Wayside (also known as Wayside School) is a Canadian animated sitcom developed by John Derevlany and produced by Nelvana Limited. The series follows Todd, a transfer student who attends Wayside, an offbeat 30-story grammar school. It is loosely based on the Wayside School books by Louis Sachar, and several elements differ between the two works.

Derevlany conceived Wayside in 2003, leading to an hour-long television special pilot titled Wayside: The Movie that aired in 2005. Teletoon greenlit two seasons of Wayside consisting of thirteen half-hour episodes each, and they aired from 2007 to 2008; the series also aired briefly on Nickelodeon in the U.S. during this time.

Wayside received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its clever and off-beat humour, though some criticized its differences with the Wayside School book series. The series was nominated for a "Best TV Series for Children" at the 2008 Cartoons on the Bay award ceremony. The pilot episode and the first season are both available on DVD. Both seasons are available on YouTube.

Premise

Wayside takes place in the fictional Wayside School, an unusual Escher-esque 30-story grammar school. The school had been accidentally built "sideways", with one classroom in each of the 30 stories instead of 30 classrooms on one floor. Like in the books, there are actually 29 floors in the school; the imaginary 19th floor is inhabited by the imaginary Miss Zarves.

The series revolves around a transfer student at the school named Todd (voiced by Michael Cera in the pilot; Mark Rendall in the series), and his adventures adapting to life as a student on the 30th floor. Todd is taught by the scatterbrained-yet-endearing Mrs. Jewls (Kathy Najimy in the pilot; Kathleen Laskey in the series), who often sends him home early on the kindergarten bus for ridiculous misdemeanors. Todd's best friends are Maurecia (Denise Oliver), a rollerskating tomboy who has a crush on Todd; Dana (Lisa Ng), a Type A overachiever who obsessively maintains the school's rules and acts as Myron's campaign manager; and Myron (Martin Villafana), a self-centered student who wishes to become class president.

The school staff includes Mr. Kidswatter (Kedar Brown), the uptight and eccentric school principal who has an unusual vocabulary; Louis (Sergio Di Zio), the relaxed, friendly yard teacher at Wayside; and Ms. Mush (Jayne Eastwood), the Eastern European head chef of the school cafeteria and nurse who is best known for her wisecracking personality and horrible cooking skills. Minor members of the school faculty are Mrs. Gorf (Julie Lemieux), a substitute teacher for Mrs. Jewls who had the ability to transform her students into apples before being transformed into one herself by Maurecia; Le Chef (Peter Oldring), the former French chef in the teacher's lounge with an obnoxious demeanour; Mr. Blunderbuss (Dwayne Hill), the adventurous fourteenth-floor teacher who often goes on hunting safaris throughout worldwide jungles; and Miss Zarves, the nonexistent teacher on the nonexistent nineteenth floor.

Other students in the class are Shari (Lisa Ng), an overcoat-wearing girl who frequently sleeps in class; Stephen (Terry McGurrin), a boy who dresses like an elf for Halloween every day; Jenny (Denise Oliver), a stunt performer who dresses in an Evel Knievel-esque outfit and is Maurecia's best friend; John (Terry McGurrin), a boy who is always upside down; Joe (Peter Oldring), a student who has a large, red frizzy afro; the Three Erics (Terry McGurrin, Peter Oldring, Martin Villafana), three students with similar attire that typically do activities in unison; Bebe (Denise Oliver), a girl who is a master artist; Leslie (Lisa Ng), a girl who performs tasks with her long pigtails and usually looks angry; Rondi (Denise Oliver), a rather large girl who's almost always happy; and Elizabeth (Denise Oliver), who wears a purple dress and has lemon-colored hair.

Episodes

Pilot (2005)

Season 1 (2007) Episodes are listed in accordance to the season 1 DVD set.

Season 2 (2007–08)

Telecast and home release The hour-long television movie pilot, Wayside: The Movie, aired on November 19, 2005. The main Wayside series premiered on Teletoon in 2007 and ran until 2008; the series also aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S. during this time.

In September 2007, the pilot episode of Wayside was released on DVD. The first season was released on August 19, 2008 under the title Wayside School: Season 1.

In 2018, the entire show and the pilot were released on Corus-based Keep It Weird's YouTube channel. In addition to the videos uploaded by Keep It Weird on YouTube, Wayside can be watched in a variety of other languages, as uploaded by Treehouse TV's numerous "Treehouse Direct" YouTube channels. The series is also streamed on Tubi.

Reception Critical reception Wayside has received generally positive reviews from critics. David Cornelius of DVD Talk described it as "a clever, often hilarious little show that demands a larger audience", praising the series' scripts and dialogue as "delight[ed] in mixing absurd humour with fond grade school memories". Adam Arsenau of DVD Verdict stated "The most satisfying part of Wayside is how the show feels perfectly balanced—it has enough wacky antics and bizarre events to satisfy young audiences, enough logical fallacies and defiant attitudes to amuse middle-aged kids, and enough clever and sardonic wit to please adults fortunate enough to find themselves in front of a television set while the show is playing", concluding that Wayside was "the perfect cartoon adventure for families of all ages". Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the series 3 out of 5 stars; saying that, "This fast-paced series is packed with the zany characters and scenarios that young grade-schoolers will love. Even better, it's virtually free of content likely to bother parents".

However, the series also drew criticism for its differences to the Wayside School books on which it was based. Alyse Wax of Blogcritics negatively compared the animated series to the books that inspired it, stating that "the series 'doesn't have the magic that the books had', and noting that while the books provided 'wacky, silly, with odd, funny, almost-realistic-but-not-quite characters', viewers get no such character development from the animation, and expanded that while the show is shared from an adult perspective, it is not meant to be enjoyed by parents and kids" watching it together, being "geared towards younger kids". Joanna Weiss of Boston Globe offered that while viewers familiar with the character development in the book series will see that the animated series "understandably, dispenses with the nuance in favour of kid-friendly slapstick and goofy conceptual jokes", the children and parents who have not previously encountered the books "won't know what they're missing".

Michael P. Dougherty II of Fulve Drive-In gave a negative assessment of the series, describing it as "a disgrace to the novels" and believed it "totally strips away any intelligence or meaning they had". Dougherty also criticized the series' "total lack of ingenuity", and "coupled with the fact that it tainted the book series name makes this an awful, no good animated series". Louis Sachar, creator of the original Wayside School books on which the show was based, reportedly disliked Wayside, though he did like its animation style.

Awards and nominations In 2008, Wayside received a nomination for "Best TV Series for Children" at the 2008 Cartoons on the Bay award ceremony.

Differences from the books There are a number of notable differences between Wayside and the Wayside School books. For example, in the series, a large number of changes were made to the character of Todd; in the book series, he is not a transfer student, although two transfer students appeared the book chronology, namely Sue and Benjamin Nushmutt. However, neither Sue nor Benjamin appear in the series, and Todd instead appears to take the latter's role as "new kid". Maurecia's personality also diverges from that of the series—in the books, she is a normal girl with a love for ice cream who is never mentioned nor depicted to wear roller skates and is almost always featured with her best friend Joy, who never appears in the series.

References

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