2. How to watch YA 

Young Americans (YA) has not been re-broadcast or streamed in the U.S.A. since its first broadcast on The WB network in July and August 2000.  Between late 2000 and 2006, YA was broadcast in diverse other countries, usually with dubbing or subtitles.  Several of these later non-U.S. broadcasts of YA included footage omitted from the drama as aired in the U.S.A. during the summer of 2000.  However, YA seems not to have been broadcast or streamed anywhere in the world since 2006.

Moreover, no authorized videotape, DVD or streaming recording of Young Americans has even been released.

YA, produced in 2000 by Columbia Tri-Star in conjunction with Mandalay Television, apparently is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment through its subsidiary, Sony Pictures Television, the name to which "Columbia Tri-Star" was changed in 2002.  

Inasmuch as YA was a first or second major-part acting gig for six subsequently successful television and film actors -- Kate Bosworth,  Katherine Moennig, Michelle Monaghan, Matt Czuchry, Charlie Hunnam and Ian Somerhalder -- why Sony has never released any recording of YA has puzzled many of those actors' fans. 

It has been plausibly albeit not authoritatively suggested that Sony's never having released any recording YA is due to:  (a) the presence in YA's soundtrack of several songs by Nick Drake (died 1974) that were cheap in 2000, when Drake was widely forgotten, but became far more costly after a Nick Drake revival that began in 2001; and (b) the exclusion, from Sony's right to use Nick Drake songs in YA, of the right to use those songs in recordings of YA, per a common practice of entertainment law.  

Because no authorized recording of YA has ever been released, all extant recordings of YA as broadcast derive from viewer recordings of television broadcasts made between 2000 and (apparently) 2006.  During those six years, the quality of home devices for recording TV broadcasts improved markedly; the resolution of their recordings improved from a standard of 240 pixels (240p) in 2000 to 480p, and then to 720p.  

For appreciating Young Americans, good visual quality is important, for two reasons.  

First, YA, as mentioned earlier in this section, relies to an unusual extent on visual imagery that often surreally conveys meaning and tells a story distinct from and in some respects inconsistent with what is conveyed by its words alone.  

Second, as YA's creator, Steven Antin has stated publicly (in press interviews transcribed in this site's "Antin on YA" section), great pains were taken to make YA stunningly beautiful.  YA uses visual and soundtrack beauty to seduce the viewer into a dream of emotional perfection, of "exceeding expectations" by loving more truly. 

YA was originally aired in 480 pixel resolution, and copies in lower resolution miss much of both its visually-conveyed message and its beauty.

This section, "How to watch YA," contains three subsections:

• Its "YA in low resolution" subsection gives access to online resources for watching online or downloading copies of 240p viewer recordings of YA as originally broadcast in English in the USA on The WB in July and August 2000.

• This section's "YA in high resolution" subsection gives access to online resources for watching online or downloading: 

  • 480p viewer recordings of YA as broadcast in Spain with grating Spanish dubbing by TeleMadrid in 2001; 

  • 720p viewer recordings of YA as broadcast in France with excellent French dubbing on M6 in 2001 and 2005-06; and 

  • 1080p whole-episode files of YA in English made using a video editor to combine the video of 720p viewer recordings of YA as broadcast in France in 2001 and 2005 with the audio of YA as broadcast in English in the USA in the summer of 2000, with English subtitling of footage broadcast in France but not in the USA. 

• This section's "Unaired pilot episode, cut scene and promos" subsection gives access to online resources for watching online or downloading:

  • A low-resolution (240p) copy of the never-broadcast pilot episode of YA filmed in and around Decatur, Georgia, in the autumn of 1999, some scenes of which were used in episode 1 of YA as broadcast, but most of which has never been broadcast;

  • Footage of a scene cut from all broadcasts of episode 5 of YA that was first released in a TV Guide documentary in 2010, with English subtitling from YA's production scripts, transcribed in the "Material Cut" subsection of this site's "Scripts of YA" section; and

  • Around two dozen short videos made by The WB (not by Antin or others involved in producing YA) and broadcast on The WB to promote YA to WB viewers during the spring and summer of 2000.

"Fair use" claim:

No authorized recording or streaming of YA has ever been offered for sale.  If any authorized recording or streaming of YA were available for purchase, this site, "Rawley Revisited," would tell readers how to purchase it; this site would neither provide a link to any other site where copies of viewer recordings of YA can be viewed or downloaded, nor make copies of viewer recordings of YA available for downloading.   

Moreover, YA seems not to have been broadcast or streamed anywhere in the world since 2006.  If YA were often broadcast or streamed, this site would urge readers to watch its next broadcast or streaming; this site would neither provide a link to any other site where copies of viewer recordings of YA can be viewed or downloaded, nor make copies of viewer recordings of YA available for downloading.

This site, "Rawley Revisited," seeks, without monetary or material compensation, to enhance appreciation of YA as a work of dramatic art, which is possible only if is possible to watch YA.  In the absence of any authorized recording or streaming or recent or expected future broadcast or streaming of YA, this site's posting of viewer recordings of YA and of links to other postings of viewer recordings of YA seems consistent with U.S. Code 17-107, which specifically permits as "fair use" the reproduction of copyrighted material "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research." 

The photo at the top of this page is of Wickcliffe Castle, the oldest building of Maryvale Preparatory School, a Catholic girls' school in Lutherville, Maryland, a northern suburb of Baltimore.   The exterior and grounds of Wickcliffe Castle were used for exterior and  grounds of Rawley Academy for Girls in filming episode 5 of Young Americans in 2000.  

Ichabod Grubb

First posted November 2010

Last updated March 2024