Degrassi: The Next Generation

[Bright Eyes]

Okay, the singer for the Junior High theme sounds like Robin Sparkles! LoL

[JackPeyton]

Paige really was the most well rounded, layered, and fascinating character of the series, imho. I was just rewatching some season 1, and wow. She changed so much, but it was all so natural and in character. A huge chuck of that goes to Lauren Collins.

I will always feel for craig. The episodes dealing with his abusive father, his disorder, and that one where he goes with Emma to see her dad will always make me love him.

And ys, you are so spot on about Paige. And i agree, making her of all people the rape victim was a very soapy move. I also love how they didnt deal with it until season 4, when it happened early season 2. They had one episode where they brought it up in season 2 as well, but then that was it, really, until what is perhaps Paiges best moment. It was in Ghost In The Machine, where spinner wouldnt sleep with her and she got angry and told him "The Paige you knew and loved went up those stairs that night and never came back down" revealing that, pretty much, shes been acting since that night.

Another great Paige moment was her finding out that Ellie was cutting herself and telling Ellie no, this is not ok. And she admitted they are not friends and maybe never will be, but that doesnt mean shes just going to let her hurt herself.

Paige :wub:

[SFK]

"♫Wake up in the mornin', feelin' shy and lonely, gee, I gotta go to school...♫"

[SFK]

Yes indeed, those were great moments. And I as a viewer was willing to see beyond any attempt at audience manipulation by making her the victim b/c it was well-played and the jock who raped her was a total douche... wait, and didn't she totally eff up Spinner's Chevy Corsica, ramming it into the dude's Vette/Camaro? That's what led her to working at The Dot iirc.

Edited August 4, 2010 by SFK

[JackPeyton]

yup. it led to her working, dumping spinn, metting matt, then becoming friends with alex.

[Eric83]

LOL it was just a joke. I was referring to the actor that played Dean, not the character. My bad.

[SFK]

Oh I know, I was joking too Eric, no worries! Just playing WWPD (What Would Paige Michalchuk Do?)

[Bright Eyes]

Aw, Joey and Caitlin danced in the second episode. MEANT. TO. BE!!! The supercouple of DEGRASSI!

I really like how they have people like Snake and Spike in the background, knowing how integral they'll become later.

[Bright Eyes]

Uh, Caitlin is a year younger than Joey?

More confusingly, how are the twins friends with Lucy and Steph when they are in Grade 7? Steph did say she never talked to them. Continuity error!

[SFK]

I think the twins' names are different in the first episode too so so much for continuity. Yeah, IIRC, Spike is REALLY in the background in the beginning, pretty much a glorified extra. I assumed she kept getting noticed for that hair and that's when they decided to beef up her role. I watched this after I started TNG and my appreciation for TNG and the "grownup" s/ls grew exponentially.

Caitlin Ryan... sigh. And no, it is not wrong for a 30 year-old-man to be crushing on Caitlin cuz my brain worked backwards and I was younger than her at the time and I am STILL eight years younger than her.

[SFK]

Snake and Spike will get some interesting stuff to come, watch the whole series Amello! Watching the "School's Out" TV Movie finale, I can only imagine what hardcore Degrassi fans went through all those years before the franchise got picked back up.

[Bright Eyes]

SFK, I'm Canadian so I actually watched the Junior High/Degrassi High stuff first in numerous reruns. But that was when I was a kid, so I don't remember specifics.

Anyway, Snake just said Joey gives him a hard time. WTF? You're his BEST FRIEND! LoL

Wheels kind of went through a complete 180. He's kind of the popular jock now, when we all know he's nothing close to that later. Poor guy. Was he ever referenced in TNG?

[SFK]

Wheels makes the biggest turn around, absolutely. He does get mentions/makes an appearance (or two?) in TNG. I won't go into detail, but he and Snake end up having a strained relationship.

"Caitlin" and "Wheels" are in the first series, The Kids of Degrassi Street, but I use quotes because they are the same actors but different characters. They have a mini-little-budding romance thing on that series and he's portrayed as somewhat of a little jock-in-training on there too. Even weirder, his older brother on KODS ends up playing his biological dad on DH.

Degrassi aired on PBS when I was a kid (in the U.S.) though I never watched. We used to crack on Fifteen (or was it Swan's Crossing in 6th grade?) all the time and I remember someone asking if I ever watched Degrassi, which I didn't though I remember the promos and my second love, Lucy. My tastes have changed, back then something about the *look* of the show kind of... "repelled" is too strong of a word, it just didn't look appealing to me. Compared to bright, taped, soap opera looking Fifteen, Degrassi was filmed and seemed dark and maybe a little too educational/depressing seeing as how it was on PBS and all. And as weird and ignorant as it makes me sound, this was also at a time where I was not at ALL conscious of Canada let alone the idea that they made television up there that was being shown down here, yet I could tell that there was something *different* about these kids. Weird. Hindsight is 20/20.

Edited August 4, 2010 by SFK

[All My Shadows]

Of course, now you know that Fifteen was Canadian as well, right? It's known as Hillside up north and aired on YTV (the station that aired the original Degrassi series). There's an episode or two on YouTube that I need to get to watching soon. Young Ryan Reynolds! And their resident bitch, Brooke, seems pretty epic.

But yeah, DJH has an old school "E/I" look to it. In school, we used to watch all kinds of educational specials and series from the 70s and 80s (Schoolhouse Rock, ABC Afterschool Special, 321 Contact, MCGEE AND ME!-which had such horrible acting and still airs on TBN or something), and they all had the same look at that DJH has. Very PBS.

[SFK]

Yes, I do know about Fifteen being Canadian but to be honest, I can't put my finger on when I realized that was the case. I really want to say that we were making fun of the "aboots" before we even realized, like we thought they were from the midwest or something. I've talked to EricMontreal about this, but at the end of every episode they would say that "Fifteen is taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL" which makes NO sense to me. Maybe they taped their last, or last two seasons down there or something, I really don't see why a Canadian production would go ALL the way down to Orlando when it's already cheap to tape in Canada, plus they were using Canadian talent. I need to Facebook friend Robyn Ross who played my girl bitchy Brooke and ask her. I did meet Ryan Reynolds once, I should have asked him when I had the chance. He was a dork on there, Billy, he and his sister's parents were divorcing, that was their big story. There was an ep where he did a cheesy Jim Carey/Steve Martin standup act, AW-ful.

I was totally thinking of 321 Contact when I made that last post, the same look. Now I'm singing the theme in my head.