The 3 Worst TV Stereotypes of the Week: Celebrating My Clichéd Generation

In this week's "Worst TV Stereotypes of the Week: My Generation Edition," Movieline pays tribute to ABC's most offensive generalizations in its recently canceled mockumentary series before moving onto 30-year-old virgins and self-absorbed homosexuals.

1. The Overachiever, the Brain, the Jock, the Punk, the Beauty Queen, the Rich Kid, the Nerd, the Rock Star, the Wallflower and the Filmmaker (My Generation)

Oh, My Generation, you cornered the stereotype market on television in two brief weeks and for that you have achieved Immortal Stereotype status. Within the first 20 seconds of the pilot, you bravely introduced each character by their generic high school identity as if to prove, "Who cares what the name of this character polishing his BMW is. Let's just call him The Rich Kid." It was a ballsy decision to embrace the fact that you were pigeonholing your characters. The chick with dyed jet black hair, silk screened t-shirt and stud belt was "The Punk." The mousy Asian girl with glasses was "The Wallflower." The good-looking guy in the varsity jacket was "The Jock."

I use the past tense, not because these characters grew up in the ten years since high school graduation to become complex individuals, but because the series was canceled last week.

In two episodes, creator Noah Hawley tried to flesh out each of these characters as best he could but when you only have 43 minutes to develop ten distinct personalities (not to mention the lamest Subway ads ever that advertise each character with inner monologues like "Dad, I'm done paying for your mistake.") the most you can really do is ensure that the high school beauty queen grows up to be beautiful and shallow just before your series is pulled from the air. In other news, the nerd grew up to become an infertile teacher (in surprising contrast to the super-fertile nerds you knew in chem class) and the rock star grew up to become a record producer.

If you really want to see how these stereotypes flourished during their aborted first season, you can purchase the My Generation DVD when it is eventually released. But for me, I'd prefer to remember these ten, distinct characters as the conventional students they were in the pilot.

2. The Self-Absorbed, Society Homosexual (The A-List: New York)

Logo's new "gay housewives" reality series is pioneering a new television stereotype this season. Like the straight Housewives genre on Bravo, A-List's catty houseboys gossip about their frenemies, attend exclusive A-list events, self-promote and exploit their wealth -- all while self-tanning, walking their pocket dogs and being all around fabulous. So far, Movieline's favorite SASH is Derek Lloyd Saathoff, an anorexic-looking model management mogul who boasts about his best friend Lindsay Lohan and dreams about finding a sugar daddy so that he can retire at 27.

3. The Socially Awkward Adult Virgin (Grey's Anatomy

Even after constructing a spooky, Halloween-themed episode around a Treeman (shudder), Shonda Rhimes managed to fit a favorite stereotype, the socially awkward adult virgin, into this week's "Superfreak" (really the name) episode. Meet April Kepner, a self-conscious surgeon who keeps a tear-stained diary, hopelessly pines for a married man, watches Oprah and this week, after constructing a ridiculous first time story about losing her virginity on a beach at sunset, reluctantly admitted that she has not had sex in her 28 years.