[JustMe2000]

Bumping this baby way back from the dead to post a small article from the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Teen actors find drama in 'Degrassi: The Next Generation' 08/28/2005 By Rachael Mason Staff Writer rachael.mason@ gwinnettdailypost.com Aubrey Graham and Mike Lobel enjoy high school, possibly because they're only pretending to be students. The actors star in "Degrassi: The Next Generation," a television show set at a Canadian school. Storylines address teen issues, such as school violence, alcohol, drugs, sex and peer pressure. "It's got this real authentic feel to it," Graham said. "It's almost like a cool way to learn something." "Degrassi: The Next Generation" is based on a series that began in the late '80s. "Degrassi Junior High" and "Degrassi High," which focused on a group of teens, was produced in Toronto through 1991. In 2001, "Degrassi: The Next Generation" debuted. The show includes characters from the original show, who are now adults, but focuses on a new group of teens. "Degrassi: The Next Generation" is shown at 8 p.m. Fridays on The N, which is part of the MTV Networks. Its summer season ended this weekend. New episodes will begin airing in October. Although it's filmed in Canada and features Canadian actors, "Degrassi" still has a lot of fans in the United States. "They're very into the show and so wrapped up in it. We get a lot of U.S. love," Graham said. Graham plays Jimmy Brooks, a popular guy whose life changed after he was shot by a fellow student. Since the shooting episode, which aired in December 2004, Graham's character has been in a wheelchair. "I've had to dig deeper," Graham said. "Before, I could really relate to the character. Ever since the shooting, I've done a lot of research for my role." Graham has been part of the show since its first season. Lobel joined the "Degrassi" cast last season when he began playing Jay Hogart. He originally auditioned for a character that was only going to appear on one or two episodes. He didn't get that part, but producers liked the idea of adding a new bully to the show. "They really liked the bad guy angle," Lobel said. He said he relates to his "Degrassi" character but doesn't have too much in common with Jay. "I'm really not a bully. I never was," Lobel said. As the show is being produced, the actors are asked for their input. "We have that opportunity to speak our minds and voice our opinions," Graham said. "They always take what we say into consideration." Typically, the actors get together to read and discuss the script before filming starts. "The writers will always ask for our opinions because the storylines are closer to us, the cast," Lobel said.

[Matt Logan]

wasn't sure where to post this but as a note of interest and out of curiosity I emailed the company that produces Degrassi re getting my son a audition to the show.

Basically you have to live and reside in canada, Why due to the fact The show is financed by a government grant.

read this email I got as a response.


Hi Matt,

Thanks for your question about being an actor on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Please read the following information very carefully.

Auditions for Degrassi are held throughout the season as needed, however we're always looking for new talent! If you are interested in auditioning for Degrassi as either an actor or an extra, you must be between the ages of 12 and 18, live in the Toronto area and be a Canadian citizen*. If you meet all the requirements, you can send a photo and resume detailing your acting experience to:

Degrassi Casting
Epitome Pictures
220 Bartley Drive
Toronto, ON M4A 1G1
(no email or faxes please)

Please be sure to include your name, age, address, telephone number/email address and a permission note from your parents. We will keep your information on file. You will only be contacted if the casting director wishes to see you which means you might not hear back from us right away.

*Resumes and photos from non-Canadian citizens will not be forwarded to the casting department.

Why do I have to be Canadian/live in the Toronto area to be on the show?
Degrassi is made possible through the assistance of several Government funding agencies, which require television productions to use Canadian cast and crews. In addition, Degrassi and other television shows receive federal and provincial tax credits based on where they work. Thus, to ensure our eligibility for these funds and the Canadian and Ontario tax credits, Degrassi only employs Canadian citizens who are residents of Ontario.


We wish you the best with all your goals!

Sincerely,
The cast, crew and producers of Degrassi: The Next Generation and Degrassi.tv

-----Original Message-----
From:
Posted At: Sunday, September 04, 2005 4:10 PM
Posted To: Info@epitomepictures.com
Conversation: Degrassi: The Next Generation
Subject: Degrassi: The Next Generation

[robinepowell]

This Saturday September 17th @ 7:00 PM EST, CTV is airing a speical called "The Degrassi Story". I think it's about an hour and a half long.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...369_122123880/

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...lease_20050906

[Quarterley]

Globe and Mail - Sept. 19, 2005:


Degrassi: 25 years young

Diehard fans of the acclaimed Canadian TV show love it because it's real, as opposed to designer-pretty like The O.C., and it's unafraid to take risks, much like its teen subjects, JOHN ALLEMANG writes


Let's call this the 25th anniversary of Degrassi and, like the perennial teenagers we are, face the consequences later.

If it's not entirely true, it's not actually false either. Life is complicated, as Degrassi has been telling us all these many years, and given that we're probably going to have to accept responsibility somewhere down the line, where's the harm in playing with the facts while we can? If Marco can kind of be out of the closet, and Emma didn't have "real" sex with Jay, and no one could tell twin Erica from twin Heather way back when -- least of all Clutch -- what's the big deal about a missing year or two?

The roots of tonight's season-opening, 25th-anniversary episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation (CTV, 8:30 p.m.), along with this past Saturday's epoch-marking documentary The Degrassi Story, go back to a little TV show that aired on Sept. 20, 1980. Do the math: Unless you're Joey Jeremiah, it all adds up so far.

Here's where the Degrassi mythology starts to get tricky -- you can almost see Arthur and Yick back at Degrassi Junior High wondering in their pricked-by-conscience way if it's quite right to take the next step. But of course there wouldn't be a thriving Degrassi franchise, complete with DVDs, souvenir student planners, oral-sex controversies, sales to more than 100 countries and autograph signings at the mall, if everybody listened to their inner adult all the time.

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That first show, produced for CBC by current Degrassi guru Linda Schuyler, was called Ida Makes a Movie, and it was essentially a one-off vérité-style production that didn't yet know it had launched a prime-time dynasty. The next year came Cookie Goes to Hospital and Irene Moves In -- no mention yet of the now-legendary east-end Toronto street and the schools that provided a stage for its wayward-yet-responsible youth. Five new episodes turned up in 1982 along with a name to acknowledge all this staying power -- The Kids of Degrassi Street.

The Kids, as we all know, went to junior high, and then high school, drank too much beer, got pregnant, bought condoms, tried to grow sea creatures ordered from the back of a comic book, contemplated abortion, campaigned for the environment and, against pinup photos in the boys' lockers, relived memories of sexual abuse, crashed the odd car and tested positive for HIV. By now, as the range of issues might suggest, it was the early nineties. When the Degrassi: School's Out special aired in 1992 -- to a now-astonishing audience of 2.4 million viewers -- production came to an end. After that, it was endless repeats, a cult following among the punk and slacker sets who loved Degrassi's non-90210 matter-of-factness, and the inevitable Jonovision reunion.

But then Schuyler came back with Degrassi: The Next Generation, which has been airing on the CTV network since 2001, and in recent months managed the rare feat of being honoured by the mutually exclusive Teen Choice crowd and the Television Critics Association. So if it's now 2005, that has to be 25 years, correct?

"In all that time," says Schuyler, who used to be a teacher and therefore wouldn't mess with our impressionable minds, "Degrassi has never been off the air."

Kevin Smith needs a little more convincing, at least when it comes to the niceties of chronology. "I don't know," says the 35-year-old director of Clerks and Mallrats, a long-time Degrassi fan and ongoing guest star, "the numbers seem a little funny. You start adding them up, I'm not sure if it works or not."

Smith knows about numbers -- he's now working on Clerks II, which he has so far refused to call Clerks: The Next Generation. But being a starstruck fan, he is more focused on Degrassi's long-lasting appeal than he is on the minutiae of dates and years.

"It gives you a much better sense of identity than watching something like The O.C.," he says. "Let's face it, most of the world is not as good-looking as the people on The O.C., and when you're watching Degrassi, the people look like you and the settings are the world you come from."

Degrassi's latest incarnation has created considerable buzz in the United States, where its unflinching approach to teen misbehaviour stands out in a network landscape that prefers pretty to real. At The N, the teen-oriented cable channel often referred to as The Degrassi Network, vice-president Sarah Tomassi Lindman says the show's popularity begins with this desire to be authentic.

"There's no other show on TV quite like it," she says. "This is a teen drama that actually stars teenagers, not 25-year-olds pretending to be 18."

Faithfulness to age has been key to Degrassi's success as a drama, Schuyler believes. "On other shows, the actors bring more life experience than their characters have. But with age-appropriate casting, they only bring their own limited amount of life experience -- it helps keep the show honest."

That honesty extends to showing teenaged actors with actual pimples and not dressing them up in designer duds -- though admittedly The Next Generation, reflecting these CosmoGIRL! times, is infinitely more flashy than the appealingly dressed-down original. At the dramatic level, it means keeping all-knowing adults out of the action as far as possible (even if The Next Generation producers couldn't resist importing the now-grownup Snake, Spike, Joey and Caitlin from the original series), and letting the kids mess up and muddle through as best they can.

"Rather than putting issues such as oral sex out there and insisting that they're flat out wrong," observes Allison Graham, a Montreal student teacher and Degrassi follower, "the show gives the characters and viewers the facts they need to make their own decisions."

Their own decisions, but not necessarily the right decisions. Degrassi's Canadian-ness, rooted perhaps in the country's strong documentary tradition, shows through in its reluctance to moralize or pass judgment, and its unwillingness to force simplistic conclusions on complex situations.

"It's a given fact that actions have consequences," says Schuyler, "but we make them happen at a peer level. Yes Ashley takes ecstasy, but then she acts like an idiot and eventually loses her friends. And often what helps us keep the truthfulness is that the story is told in increments and not crammed into one very special episode with a guest star who's going to be the one who gets pregnant or gay-bashed."

For those who like their rights and wrongs to be clear-cut, this refusal to rush judgments can be problematic. In the conservative U.S. broadcasting climate, even The N has occasionally balked at Degrassi's liberal values. Scenes of child abuse, date rape, a suicide attempt and an apparent erection in drama class were all cut back or edited out. Episodes were rejigged so that misbehaviour would lead immediately to its consequences. Experts have been brought in to analyze issues left unresolved in the dramatic action. And a pair of episodes where a character considers an abortion were simply not shown.

"The crass side of me says, maybe it will help DVD sales," jokes Schuyler. She now collaborates more closely with The N to anticipate incidents that might cause anxiety south of the border, and shoot scenes in such a way that adults more nervous than her can cut out the bad bits.

"I certainly don't feel our stories have been compromised," she says. "Americans still say to us, 'Degrassi could never be produced down here.' They seem to want to protect their children from anything bad happening. Our approach has always been that we give them the toolkit, and then they're better prepared to face life."

[-Kelly-]

Thanks for the news.

[simplyxjiberty]

Yea, thanks very much guys.

[¤}{îÖ¤]

Originally Posted by Mariael311 I would post new articels but they are all about Alanis Morissette being on Degrassi..

erm... she was on degrassi? what ep? cause i sure didn't see her in last season's finale.

[froggiepopple]

Originally Posted by ¤}{îÖ¤ erm... she was on degrassi? what ep? cause i sure didn't see her in last season's finale.

She played the principal at the beginning of the episode of part one of the season finale.

[¤}{îÖ¤]

Originally Posted by froggiepopple She played the principal at the beginning of the episode of part one of the season finale.

i guess i wasn't paying that much attention.

[Matt Logan]

Degrassi DVd box set news , Why is it taking so long


http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=4178

9/21/2005 - DTNG Season 3 Date And News

A Funimation (the company making the Degrassi DVDS) representative posted some new news yesterday about the upcoming Degrassi TNG Season 3 DVD set. as well as the release date. The set will be released on March 28, 2006, she also added that there will be a Season 4 set, and it's release date will be announced after Season 3 is released. She also mentioned the box is done and the first 20,000 copies will have a poster inside. Her full posts are below:

"The jacket is done. There's some stuff that I can get fan input on and some stuff that I can't. (Just boring contract stuff) Good news. The box is a kickin' deep red. We made sure that the fronts of the slim DVDs match up with the episodes on them. So the DVD with AWH has Manny and Craig on it, etc. Also, there's a poster inside the first 20K. Slim enough to fit in your locker or long enough to put horizontally above a student desk or twin bed. The full size posters got all crinkley when they were folded. We tried folding a million different ways. But this size is really cool and very functional for decorating. Still working on those extras. I suspect I'll be done by Thursday or Friday and ready to give the scoop a couple of weeks after that...

...Season 3 is March 28, 2006. You can mark that on your calendar. After Season 3 releases, there will be an announcement about Season 4."

Source: Funimation.com

[-Kelly-]

Thanks.

[Pretty_Princess]

Just in case know one knew. Dregrassi star's Stacey Farber, Jake Epstein, and Lauren Collins wil all guest star on Angela's Eyes. And Lauren will guest star on Life With Derek. I think Jake should guest star on Life With Derek because him and the one who played Derek played on Zack filles together.

[xoxoDegrassiLove]

Ryan COoley [JT] was on Life With Derek too! and i think that guy Sully was...but it mightve been Naturally Sadie or whatever. ANy news when lauren will be on it & who she'll be? :] & what is Angela's Eyes? is that in the US? lol :]

[X3LiSA]

yea, and i've seen shenae grimes on natually sadie alot of times too.

[xoxoDegrassiLove]

they should make a US degrassi so US people could act. :] But anways is shenae grimes sully? lol