Degrassi Junior High is a Canadian teen drama television series created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood. It is the second entry of the Degrassi television franchise after The Kids of Degrassi Street and aired on the CBC from January 18, 1987 to February 27, 1989, and on PBS in the United States starting from September 1987. The series follows those who attend the titular fictional school and the issues they face.
Produced by Schuyler and Hood's Playing With Time, development of the series began soon after the end of The Kids of Degrassi Street, in response to a perceived lack of teenage representation in media. Its cast mainly consisted of amateurs who were similar in age to the characters they played, a deliberate response to the trend of young adults being cast in teenage roles. The actors had extensive input in the writing process, and plots were often drawn from their real lives. It was filmed entirely on-location in Toronto, with then Daisy Avenue Public School in Etobicoke used as the school.
The series received widespread critical acclaim on release, with praise directed at its realism, cinematography, and portrayal of serious topics, and became a significant commercial success in Canada after it was moved to a prime-time spot, while it also developed cult followings in the United States and Australia. In its home country, it won eight Gemini Awards, including four in a single year. A sequel series, Degrassi High (1989–1991), continued to follow its characters into high school, and the franchise's revival and continuation with Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–2015) was brought into motion by a successful 1999 televised cast reunion.
In spite of seldom mainstream acknowledgement, Degrassi Junior High is credited with being the progenitor of the teen drama and a major influence on series such as Beverly Hills, 90210, and continues to be highly regarded. In 2017, the Toronto International Film Festival named it one of Canada's most significant contributions to the cinematic landscape.
Premise Degrassi Junior High follows those who attend the titular fictional school, located in an unnamed North American town. The series deals with a wide range of subjects through its characters, including serious issues such as teenage pregnancy, abuse, bullying, racism, interracial dating, drugs, alcoholism, drunk driving, and eating disorders, as well as more mundane coming-of-age experiences, such as relationships, exams, and puberty.
Schuyler stated the series had a "double mandate to entertain and educate", and each episode was intended as a conversation starter. The series is set entirely from a teenage perspective. Additionally, adults have a small role in the series, usually never being present in a scene without a teenage character present, and the characters are portrayed navigating their own problems and making their own decisions, for better or for worse, with minimal adult intervention: "We're not looking for Father Knows Best."
The first two seasons encompass a full year, with some characters in Grade 7 and some in Grade 8, while season three takes place the following year, in which Grade 9, typically the start of high school in North America, is appended to the junior high school, which was in reality a creative decision to retain the entire cast. In season three, the grade 9 students attend a nearby high school, Borden High, part-time. In the final episode, a faulty boiler causes a fire that destroys the school building forces the characters to evacuate from their graduation dance.
The series is not a sequel to The Kids of Degrassi Street, as it features new characters, despite sharing some of the actors from that series.
Cast
Repertory company Degrassi Junior High did not have a fixed cast. In his book TV North, Peter Kenter writes that no official cast listing appears to exist. The series consisted of members of Playing With Time's repertory company, which originally comprised fifty-four kids, and later sixty-five in total. According to Kathryn Ellis, the unique casting system of Degrassi Junior High was so that every member of the repertory company had "equal status", although some characters were more prominent than others. Unlike the trend of casting young adults to play teenagers, Degrassi Junior High cast real age-appropriate actors who largely lacked acting experience. Because of its non-union status, none of the actors were members of unions. Crew members occasionally made background appearances, including art director Judy Shiner, picture editor Rob de Lint, and publicist Kathryn Ellis. Writer Susin Nielsen had a brief role in two episodes as a janitor.
Primary and secondary characters Nicole Stoffman as Stephanie Kaye (seasons 1–2), a popular girl who dresses in provocative clothing at school. She is school president during her tenure on the show, and faces backlash from other students because of her failure to deliver on her promises. Later, she unsuccessfully pursues Simon Dexter. This, as well as her parents' divorce, leads her to fall into a depression. Stoffman left the series after two seasons to star in the CTV sitcom Learning the Ropes. Niki Kemeny as Voula Grivogiannis (season 1), Stephanie's friend Pat Mastroianni as Joey Jeremiah, a class clown and a slacker who has a humorous and extroverted personality. He is the keyboardist of the band the Zit Remedy. His trademark attire consists of a fedora and Hawaiian shirts. Duncan Waugh as Arthur Kobalewscuy, Stephanie's younger brother Siluck Saysanasy as Yick Yu, Arthur's best friend. Of Vietnamese descent, Yick was initially ashamed of his background as a refugee and attempted to fabricate an alternative story for a show-and-tell assignment. Stefan Brogren as Archie "Snake" Simpson, Joey's friend and guitarist of the Zit Remedy. He is good-natured, but isn't hesitant to point out his friends' wrongdoings. Sarah Charlesworth as Susie Rivera (seasons 1–2), Caitlin's friend Neil Hope as Derek "Wheels" Wheeler, Joey and Snake's friend, and the bassist of the Zit Remedy. In season three, his parents are killed in a collision with a drunk driver. Billy Parrott as Shane McKay, Spike's former boyfriend and the father of Emma. He faces opposition from both his own parents and Spike herself. Later, he is found at the bottom of a bridge after having taken LSD for a rock concert, leaving him with permanent brain damage. Anais Granofsky as Lucy Fernandez, a relatively wealthy girl whose parents are never home, leading her to act out for attention. Angela and Maureen Deiseach as Erica and Heather Farrell, identical twin sisters. Erica is more rebellious, while Heather is more conservative. Sara Ballingall as Melanie Brodie, Kathleen's boy-crazy and naive best friend Rebecca Haines-Saah as Kathleen Mead, a "snooty mean girl" who is academically competitive with Caitlin. In later episodes, it is revealed that her mother is an alcoholic. Craig Driscoll as Rick Munro (seasons 1–2), a bad boy who is physically abused by his father Stacie Mistysyn as Caitlin Ryan, an activist who is passionate about issues such as the environment. However, she sometimes does more harm than good. She has on-off relationship with Joey in later episodes, which continues into the later series. She is also epileptic. Amanda Cook as Lorraine "L.D." Delacorte, a tomboy Amanda Stepto as Christine "Spike" Nelson, a punk girl who finds out she is pregnant, and decides to keep the baby. She gives birth to daughter Emma in between the second and third seasons. Stepto described Spike as "a young teenage mom whose mixed up and confused. She feels alone because every guy she's dealt with has hurt her in some way. People would probably think she's crabby, but she's just insecure." Irene Courakos as Alexa Pappadopoulos, an outgoing and sociable girl Michael Carry as Simon Dexter (seasons 2–3), a model and Alexa's boyfriend Dayo Ade as Bryant Lester Thomas "BLT" (seasons 2–3), Michelle's boyfriend Maureen McKay as Michelle Accette (seasons 2–3), Alexa's best friend Cathy Keenan as Liz O'Rourke (seasons 2–3), Spike's best friend
Teachers and other adults Dan Woods as Mr. Daniel Raditch, the Grade 8 homeroom teacher Michelle Goodeve as Ms. Karen Avery, the Grade 7 homeroom teacher Roger Montgomery as Mr. Garcia (season 3), Grade 9 teacher Deborah Lobban as Doris Bell, the school secretary
Development
Concept
In 1976, Ontario schoolteacher Linda Schuyler, an aspiring filmmaker, and her partner Kit Hood, an editor, founded the company Playing With Time to produce educational films and documentaries. In 1979, they produced the short film, Ida Makes a Movie, based on the 1974 children's book by Kay Chorao, which aired on the CBC. The success of Ida Makes A Movie led to an annual string of short films that further explored the same continuity. These short films were the basis for the children's series The Kids of Degrassi Street. The series was a critical success on the CBC and won numerous accolades; the episode "Griff Makes A Date" won International Emmy Award in 1985. The production team also featured editor Yan Moore, who became the head writer of the next series, as well as the co-creator of Degrassi: The Next Generation.
In January 1984, Linda Schuyler told the Toronto Star that they were "planning another series, Degrassi Junior High, and we're starting with the idea of doing 26 episodes. There's no such school, but who cares? We're negotiating seriously with CBC." In November 1985, she again told the Toronto Star that they would "launch a new series in about one year – Degrassi Junior High. The very last segment [of the series] shows the kids graduating. Where are they going? Degrassi Junior High!". The show was not a direct sequel, but instead a spinoff of the previous series. To help with the development, Schuyler hired a young writer named Avrum Jacobson. Schuyler explained to Jacobson that she was looking for a school version of Hill Street Blues, of which she "loved the intertwined storylines, some of which were resolved at the end of an episode and others which carried on to the next. I loved the moral dilemmas characters faced, often pitting 'what’s right' against 'what works'". Development of Degrassi Junior High commenced in early 1986.
Casting Degrassi Junior High is noted for casting actors similar in age to their characters, as opposed to the practice of casting young adults in teenage roles commonly observed in media. Brodie Lancaster of the Sydney Morning Herald stated that this was a "rare occurrence in the genre" of teen drama. Schuyler has spoken of the inauthenticity of this practice on multiple occasions; during Degrassi Junior High's development in 1986, she told the Toronto Star about how "so much of the American stuff set in high schools is played by late teens and early 20s – and then some". In 2016, she further elaborated to IndieWire: "I like to talk about the fact that you can take a 25-year-old who looks 15 and have them play a role, but that actor is bringing 10 more years of life experience to that role. By having our cast be age-appropriate, they bring the freshness and the authenticity of that age."
During the development stage, Schuyler and Hood held a "pow-wow" with the cast of The Kids of Degrassi Street at the Playing With Time offices and offered them a choice between retaining their original characters, or auditioning for new characters. According to Kit Hood, the kids "wanted to leave behind the baggage, personalities and families of where they'd been" and decided to play new characters instead. Many of the actors who were regulars on Degrassi Street at this time, including Anais Granofsky, Neil Hope, and Stacie Mistysyn, returned in new roles.