At 30, the biggest teen drama on TV is still as wonderful as you remember

Almost every episode of Welcome to life began with the same ecstatic image: Claire Danes, the show's then-teenage star, racing into frame, her beaming face framed by a red streak of freshly dyed hair. This was the opening credits scene, an elegantly assembled montage of moments from the series, set to the melodic alt-rock strum of WG Snuffy Walden's original theme. But there's a whole world of emotion packed into those first few seconds, that expressive sprint through the parking lot. It was the show in miniature: a haze of emotion as beautiful and fleeting as puberty itself.

Transience is a key to Welcome to life's enduring cult legacy. The series premiered on ABC in late summer 1994 and ran for just a single season, which ran to critical acclaim and modest ratings. Three decades later (last weekend was the 30th anniversary of its premiere), it remains perhaps the most unfortunate victim of network shortsightedness. Tragically, it was canceled at the height of its primetime tenure and promptly gained a reputation as something too sensitive and intelligent for television – a teen drama that was ahead of its time and unappreciated during that same time. You watch it today and still can't believe no one wants to see more of it.

Set in a fictional Pittsburgh suburb, the series follows Angela Chase, a teenager who must navigate the tribulations of high school, friendship, hormones, peer pressure and more. Creator Winnie Holzman, who worked on Wonderful years (another smart coming of age show) and who would write later Evilobserved real classrooms to get a feel for how real children spoke and interacted. This research found Welcome to life a jolt of naturalism. By removing both the soapy artificiality of Beverly Hills, 90210 and the equally false innocence of ABC's Afterschool Specials, Holzman tried to portray teenage life as it was – exciting, yes, but also painful, disappointing and embarrassing, depending on the day.

Danes was really 15 — and really in high school — when she landed the lead role. She delivers one of the most remarkably candid and unaffected child performances ever, effortlessly capturing all the heightened emotions of adolescence, when joy and sorrow are always just a breath (or a faux pas) away from each other. Angela's voiceover narration, which Holzman originally wrote as verbatim diary entries, strikes a perfect balance between naivety and a certain budding wisdom. She's a smart kid who's confused, like everyone that age. In the pilot episode, she confesses her jealousy of Anne Frank in one breath (because what teenage girl wouldn't dream of being locked up with her crush?) and shares a disarming insight about the burden of identity in the next.

Nobody on Welcome to life was a stereotype. Not Rayanne Graff (AJ Langer), the impulsive, secretly insecure cool kid Angela finds herself attracted to at the start of her sophomore year. Not pretty, popular Sharon Cherski (Devon Odessa), the former best friend our heroine abruptly distances herself from for reasons neither of them fully understands. Not Brian Krakow (Devon Gummersall), the bookish neighbor who transparently hides his unspoken infatuation with Angela behind a mask of defensive petulance. Not even Jordan Catalano, Angela's ardent but often thoughtless crush, played by a young Jared Leto. Today, it's fun to joke that this emotionally limited dream guy is the closest Leto came to himself on screen, but there's a reason that portrayal made him a star. He gave Jordan just enough touches of hidden depth to make us, like Angela, wonder if there's more to him.

And who could forget Rickie Vasquez (Wilson Cruz), Rayanne's sensitive and eternally worried best friend? In the last episode of My so-called Lifehe was the first openly gay character on network television. The show has struck a balance with this groundbreaking element, increasingly treating Rickie's sexuality as no big deal – none of the other characters have latched onto it – while also acknowledging the homophobic abuse that kids like him all too often endure. Welcome to life The show tackled many serious social issues, from teenage alcohol abuse to body image issues to gun violence in schools (and this was five years before Columbine). But the show was rarely didactic about these issues, instead weaving them into the lives of its characters and its vivid portrait of American youth.

Welcome to life also took great care of Angela’s parents – her Desires and insecurities. This was partly a decision made out of necessity: Because of her age, Danes could only be on set for a certain number of hours, forcing Holzman to fill the episodes with the parallel, complementary drama about the marriage of her parents, Patty (Bess Armstrong) and Graham (Tom Irwin). Anyone who grew up with the show might be surprised upon rewatching how much it is also a thoughtful, mature and complicated story of a midlife crisis, aka adolescence reboot. The old adage that high school is an audition for the social obstacles of adulthood plays out over the course of the season for these two stressed-out forty-somethings. Whether they're really suited to each other becomes as pressing a question as Angela's budding love life.

The show wasn't perfect. Sometimes it fell a little too far into cheesy young adult mysticism, giving Angela ghost visions on Halloween and Christmas. And sometimes a show that began with an acknowledgement of the friendship-destroying rupture caused by shifting social circles – and that's what really separates Angela and Sharon – was too believable because it blurred the boundaries of those circles. Here and there it seemed like a weekly version of The Breakfast Clubwhere Holzman's own clever Brian could connect with her answer to Bender or Allison or Claire when needed. But maybe that was just a reflection of how much Welcome to life loved its characters. It was unwilling to turn any of them – not even Jordan – into a one-dimensional villain.

The series was truly cross-generational. It spoke to a whole spectrum of age groups and spread empathy in all directions. Parents were able to gain valuable insight into what their children were going through – inside and outside the classroom. Teenagers were able to gain more understanding of their parents' lives. Even Angela's sister Danielle (Lisa Wilhoit), who is still in elementary school, gets a platform. One of the last episodes opens a voiceover window into her Thought process – a gift for younger viewers, for the Welcome to life was largely a pipe dream, a preview of what might await her in the years to come.

Over the course of 19 episodes, the series built a loyal following. It is said to have been the first television series to inspire an Internet campaign by fans hoping to save it from being cancelled. Their support was not enough. Neither was the tireless proselytizing of television critics or award shows (such as the Golden Globes, where Danes won Best Actress). In the fight against the sitcom disaster that was Friendswhich debuted just a few weeks later, Welcome to life Nilsen's ratings were never high enough to convince ABC that the series had more than just “niche” appeal. Danes's own fear of committing to the grueling filming schedule for a second season also played a role in the network's decision not to renew the series.

But the show found a second life on MTV, which began airing reruns after it was cancelled. One has to wonder if it was just born a little too early. WB and UPN were about to usher in a new era of television aimed at younger viewers. One can say a little of Welcome to life in the subsequent teen dramas, in the soap operas such as Dawson's Creek: The mysterious setting and scarier ones like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Perhaps the show's closest spiritual successor was another much-lamented one-season wonder: Freaks and Geekswhose clearly comedic character could not hide his comparable understanding of growing up.

The last episode of Welcome to lifea moving riff on Cyrano de Bergeracsets up several cliffhangers that remain unresolved forever. We will never know if Angela and Rayanne can mend their broken friendship, if Brian even has a chance with the girl of his dreams, if Graham succumbs to the temptation of marital infidelity. If these so-called lives continued, it was out of our sight.

Maybe there is something right about it after all. Welcome to life never had a chance to lose its appeal or disappoint its fans. As a single excellent season, it remains a self-contained anomaly of network television, untainted by cast departures, a sophomore slump or any other threat to its immortality. And by keeping its characters in the moment, it also keeps them in the amber of endless possibility — the fabled promise of youth that is truly limitless thanks to the omissions of a premature ending. In this way, the show's recurring opening scene, that fleeting glimpse of Angela leaping joyfully onto the screen, feels like a snapshot of eternity. Adolescence, so fleeting in real life, lasts forever here.

Welcome to life is currently streaming on Hulu.