Degrassi: The Next Generation
| Degrassi: The Next Generation | |
|---|---|
Logo used in seasons 1–5 & 8–9
| |
| Also known as | Degrassi (seasons 10–14) |
| Genre | Teen drama |
| Created by | Yan Moore Linda Schuyler |
| Starring | Main Cast |
| Theme music composer | Jody Colero Jim McGrath Stephen Stohn |
| Opening theme | "Whatever It Takes" |
| Composer(s) | Jim McGrath Tim Welch |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 14 |
| No. of episodes | 387 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Linda Schuyler Stephen Stohn Brendon Yorke |
| Producer(s) | David Lowe Stefan Brogren Seyedeh Haerihendi |
| Location(s) | Toronto, Ontario |
| Editor(s) | Gordon Thorne |
| Running time | approx. 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Epitome Pictures DHX Media Bell Media |
| Distributor | Entertainment One (Canada) DHX Media (International) |
| Release | |
| Original network | CTV (2001–09) MuchMusic (2010–13) MTV Canada (2013–15)[1] |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV Season 1–3) 1080i (HDTV Season 4–14) |
| Original release | October 14, 2001 – August 2, 2015 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | School's Out Degrassi High Degrassi Junior High |
| Followed by | Degrassi: Next Class |
| Related shows | The Kids of Degrassi Street Degrassi Talks |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The series was initially created by Linda Schuyler and Yan Moore, and is produced by Epitome Pictures (a subsidiary of DHX Media) in association with Bell Media. The current executive producers are Schuyler, her husband Stephen Stohn and Brendon Yorke. The series is filmed at Epitome's studios in Toronto, Ontario, rather than on the real De Grassi Street from which the franchise takes its name. Degrassi: The Next Generation has been a critical success and has often received favourable reviews from Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times and AfterElton.com. In its initial years, it was frequently the most watched domestic drama series in Canada, and one of the highest-rated shows on TeenNick in the United States. In 2004, one episode received just under a million viewers in Canada, and over half a million viewers in the US. The series has won numerous awards, from the Geminis, Writers Guild of Canada and Directors Guild of Canada, and internationally from the Teen Choice Awards, Young Artist Awards, and Prix Jeunesse.
The series premiered on CTV on October 14, 2001. During the ninth season in 2010, the series moved to MuchMusic. The tenth season marked a change in production style, which saw the series become a telenovela, a daily soap opera-style format, during the summer months, while the rest of the season aired during the standard fall-spring schedule on a weekly basis.[2] The thirteenth season reverted to a weekly schedule and, part way through, moved to MTV Canada. The series has been syndicated on cable television, and episodes are available on DVD and in new media download formats from Puretracks, the iTunes Store, and the Xbox Live Marketplace. Internationally, Degrassi: The Next Generation has been highly successful in the US, where it was broadcast on TeenNick, as well as being broadcast in 140 other countries.
The Next Generation aired its final episode on August 2, 2015, after MTV Canada and TeenNick announced the show's cancellation. However, in January 2016, a sequel series, titled Degrassi: Next Class, was announced for broadcast on Family Channel in Canada and streaming on Netflix in the United States as well as all other countries where the service is available (excluding Australia, France, and Canada until later 2016).
Contents
[hide]Production[edit]
Concept[edit]
The Degrassi universe was created in 1979 by Playing With Time, a production company owned by former school teacher Linda Schuyler and her partner Kit Hood. The franchise began with The Kids of Degrassi Street, which was spawned out of three half-hour short films. Degrassi Junior High followed in 1987, Degrassi High premiered in 1989, and the television movie School's Out aired in 1992.[3]Schuyler and original Degrassi series head writer Yan Moore began developing a new television drama in 1999. As the months progressed, they began to think about what had happened to the characters of Degrassi High to develop a school-reunion theme. However, they decided that a series would not work effectively if based around adults instead of children. Moore realized that the character Emma Nelson, born at the end of Degrassi Junior High's second season, would soon be entering junior high school, and development for the series took a new direction by focusing on Emma and her school experiences.[4][5]
Schuyler's husband Stephen Stohn suggested Degrassi: The Next Generation as the name for the new sequel series, borrowing the concept from Star Trek: The Next Generation, of which he was a fan.[6] The project was pitched to CTV in May 2000, with the originally planned reunion episode serving as the pilot to the new series.[5]
Executive producers, script-writers and directors[edit]
Produced by Epitome Pictures Inc, in association with CTVglobemedia, renamed Bell Media in 2011, Degrassi receives funding from Canadian Television Fund and BCE[7] the Shaw Rocket Fund,[8] Mountain Cable Program and the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund,[9] and the Cogeco Program Development Fund.[10]Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn have served as executive producers since the series began. Other Epitome Pictures employees and series crew members have also been credited with the title, including Sara Snow, Brendon Yorke, James Hurst, Aaron Martin,[11] and Sarah Glinski.
Sarah Glinski and Matt Huether are the current story editors, a position previously filled by Shelley Scarrow, James Hurst, Aaron Martin, and Sean Reycraft. Frequent directors include Phil Earnshaw, Stefan Scaini and Bruce McDonald.[11] When production of season three began, a user on the official Degrassi: The Next Generation website with the alias "ExecProducer" began a forum thread titled "Shooting Season 3",[12] revealing production details, guest actors, scheduling information and DVD release details. He referred to himself as "Stephen Stohn" in one post, although it was not until the release of Degrassi: Generations - The Official 411 in 2005, that Stohn confirmed he was the poster and it was not an imposter.[13]
Episode format[edit]
 |
Due to falling viewing figures between seasons six and nine,[17][18] the series developed a daily soap opera format for the summer run of the tenth season, and increased the number of episodes to forty-four.[19][20] The tenth season also dropped the tagline "The Next Generation", with only one original cast member remaining, and due to the young audience unfamiliar with the past generation, referring to the series as "Degrassi". Season 13 reverted to airing episodes weekly, but still produced more episodes than prior to the soap opera format, airing a block in the summer of 2013 and also the summer of 2014.
Opening sequence[edit]
The Degrassi opening sequence follows a two- to three-minute cold open. During the first five seasons these credits showed the characters on the school premises and followed a mini storyline.[21] Seasons six and seven featured titles with the actors breaking the fourth wall and facing the camera, over a montage of character videos from past seasons, saturated with blue colour and gold outlines.[22] The montages behind the characters depicting a major event in that character's storyline. For the eighth season, the show abandoned the style of titles used for the previous two seasons and returned to the original form of showing the characters at school while participating in school-related activities.[23] Season thirteen dropped the opening credits, replacing it with an eleven-second montage. This continued into season fourteen. Instead of listing every ensemble actor, after the montage, season thirteen and fourteen episodes credit only the regular actors appearing in that episode.
The theme music, "Whatever It Takes", was composed by Jim McGrath, with lyrics written by Jody Colero and Stephen Stohn. The song include lines such as, "Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through/Be the best, the best I can be", to convey what Colero calls, "a sense of joy and optimism."[24] Lisa Dalbello performed the lyrics with a children's choir over an 1980s pop music style tune during the first three seasons.[24] Dave Ogilvie and Anthony Valcic of Canadian industrial-pop group Jakalope reworked and performed the song with a heavier sound, reflecting the growing maturity of the characters in season four.[24] For seasons six and seven, the theme—still performed by Jakalope—was remixed and stripped of vocals.[25] A fourth version of the theme song, with lyrics sung by Damhnait Doyle, was introduced for the eighth season, and a fifth version of the theme, performed by the in-show band "Stüdz" is used for the ninth and tenth seasons. For seasons eleven and twelve, a sixth version of the theme song is used, performed by Alexz Johnson.[26] Seasons thirteen and fourteen featured a truncated version of the Alexz Johnson theme.
Music[edit]
Jim McGrath creates the musical score for each episode using an instrumental version of the theme music. He also works with actors such as Jake Epstein, Melissa McIntyre and Jamie Johnston, when writing music for their characters Craig Manning, Ashley Kerwin, and Peter Stone to perform in the bands Downtown Sasquatch, Paige Michalchuk and the Sexkittens (PMS), Hell Hath No Fury, and Stüdz.[27][28][29] In addition to being scored, Degrassi features a mix of original emo, alternative rock and pop music. Popular songs are used sparingly in the series, mainly because of budget constraints. Usually, music supervisor Jody Colero selects songs from little-known, unsigned Canadian artists.[24] When these songs are included, they originate from a diegetic source. Examples of this can be seen in the first-season episode "Jagged Little Pill", when well-known songs are played during Ashley's house party, at the wedding reception in the fifth-season episode "Weddings, Parties, Anything", and during the party scene in the seventh-season episode "Everything She Wants".[30][31][32]Filming locations[edit]
The Degrassi universe is set on De Grassi Street in Toronto, Ontario. The four previous series were filmed on and near the street.[33] However, Degrassi is filmed at Epitome Pictures' four soundstages and backlot located at the company's 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) production studios in Toronto.[34] The facade of Degrassi Community School is the exterior of Studio C, and uses the same colours and glass pattern as Centennial College, which was used to depict the school during Degrassi High. The area in front of this facade features a "hoarding area" where students gather, a street, and a bus stop across the road.[34] The studio's backlot is used for exterior shots of the characters' houses, which is one unit dressed differently for each house, and The Dot Grill.[35] The building for The Dot is the only one on the backlot large enough to allow filming inside; scenes taking places inside the school and house interiors are filmed on one of four sound stages.[34]Studio A contains sets for the school's hallways, washrooms, cafeteria and classrooms.[34] The hallways are stenciled with phrases such as "the perfect human being is all human", which were found at the Etobicoke School for the Arts, one of the many schools that set designers used during their original research. The washroom set has graffiti on the walls to look authentic, and is used for the girls' and boys' room; urinals are installed and removed as needed. The set used for the cafeteria is "purposefully bland to take the edge off the rest of the school looking so beautiful."[36] It is also used as the studio's cafeteria where the cast and crew eat.[36]
In addition to being used as the exterior of the school, Studio C holds sets for the school's entrance foyer, the gymnasium, the media lab and a hallway with lockers.[34] As the series progressed and the budget increased, a stairway and balcony was installed in the foyer in an attempt to get characters off the floor and not all appear in the same geometric plane. For the first few seasons, the gym floor was made of real wooden floorboards; due to warping, it was replaced by concrete painted to look like wood.[37]
Studio B contains the sets for the characters' houses and The Core newspaper office which was introduced in season six. It also held sets for Instant Star, another Epitome Pictures production. The fourth studio, Studio D, houses all the production offices, dressing rooms, and make-up and hair departments. The pool hall and university campus club sets were built in Studio D for the seventh season.[34]
York University's Keele Campus in Toronto served as the location for various sites at Smithdale University.[38]
Episodes[edit]
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 15 | October 14, 2001 | March 3, 2002 | |
| 2 | 22 | September 29, 2002 | February 23, 2003 | |
| 3 | 22 | September 17, 2003 | April 5, 2004 | |
| 4 | 22 | September 7, 2004 | February 14, 2005 | |
| 5 | 19 | September 19, 2005 | March 20, 2006 | |
| 6 | 19 | September 29, 2006 | May 14, 2007 | |
| 7 | 24 | October 5, 2007 | June 23, 2008 | |
| 8 | 22 | October 5, 2008 | August 14, 2009 | |
| 9 | 23 | October 4, 2009 | July 16, 2010 | |
| 10 | 44 | July 19, 2010 | April 22, 2011 | |
| 11 | 45 | July 18, 2011 | May 18, 2012 | |
| 12 | 40 | July 16, 2012 | June 21, 2013 | |
| 13 | 40 | July 11, 2013 | July 29, 2014 | |
| 14 | 28 | October 28, 2014 | August 2, 2015 | |
Cast[edit]
Main roles[edit]
Main[edit]
For the new generation of students, producers auditioned over six hundred school-aged children in an attempt to provide characters to which the teenaged target-audience could relate.[39] The decision to cast age-similar actors was purposeful to contrast the series from other shows of the same period such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek, which had cast actors in their twenties as teenagers.[40]Eleven children were given star billing in the first season. Sarah Barrable-Tishauer portrayed the lonely high-achiever Liberty Van Zandt.[40] Daniel Clark played bad-boy Sean Cameron.[41] Lauren Collins was cast as Paige Michalchuk, the school's head cheerleader and queen bee. Ryan Cooley portrayed class clown James Tiberius "J.T." Yorke,[42] with Jake Goldsbie cast as J.T.'s best friend, Toby Isaacs, a computer geek.[42] Aubrey "Drake" Graham portrayed basketball star Jimmy Brooks, who is from a wealthy family. Shane Kippel played school bully Gavin "Spinner" Mason. Miriam McDonald was cast as Emma Nelson, an environmental rights activist, with Cassie Steele cast in the role of Emma's best friend, Manuela "Manny" Santos.[42] Melissa McIntyre portrayed Ashley Kerwin, the perfect girl who attracts the popular boys, and who the other girls are jealous of.[43] Christina Schmidt portrayed the overweight and insecure Terri McGreggor.[44][45]
Providing ties to the previous series in the Degrassi universe, Stefan Brogren was approached to play his old character Archie "Snake" Simpson, now working at the school as the media immersion teacher.[46] Dan Woods reprised his role as English teacher Mr. Raditch, now promoted to school principal,[47] and Pat Mastroianni returned to his role as Joey Jeremiah.[48] Amanda Stepto also returned to the franchise to play her character Christine "Spike" Nelson in a recurring role.[49][50][51]
In the pilot episode, former Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High actors Danah Jean Brown (Trish Skye), Darrin Brown (Dwayne Myers), Michael Carry (Simon Dexter), Irene Courakos (Alexa Pappadopoulos), Chrissa Erodotou (Diana Economopoulos), Anais Granofsky (Lucy Fernandez), Rebecca Haines (Kathleen Mead), Sarah Holmes (Alison Hunter), Neil Hope (Derek "Wheels" Wheeler), Kyra Levy (Maya Goldberg), Cathy Keenan (Liz O'Rourke), Stacie Mistysyn (Caitlin Ryan), and Siluck Saysanasy (Yick Yu) reprised their roles for the class reunion storyline.[52]
In season two, Mastroianni returned to the Degrassi franchise in a starring role as Joey Jeremiah, a car salesman and single father of two children.[53][54] Joey's stepson, musician Craig Manning, played by Jake Epstein, is a new student at Degrassi Community School.[55] Three other new characters were introduced in season two in recurring roles. Stacey Farber played Ellie Nash, a goth whose home life is in turmoil,[56] and Adamo Ruggiero portrayed Marco Del Rossi, who is struggling to accept the reality that he is gay.[57] Melissa Di Marco was cast as science and gym teacher Daphne Hatzilakos.[58] Mistysyn also returned to her former Degrassi role as Joey's ex-high school sweetheart, Caitlyn Ryan, who in the years following graduation has become a world-renowned journalist.[56]
In season three, Farber, Ruggiero and Mistysyn were given regular roles, as were Andrea Lewis (Hazel Aden) and Stepto, who had held recurring roles since the first season. Mike Lobel (Jay Hogart), Deanna Casaluce (Alex Nuñez), Ephraim Ellis (Rick Murray) and John Bregar (Dylan Michalchuk) were introduced in recurring roles as new students. Towards the end of the season, Schmidt's character, Terri McGreggor, was written out of the show when her possessive boyfriend Rick pushed her to the ground and knocked her head against a rock, causing her to fall into a coma.[59]
Some of the cast of season eight make an appearance at the eTalk Festival Party during the Toronto International Film Festival
As of season 10, none of the characters from the earlier seasons remain, with the exception of Brogren, whose character has been promoted to the principal of Degrassi Community School; the series now centres on the new generation of Degrassi students.
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