GOING THERE: A FAREWELL TO DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION
Perhaps this may say more about me than it does about the series itself, I have a very vivid memory of the moment I discovered Degrassi: The Next Generation. It was the summer of 2002; I was eleven years old, and 7th grade was just around the corner. For some reason (let’s call it destiny), my mother had uncharacteristically permitted me to remain downstairs watching television after going up to bed herself that night. It was later than I was used to staying up, and I was skimming through the channels when I landed on one that I had never watched—Noggin—which was airing something that was somehow different than anything I had ever seen before. There was a boy and girl who appeared to be around my age, and they were getting ready to go on their first date. Her name was Emma, his was Sean. Her hair clips, purse, and t-shirt all matched perfectly; she had crimped her hair. He was acting nervous but appreciably polite towards her mother, who was shamelessly making them stand together at the foot of the stairs so that she could take a photo of the momentous occasion, with what I was sure was the largest disposable camera I had ever seen. In the photo, Emma and Sean stood about two feet apart, definitely not touching. It was awkward and uncomfortable. It was realistic and believable. It was Degrassi, and I was immediately hooked.
When I heard this past June that Degrassi had been cancelled after fourteen seasons, I realized that it had been years since the last time I actually sat down and watched the show. Not because I felt it wasn’t worth my time anymore; I had simply outgrown it. I still felt, however, a sense of mourning, like something was being lost, or rather like it was the end of an era. Shows about secondary school don’t last for fourteen years without reason. I felt certain that once it ended, there would be an onslaught of retrospective pieces published online about the series’ contribution to the television landscape, just as there had been for recent concluding series like Mad Men or Breaking Bad. Especially, I thought, since the generation that grew up with Degrassi: The Next Generation is now the generation publishing think pieces on the internet.
I was sadly mistaken. I looked, expectantly, and found nothing of the sort, and that was simply not okay by me. I can remember being thirteen years old and confidently, un-ironically declaring to a friend that, "The answer to any question can be found within an episode of Degrassi." I was a weird kid. How could a show with a legacy that profound simply end without inspiring a single article of gratitude?
And so it has.
I decided right then and there to go back and re-watch the series from the beginning, for the first time as an adult. Not all of it, mind you, because I did the math and that would take me 192 hours (and that only counts this iteration), but hey. It’s the thought that counts, right?
Degrassi: The Next Generation was created by Linda Schuyler and Yan Moore and is the fourth iteration of Schuyler’s long-running Degrassi television series. The series debuted in 1979 with The Kids of Degrassi Street, followed by Degrassi Junior High, and then Degrassi High, which ended in 1991. The second season of Degrassi Junior High concluded with one of its young protagonists, Spike, having a baby out of wedlock. While developing a new series in 1999, it occurred to Moore that in 2001, baby Emma herself would theoretically be starting school at Degrassi Junior High. Thus, Degrassi: The Next Generation was conceived.
The series chronicles the day-to-day lives of a diverse group of students attending Degrassi Community School in Toronto, Ontario. In the first season, they are 7th and 8th graders. Thankfully, diversity in Degrassi terms actually means diversity, and its cast was made up of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. Unlike most television shows set in high school, Degrassi did not focus exclusively on one single friend group or social class. As in actual school, there were many characters who never even came in contact with one another. Inclusivity was the name of the game, and representation was clearly the goal of the series.
The most obvious thing that sets Degrassi apart from most other teen dramas, in every iteration, is its real world approach to casting and storytelling. When Next Generation premiered in October of 2001, the oldest of its young cast was Daniel Clark (Sean), who was a sixteen-year-old playing a thirteen-year-old. The youngest was Cassie Steele (Manny), who, born at the tail end of 1989, was actually four months younger than the twelve-year-old she was portraying. The series was not preaching at kids from the flashy, removed eagle eye of so many other teen dramas. Blemishes and braces galore, it was telling its stories from the only perspective that really matters – the perspective of the kids themselves. They even wore the same outfits from time to time, just like actual kids do. How refreshing!
The storylines themselves also set the show apart from the genre. The original series was notorious for an unflinching, boundary-pushing, taboo-breaking approach to storytelling, and this new generation was no exception. The very first episode, in fact, sees twelve-year-old Emma being lured and then locked in a hotel room by a child predator she met online. (This being the first generation growing up with the internet as an everyday thing). Straight out of the gate, the show wanted its viewers to know that just because it looked like a kids’ show didn’t mean it was worthless or had nothing of importance to say. This wasn’t the Disney Channel. I will never forget how validated the series made me feel as a kid, especially in its darkest moments. This was a TV show that was about my life that actually looked like it could be my life. There really was, and is, nothing else like it on television.
By the time the series returned for season two, the mission statement of the writers and producers was clear; the second season onward saw the gradual introduction of a slew of new characters. The writers continually produced boundary-pushing storylines about everything: date rape, homosexuality, child abuse, domestic violence, self-mutilation, male eating disorders, mental illness, bullying, abortion (a two-part episode that was banned in the US for years), school torment, violence (one storyline handled so delicately it could inspire its own retrospective think piece), and beyond. If it sounds overly dramatic, that is because sometimes it could be, but by allowing every episode of Degrassi to be a "Very Special Episode" of Degrassi: The Next Generation, they managed to do away with "Very Special" episodes altogether. Whether it was finding out that a mom had been dating a dorky teacher, or a kid was coming out to his best friend, every plotline was treated with the utmost importance. When kids are going through it all, it all matters equally. The people behind Degrassi graciously understood that.
I’m not the only one who thinks so highly of the series, either. Aside from the seventeen Gemini Awards that the series has won since 2002 (think Canadian Emmys), it was also nominated for five GLAAD Awards between 2004-2013 and three Creative Arts Emmy Awards. In 2010, the series even won a prestigious Peabody Award for the two-part episode "My Body Is a Cage," which introduced Adam, a transgendered boy. The show remained relevant all the way through.
Somehow, the series still manages to be left out of the cultural conversation when it comes to shows that have done something to change the television landscape, even when that conversation is focused specifically towards teen dramas. Most recently, even the absurdly frenetic Glee is frequently given more credit for the diversity of its "high school" ensemble and willingness to put LGBTQ characters front and center. As someone who was also briefly, yet passionately obsessed with Glee, I would like to go on the record here and say that Degrassi did it exceedingly better. They also did it first and in a much less overtly self-satisfied manner. Was Degrassi’s acting, writing, and production value always up to the same quality as that of shows like Mad Men or Breaking Bad? Maybe not, but it never tried to be that kind of show. It understood its place within the television landscape, and it handled that position with aplomb. Its heart was always in the right place, and its impact can still be felt by those who knew it well. Trust me.
That is probably why the rights to the series had been purchased by Netflix almost immediately after its cancellation. The newest iteration, Degrassi: Next Class, is set to debut sometime in 2016. Personally, I won’t be watching—I am no longer the series’ target audience. There is a new next generation (the first generation of TV on the internet) that Degrassi has to serve now, and even though I won’t be watching, I’m sure it will do just that and more, "Whatever It Takes".
View the Degrassi: The Next Generation Trailer
Dana Culin is a junior English major with a concentration in Film & Media Studies. She has a dangerously overactive imagination and a deep-seated appreciation for the real-world powers of fiction.
