Degrassi: All grown up
[attach]1288[/attach]This year marks a big occasion for one of Canada’s famed TV series: the award-winning Degrassi franchise is 30-years old.
Yes, that youth drama is all grown up.
The series, which has spawned many off-shoots including the current Degrassi: The Next Generation show and feature film, Paradise City: Degrassi Goes Hollywood originated as The Kids of Degrassi Street in 1980 by former schoolteacher Linda Schuyler and writing and producing partner, Kit Hood.
At the time the two created the show as away to educate youth about the issues youth were facing in their day-to-day lives.
Schuyler, a longtime Beach resident, never thought it was become so successful.
The Degrassi series, including cult-status shows Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High have covered almost every topic affecting teens today — from teen pregnancy to youth violence.
The series has won numerous awards along the way, including two international Emmys, 16 Gemini Awards and Schuyler was honoured with the Order of Canada in 1994.
Today, the series, which is set in Leslieville’s Degrassi Street, is seen in more than 150 countries worldwide.
In February, our Arts and Entertainment Editor Lorianna De Giorgio spoke with Schuyler, and Amanda Stepto, who played Spike on the Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High series, about the momentous anniversary, and where they both see the series in the next 30 years.
De Giorgio: How do you feel about the 30th anniversary?
Schuyler: “Old. Certainly when the first Degrassi went on air in 1980 it was one little, one-off, half-hour, kids drama that we had no concept at the time would eventually grow into a project that I’d be working on for 30 years. It’s quite extraordinary.”
Stepto: “It’s amazing that the show has had such a continued longevity. Back in the ‘80s when we were filming Degrassi I could have never imagined that today we would be celebrating 30 years of the Degrassi franchise. I feel proud and honoured to be a part of such a remarkable legacy.”
De Giorgio: Schuyler, why did you want to tell the stories of junior high?
Schuyler: “I remember using in my class one day a film that came from the National Film Board, which was called The Summer We Moved to Elm Street. It was about an 11-year-old girl, who perhaps had alcoholic father. It was a really, lovely little drama … we discussed it after … (and) one of my students was talking and she stopped talking in the third person and started talking in the first person. I held her back after class and sure enough (the reason) that she related so strongly to the movie was because her father was an alcoholic … At that point I realized how powerful the dramatic medium can be when you talk directly to kids in a language that they can understand.”
De Giorgio: Stepto, what were your first experiences like on Degrassi?
Stepto: “Eye-opening, life-changing, remarkable; even though I didn’t realize it at the time. For most of us, we didn’t know any different. Going to “Degrassi” was a normal experience. I was just a regular teen who attended two high schools, both seemed real to me in similar yet different ways. In many ways, we spent most of our impressionable youth growing up on a film set. Maybe that’s why I have such a warped sense of reality these days.”
De Giorgio: Where do you see the show in the future?
Stepto: “There are limitless show possibilities … Degrassi Retirement Community, Degrassi Goes to Mars, Spike takes over the world…
I would imagine that the show will continue to be embraced and embedded in Canadian culture and it will be interesting to see if in another 30 years we’re still celebrating its success.”
Schuyler: “When we came back with Degrassi: The Next Generation, which is now 10 years ago, at that time I said, ‘oh, please if I can just get five years out of it I will be a very happy person. Five years have turned into 10. And in terms of our audience, it just seems to be getting stronger.”