Throwback Thursday: Degrassi High

Toronto, Ontario, 1980 Something

Growing up in rural Louisiana in the 80’s/90’s meant that cable television was a wild dream and the local ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS affiliates were my primary viewing options.  As a teenager, most of the characters that I was given to identify with came packaged in comedies like Saved By The Bell and California Dreams or soap operas such as Beverly Hills, 90210.  These shows, while entertaining to a degree, didn’t present teens with a realistic view of life.

Thankfully our friends to the north, specifically Kit Hood, Yan Moore, and Linda Schuyler, saw a need for a realistic program that tackled tough issues that tweens and teens faced on a daily basis.  After Schuyler’s series The Kids Of Degrassi Street came to an end in 1986, Degrassi Junior High began airing in 1987.  The series carried over a number of the actors from Kids and placed them in new roles.  The series continued until 1989 when most of the kids moved on to high school.  This gave life to Degrassi High.

Both series tackled many heavy issues that weren’t found on any other teen based series at the time.  Degrassi Junior High took on teen pregnancy when one of the core characters, Spike (Amanda Stepto), became pregnant.  She went through with the pregnancy and gave birth to a daughter, Emma, who would eventually be the character to bridge the series into 2001’s Degrassi: The Next Generation.  The series also placed characters in situations involving child abuse, bullying, epilepsy, alcohol and drug abuse, and young romance, among other things.

Degrassi High dealt with many of the same issues as Degrassi Junior High, but on a much larger scale.  Students dealt with racism, divorced parents, cancer, mixed race relationships, and abortion.  Suicide was featured from the point of view of both the individual that committed the act and those left behind after the deed was done.  As in real life, some of the teens made good decisions, but many of them made the wrong choice as well.  They handled the consequences of their actions to varying degrees.

Of course, the series wasn’t entirely focused on turmoil.  There were plenty of fun moments littered throughout the series as well.  Many of these moments played out through the actions of Joey Jeremiah (Pat Mastroianni), Archibald “Snake” Simpson (Stefan Brogren), and Derek “Wheels” Wheeler (Neil Hope).  The trio formed a band known as The Zit Remedy and had one hit (at least on Degrassi Street).  They often found themselves in awkward or silly situations that provided a much needed injection of humor in an otherwise very dramatic show.  Another strong comedic source was the relationship between Alexa Poppadopolos (Irene Courakos) and Simon Dexter (Michael Carry).  Simon did pretty much any and everything that Alexa told him to do.  The pair would eventually marry on the show.

The series was responsible for a number of my earliest crushes including Spike, Caitlin Ryan (Stacie Mistysyn), Stephanie Kaye (Nicole Stoffman), Heather and Erica Farrell (Maureen and Angela Deiseach), and Michelle Accette (Maureen McKay).  I also idolized a lot of the teen guys on the show, hoping to be as cool as they were in my opinion.  I really identified with Snake’s awkwardness and the somewhat nerdy Yick Yu (Siluck Saysanasy) and Arthur Kobalewscy (Duncan Waugh).

Despite its sometimes controversial content (at least in the eyes of adults in the late 80’s), the series was wildly popular in Canada and became very successful in the United States thanks to PBS.  When the series was given new life in 2001, fans of the classic series tuned in with just as much or more enthusiasm as did the younger demographic that the series was aimed at on television.  Fans wanted to catch up with Joey, Snake, Wheels, Lucy, Spike, and Caitlin.  Through Emma (played by Miriam McDonald in the new series), classic characters were tied to the new series and it went on to have a fourteen season run before spawning yet another series called Degrassi: Next Class.

Most of the cast members from Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High faded out of the spotlight once the series ended.  Dayo Ade, who portrayed BLT in the series, has gone on to have a solid acting career with roles in everything from Lost to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Anais Granofsky, who played Lucy Fernandez, has had multiple supporting roles and works behind the camera as well.  Stefan Brogren, Pat Mastroianni, Stacie Mistysyn, and Amanda Stepto all returned to the series with Degrassi: The Next Generation.  Both Brogren and Stepto were regular cast members for most of the seasons, with Mastroianni and Mistysyn having recurring roles.  Sadly, Neil Hope passed away in 2007.  Estranged from almost all of his family and friends, his death wasn’t learned about by them until 2012.

Few shows had an impact on me as did Degrassi.  I lived for the day to day lives of these teenagers, many who looked, acted, reacted, or dealt with issues just like I did at the time.  The series was a trailblazer then and its impact can still be felt today.  In all of television history, few shows were willing to take on the issues that this series tackled.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane.  I’ll have a few reviews in the near future and hopefully another Focus On feature.  Did you watch Degrassi back in the day?  If you did, let me know how you felt about the show and if it had an impact on your life in the comments section.