Tag Archives: Karryn Sheridan

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.1 “Bad Blood: Part 1”

Posted on 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

It’s time for another school year!

Episode 2.1 “Bad Blood: Part 1”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on November 5th, 1990)

It’s time to start another year at Degrassi High!  There’s a lot going on:

  • Michelle spent the summer on a trip, which gave BLT time to find a new girlfriend.  He hasn’t told Michelle yet.  BLT says, “Michelle is so sensitive,” as if that’s a bad thing.  Remember when BLT was like the perfect boyfriend last season?  I guess that’s all gone out the window.
  • L.D.’s cancer is in remission!  However, she’s not back at school.  Her father sold his garage, bought a sailboat, and now he and L.D. are circling the globe.  So, I guess L.D. is just going to be a high school dropout?  Lucy films a video for L.D.  Good luck delivering it to the middle of the ocean.
  • Condom machines have been installed in the bathrooms!  The Farrell twin who keeps getting pregnant is super excited.
  • School bully Dwayne also loves the condom machines because he can fill the condoms with water and drop them on his longtime nemesis, Joey Jeremiah.
  • Joey is upset that Dwayne and his gang are in Joey’s special ed class.  However, Joey does have one good thing happening in his life.  He finally got his license!  Now, he just needs a car.
  • Hey, here’s a car that’s for sale!  But it costs …. $3,000!  And Joey only has $75.  Ha.  Loser.
  • How can Joey raise money?  What if he asks everyone to pay him to walk naked through the cafeteria?  All of the teachers are going to be in a staff meeting so there’s no way Joey’s going to get caught!
  • Joey goes through with it, walking into cafe naked while holding his fedora over his …. well, you know.  Joey’s embarrassed but he’s going to get a car!
  • Except …. OH NO!  IT’S RADITCH!
  • Who snitched on Joey?  That’s right, it was Dwayne!  Joey gets dragged to the office and he doesn’t get any of the money that he needed for his car.
  • Dwayne is still laughing about it when he arrives home.  His father tells him that “some chick” called for you.
  • Dwayne calls Penny, his summer girlfriend.  Penny tells him that her ex-boyfriend has tested positive for HIV and that’s she tested positive for HIV and maybe Dwayne should get tested….
  • To be continued….

Agck!  That’s quite an ending for what was, otherwise, a fairly light-hearted episode.  But that’s one thing that made Degrassi such a good show.  It understood how being in high school was often a bizarre mix of comedy and drama.  This episode spends a good deal of time portraying Dwayne as being the biggest jerk ever and then it ends with him looking absolutely terrified.  It’s a powerful moment.

Next week, the story continues as Dwayne’s life is changed forever.

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi Junior High 3.9 “Food For Thought”

Posted on 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 Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

This week, everyone’s thinking about food.

Episode 3.9 “Food For Thought”

(Dir by Eleanore Lindo and Kit Hood, originally aired on January 30th, 1989)

The science fair is coming up and the Farrell twins are doing their project on eating disorders.  One of them, I think it’s Heather, is convinced that everyone at Degrassi has an eating disorder.  She even speculates that Lucy has an eating disorder, even though Lucy explains that it’s a combination of exercise and her metabolism that allow her to remain thin.  “Some people are just thin,” the other twin says and that’s an important thing to remember.  Not every skinny girl has an eating disorder and assuming that they do can be very harmful to their self-image.

Alexa worries that she’s fat.  After she asks Simon if she’s fat, Simon stupidly says, “I don’t know.”  (Simon isn’t very smart.)  Alexa asks the Farrell twins if it’s possible to just be anorexic for a week.  To Alexa, that sounds like a much better way to lose weight than to exercise.

Meanwhile, the person who actually does have an eating disorder — Kathleen — is left to struggle alone.  Kathleen is the girl who always has to be the first to raise her hand with the answer in class.  She has to be the first to get involved with every school project  She always has to be the first to tell everyone else why they’re wrong.  Kathleen is a bossy perfectionist who insists that she doesn’t need anyone’s help.  As a result, Kathleen is not particularly popular.  Melanie is Kathleen’s only friend, largely because Melanie is one of the few people to understand that Kathleen’s home life sucks.  Her father is always working and her mother is an alcoholic.  Kathleen wants to win the science fair so her parents will be proud of her and maybe they’ll stop fighting for a few minutes.

Along with everything else, Kathleen is bulimic.  Despite already being thin, Kathleen is skipping meals and throwing up whatever she eats during the day.  She’s also taking laxatives.  (Ew!)  Melanie, sensing that something is wrong with Kathleen, takes a look at Kathleen’s diary while Kathleen is busy throwing up.  Melanie discovers that Kathleen is obsessed with losing ten pounds by the end of the week.

Needless to say, it all catches up with Kathleen.  After only receiving honorable mention in the science fair, Kathleen faints in the school hallway.  (It’s really not a show about an eating disorder until someone faints.)  What sets this episode apart from the typical episode about an eating disorder is that, even after she faints, Kathleen refuses to admit that she has a problem.  The episode ends with Kathleen refusing to listen as Melania tries to convince her that she needs to get help.  It’s a dark ending but it’s also a realistic one.  Problems are never as easily solved as television would have you believe.

This episode was an example of what Degrassi does so well.  Kathleen, a character who most shows would simply portray as being a one-dimensional bitch, is revealed to be suffering more than perhaps any of the other regular characters.  Instead of treating her like a joke or a stereotype, this episode invites us to consider why Kathleen acts the way that she does.  For all the well-intentioned students at Degrassi, the classmate who needs them the most is left to suffer in isolation.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi Junior High 3.7 “The Whole Truth”

Posted on 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 Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

Finally, it’s time to wake up in the morning and return to Degrassi….

Episode 3.7 “The Whole Truth”

(Dir by Eleanore Lindo, originally aired on January 16th, 1989)

Caitlin is super-excited!  She is the editor of the Degrassi Digest and she is convinced that the upcoming edition will be the best ever.  The only problem is that Kathleen has written an editorial in favor a school dress code.  Caitlin doesn’t want to publish Kathleen’s article but what could she replace it with?

When Caitlin sees that Liz and Spike are putting up posters featuring a monkey being tortured, she asks them what’s going on.  Liz explains that there’s a big animal rights protest march coming up.  Caitlin asks Liz to write an article about it but Liz says she doesn’t like to write.  Instead, she invites Caitlin over to her house and shows Caitlin several grotesque videos of different animals being experiment edupon.  Caitlin writes an editorial calling for the Degrassi student body to boycott any company that tests on animals.

Woo hoo!  Way to go, Caitlin, right?  Well, not quite. Kathleen is not happy that her editorial was cut.  She informs Caitlin that a lot of important medical breakthroughs were the result of scientists testing on animals.  Caitlin does some research and discovers that some animal research has to do with treating neurological conditions, like epilepsy.  Being an epileptic, Caitlin no longer feels that she can go to the protest march with Liz and Spike.  Liz accuses Caitlin of not caring about animals.  Meanwhile, one of Caitlin’s assistant editors resigns from the Digest because her father works for a company that tests on animals.

And so, Caitlin learns that there are two sides to every story!  Of course, that’s a lesson that Caitlin will have forgotten by the time Degrassi: The Next Generation rolls around but we’ll get to that later.

While Caitlin learns an important lesson about journalism, Joey continues to try to get someone at CRAZ-E radio to listen to the Zit Remedy demo tape.  He even get a job working at the place as a janitor.  He does such bad job that he gets fired after three days.  But radio sex therapist Dr. Sally (Sue Johanson) listens to the tape and tells Joey that he’s very talented.  Joey is super-excited.  As for the other Zits, Snake seems to be largely indifferent and Wheels is still too depressed to care about anything.

Finally, Scooter and Bart order some “sea monkeys” from the back of a comic book and are shocked to discover that the ad was rip-off.  I understand that Scooter and Bart were probably added to the show so that it could still appeal to kids even as the main cast became teenagers.  But seriously, Degrassi Junior High is a show that deals with teen pregnancy, drugs, eating disorders, journalistic ethics, and family conflict.  Nobody has time for any of this sea monkey nonsense.

Despite the sea monkeys, I thought this was a pretty good episode.  Caitlin’s shock upon discovering that an issue was more complicated than just right or wrong was something to which I could relate.  That there are two sides to every story may sound like a simple lesson but it’s one that people often need to be reminded of, perhaps now more than ever.  As for Joey, my heart broke for him in this episode.  He really doesn’t seem to get that his friends just aren’t as enthusiastic about the band as he is.  Poor guy.

Next week, it appears that the episode will be about the Farrell Twins, who are my least favorite characters on the show.  Oh well.  I know I can make it through.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi Junior High 2.12 “He’s Back”

Posted on 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 Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

Mr. Colby returns!

Episode 2.12 “He’s Back”

(Dir by Clarke Mackey, originally aired on March 21st, 1988)

Mr. Colby (Marcus Bruce) is back, substituting for Ms. Avery.

The last time that Mr. Colby substituted at Degrassi, he ended up sexually harassing Lucy.  Despite the attempts of L.D. and Wheels to convince her otherwise, Lucy decided not to report Mr. Colby.  She just wanted to put the experience in the past and move on.  However, this episode opens with Lucy being woken up by nightmares, in which Colby is the central figure.  When Lucy sees Colby in the office, asking for Ms. Avery’s lesson plans, she freaks out.

Still, she refuses to go to the principal about what happened.  She still just wants to move on.  After her trouble with shoplifting during the first season, Lucy has finished up her community service and is now volunteering at a daycare out of the kindness of her heart.  She’s trying to build a new life for herself but, when it becomes obvious that Colby is now grooming Susie (played by Sarah Charlesworth), Lucy realizes that she can no longer be silent.

“You want to see Mr. Lawrence?” the school secretary says when she sees Lucy, Susie, and every other girl in Colby’s class standing in front of her.  “This better be important.”

It is, Lucy replies.

This is a pivotal episode as far as Lucy’s development is concerned.  In this episode, Lucy shows that she’s gone from being spoiled and self-centered to someone who actually does care about other people and who wants to make the world a better place.  If you know the history of this show and the characters, there’s something a little sad about the scenes in which she goes to Wheels for support.  Those of us who have seen School’s Out (and this is a spoiler for those of you who haven’t so consider yourself warned) know that Wheels is destined to go to prison for killing a kid while driving drunk.  We also know that Lucy is destined to be temporarily blinded and crippled in that same accident.  In this episode, though, both Wheels and Lucy still have their entire future ahead of them.

This episode was a good example of what Degrassi Junior High did so well.  So many teen shows would have wrapped up this storyline in one episode and certainly, they would have never address Lucy’s lingering trauma.  Instead, Lucy would have done gone to the principal on her own, Colby would have been fired, and the entire thing would have never been mentioned again.  Degrassi Junior High, on the other hand, understands that it’s not always easy to do the right thing, especially when you just want to put it all behind you and get on with your life.  With its portrayal of Lucy’s lingering trauma and her reaction to seeing Mr. Colby back in the school, Degrassi Junior High proves itself to be one of the most honest shows about growing up.