Degrassi Junior High

Degrassi Junior High
The Degrassi Junior High title card.
Format	Teen drama
Created by	Linda Schuyler, Kit Hood
Starring	Cathy Keenan Dayo Ade Amanda Stepto Nicole Stoffman Pat Mastroianni Stacie Mistysyn Stefan Brogren Siluck Saysanasy Duncan Waugh
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	42
Production
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBC Television
Original run	January 18, 1987 – March 6, 1989
Chronology
Preceded by	The Kids of Degrassi Street
Followed by	Degrassi High

Degrassi Junior High is a Canadian CBC Television teen drama series that was produced from 1987-1989 as part of the Degrassi series. The show followed the lives of a group of students attending the titular fictional school. Many episodes tackled difficult topics such as drug use, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, homophobia, racism, and divorce, and the series was acclaimed for its sensitive and realistic portrayal of the challenges of teenage life. The cast comprised mainly non-professional actors, which added to the show's sense of realism.

The series featured many of the same actors who had starred on Kids of Degrassi Street a few years earlier, including Stacie Mistysyn, Neil Hope, Anais Granofsky, Sarah Charlesworth and others. However, their character names and family situations had been changed, so Degrassi Junior High cannot, therefore, be considered a direct spinoff.

The legal counsel for all the episodes was Stephen Stohn who later became the executive producer of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

The program is broadcast in Australia on ABC TV.

Episodes

Main article: List of Degrassi episodes

In 1987, Degrassi Junior High won an International Emmy in the Children and Young People category for the episode "It's Late",^[1] where Christine "Spike" Nelson gets pregnant at the party believing she is ready to have sex with the new kid, Shane. Spike's baby was named Emma, to commemorate the award, and Emma wound up being the inspiration for the spin-off series, Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Locations

Degrassi Junior high was filmed at the unused Vincent Massey Public School in Etobicoke, Ontario.^[2]

UK schedules

The BBC refused to transmit the episode "Rumour Has It" when screening the first series of Degrassi Junior High because of the central theme of homosexuality. The BBC only screened the first season of the show.

From its first day of broadcasting in 1992, UK Gold screened Degrassi Junior High daily. The channel then screened Degrassi High in its entirety.

References to popular culture in the show

The producers of the show deliberately tried to exclude any references to actual movies and music of the time so that the show would not become quickly dated. This resulted in the creation of movies, television shows and musicians for the show itself. Some examples of made up movies are Tender Beats the Heart and Teen Academy IV. Days of Passion is a fictional soap opera which stars teen-heartthrob Damon King. Quest for the Best is the only other television show in the Degrassi universe, which is based on an actual Canadian high school quiz show called Reach for the Top. Fictional bands in the show are The Gourmet Scum, and later The Savages.

In the episode It's Late, Wheels can be clearly seen wearing a Footscray Bulldogs sweater. What is unusual is that the sport, Australian rules football and its organisation, the VFL, at the time would have been unknown in Canada. Although the VFL staged several exhibition matches that year, the Bulldogs were not involved and were perhaps the least successful and supported teams in the league. The Australian Football League (Aussie Rules Football) actually had a cult following in Canada in the 1980s, as the games were televised on The Sports Network from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Earlier on, in "The Big Dance" he was wearing a New Orleans Saints jersey; while the NFL is and was quite popular in Canada, the "Aints" at the time were perennially bottom of the league and most Torontonians consider the Buffalo Bills their home team.

The Doctor Sally radio show is based on a call-in radio show entitled the Sunday Night Sex Show. Registered nurse and sex educator Sue Johanson was the host of the program which aired on local Toronto, Ontario radio station Q-107 between 1984 and 1998 and nationally until 2005. Sue Johanson portrays a fictionalized version of herself, "Doctor Sally", in two Degrassi Junior High episodes, and reprised the role on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

DVD releases

WGBH Boston Home Video released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in 2005. Each season was released separately followed by a complete series collection. Degrassi Junior High: Complete Series, a 9-disc box set featuring all 42 episodes of the series was released on October 25, 2005.

In Region 4, Beyond Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Australia in 2005 - 2006. They initially released each season as a separate release in 2005 followed by a complete series box set in 2006.^[3]

DVD Name	Ep #	Release dates
		Region 1	Region 4
Season 1	13	February 1, 2005	February 15, 2005
Season 2	13	June 7, 2005	July 22, 2005
Season 3	16	September 6, 2005	October 31, 2005
The Complete Series	42	October 25, 2005	April 28, 2006

References

1. ^ Degrassi Junior High at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ Polger, Mark, Degrassi HIstory, http://history.degrassi.ca/, retrieved 2007-09-05 
3. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}

External links

• Degrassi Junior High episodes on YouTube (Seasons 1 & 2)
• Degrassi Junior High at the Internet Movie Database