Degrassi Memories

Last night I relived a bit of my past by watching Degrassi The Next Generation. Like all good Canadian kids I grew up with Degrassi Jr. High/High helping me through life in elementary and high school. As I was a good Canadian boy I wished I was as cool as Joey and wished that Caitlin would fall in love with me. Man she was hot.

I saw that Kevin Smith was going to be guest starring on The Next Generation and managed to catch the show.

First of all, some of the old Degrassi Jr. High actors are back in the Next Gen series. Caitlin (still hot), Joey, Wheels, and at least one other old cast member are there, at least in the opening credits. Kinda cool (nostalgia, etc), but also sad in a way that that’s the only work they can get (though Pat Mastroianni was Apache Pilot #3 in Godzilla 🙂

The episodes still deal with things in a similar way. Real life, real people and all that. The issues that they bring to the forefront are a bit more risque than they were back in the old days though. The two episodes I watched said that this season a student had been beaten to death, and the student president was gay and dealing with issues with his boyfriend. Relevant issues today for sure, but much heavier stuff than was dealt with Back in the Day^(tm). I think the big things that were dealt with were buying condoms and teen pregnancy and abortion. Still, I’d probably want my kids to watch it.

Anyway, the plot line involed Kevin Smith (playing himself) looking to shoot “Jay and Silent Bob do Canada Eh?” and looking for a high school location to shoot at (and a school band to work on the soundtrack). Go figure, he looks at Degrassi and visits during the prom. He had some great lines as well. When talking to one of the kids who is having girl problems he says (paraphrased as best as I can remember it): “Hey dude, I’m a fat guy from Jersey, of course I had girl problems. Even when I write and direct the movies I still don’t end up with the girl, I end up with Jay… or a monkey.”

Not sure if this was a one time thing or if it’ll be written more into the storyline for the next episodes. I’m a big Kevin smith fan though so I’m jonesing for something new from him, so I’ll probably watch next week to see if he’s back.