The Bedford Diaries is an American dramatelevision series that premiered on March 29, 2006 on The WB and concluded its first season on May 10, 2006. The series was created by Tom Fontana and Julie Martin. This series was canceled on May 18, 2006 after one season. A week prior to its premiere, The WB attempted to build buzz with scenes from the series' pilot posted on their website with more adult material not meant for broadcast, with those scenes edited out for the actual broadcast episode.
Plot
The Bedford Diaries explores the excitement and intensity of New York City college life through the eyes of six students with different backgrounds, experiences and ages, who are brought together in a provocative sexuality seminar. The seminar, which examines the human condition through sexuality, is taught by maverick Professor Jake Macklin, who will challenge and inspire his students as they question their assumptions about their own sexuality, life and identity. The themes include sexual responsibility, manipulation, and the differences between love and sex, passion and abstinence. The students’ innermost thoughts and desires are told through video diaries they make to fulfill their weekly class assignments. Among the students are Sarah Gregory, the Student Government President, poised and assured but vulnerable in love, and her younger brother, Owen Gregory, a freshman pre-med major, who plans to take advantage of all the fun college life has to offer. Natalie Dykstra, a lovely, outgoing and emotional woman, has returned to campus after a suicide attempt. She now struggles with being stereotyped as “the jumper.” Natalie’s ex-boyfriend, Richard Thorne, a former Park Avenuebad boy who turned his life around after Natalie’s jump, is also a member of the class. He’s now clean, sober and works as the college newspaper’s editor, but he’s still tormented by old demons. Lee Hemingway is a scholarship student from Queens with ambitions to become an art historian. Lee has a serious girlfriend, Rachel, but he’s attracted to another scholarship student, Zoe Lopez. Zoe talks a fast and flirty game, but despite her brash veneer, she is still a virgin and struggles with her growing feelings for Lee. The series also stars Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald as Professor Carla Bonatelle, a Political Science professor and head of the Ethics Committee, who regularly clashes with Professor Macklin, as well as with Harold Harper, the fatherly, compassionate and often beleaguered Dean of Students.
