Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

This week, it’s a Zit Remedy sleepover!

Episode 2.11 “Trust Me”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on March 14th, 1988)

Snake is super-excited!  His parents are going out of town and he’s going to have the house to himself for a day and a night.  Joey is excited because that means he and Wheels can crash over at Snake’s.  Joey wants to talk about to them about his plans to take their band, the Zit Remedy, to superstardom.  Joey gets even more excited when he sees that Snake’s parents’ left their car behind.

Here’s my question.  Snake’s real name is Archie but he’s called Snake for reasons that I’ve never understood.  Wheels’s real name is Derek Wheeler and his nickname obviously has to do with his last name.  So, why is Joey Jeremiah just Joey?  Why doesn’t he get a supercool nickname?  Maybe Joey wouldn’t always feel the need to show off if he had a better nickname.

Joey, perhaps hoping to get a nickname like Drivey or Speedy, swears that he knows how to drive.  At first, Snake sensibly says that no one is going to drive his parents’ car.  But then everyone oversleeps and Wheels awakens with only 15 minutes to get to the eye doctor!  (Wheels has already missed several appointments and is running the risk of getting grounded.)  Joey offers to drive Wheels to the doctor’s office.

Amazingly enough, Joey manages to get Wheels to his appointment without crashing the car.  But then, Joey insists that he and Snake should get breakfast.  While Joey is ordering French fries at a local Toronto diner, a truck backs into the car and appears to break the taillight.  Using the $85 that the band was going to spend on an amp, Joey and Snake get the taillight fixed.  But then it turns out that the taillight had been broken for a week and, when Snake’s parents see that it has been fixed, they realize something happened while they were gone.

Phone calls are made.  Snake and Wheels are grounded and ordered not to hang out with each other outside of school.  And Joey’s parents decide to take away Joey’s keyboard.  IS THIS THE END OF THE ZIT REMEDY!?

(Of course, anyone who has watched any of the various versions of Degrassi knows that the Zit Remedy is going to be around for a very long time, despite the fact that they only wrote and performed one song.  Still, I appreciated the show’s attempt to build some suspense as to whether or not the band will ever actually get a chance to perform in public.)

Meanwhile, Spike is kicked out of school!  Booo!  The Farrell Twins, who have apparently decided they need more friends than just Stephanie, agree to bring her homework to her house so that Spike won’t get held back a year.  Good for them.

This was a good episode, largely because it explored the dynamics of the Joey/Snake/Wheels friendship.  Joey is the one who enthusiastically pursues every idea and who has limitless faith in himself and his friends.  Snake is the pragmatist.  Wheels is somewhere in between.  Joey needs Snake to keep him grounded but Snake needs Joey to remind him that it’s okay to dream and have fun.  Watching the three of them hanging out in this episode, it’s hard not to think about what the future holds for them.  They’re not going to be rock stars but Joey is going to find success as a father and a car salesman.  Snake is going to eventually be principal of Degrassi.  And Wheels …. well, let’s deal with that when we have to.  This is one of those episodes that’s more fun if you don’t know what’s going to happen to everyone in the future.  If you do know, it’s actually rather sad to see everyone so hopeful and innocent.

Next week, the sleazy substitute returns to Degrassi!