‘NYC Prep’ peeks inside the world of rich kids

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‘In the ’80s, wealthy was very bad’
The perceived glamour, bratty entitlement and over-the-top spending habits of The Young And The Privileged have long been explored in American pop culture and a fascination for those who consume it. From “Pretty in Pink” to “Clueless” to “Gossip Girl,” moneyed youth appear to wield all the power, popularity and seduction techniques.

Frequently, rich kids on TV and the big screen are initially cast in a negative light, by turns glamorized, parodied and pilloried. Sometimes, such as James Spader in “Pretty in Pink,” they are shallow jerks who eventually get brought down; the well-to-do white knight (in the angelic form of Andrew McCarthy) rescues Molly Ringwald, the misfit from the wrong side of the tracks.

“In the ’80s, wealthy was very bad. If you were a ‘Richie,’ especially in the John Hughes films, you were evil,” says Timothy Shary, a professor of film studies at the University of Oklahoma and author of the book “Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema.”

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As Shary sees it, 1990s-era movies and TV shows were generally more accepting of upper-middle-class teens. See: “Clueless,” “Beverly Hills, 90210” and even “Saved by the Bell.” These days, in this recession, the tides are seeming to rise against “the corruption of wealth” in shows about or targeted at young people, Shary said.

In the CW’s “Gossip Girl,” the uber-corrupt, mega-rich bad boy happens to be the fan favorite. He is Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), a seemingly soulless playboy who masks a soft heart. Viewers love to love him, despite his villain qualities (like sleeping with his best friend’s girl).

“It’s just easier to portray them as snobs ... buying cars, cool cars, driving around, getting all the girls they want, doing a ton of drugs, partying,” Oppenheim says. “It’s just an easy way to create, like, a really cool fictional character.”

Not train-wreck TV
On reality TV, these “characters” often translate to glossy escapism amid a fragile economy. Programs such as “Prep,” “The Hills” and “The Real Housewives” franchise — showing teens and adults behaving like them — give vicarious thrills, while teaching the time-honored lesson: Money doesn’t buy happiness.

These shows provide “psychological comfort to say, ‘I may not have the personal shopper at Barneys or the most expensive bag or ... the $4 million apartment on the Upper East Side, but I’m better,”’ says Anna David, a reality TV expert and author who is writing an anthology of the genre. “I’m better off. I’m happier. I’m a better person than they are.”

At least from the outset, “Prep” isn’t train-wreck TV. The kids seem eerily confident and self-aware. Although Bravo has marketed the show as a real-life “Gossip Girl,” they dis the popular book-and-TV franchise as fiction; but they’re content to demonstrate how the other half really lives.

“We have nothing to do with ‘Gossip Girl,”’ says Oppenheim, to which Tomashoff chimes in: “They’re a lot older than us.”

Getting fired up, Leavitt adds: “Yeah, they’re like 25, 24! And people are like, ‘Why don’t they look like the people on “Gossip Girl”?’ We’re 18. Sorry!”

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