Summer Heights High

Infobox Television
show_name = Summer Heights High


caption = "Summer Heights High" intertitle
genre = Mockumentary comedy
creator = Chris Lilley
writer = Chris Lilley
director = Stuart McDonald
starring = Chris Lilley
country = AUS
language = English
num_episodes = 8
list_episodes = List of Summer Heights High episodes
producer = Laura Waters
runtime = 27 minutes per episode
network = ABC TV
picture_format = 16:9
first_aired = 5 September 2007
last_aired = 24 October 2007
related = "Big Bite"
""
website = http://www.abc.net.au/tv/summerheightshigh/
imdb_id = 0934320
tv_com_id = 32969

"Summer Heights High" is a Logie Award-winning, Australian television mockumentary series written by and starring Chris Lilley. It is a satirical parody of high school life epitomised by its three protagonists: effeminate and megalomaniac "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; self-absorbed, privileged teenager Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan student Jonah Takalua. It lampoons Australian high school life and many aspects of the human condition and is filmed in a documentary style, with lay people playing supporting characters.

Following a similar format to Lilley's previous series, "", Lilley plays multiple characters in the show. Filmed in Melbourne at Brighton Secondary College, [cite news | last = Schwartz | first = Larry | title = Location, sweet location | work = TV & Radio | publisher = The Age | date= 2007-09-27 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/25/1190486315057.html?page=fullpage | accessdate = 2007-09-27 ] the series premiered on 5 September at 9:30pm on ABC TV and continued for eight weekly episodes. Each episode was also released as a weekly podcast directly after its screening via both the official website and through any RSS podcast client in either WMV or MPEG4.

"Summer Heights High" was a massive ratings success for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was met with mostly positive critical reaction. [ [http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2007/09/the_ratings_race_new_week_4.html The Tribal Mind Blog - Sydney Morning Herald] Retrieved on 8 September 2007.] The series debuted on 5 September 2007 and the eight-part series ended on 24 October 2007. On 26 March 2008, it was announced that the show had been sold for international distribution to BBC Three in the United Kingdom and HBO in the United States. [cite news | title = "Summer Heights High" to air in US and UK | work = Media | publisher = The Australian | date= 2008-03-26 | url = http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23435656-7582,00.html?page=fullpage | accessdate = 2008-03-26 ] In Canada, the series will premiere on The Movie Network.

Format

According to the prologue, a production and filming team travelled to a typical Australian public high school and followed the events and daily lives surrounding the students and staff for one term. The team would film a documentary from the opinions of the students and staff, especially the three main characters: Ja'mie King, a mean girl-type prefect exchanged from a private school; Mr G, a charismatic drama teacher; and Jonah Takalua, a stereotypical Pacific Islander delinquent, all played by the series' writer, Chris Lilley.

The series is filmed in a documentary style, with the supporting cast drawn from the real-life students and staff of the school where the series is set. The programme explored the facets of a typical Australian public high school such as social cliques, bullying, teenage slang, stereotyping, profanity, racism and homophobia by showcasing three different individuals: the bully, the exchange student (originally from a private school) and the teacher. The three main characters in the show do not interact with each other in any way; however, some secondary characters such as the school's principal, Ms. Murray, have appeared and been mentioned in the story of more than one main character.

Characters

There are three primary characters featured in "Summer Heights High", all portrayed by Chris Lilley.

Ja'mie King

Ja'mie King, a private school exchange student, immediately makes friends with the most popular girls at Summer Heights High. It becomes obvious however, that her friendship is not genuine when her so-called friends discover a poster she has made of them calling them "povo skanks". Her manipulative character is reinforced when she manages to convince her new friends that the poster was meant as a joke and that they need to "get a sense of humour".

Ja'mie exhibits a racist attitude toward Asian people, as well as general snobbishness. She makes several attempts to alienate Bec from their group of friends, as she is of Singaporean descent. She also harasses Holly about having large breasts, Jess for having skin problems, and Kaitlyn for being dumb and doing restricted maths.During the show, Ja'mie falls in love with year 7 student Sebastian, and decides to go out with him. However, the relationship only lasts a short amount of time as Ja'mie steals Sebastian's mobile phone and finds out a girl named Madeline has been texting him to sit with him in English class. Ja'mie dumps him and claims he made her "question my hotness".

Later on in the show, Ja'mie and her friends form a student representative council, and decide to organise a Year 11 Formal. Ja'mie plans to have it at a popular nightclub with an expensive DJ. However, at $450 a ticket, the student council faces cancelling the event because students can't afford tickets. Instead, Ja'mie arranges a day to raise money for AIDS in Africa, which is enough to cover Formal expenses. The Head of Senior School learns that the reason for this fundraiser isn't to raise funds as intended, but to fund the expensive Formal. As a compromise, Ja'mie is offered to hold the Formal in the school's staff room, with no DJ and cheap, hand-made decorations.

She invites Tamsin to the Formal, a lesbian student, as she wants to make a big impression, but when Tamsin finds out that Ja'mie is not lesbian, she ditches her by SMS, forcing Ja'mie to instead take Sebastian, whom she gets back together with, and stays with this time, despite still checking the messages on his phone. The Ja'mie segment ends with her leaving the school after her term at Summer Heights High in the car with her mum and friend Brianna. At the very end, she stands up through the car's sun-roof and shouts, "Public schools rock!" although this is rather ironic, as she throws the jumper away rather than keep it as a souvenir.

Mr G

Helen 'Greg' Gregson, aka Mr G, is a 36-year-old drama teacher at the school. Mr G not only believes that he is an incredibly talented and well-liked teacher, but also that his students share his intense passion for drama and performance. His narcissism places him in constant conflict with other members of staff, and the school Principal in particular. His self-centred attitude extends to frequently losing his temper with the students, and he is hostile to the disabled students being involved in his musical as he is under the belief that they will damage its quality. It is clear that he is unaware that his own perception of his teaching abilities is not shared by most students. He has written several musicals for the school, including "Mate, You Can't Skate", based on the Avril Lavigne hit single Sk8er Boi; and "Tsunamarama", based on the events of the 2004 Tsunami disaster, set to the music of Bananarama. Also IKEA, the musical. Mr G has previously been featured on the Seven Network sketch series "Big Bite".cite web | url=http://abc.net.au/corp/pubs/media/s1776425.htm | publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation | title=Chris Lilley Scales New Heights | date=2006-10-30]

Jonah Takalua

Jonah Takalua is a 13-year-old school boy in Year 8 at Summer Heights High, which is his third school after being expelled from two others for acts of vandalism. He causes trouble at the school by treating his teachers with a lack of respect, and bullying younger students. His most hated teacher appears to be Ms. Wheatley, his English teacher. There is constant conflict between the two characters and as a result he is at serious risk of being expelled. Jonah also has difficulties learning, and attends "Gumnut Cottage", a remedial English class for students at Summer Heights High who have reading difficulties. After threatening Ms. Wheatley, Jonah is expelled from the school. In the closing scene his graffiti tag *dick*tation appears at numerous locations around the school, and this is seen as his final revenge.

Episodes

oundtrack

A soundtrack was released through ABC Shops and the Australian iTunes Store, the later also containing audio extracts from songs in the series including Mr. G's "Bummer Heights High", "Naughty Girl", "She's A Slut" and Jonah's "Being A Poly". Part 2 of the soundtrack of the "Summer Heights High" album contained songs such as "My Name is Mr G", "This Time You're Dead" and the "Summer Heights High" theme. Most of the songs from Part 2 are from the final musical.

"Naughty Girl" was released as a single on 8 March 2008 with remixes by Paul Mac, John Paul Talbot and Stylaz Fuego, [ [http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23254095-5006009,00.html Chris Lilley, as Mr G, releases new single | The Daily Telegraph ] ] peaking at number 7 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. There was also a new music video clip to go with the song.

Ratings

The premiere episode of "Summer Heights High" did well in the ratings due to the lead-in from the return of "The Chaser's War on Everything".Fact|date=November 2007 It peaked at 1.6 million viewers nationally with an average of 1.22 million. [http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2007/09/the_ratings_race_new_week_4.html The Tribal Mind Blog - Sydney Morning Herald] Retrieved on 8 September 2007.] Along with "Spicks and Specks", "Summer Heights High" helped ABC TV to achieve its strongest midweek ratings for 2007. [ [http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/abc-hits-new-heights/2007/09/06/1188783412225.html ABC hits new heights - Sydney Morning Herald] Retrieved on 8 September 2007).] The second episode rated stronger than the premiere with an average of 1.375 million viewers tuning in nationally.cite news | url = http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/tv-ratings-130907.html | title = Seven - Daily Ratings Report | publisher = ebroadcast.com.au | date= 2007-09-13 | accessdate = 2007-09-13]

The third episode managed to rate very well with 1.275 million viewers nationallycite news | url = http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/tv-ratings-200907.html | title = Seven - Daily Ratings Report | publisher = ebroadcast.com.au | date= 2007-09-20 | accessdate = 2007-09-20] while the fourth episode fared well with 1.235 against the season premiere of "Prison Break".cite news | url = http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/tv-ratings-270907.html | title = Seven - Daily Ratings Report | publisher = ebroadcast.com.au | date= 2007-09-27 | accessdate = 2007-09-27] The fifth episode only managed 1.156 million viewers, the lowest ratings for an episode of the show, although the programme remained the highest-rating show in its timeslot.cite news | url = http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/tv-ratings-041007.html | title = Seven - Daily Ratings Report | date= 2007-10-03 | accessdate = 2007-10-03] The sixth episode picked up slightly in viewers from the previous week with 1.192 million tuning in.cite news | url = http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/tv-ratings-111007.html | title = Seven - Daily Ratings Report | publisher = ebroadcast.com.au | date= 2007-10-11 | accessdate = 2007-10-11] The seventh episode grew in ratings as the penultimate episode, picking up to average 1.307 million viewers for the night.cite news | url = http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/tv-ratings-181007.html | title = Seven - Daily Ratings Report | publisher = ebroadcast.com.au | date= 2007-10-18 | accessdate = 2007-10-18] The eighth and final episode achieved the highest ratings for "Summer Heights High" with a total of 1.512 million viewers watching the concluding episode to the series.cite news | url = http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/tv-ratings-251007.html | title = Seven - Daily Ratings Report | publisher = ebroadcast.com.au | date= 2007-10-25 | accessdate = 2007-10-25]

International syndication

In March 2008, it was announced that international broadcast rights had been bought by the BBC in the UK and HBO in the US. [http://www.abc.net.au/abccontentsales/s2201852.htm "Summer Heights High" sells to HBO and BBC] On 10 June 2008, it premiered on BBC Three in the UK [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c3tws BBC Three Programmes - "Summer Heights High", Episode 1] ] and it is scheduled to premiere on HBO on 9 November 2008. [ [http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=7698 Breaking News - Development Update: Thursday, July 10 | TheFutonCritic.com] ]

The series premiered on 30 August 2008, in New Zealand on TV1 at 9.30pm. [http://www.tvnz.co.nz]

The series premiered on 12 September 2008, in Togo and Kenya on TV H6 at 6.30 pm local time. [http://www.tvkenya.com]

Controversy

Even before "Summer Heights High" aired, some community groups complained about a "rape joke" and Mr G's inappropriate "touching" of a boy with Down syndrome.cite news | url = http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/21/2039512.htm?section=entertainment | title = Anger over "Summer Heights High" drug death joke | publisher = ABC | date = 2007-09-21 | accessdate = 2007-09-21]

The "Herald Sun" reported that parents and some teachers have considered the possibility that the show is influencing children to misbehave at school. Students were reportedly imitating Jonah and Ja'mie, repeating lines that were bullying, racist and homophobic. [cite news | url = http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22424472-2902,00.html | title = Parents fear cult of Lilley's new ABC TV school satire | publisher = Herald Sun | date= 2007-09-16 | accessdate = 2007-11-03] Education Union branch president Mary Bluett stated in response that the show was "clearly tongue-in-cheek". [cite news
url = http://www.yourtv.com.au/news/index.cfm?i=124723 | title = "Summer Heights High" condemned | publisher = yourTV | date = 2007-09-21 | accessdate = 2007-09-21]

After episode three, the family of a girl who died taking drugs at the 2007 Good Vibrations Festival in Sydney, Annabel Catt, complained that the program had been lampooning her death. The ABC apologised to the family, stating that the situation was purely coincidental and assured them that filming of the episode in question had been completed eleven days before their daughter's death. The ABC thereafter began to display a message before each episode stating that there is no link between the series' characters and people in real life.

The writer for a similar Network Ten series called "Sit Down Shut Up" in 2000 claimed that Lilley had borrowed ideas for characters and plots from the series including the school name and aspects of the Mr. G character. [cite news | url = http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22579230-2,00.html | title = "Summer Heights High" a rip-off, says writer | publisher = news.com.au (News Limited) | date = 2007-10-14 | accessdate = 2007-10-14 | first = Steve | last = Drill]

DVD release

References

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/tv/summerheightshigh/ "Summer Heights High"]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=71626043 "Summer Heights High" on MySpace]
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