Degrassi: The Next Generation

[Eric83]

Charlotte Arnold is the actress who plays Holly J.

[lovely_m]

I loved Naturally Sadie when it showed on the Disney Channel! I have the unpopular opinion of liking it better in season 1 than season 2; hated it when they practically changed everything that made Sadie unique.

[All My Shadows]

That show aired on Disney for such a short time. I think they picked up at the same they started airing Life with Derek, which I flove and will watch any time it's on because I just love it so much.

Speaking of LWD,

.

[Eric83]

I am excited for the character AMS mentioned in their previous post.

Im just excited for the new season period. Also for the first time, the show will be simulcast in Canada and America, at least for the summer episodes.

I also read that the show was being moved from CTV to some channel called MuchMusic, it must be pulling some horrible ratings up north Hope that doesnt mean the show will be cancelled anytime soon, it still has lots of potential, either way I think TeenNick would try to save it because Degrassi is the only "original" programming they have left.

[Bright Eyes]

Some channel called MuchMusic? You don't know what Much is?

[Eric83]

I have heard it, but as far as I knew it was only in Canada, so yeah don't know much about it.

[Bright Eyes]

Aren't you Canadian?

[All My Shadows]

Much is basically MTV, Eh?

I think TPTB of DTNG swapped their concerns in regards to Canada and the US a long time ago when they realized how wildly popular the show is/was here among tweens and teens. Back when The N would air all kinds of specials based on the show. Countdowns, documentaries, retrospectives, etc. And the occasional "every episode ever" marathon. Doing "every episode ever" now would take nearly four days 24/7, yet back in those days, like twelve hours a night for three nights in a row.

[Bright Eyes]

I like that you bring up how popular Degrassi is in the US, because here it has always been something to be ashamed of, if you liked it. At least where I come from.

Well, for a long time, Much Music was LEAPS and BOUNDS better than MTV in every way possible. Our VJ's were better, our shows were better etc ... But now that Much has, like MTV, stopped playing Music, given any free music time to the tweens and had all the interesting, popular and fun VJ's leave, it's just a shameless pile of crap.

Long live Rick 'The Temp' Campanelli, Rachel Perry, Bradford How, Ed the Sock (who Conan O'Brien terribly and embarrassingly ripped off) Master P, Sook Yin Lee, Amanda Walsh and George Stroumboulopoulos!

[SFK]

I'm also a grown ass man who's got a love for this show. SFK and his other half fell hard for this show and we are now fanatics. By no choice of our own we've done a lot of skipping around and we're not doing that anymore, just relying on the dvds because after we watched the original series we look at Joey, Caitlin, Snake, and Spike in SUCH a different light, watching the first few seasons of TNG over again has been like watching a whole 'nother show. I did catch some of the newer stuff not too long ago though, the nerd girl with the glasses who's with the guy who's got the Justin Bieber haircut and the kid who wants to be de-gayed. I think Spinner is the only TNG original who is still around, right? Are Emma, Manny, and Liberty still on?

[Eric83]

Nope. I'm from the States, Georgia to be exact.

Liberty left in Season 8. Emma and Manny were on Season 9, but Cassie Steele (Manny) said on her twitter (or Facebook, can't remember) that she was done with Degrassi. There hasn't been any word on Miriam McDonald (Emma), but she will most likely be gone too.

[All My Shadows]

The thing with Degrassi here, though, is that The N, especially in its earlier years when it was splitting time with Noggin, is pretty much a digital cable only channel. Many people had digital, but most did not, so it's not like we watched Degrassi and then ran to school and everybody was talking about it on Monday morning. I remember there were like four or five other kids that I used to talk about the show with. Everyone else was completely clueless. More people started to get digital, and I think that helped, and then it was syndicated to local stations and MTV was airing it for a couple of months too, so now most people in the 18-22 age range are at least familiar with the characters and what it's about, etc. It's not really looked down on, just treated the same way as your OCs and OTHs and Gossip Girls, so on and so forth.

I will say this, though. Now that.....ahem..........(lowers self) Drake.........is famous, I'm surprised at how many people look at him and say, "Uh...yeah, his name is Jimmy and he needs to sit down because he's paralyzed."

Nerd girl is Clare, and she's usually boring as hell. She gets a little fire in her sometimes, like in a recent episode where Bieber haircut (KC) asked her to help him cheat on a test, even though he basically dumped her for a skank named Jenna. Lame kids.

The kid who wants to be de-gayed is Riley, but he's more or less embraced his sexuality now. In the same episode as above, he got the balls to ask out a guy from his yoga class that he has a little crush on.

Emma and Manny are technically still "regulars" because they're credited in the opening, but nah, they're just glorified "special guest stars" now. They tried to follow those characters to college last season (including Liberty), but they've ditched them this season. Actually, I'm pretty positive that Emma's only appeared in one episode throughout all of season nine, and I don't think Manny's appeared at all. Emma's boyfriend from college, Kelly, appeared once too.

Really, I was once against the changing of the guard, but now it's kinda ridiculous. There's absolutely no point in them still having Cassie and Miriam come in to shoot opening credits stuff if they're not even gonna be on the show anymore. It feels like TPTB are trying to say "Hey, it's still the same show, see, we still have Manny and Emma. And Spinner on the drums!" As popular as those characters are/were, the show was always based squarely around the school, to the point where major characters' parents were only guest stars once or twice a season, if that. They've developed most of their major players now (Holly J and co.) that they really don't need to cling to the old days anymore.

Edited May 22, 2010 by All My Shadows

[Eric83]

Manny was in one episode in Season 9, it was the one where Jane was tempted to cheat on Spinner with Declan. Don't remember the episode title.

And this website is hilarious.

Edited May 22, 2010 by Eric83

[SFK]

Thanks for the updates! I did catch the ep where Emma and that guy got busted for pot in the dorm. Emma is an interesting looking girl, she went from looking like a little 40 year old mouse, then got prettier when she filled out a little. I think Joey's daughter, Manny's little sister IRL (Craig makes a joke about that in one ep) is the cutest little girl ever. Annoying, but cute.

Screw TNG, I wish they'd just do an adult series with all the original Degrassi Jr. and Sr. high people. I miss those folks. There's a reunion from 1999 on YouTube (complete with crazy-ass Stephanie Kaye):

<object width="500" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/SX9h_kEX4j0&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param'>http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/SX9h_kEX4j0&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/SX9h_kEX4j0&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object>

[Eric83]

NEW PROMO! Look so damn good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg0i8I8ClIE&feature=player_embedded

Edited June 12, 2010 by Eric83