total Drama? Are they stupid?

-watched 6teen

-watched stoked

-watched both

-watched neither

Haha, do you see what I did there?

This one is a classic to me, it's 6Teen! From the people who brought you would go on to bring you Total Drama, 6Teen is a show about six 16-year-olds who would hang out at the mall, get jobs, and have all sorts of interpersonal drama. At the end of the day, it was a comedy show, but with plenty of genuine emotional depth and character relationships, which was a theme for many of these FreshTV shows.

This show is so aggressively nostalgic for me. I honestly didn't watch too much of it, but it really stuck in my memory. Being in the UK, and relying on the free channels, my exposure to 6Teen came on a little known channel called PopGirl. I used to watch Pop a lot, or sometimes Kix, even watching some Tiny Pop in my younger days. Now, PopGirl was much more derided in my house, but sometimes, late at night, it would have the best looking lineup to a young Rebbie. It was then that I would check my surroundings before switching over to PopGirl.

6Teen always stuck out as something cool because it was for older kids than I was at the time, which is exactly what it was made for. We wanted more grounded, serious, and dramatic shows, even if we weren't ready for the genuine shows of that nature. It genuinely did a great job at this though, being funny while genuinely addressing some serious topics. 6Teen even had a canonical lesbian who is treated entirely respectfully! It also had a pretty diverse cast, with each cjaracter having different heritages. This show was so cool that 24 episodes were banned or censored in the US.

While I didn't see too much of this one, I really loved what I saw way back when, and I wanted to be just like this with a great friendship group and a cool mall when I was their age. We don't have malls in the same way, especially in as small of a town as I lived in, but I managed the first.

Anyway, let's get to that theme tune!

6Teen Theme Song

The opening guitar of this song is so brilliant, and takes me back instantly to the time period. It's so strong, and goes nicely into the simple guitar with the very 2000s vocals. The genuine emotion in these vocals is so awesome to me, like the 6Teen theme shouldn't go this hard. This guy really gives it his all and I salute him. There's so much energy here that really fits the coming-of-age vibe of the show, and the emotional lyrics compliment this all nicely. This song is genuinely perfect for me, and this may show how much the nostalgia is showing, but it just transports me.

Yet again, I have an alternative version I wanna mention. In the final episode, Brian Melo performs a slowed-down, mellow version of the song to end the show, saying goodbye as the character of Nikki leaves. Firstly, I love this trope more than life itself. Secondly, this version ALSO brings me back wildly to this time perfectly, it just sounds like the late 2000s to early 2010s in music. At least sad music. And I listened to this a lot in that time! I'm not afraid to admit it made me cry multiple times! This is a beautiful version of a great song.

To summarise, I think it's pretty clear that I absolutely adore this song, and there's no way I could give it any less than an S. They distilled a song just for me and put it on a TV intro. I have listened to this endlessly since I was a kid, because I always loved this show and its intro. I also loved its cameo in Total Drama Action, as well as the two shows' many shared voice actors. Easy S. Sorry!

Stay tuned for more and be sure to send in any suggestions for other shows you'd like to see done (after the 500 already in the pipeline that is). Check out the intro to this series here!