From Peep Show to Little Britain: The TV shows turning 20 in 2023

We don’t want to make you feel old but some of your favourite shows growing up have now turned 20.

So many 2003 pop culture programmes will be celebrating their startling 20th anniversaries this year, including well-known teen sensations like The OC and One Tree Hill, and British comedies like Peep Show and Little Britain.

Some shows have even inspired rewatch podcasts.

Here are some of the major programmes that turn 20 in 2023.

Peep Show

Channel 4’s longest-running sitcom launched the careers of Robert Webb, David Mitchell, as well as Olivia Colman.

It painstakingly described the depressing lives of “the El Dude brothers” — naive Jeremy Usbourne, the self-centered layabout half-heartedly seeking a music career, and the stiff Mark Corrigan, the emotionally repressed loan manager.

They live together in a flat in Croydon as they enter middle age and let their mutual anger develop.

Little Britain

Little Britain originally debuted as a typical sketch show. Matt Lucas and David Walliams brought to life a cast of oddballs and grotesques from Britain’s housing estates, community centres, and suburbs, including Dafydd, a gay man who couldn't accept the existence of other gay men in his Welsh village, and caretaker Lou and his chronically lazy carer, Andy.

Both class snobbery and provincialism were mocked throughout the programme.

Last year, the popular comedy series with Matt Lucas and David Walliams was taken off BBC iPlayer but it is now back on the streaming platform after a number of edits to “better reflect the cultural landscape” of today.

The use of blackface in several of the sketches had drawn criticism, particularly in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

The O.C.

The Fox drama, which ran for four seasons between 2003 and 2007, was centred on McKenzie’s Ryan, who must adjust to life in Newport Beach after being taken in by lawyer Sandy and his family. It launched the careers of many of its young actors, including Mischa Barton.

Ben McKenzie, Rachel Bilson, and Melinda Clarke paid tribute to the Josh Schwartz-created series on Instagram to mark the 20th anniversary of the teen drama.

NCIS

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the main federal law-enforcement organisation of the US Department of the Navy, is the setting for the fictional Major Case Response Team of Special Agents from the series. The US Navy, US Marine Corps, and their families are the subject of its criminal investigations.

The show first premiered on September 23, 2003 and is still running in 2023.

One Tree Hill

The primary plot of the first few seasons of the drama, which takes place in the made-up coastal town of Tree Hill in North Carolina, concerns the friendship that develops between Lucas and Nathan Scott, two half-brothers who initially oppose one another but later become close. From September 23, 2003, until April 4, 2012, it ran for nine seasons.

That’s So Raven

That's So Raven on the Disney Channel adds some intrigue by focusing on a lead character with psychic skills who can predict the future. These ideas are typically reserved for drama, science fiction, and supernatural programmes, yet the sitcom manages to pull it off.

It was an unforgettable show for adults who grew up on Disney.

Arrested Development

The Bluths are a formerly affluent dysfunctional family that are the subject of Arrested Development. With handheld camera work, voice-over narration, old images, historical video, and a tonne of running jokes and catchphrases, it is presented in a serialised style.

The show’s omniscient narrator and executive producer, Ron Howard, also makes cameo appearances as a fictionalised version of himself in later seasons.

The programme will be available on Netflix until 2026, as opposed to its original March 2023 removal date.