Previously on Joshuaonline, we looked at Degrassi's very first piece of media called "Ida Makes a Movie" which was part of the first Degrassi series called "Kids of Degrassi Street" which I would love to do more of, I hopefully one day will. This time, we are skipping ahead to what became a follow up series called "Degrasi Jr. High".
Degrassi Jr. High followed up "Kids of Degrassi Street" meaning it premiered and a year after the other series. Following along with the concpept of what "Degrassi" was about, it was a series that really depict childhood in a close to accurate way or at least, be accurate to relate to a child. In this series' case was to relate to middle schoolers.
This series is not a direct sequel to "Kids" even though some of the actors did move on to this series in different roles. This series was a sequel in the sense that they took place at a Degrassi school on Degrassi street. This series premiered on CBC on January 18, 1987 and ran 3 seasons until 1989. The series made it to United States where it ran on PBS (yes, PBS) which was a bump from being on premium cable the predecessor series was placed. It also ran on other channels in other countries.
The first season was 13 episodes, this series amassed a total of 43 episodes. I'm going to talk about the very first episode, in this post, and maybe come back to this series in more depth even more in the future. This is really to give a feel for what the series was, (and coming back means I can talk about a very specific episode important in Degrassi history)
The first episode is called "Kiss me, Steph".
The episode starts with a boy named Arthur trying to get the attention of a girl named Stephanie, who pretends she doesn't know him because they are brother and sister because reasons. They also don't live together because their parents are divorced. (very expositional intro) She's a grade 8 and he's a grade 7 student. The theme song is very 80's like too 80's for the 80's. (I'm scared)
Hey wait! / Copyright Wild Brain
It's a brand new school year (wonderful!) The show's atmosphere fits more like camera is just following kids around kind of like how "Kids of Degrassi Street" felt. While Steph goes in all confident and exuding her know how of how things are done, her brother is new at the school is going through it like a lost puppy in a mall. (what?) Steph hears the school is doing a school election, because we are getting that plot on the very episode, and decides she should run for president.
Markers are most used during elections than any other thing / Copyright Wild Brain
There's a boy named Joey who fake helps Arthur find his class, instead directing him to a janitor's closet. (Arthur was naive enough to let this happen and Joey is dumb enough to let this work) A boy finds Arthur locked in the closet and they are both trying to find the right class room. They find her. (That was easy)
Yes, you are here/ Copyright Wild Brain
The episode flies by in time apparently, because Steph has already started campaigning and making posters and other election-y election stuff. The background music during this show is interesting, not bad, maybe that depends on taste, just slightly interesting. There's another person running, his name is Snake. (Oooh, those who know will know, I'll say nothing otherwise)
Rock n' Roll President / Copyright Wild Brain
Joey is back he's weird and maybe creepy. So then a dumb campaign offer comes up, read the title of the episode. Steph offers free kisses for votes. (what the heck? ) Voula, her best friend, doesn't like this plan at all, because it's dumb plan. She kind of just goes along with after being convinced slightly. She's also losing the girl vote and gathering the horny boy vote. (There's no other way to put that) Steph thanks Joey, forgetting her own friend. (I hope Voula does something to screw this election up for Steph. )
I will not forget this/ Copyright Wild Brain
Now it's election results time. (Shorter than our election) Steph wins the election ( I thought this was going go some other direction, oh well) Before the strange kissing stuff, Steph was really being helped by Voula in her speech making for example, and guess who's mad at her? (George?) She does help her brother not get stuffed in a locker by Joey. Voula tells Steph off for how she treated her, throws the friendship bracelet back at her.
After school, Arthur thanks her for helping earlier and offers to help her with her speech to the PTA since Voula won't. So, she takes the offer. The episode just kind of ends there.. like just stops and ends there. The show has continuity , so the next episode, Voula is still mad at her in the next episode and it seems if they are going to make up, it's going to take some time.
The idea of the show is to have some contained plots but also continuity meaning, nothing goes straight back to normal/ status quo in the next episode. This is the start of what Degrassi did as a series. The plot of this first episode is relatable to viewers in many ways and the idea of doing anything for popularity is shown well here. I think showing the arc with Steph and her brother, showing that she does care about him and maybe at least patched something with him, was a nice touch to show she isn't too far gone. One day, we'll return to Degrassi and even more return turn to Degrassi Jr. High.
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