City Guys and Blossom

There was once a series out there (among others, but this one's the best I can think of) that more accurately portrayed what high school life was like - next week, a look at City Guys.
"C-I-T-Y
You can see why
These guys, the neat guys
Smart and street-wise"
City Guys was an after-school show that one might characterize as PSA Hell. While it wasn't preachy, it was real about issues that the more urban set of high school kids had to deal with on a semi-regular basis. It starred Wesley Jonathan as Jamal and Scott Whyte as Chris Anderson (you may remember Wesley from What I Like About You as Gary). It also featured Marcella Lowery as the principal, but Ghostwriter fans may know her better as Grandma Cece. The show has been compared by critics to Saved by the Bell and Boy Meets World, and they would not be incorrect in their analysis.
I don't remember much about it and can't find that much about it online now, but I do remember one episode that resonated with me. It was one about a party, and one of the girls' drinks gets rufied. Her best friend drinks it by accident and collapses, and they take her to the hospital. She's fine, but then the gang has to find out who spiked the drink in the first place.

At first glance you might think it reinforces the "scary world" mindset that some educators use to scare children into behaving, but it is trying to teach them about some of the harsh realities of life without becoming too dark. There were a lot of those shows in the 90s, including Blossom, which starred Joey Lawrence and Mayim Bialik (Amy from The Big Bang Theory). It too covered issues like parental abandonment, alcoholism, and the usual teen stuff covered by most other series of their time, though unlike City Guys it aired in primetime and didn't come off as PSA Hell. While I do remember Clarissa Explains It All a lot better (dang you, Melissa Joan Heart!), what I remember most about Blossom was its theme song "My Opinionation." It seemed much brighter than the tone of the show overall, but I guess it had to be.
"Don't know about the future, that's anybody's guess.
Ain't no good reason for getting all depressed.
Buy up your pad and pencil, I'll give you a piece of my mind,
In my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine.
Stop all your fussin',
Slap on a smile
Come out and walk in the sun for awhile.
Don't fight the feeling, you know you want to have a good time.
And in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine."