Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.13 “One Last Dance”

Posted on August 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991! The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

Degrassi High comes to a close. Here’s the final time we’ll be hearing this theme song.

Episode 2.13 “One Last Dance”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on February 11th, 1991)

With the end of term approaching, the students of Degrassi High are shocked to hear that their school will be closing. The next year, everyone will be split up and going to different schools. Lucy may have just been elected president of the student council but she’s never going to take office.

It’s sad news but at least the students get one last dance.

Joey and Caitlin finally get back together as the series come to a close, dancing in Degrassi’s gym. Upon hearing some students discussing the rumor that one of their classmates is HIV+, an angry Dwayne finally admits that it’s him. His “friend” Nick (George Chaker) refuses to speak to him. His other friend, Tabby (Michele Johnson-Murray), finally gets over her fear and shares a dance with him. Snake dances with Michelle. Wheels shows up to the dance and I’m going to assume that he’s no longer homeless. Arthur — remember when this show was all about Arthur? — is spotted dancing with someone. The camera pans over all of the students in the school’s gym, sharing some final moments as they prepare to end one chapter of their life and start another. It’s a low-key but effective ending for the show. It helps that the we’ve gotten to know the characters so well. Degrassi High didn’t need to burn down the school to have an effective ending. It just needed to get everyone together in the gym.

However, it was not the end of the franchise, not hardly. A year after Degrassi High ended, School’s Out would air and our characters would be given temporary (and, in some cases, rather tragic) closure. I’ll take a second look at School’s Out next Sunday. And then, a decade or so later, a new generation would become students at Toronto’s most famous learning center. Degrassi: The Next Generation is coming soon!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.11 “Showtime, Part 2”

Posted on July 20, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In yourself, you must believe….

Episode 2.11 “Showtime Part 2”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on January 28th, 1991)

The students of Degrassi High struggle to move on from the suicide of Claude Tanner. The talent show goes on, with all of the money raised being given to Claude’s parents. Snake, for his part, goes to therapy and stays home from school. When Joey visits him, Snake mentions that, when he found Claude, half of his face was missing. Meanwhile, Caitlin is haunted by visions of Claude, smiling and trying to hand her a flower.

This episode was not quite what I was expecting. Instead of embracing the melodrama (as Degrassi: The Next Generation would have), this episode is low-key and realistic about showing the ways that people deal with grief and trauma. Snake is understandably shaken but what makes his scene so poignant is that he’s obviously struggling to pretend like he isn’t or that life can go back to normal after what he’s seen. I spent this entire episode waiting for Caitlin to breakdown. She didn’t and really, I have to commend the show for that because I sometimes think we put too much pressure on people to release all of their emotions before they’re ready to do so. Caitlin is still emotionally number and it’s going to be a while before she’s ready to really talk about what happened. And that’s okay! Sometimes, it takes a while. It’s only now, nearly a year after he died, that I’m really starting to realize how depressed I’ve been over the past year. All those times that I thought I was moving on, I was really just distracting myself from the pain. And now, with that one year anniversary approaching, I find myself crying at the most random of times. It’s not pleasant. My heart hurts on most days. But I know that eventually, I’ll make it through. Everyone grieves in their own way and apparently, this is the way that I grieve.

This was a good Joey episode. Not only did Caitlin agree to tutor him in his science class but Wheels finally paid back the money that he stole from Joey’s mother. During their study session, Joey and Caitlin talked about the suicide, with Joey asking if Caitlin knew Claude. I guess the show’s writers forgot that, last season, Joey was intensely jealous over Caitlin and Claude’s relationship. Still, regardless of that continuity error, the scenes between Joey and Caitlin were well-written, well-acted, and emotionally honest.

In other words, this was a good episode. I’ve seen a lot of shows that have dealt with suicide. I’ve rarely seen any that dealt with it as well and as honestly as Degrassi High.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.10 “Showtime Part One”

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, tragedy comes to Degrassi.

Episode 2.10 “Showtime, Part One”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on January 21st, 1991)

When last we saw Claude Tanner, Caitlin was dumping him because he left her behind when the police showed up at the nuclear facility that they were vandalizing. Claude then refused to go to court to support her, saying that his parents wouldn’t understand. That was during the first season.

Other than appearing in the opening credits, Claude was not in the first nine episodes of the second season of Degrassi High. When he did return in tonight’s episode, he made Degrassi history.

When we first see Claude, he’s wearing what appears to be a pirate shirt and he’s looking over a piece of paper. His beard is a bit thicker. His earing is a lot bigger. When he sees Caitlin, he tries to talk to her. Caitlin tells him to get lost and then asks Maya why Claude just can’t leave her alone.

Claude is auditioning for the school talent show. He reads a monologue that he’s written, one about an ice queen who makes the entire world dark. Lucy and Bronco tell him that his monologue is too depressing for the show. Claude accuses all of the students of being sheep and storms out of the auditorium.

The next day, Claude gives Caitlin a flower, goes to his locker and retrieves a gun, and then shoots himself in the washroom. His body is later discovered by Snake.

Over the course of Degrassi’s long history, many students would die. Tragically, Claude would not be the only one to commit suicide. One was shot while trying to shoot up the school. The class clown was stabbed to death by a student from a rival high school. Another died in a car accident. However, Claude was the first.

And I have to say that I was really impressed with how Degrassi High handled Claude’s suicide. Snake was traumatized. Caitlin was left feeling numb. Some students talked about how much Claude was hurting and also about their own struggles with depression. Lucy and Spike both said that Claude’s actions were selfish and that he killed himself at school because he wanted to hurt all of the other students. When it comes to Claude, I have to admit that I find myself agreeing with Lucy and Spike. When Caitlin returns home from school, she finds a bouquet of flowers and a note from Claude waiting for her. In the note, Claude says that he loved her and the words are obviously meant to make her feel responsible for his death. The episodes ends with Caitlin throwing the flowers away. Claude would probably say that proves that Caitlin doesn’t care about him. I think it proves that Claude was a jerk who killed himself specifically to get back at Caitlin.

That doesn’t make Claude’s suicide any less tragic. Any suicide is a tragedy, especially when the person in question hasn’t even reached adulthood. As one of Claude’s friends says in this episode, Claude was sad and he didn’t feel he had anyone he could talk to. That is a tragedy and sadly, even though this episode aired over 30 years ago, there’s a lot of people who still feel that way. We live in a world where more and more people view life as being not a gift but instead a burden. It’s sad. Myself, I’m a strong believer in life and finding things to love. I love my boyfriend. I love my sisters. I love writing. I love movies. I love cats. I love knowing that, even when I’m at my lowest, happiness is in the future. Most importantly, I love myself. Never give up.

This episode was sensitive and thought-provoking and Degrassi as its best. Next week, the fallout from Claude’s suicide continues.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.8 “Home, Sweet Home”

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, everyone is sick of Wheels.

Episode 2.8 “Home, Sweet Home”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on January 7th, 1991)

Oh, Wheels! Always in trouble, that one.

Ever since getting kicked out of his grandma’s house, Wheels has been staying with Joey but, after several weeks, Joey and his parents are sick of their houseguest. Wheels easts all the food, never says thank you, and has yet to even to start to look for his own place. Instead, he steals a bunch of money from Joey’s mom’s purse. As a result, Wheels not only gets kicked out of the Jeremiah residence but Snake’s parents announce that Wheels can’t stay with them either. Trapped outside during a thunderstorm, Wheels calls his grandmother and promises to obey her rules if she allows him to come home.

“I don’t believe you,” she replies before hanging up on him.

OUCH! Though, to be honest, she’s right about Wheels’s sincerity. Wheels is a pathological liar who takes advantage of anyone who trusts him. It’s been a while since he was the cool kid that everyone wanted to date.

Wheels eventually crashes on Snake’s back porch. (“My parents cannot know you’re back here,” Snake says.) The next day, at school, Wheels promises Joey that he will pay back the money he owes. Joey turns his back on Wheels and walks off.

And, again, Wheels really has no one to blame for but himself. And those of us who know our Degrassi history know that things are soon going to get even worse for Derek Wheeler.

Meanwhile, Michelle returns home so she can have a quiet place to study. She is shocked to find her father is at the house. (She thought he would be at cooking class.) Michelle agrees to move back in but on the condition that she pay rent and that her father stop trying to control her life. Her father reluctantly agrees. I guess, now that she’s broken up with BLT, it no longer matters that her father was previously portrayed as being a raging racist.

This episode was okay but it felt very familiar. We’ve done the whole Wheels-is-awful thing already. Add to that, as terrible as Wheels is, I don’t really agree with Grandma’s decision to refuse to allow him to come home. Wheels promised to abide by his grandmother’s rules and that was the condition that Grandma set for his return. Wheels is a handful and undoubtedly was being insincere but I think Grandma is going back on her word here. If Wheels had come home, she could have at least continued to talk to him and kept trying to get him to go to therapy. Instead, she left him out in the middle of Toronto in a rainstorm. Shame on her for that.

Some characters are just doomed no matter what and that’s certainly the case with Wheels.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 4.13 “Testing, One, Two Three”

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, everyone faces a test.

Episode 4.13 “Testing, One, Two, Three”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on January 30th, 1990)

After being absent for the past few episodes, Joey and Caitlin are finally the center of this week’s story. Both of them are struggling. Joey, despite all of his efforts to study and pay attention in class, is still getting bad grades. The school counselor thinks that Joey has dysgraphia, a learning disability that makes it difficult for him to express his thoughts in an organized fashion. Caitlin, meanwhile, is going to have to appear in court as a result of getting arrested while vandalizing that nuclear plant.

A few thoughts:

Claude — or “Clode” as he wants to be called — once again shows himself to be the worst ever when he says he’s not sure if he can go to court with Caitlin. Claude is the one who convincing Caitlin to vandalize the plant in the first place and, when the cops showed up, he abandoned her. Big-time rebel Claude actually asks his parents for permission to skip school to go to Caitlin’s court date. They say no, just as Claude knew they would. What a putz!
“My parents aren’t liberal like yours!” Claude whines to Caitlin.
Maya actually puts off a doctor’s appointment so she can go to Caitlin’s medical appointment! Good for you, Maya …. except, doctor’s appointments can kind of be important, too.
Actually, now that I think about it, why should anyone be going to court with Caitlin? Caitlin made the decision to spray paint her stupid slogans on her own. Claude shouldn’t have abandoned her but Caitlin shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Caitlin acts as if Claude should take her punishment for her but actually, Claude being a coward doesn’t mean that Caitlin is somehow absolved. She knew she could get in trouble when she climbed over that fence.
This episode is a good example of why Caitlin drives a lot of people crazy. Caitlin has a problem and everyone else is expected to drop everything and spend all of their time worrying about it.
Joey, meanwhile, has a real problem to deal with. He feels stupid. He’s not dumb, not at all. But his grades remain stubbornly bad and he’s just been told that he has a scary-sounding “condition” and that he’s going to have to take a special class to learn how to function. And yes, there’s no shame in having a learning disability. I have ADHD so when Joey talked about struggling to organize his thoughts, I knew exactly what he was saying. But, when you’re the one hearing the words “learning disability,” it’s scary! My heart went out to Joey in this episode.
Evil bully Dwayne made an appearance, harassing Joey after he overhears Joey describing him as being a gorilla. Joey and Dwayne get into yet another fight. Joey gets detention. Dwayne gets suspended.
Caitlin is also in detention, as a result of slapping Claude. Caitlin and Joey are still not getting along but we know that’s going to change.
Finally, there was one other subplot. The students in a difficult biology class were excited to learn that Alex (John Ioannou) had an advanced copy of the big test. Alex’s older brother saved all of his old tests. Alex gives Tessa a copy of the test but makes her promise not to let anyone know. Tessa lets everyone know. Everyone in the class passes! They don’t get caught. But the teacher says its obvious that the test was too easy so he decides to toss out the results and give everyone a new test …. WHAT!? CAN HE DO THAT!? What the heck, Canada!?
Incidentally, I never would have passed Algebra II if my sister hadn’t saved all of her tests. Thank you, Erin Nicole!

And that’s it for the week. Remember — in yourself, you must believe!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.11 “All In A Good Cause:

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Claude shows that in yourself, you must believe.

Episode 1.11 “All In A Good Cause”

(Dir by Eleanore Lindo, originally aired on January 16th, 1990)

There’s a wonderful moment in this week’s episode in which Claude tells Caitlin that they have a moral obligation to vandalize a factory that is being used to make nuclear weapons. (Yikes! In downtown Toronto!? Really, Canada!?) Claude says that Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t let the law stop him.

Caitlin agrees.

The Chicago Seven, Claude continues, didn’t let the law stop them from protesting for what was right.

“Who are the Chicago Seven?” Caitlin asks.

Claude gets frustrated. “They were seven guys from Chicago.”

“What did they do?”

Claude, after a pause, “They were totally radical!”

Of course, Claude is incorrect. The Chicago Seven were not seven guys from Chicago. They were seven (originally eight) guys who came to Chicago from all over the country and they were arrested during the 1968 Democratic Convention. As for whether or not they were totally radical …. well, it depends on who you ask. Abbie Hoffman thought they were radical. Bobby Seale thought all of them were poseurs with the exception of himself. Jerry Rubin went on to become a businessman. Tom Hayden went into state politics and married an Oscar winner. As for the other members …. well, who cares? There’s a movie about them if you really want to subject yourself to it.

Claude is like a lot of young activists. He’s passionate and he’s convinced he’s going to save the world but he’s also totally shallow and given to hyperbole. Claude’s plan to vandalize the factory amounts to spray painting one anodyne anti-nuke message on a wall in the middle of the night. Caitlin serves as his lookout. When the cops arrive, Claude runs and leaves Caitlin behind. That stupid hippie!

Catilin does the right thing She dumps that pretentious douchebag! Good for her. Don’t get me wrong. I get it. I went through a period of time where I had a weakness for passionate activists as well. It was between my first bad boy phase and my second bad boy phase. But Claude was just so annoying and, even worse, Caitlin dumped Joey for this loser. Joey may not have known much about politics but Joey also would never have abandoned Caitlin to the cops.

This was a really good episode. Along with the Caitlin/Claude fiasco, this episode also features Kathleen finally reporting her abusive ex-turned-stalker Scott to the police and getting a restraining order against him. Good for Kathleen! (Rebecca Haines really did a good job portraying Kathleen’s ordeal with Scott and, in the best Degrassi tradition, she showed the audience that there was more to Kathleen than they may have originally assumed.) Even Arthur got a decent storyline this episode. Eager to show that he could be just as dangerous and daring as Yick, he and Yick toilet-papered Raditch’s house. What was funny about this plotline is that Arthur wanted to impress Luke. This is the same Luke who gave Shane the PCP that caused him to fall off a bridge. Get better heroes, Arthur!

This was an excellent episode. It’s tempting to hope that Caitlin learned a lesson from this experience but those of us who have watched Degrassi: The Next Generation know better.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.8 “Little White Lies”

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s time for another party!

Episode 1.8 “Little White Lies”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on December 19th, 1989)

There’s yet another party being held and Diana (Chrisa Erodotu) desperately wants to attend!

Who?

Diana has been on the show for a while but this is the first episode to feature her at the center of a story. She’s a friend of Kathleen’s and she wears glasses and …. well, that’s pretty much all we’ve learned about her in the past. In this episode, it’s revealed that she’s Greek, her parents are dead, and she lives with her overprotective brother (Nick Stamiris). Her brother doesn’t want Diana to go to a party. In fact, when he catches her smoking, he throws a fit and he ground her. He may seem a bit harsh but I had some sympathy for the character. He’s barely an adult himself but he has to keep an eye on and take care of Diana. I think he’s being too overprotective but I get where his mind is at.

Diana, however, decides to sneak out of the house and go the party on her own. She has a crush on Yick and he might be there! When she arrives, she has a drink and sits on the couch while holding a bottle of alcohol. How could this go wrong …. oh wait, who just walked into the party and spotted Diana sitting there with the alcohol? It’s her brother! Diana gets dragged home and has a big fight with her brother.

Poor Diana! That said, this is something that happened to a lot of Degrassi students over the course of the series, most of whom I felt I knew a lot better than Diana. Diana’s just kind of been a nonentity up until this episode so it’s hard for me to get worked up, one way or another, over her situation. It doesn’t help that Diana continually compares herself and her friends to The Outsiders and yes, I do mean the book about the juvenile delinquents in Oklahoma. Degrassi High deserves some credit for giving the less-cool students just as much attention as Joey, Caitlin, and the main stars but the whole Outsiders is just a bridge too far for me.

Speaking of Joey, he, Snake, and Wheels decide to go a strip club! It doesn’t work out, even with the use of fake IDs. First off, when they arrive at the club, they discover that two of the fake IDs have Joey’s name on them. Joey is sure the bouncer won’t notice. Then, they discover that they’ll only have enough money to pay the cover charge if they pool all their money together. Unfortunately, since they’ll also have to order drinks inside the club, they still only have enough money for two of them to go in. Snake and Wheels head in to the club, deserting their friend Joey. A prostitute approaches Joey and asks if he would like to have a good time but the clueless Joey says that he has to get home. Meanwhile, Snake and Wheels pay $8 for two Cokes and are then kicked out when they say they can’t afford anything else. Who would have guessed life in Canada could be so difficult!

This episode felt a bit too familiar for its own good. Diana’s story is one that we’ve seen dozens of times on Degrassi. And Snake, Joey, and Wheels are always doing something stupid and getting kicked out of places. This episode wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly memorable either.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.7 “Just Friends”

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Wheels breaks another heart.

Episode 1.7 “Just Friends”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on December 12th, 1989)

Heather Farrell has a crush on Wheels so Erica Farrell helps her throw a party so she can invite Wheels to their house and share a dance with him and maybe discover if he feels the same way about her that she does about him. Of course, Wheels doesn’t feel that way about Heather and is surprised when Snake informs him that Heather obviously has a crush on him. Still, that doesn’t stop Wheels from making out with Heather on her front porch while all of the party guests watch through the front window.

Heather has a boyfriend!

Well, no. Actually, Wheels tells Snake that he still doesn’t like Heather like that and that making out with her is just something that happened. He’s only interested in her as a friend. (AGCK! I mean, don’t get me wrong. This is actually a lot more realistic than what happens on most high school shows but poor Heather!) Wheels is supposed to call Heather when he gets home so that they can talk. Of course, Wheels doesn’t call Heather and he ends up with not one but both of the Farrell twins mad at him and giving him their trademark evil eye.

(Of course, as we all know, Wheels is eventually going to be sent for prison after he runs over a kid while driving drunk so, really, the Farrell twins kind of lucked out here.)

The main problem with any episode that centers around the Farrell twins is that it’s difficult to remember which is which and neither one of them is really that interesting of a character. I spent most of this episode trying to remember whether it was Erica or Heather who had the abortion. I’m pretty sure it was Erica, which explains why Erica freaked out when she saw Heather making out with Wheels. Erica doesn’t want the same thing that happened to her to happen to Heather. But, aside from that, the Farrells have always kind of been boring characters and their party looked kind of lame as well.

Lucy was invited to the party but, instead of going, she instead went to the hospital to visit with L.D., who had just been told that she had Leukemia. Good for Lucy! One of the best parts of Degrassi High has been watching Lucy go from being self-centered and kind of mean to being one of the show’s most genuinely nice characters. To the show’s credit, it’s shown her slowly becoming more emotionally mature as opposed to just having her change overnight. It’s another example of how Degrassi High was realistic in the way that most teen shows were not and still aren’t.

Finally, Kathleen, Melanie, and Diana went to a movie but they didn’t invite their friend Maya (Kyra Levy) because Maya is in a wheelchair. They didn’t think Maya would have been able to take the “streetcar” to the movie and the theater was not wheelchair accessible. The next day, an angry Maya tells them that she could have gotten a ride from her mom and that they could have gone to a different theater that was accessible. Maya angrily tells them not to assume that she can’t do things just because she’s in a wheelchair. Good for Maya! Myself, I’m just happy to see that Kathleen has apparently dumped the abusive Scott and is refusing to speak to him. Good for for Kathleen!

This episode was a good example of how Degrassi High dealt realistically with being a teenager. The Farrell twins are kind of boring but the L.D. and Maya subplots were well-handled. This was a good episode, even if both Joey and Caitlin were noticeably absent.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 4.6 “Nobody’s Perfect”

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh Romeo, Romeo….

Episode 4.6 “Nobody’s Perfect”

(Dir by Eleanore Lindo, originally aired on December 5th, 1989)

This week’s episode is all about relationships, good and bad.

Patrick (Vincent Walsh), a student from Ireland, sees that Spike is wearing a Pogues t-shirt and asks her out. Spike replies that she wants to but she can’t because she has to take care of baby Emma at night. Patrick suggests a day date instead. Spike agrees, even if she’s still struggling to deal with her feelings about Shane.

(Shane, having suffered brain damage after a bad LSD trip, is not enrolled at Degrassi High. We won’t see him again until the third season premiere of Degrassi: The Next Generation.)

Meanwhile, despite having broken up with him so that she can date “Clode,” Caitlin still volunteers to be Joey’s scene partner for home room. They’re supposed to perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet and …. yeah, there’s no way that’s going to be awkward, right? Caitlin tells Joey that, even though they’ve broken up, she hopes they can still be friends. Joey awkwardly says, “Yeah.” They talk about why they broke up. Caitlin even says, “It’s not you, it’s me.” Those of us who know our Degrassi history know that this is a scene that’s going to be frequently repeated over the next twenty years or so.

Finally, Kathleen has convinced herself that she’s totally in love with Scott. Afterall, Scott is always telling Kathleen how much he loves her. He gives her jewelry. He sends her flowers. He wants her to spend all of her free time with him. Of course, when Scott isn’t doing all of that, he’s beating on her and telling her that she’s stupid for wanting to have any interests outside of being his girlfriend. When Kathleen is disappointed to discover that she hasn’t been cast in the school play, Scott informs her that she’s just not a very good actress and she shouldn’t worry about it. When Kathleen says that she wants to try out for a play at the community center, Scott tells her that she needs to make time for him. When Kathleen tries to have lunch with her friends, Scott drags her away so that she can have lunch with him. When Kathleen stays after school to practice a scene with her scene partner (who happens to be Luke, the guy who gave Shane the acid), Scott goes absolutely crazy and beats her up in the classroom.

“Kathleen,” Scott insists as Kathleen finally walks away from him, “I love you!”

Kathleen turns to look at him. We get a freeze frame of her bruised face and then the insanely cheerful Degrassi theme music starts playing. It makes for an interesting juxtaposition. (Combining cheerful music with depressing freeze frames was a Degrassi tradition.)

This episode deserves a lot of credit for realistically portraying Kathleen and Scott’s relationship and Scott’s abusive personality. Everything that an abuser does — from the gaslighting to the subtle insults and the sudden accusations to the desperate begging for forgiveness — is present in this episode and Kathleen’s reactions (“I can change him!”) are all too real. Degrassi High was a show that dealt with real issues and it usually managed to do it without resorting to melodrama or false hope. The thing that makes this episode so powerful is that we don’t know if Kathleen had the courage to reject Scott after that freeze frame or, if like so many other girls and women in the same situation, she once again forgave her abuser. Rebecca Haines deserves a lot of credit for her performance here, as does Byrd Dickens, who is terrifying as Scott. This episode was Degrassi High at its best and most important.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 1.4 “Dream On”

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Love is in the air …. for some.

Episode 1.4 “Dream On”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on November 20th, 1989)

I hate bullies.

Sadly, bullies are a part of life and they have been since the start of recorded history. I imagine that even cavemen had their own versions of bullies and nerds. Bullies deal with their own insecurities by picking on outsiders. Most people hate bullies but they keep quiet when they see bullying because the unspoken threat is that, if they speak up, they could be the next one to be targeted. That’s especially true in high school.

Degrassi High has its own set of bullies. The episode features Tabi (Michele Johnson-Murray), who has decided to spend all of her time standing in front of the ninth grade lockers and refusing to allow the niners to use them. When Kathleen and Melanie walk by Tabi, Tabi sprays her hairspray in Melanie’s eyes. That’s not just rude but it’s also potentially dangerous. Kathleen is usually not a particularly likable character but, when she finally stood up to Tabi at the end of this episode and yelled at her to get away from the lockers, I wanted to cheer. Kathleen stands up to Tabi and a stunned Tabi walks away, saying something about niners being crazy but surrendering nonetheless. Yay, Kathleen!

Where did Kathleen find the confidence to stand up to Tabi? In this episode, she finally gets a boyfriend! Scott Smith (Byrd Dickens) is an 11th grader with a really ugly mustache. Looking at Scott, one can automatically smell the beer and see a future in which he spends all of time getting drunk at hockey games. That said, he seems to like Kathleen and he encourages her to try out for the school play. He even escorts her across the quad, which Tabi and her friend Dwayne previously declared to be off-limits for anyone in the ninth grade. Kathleen has a boyfriend and there’s no way this could go wrong, right? I mean, it’s not as if the Degrassi franchise has a long history of episodes in which insecure girls end up with older boyfriends who turn out to be abusive, right?

Meanwhile, Arthur has a crush on Caitlin and he’s overjoyed when he overhears Caitlin talking about how she’s getting tired of dating Joey, who is insensitive and only cares about his “dumb band.” However, it turns out that Caitlin is not interested in Arthur. Instead, she likes Claude, who has a goat-tee and is massively concerned about the environment. Claude (pronounced “Klohd” because he’s either really pretentious or he’s from Quebec and maybe both) invites Caitlin to a French movie.

“Do you know Jean-Luc Godard?” Claude asks.

“No, does he go here?” Caitlin replies.

It’s okay. When I was fourteen, I didn’t know who Jean-Luc Godard was either. That said, I am old enough now to know that Godard’s post-70s films were not exactly date material. Maybe Claude is asking her to a showing of Breathless. Still, I think Claude should have waited for a Truffaut and a Lelouch film to come to town.

My point is that Claude is kind of a douchebag. It’s obvious to everyone but Caitlin but sometimes, relationships are like that. That’s especially true when there’s an age and educational difference. I can understand Caitlin liking Claude, even if Claude seems pretty annoying to everyone else. But I can’t see this relationship ending well.

Oh well — at least Joey has time to work on the band! We all know from watching Degrassi: The Next Generation that Joey’s future lies in selling cars, not playing the keyboards.

And don’t worry about Arthur. He may get his heart-broken in this episode but the actor apparently had a growth spurt between Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High and he now basically towers over everyone in the cast. No one is ever going to bully Arthur again.

Next week, the drama continues!