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!

This week, Degrassi Junior High becomes Degrassi High!

Episode 1.1 and 1.2 “A New Start”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on November 6th, 1989)

It’s a new school year and, due to the Junior High burning down, all of the Degrassi kids are enrolling at Degrassi High!  Along with finally getting to go to a new school, they also finally get a new theme song and title sequence.

Just going to a new school isn’t going to stop the drama, of course.  Joey is still trying to make the Zit Remedy into something more than a mediocre garage band.  Snake and Wheels are still politely listening to Joey’s plans.  Caitlin and Joey are now dating but there’s a smarmy junior named Claude Tanner (David Armin-Parcells) who really seems to appreciate the blonde streaks in Caitlin’s hair.  (Caitlin, it should be noted, does have the best hair in the school.)  Arthur and Yick Yu, who both appear to have had major growth spurts over the summer, are growing apart.  Alexa is not happy when Simon’s recent success as a male model makes him popular with all of the other girls at the Degrassi High.  For neither the first nor the last time, Alexa dramatically gives Simon back his ring while Simon responds with genuine confusion.  We even meet the new homeroom teacher, who assigns the students to read Lord of the Flies.  (If you’ve seen the entire series, including the sequels to the original Degrassi High, it’s hard not to smile at the first of many references to Lord of the Flies.)

Dwayne Meyers (Darrin Brown), the bully who beat Joey up during the second season of Degrassi Junior High, is now attending high school and, as soon as he sees the new students, he decides that it’s time to bring back initiations.  Soon, students are getting covered in white paste, tied to flag poles, and being otherwise ritually humiliated.  Dwayne especially has it out for Joey.  Unfortunately, for Joey, Mr. Raditch has found a new job as DHS’s vice principal and he doesn’t have much sympathy for Joey’s predicament.

That said, the main storyline here involves the Farrell Twins.  I have to admit that I groaned a bit when I discovered this was going to be a Farrell Twin episode because the twins were always the weakest characters on Degrassi Junior High.  However, I have to say that Angela and Maureen Deiseach actually did a pretty good job in this episode.  Erica Farrell (Angela Deiseach), having lost her virginity at camp over the summer, discovers that she’s pregnant and considers getting an abortion.  Her twin sister, Heather (Maureen Deiseach), is opposed to abortion and, at first, refuses to go with Erica to the clinic.  After talking to Spike, who also opposes abortion but who, as a single mother, also understands Erica’s fear, Heather finally shows up at the clinic to support her sister as she walks through a throng of protestors.

Eventually, unwanted pregnancies would occur so frequently on Degrassi that they would become something of a cliche, as would the inevitable decision to get an abortion.  A New Start is one of the better pregnancy episodes, handling the storyline with sensitivity but also bringing nuance to its portrayal of the abortion debate.  Especially when compared to how heavy-handed the show would get in its final seasons, it’s really interesting to see how intelligently and respectfully both the pro-life and the pro-choice positions are presented in this episode.  The episode makes clear that there are no easy answers and there’s also no easy villains, which is something that Degrassi itself would forget during it’s four seasons on Netflix.  As Erica and Heather enter the clinic, a protestor holds up a plastic fetus, an image that was considered to be so controversial that PBS actually censored it when this episode aired in America.

(At least this episode actually made it to America, albeit in edited form.  The next Degrassi pregnancy episode would sit unaired for three years.)

It’s not a great way for the Farrell twins to start the school year but it’s proof that, even as Degrassi Junior High becomes Degrassi High, it will continue to “go there.”