Degrassi Junior High

Degrassi Junior High is a Canadian television series created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler. The second series in the Degrassi franchise and the first to be set in a universe that has spanned multiple decades, it aired for three seasons on the CBC from 18 January 1987 to 27 February 1989, and on PBS in the United States starting from September 1987. A non-union production by Hood and Schuyler's Playing With Time, Inc., Kate Taylor of WGBH Boston also served as the show's executive producer, and the series was produced in association with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with participation of Telefilm Canada.

The series centred around an ensemble cast of seventh, eighth, and later ninth grade students attending the titular Degrassi Junior High School, as they faced various issues and challenges including substance abuse, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, homophobia, and racism. The series often mixed comedy and drama, with serious storylines often balanced with more light-hearted secondary plots. The series was developed by Hood and Schuyler in response to what they perceived to be a lack of proper educational programming targeted toward teenagers. The cast was drawn from a repertory company that comprised age-appropriate actors with little to no prior acting experience, who undertook acting workshops before each season commenced filming. The building used for the school was the partially vacant Vincent Massey Public School in Toronto, Ontario, with the rest of the series shot entirely on-location in and around the Greater Toronto Area, specifically the Queen-Broadview Village, where the eponymous De Grassi Street is located.

The show was acclaimed almost immediately following its debut, with critics praising it for its realistic and diverse portrayal of teenage issues in contrast to other programs of the time period. Enamored by the show themselves, the CBC had it moved from its Sunday afternoon time slot to prime time Monday night in between two popular American sitcoms, despite Schuyler's doubts it would succeed in the new slot. Following this move, its viewership increased by 40 percent, and by 1988, it was the highest-rated drama series in Canada, with ratings consistently in the millions. The show was also a ratings success internationally, including in the United Kingdom; on the BBC, the series received a peak of six million viewers, prior to the network refusing to air several first-season episodes and utimately dropping it. The series' actors were brought to celebrity status in their home country, receiving adulation from fans on a level compared to Beatlemania. The cast also participated in many public appearances to promote various causes; in 1989, they were named ambassadors for the Ontario branch of UNICEF. The show also spawned a series of paperback novelizations, and was incorporated into health curricula by schools. The series received twenty-eight awards during its run, including eight Gemini Awards (including two won by actors Pat Mastroianni and Stacie Mistysyn) and an International Emmy for the 1987 episode "It's Late". It was succeeded by Degrassi High, which debuted on 6 November 1989 and focused on the same characters in high school.

Degrassi Junior High and its sequel maintained a significant cult following into the 1990s as it continued to be broadcast in re-runs and syndication. As the decade progressed, an online community developed around the series and led to several public reunions taking place. One of these reunions, which occurred on the CBC teenage talk show Jonovision in 1999, became a catalyst for the development of the reboot series Degrassi: The Next Generation, which premiered in 2001 and features several characters from the original series as adults. Although not generally acknowledged by the mainstream, Degrassi Junior High has been frequently referred to as a pioneer of the teen drama genre that prefigured later and better-known series such as Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson's Creek. In 2017, the series was named by the Toronto International Film Festival as one of Canada's most significant contributions to the cinematic landscape.

## Premise

The show centred around an ethnically and economically diverse group of students from East End Toronto attending the fictional Degrassi Junior High School as they confronted a multitude of social issues, including, but not limited to, teenage pregnancy, child abuse, homosexuality, shoplifting, drug abuse and alcohol abuse. Co-creator Linda Schuyler outlined the show's mandate as informing its adolescent viewers as opposed to directly advising them not to make controversial choices. Schuyler and Hood saw Degrassi Junior High as a response to what they felt was a lack of television series that addressed adolescent issues from the adolescent's perspective, always usually dominated with an adult centred moralistic mentality.

> For the most part, there are no subjects that we say are taboo. I think it's very important that sexual matters...death...whatever, are the human emotions and experiences that are liable to confront all of us as we pass ages and stages in our lives. As long as it's discussed in a healthy and wholesome manner, I don't think there's any topic that can't be discussed.

Amanda Stepto, who played the character Christine "Spike" Nelson, stated in 1989 that the series was intended as a conversation starter for kids and their parents to discuss topics that would otherwise not usually be mentioned.

Each episode would begin with a 30–60-second cold open which would set up the A-plot by establishing the issues the plot would address. Following the opening sequence, the story would concern the A-plot, before making way for the B-plot, which would have some connection to the A-plot. Sometimes, there would be a C-plot, which leaned more toward comic relief. There would be a crisis at mid-point in time for the commercial break. The episode would end on a freeze-frame of a character involved in the A-plot.

The first two seasons span an entire year, with some characters in Grade 7, and others in Grade 8. For the third season, Grade 9, which is typically the first year of high school in Canada, was added to the junior high school as a creative decision. In the third season, which is set the year after the first two seasons, the Grade 9 students attend a nearby high school part-time, and new Grade 7 characters are introduced.

In the series finale, the Degrassi Junior High School building is destroyed by a fire started by a faulty boiler, during a school dance.

## Cast

Sixty-five overall teenagers from Toronto comprised the Playing With Time Repertory Company and mostly would appear as either extras or minor characters. The series did not have a fixed cast, and instead focused loosely on a select group. Minor characters would occasionally become the main focus or would be generally given an increased role overtime; by contrast, major characters would sometimes only be seen in the background, or phased out almost entirely. Unlike the trend of casting young adults to play teenagers, Degrassi Junior High cast real age-appropriate actors with little-to-no prior acting experience, a trend that was later continued in the development of Degrassi: The Next Generation in reaction to the teen dramas throughout the 1990s. The actors were not a part of any unions.

Pat Mastroianni portrayed Joey Jeremiah, a fedora-wearing class clown who is later held back in the third season and is the keyboardist and founder of The Zit Remedy. Stacie Mistysyn portrayed Caitlin Ryan, a high-achiever and passionate activist who has epilepsy. Amanda Stepto portrayed Christine "Spike" Nelson, a punk rock girl with large spiked hair who becomes pregnant and deals with the social stigma and responsibilities of being a teenage mother. Stefan Brogren portrayed Archie "Snake" Simpson, The Zit Remedy's guitarist and later the longest-running character in the franchise, Neil Hope portrayed Derek "Wheels" Wheeler, the bassist of The Zit Remedy whose parents are killed by a drunk driver and is a friend of Joey and Snake's. Nicole Stoffman portrayed Stephanie Kaye, a provocatively dressed queen bee who is school president. Stoffman would leave the series after the second season to star in the CTV sitcom Learning the Ropes.

Rebecca Haines-Saah portrayed Kathleen Mead, a "snooty mean girl" who deals with her alcoholic mother and later anorexia nervosa. Sara Ballingall portrayed Melanie Brodie, Kathleen's naive friend. Twins Angela & Maureen Deiseach portrayed Erica & Heather Farrell. Anais Granofsky portrayed Lucy Fernandez, a relatively wealthy girl who is usually always a latchkey kid. Bill Parrott portrayed Shane McKay, Spike's boyfriend who later suffers brain damage from a fall. Other actors included Irene Courakos, who portrayed Alexa Pappadopoulos, Amanda Cook, who portrayed Lorraine "L.D" Delacorte, Dayo Ade, who portrayed Bryant Lister "B.L.T." Thomas, Maureen McKay who portrayed Michelle Accette, and Kyra Levy, who portrayed Maya Goldberg.

The series also features characters that would not appear in the later series of the franchise. Tyson Talbot, who portrayed Billy Martin on The Kids Of Degrassi Street, appeared briefly in Degrassi Junior High as Jason Cox. Talbot quit the series after three episodes. Craig Driscoll portrayed Rick Munro, a troubled Grade 7 boy and a love interest of Caitlin who leaves after season 2. Niki Kemeny portrayed Voula Grivogiannis, Stephanie Kaye's best friend who has a love-hate relationship with her, and who left after season 1, save for a voice-only appearance in season 2. Sarah Charlesworth, who originally played the role of Casey in The Kids Of Degrassi Street, played Susie Rivera, Caitlin's best friend, but left after season 2; conversely, her brother Christopher Charlesworth played Scooter Webster, an accelerated student who was introduced in season 2 and appeared through Degrassi High.

The second season introduced new characters. Michael Carry portrayed Simon Dexter, a model and later boyfriend of Alexa. Cathy Keenan portrayed Liz O'Rourke, who becomes Spike's best friend. Darrin Brown portrayed Dwayne Myers, a school bully who fights Joey Jeremiah in an episode of the second season and occasionally appears in the background, before getting a prominent role in Degrassi High.

Throughout the series, there are three prominent teachers. Dan Woods portrayed Dan Raditch, a teacher who later becomes the vice principal of Degrassi High School, and then principal of Degrassi Community School. Michelle Goodeve portrayed Karen Avery, and Roger Montgomery portrayed Mr. Garcia, a Grade 9 teacher who only appears in the third season. People involved with the series would often make background cameos, including art director Judy Shiner, picture editor Rob de Lint, and writer Kathryn Ellis. Susin Nielsen, a writer for the series, starred as the school's janitor, Louella Hawkins, and had a speaking part in two different episodes.

## Development

### Concept

Schoolteacher Linda Schuyler and her partner Kit Hood founded the company Playing With Time, Inc. in 1976 to produce educational films and documentaries. In 1979, the two produced Ida Makes a Movie, a short film which evolved into the children's television series The Kids of Degrassi Street. The series was a critical success on the CBC, with the episode "Griff Makes A Date" winning an International Emmy Award in 1985. The production team also featured editor Yan Moore, who became the head writer of the next series, as well as the co-creator of Degrassi: The Next Generation.The final six episodes of the series were dubbed 'Yearbook' and followed a narrative of the kids creating the school yearbook. A year before the end of The Kids Of Degrassi Street, Schuyler announced Degrassi Junior High in a November 1985 Toronto Star article: "We'll launch a new series in about one year – Degrassi Junior High. The very last segment (in Yearbook) shows the kids graduating. Where are they going? Degrassi Junior High!". Development commenced for the new series in early 1986. The show was not a direct sequel, but rather intended to be a spinoff of the previous series.

### Casting

During the development stage, Schuyler and Hood held a "pow-wow" with the cast of The Kids of Degrassi Street at the Playing With Time offices and offered them a choice between reprising their old roles or take new roles. According to Kit Hood, the kids "wanted to leave behind the baggage, personalities and families of where they'd been" and decided to play new characters instead. Schuyler explained that the show's age-appropriate casting was because "so much of the American stuff set in high schools is played by late teens and early 20s – and then some". Auditions took place throughout schools in Toronto; an estimated 300 kids auditioned and fifty-four were selected. Pat Mastroianni, who played Joey Jeremiah, was the first to audition. The selected fifty-four would undergo a three-week workshop that took place from 26 May to 13 June 1986 which helped them with basic acting skills, techniques and improvisation and included seminars in the behind-the-scenes aspects of production. The workshops would be repeated at the beginning of production for each season, as new cast members joined, and existing cast members underwent more advanced workshops.

Characters would be developed based on the strengths of the actors; those who did exceptionally well would have their roles expanded. The actors comprised The Playing With Time Repertory Company (referred to by Kathryn Ellis as "the Repco"), which at its peak consisted of sixty-five kids. The idea of the repertory company meant that there was no bias towards a particular set of actors on screen; major characters could be background extras in one episode, as minor characters could get a major role or focus, a practice very rare on television. The actors would also earn school credits for being in the repertory company. The actors were required to avoid missing more than eight days of their real school, but those with prominent roles usually missed three to four days a week. They would also be usually helped by a tutor, who would also administer tests and exams. The parents of the teenage actors were also given scripts of which their child was a prominent role and were consulted about the issues the show would address before they joined the company, but none of them "wanted their kid taken out". On set, the teenage actors would also usually run errands, including washing dishes and moving sandbags.

Hope, Mistysyn, Granofsky, Charlesworth and others returned to the new series with different characters. Stephen Stohn, who later co-founded Epitome Pictures with Schuyler and executive produced Degrassi: The Next Generation, served as the show's legal counsel.

### Production and filming

Following the first read-through of the script, which would take place in a circle, Linda Schuyler sought significant input from the teenage actors on the credibility of the dialogue. Many of the show's ideas were drawn from the actor's personal experiences, the writers' own teenage experiences, and "official idea sessions" with the actors. Yan Moore recalled in 2005: "In the old days, the kids would come to the office...and they'd tell us things." For instance, actor Siluck Saysanasy, who played Yick Yu, was forbidden to get an earring by his father, but was only allowed if he got one for the show; writer Yan Moore would write an earring into the script for Saysanasy. Amanda Stepto often experienced unwanted attention for her spiked hair, which was incorporated into an episode of the series. A typical episode would take two weeks to rehearse and two weeks to film. Each episode cost approximately \$250,000 to \$350,000 to produce; the first season cost \$2.6 million.The school used for the show was the Vincent Massey Public School (then known as Daisy Avenue Public School) in Etobicoke, Ontario. At the time, the ground floor was being used as a Seventh-day Adventist school. As a result, the majority of the series was shot on the second floor, with the ground floor only used occasionally. One of the rooms, which was used as a library, served as a green room. The principal's office that characters enter and exit did not actually exist, with the door opening to a blank wall. The lockers in the school were arranged to create an "illusion" of corridors. Principal photography of the series usually took place from April to December. Filming for the show began on 8 July 1986 in Etobicoke, Ontario. and finished in December 1988. The actors would routinely gather at the Playing With Time production office and be taken via a minivan to Vincent Massey, where shooting would take place from 9:00 a.m to 6:30 p.m.

The series was filmed entirely on-location throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Places seen on the series include Queen-Broadview Village, which contained the real De Grassi Street as well as a building similar to that of Vincent Massey's, Dundas Street Junior School, which coincidentally served as the location for the school in The Kids of Degrassi Street, that served as a background double; this was done to make it seem like that neighbourhood was near the school, when in reality it was not. Various real life stores and other locations are shown and mentioned in the series, such as the Shoppers Drug Mart location on the corner of Queen & Carlaw streets, where various characters are seen shopping. Other locations, such as the Degrassi Grocery and the Broadview Community Health Clinic featured in the episode "It's Late" no longer exist. Earl Grey Senior Public School in Toronto, where Linda Schuyler was a teacher, served as the setting for Borden High School, where several grade 9 students attend science classes in the show's third season due to student overpopulation. In an effort to avoid dating the show, the popular culture referred to in the series is fictional. This includes bands such as "Gourmet Scum", movies such as "Teen Academy IV" and "Swamp Sex Robots", game shows such as "Quest for the Best", and soap operas such as "Days Of Passion". Sex educator Sue Johanson played "Dr. Sally", who hosts a radio talk show similar to Johanson's Sunday Night Sex Show.

### Music

Wendy Watson and Lewis Manne, who worked on the music for The Kids Of Degrassi Street, composed, arranged and performed all of the original music for Degrassi Junior High, including its theme song, which was sung by Watson. Watson and Manne recorded the show's music using a drums, bass, guitar and keyboard arrangement. Songs by various Canadian recording artists, including Watson and Manne's own music, were used for school dances and radios.

The garage band The Zit Remedy is formed late into the first season by characters Joey Jeremiah, Archie "Snake" Simpson, and Derek "Wheels" Wheeler. The band have only one song, "Everybody Wants Something", jokingly described by Kathryn Ellis as "Lewis's biggest hit". The song was written by a nephew of Watson and Manne on the back of a school permission letter, and sent to them. Actors Pat Mastroianni, Stefan Brogren and Neil Hope were musically inexperienced, and would be taught by Manne on how to play their instruments. In the book Exit Stage Left, the Zit Remedy have a second song, entitled, "I Don't Want To Be A Porcupine With Anyone Else But You, Baby", which Joey claims will "revolutionize the pop music industry". Stories around the group continue in Degrassi High, where their name is shortened to The Zits.

### Opening sequence

The "documentary-style" opening sequence follows the show's 30–60-second cold open. The sequence begins with a stop-motion live-action scene of a person picking up a group of textbooks, labeled "History", "Geography", "Math" and "English", and walking away. It mostly consists of scenes from various episodes of the characters in and around the school, juxtaposed with images of students with blackboard-esque transitions. The opening sequence does not credit the cast members.

The theme song that accompanies the opening sequence is an upbeat track sung by show co-composer Wendy Watson, in the key of C major and driven by synthesizers and guitars. It begins with a pessimistic tone, with the narrator feeling uncertain about going to school. The lyrics turn optimistic as the narrator notices "that someone is smiling right at me". It concludes with the lyrics "Everybody can succeed, all you need is to believe/Be honest with yourself, forget your fears and doubts/Come on give us a try at Degrassi Junior High!". Anne Weiss of Cinema Canada magazine described the theme song as having a "chirpy, almost inane melody". Shamus Kelley of Den of Geek called it ""inspirational", and said: "For a show that’s all about slice of life and dealing with big problems, it’s perfect." but had mixed feelings about the visuals, feeling that its emphasis on random shots of characters did not properly establish them. An instrumental variation of the opening theme is used in the end credits. The theme song was later reworked with different lyrics for Degrassi High.

### Makeup and wardrobe

In an unconventional practice for television, Degrassi Junior High did not have a makeup and wardrobe department. The cast would usually wear their own clothes and apply their own makeup, although the art department would tweak their appearances for continuity purposes. Neil Hope, who played Derek "Wheels" Wheeler, stated: "It's looking phony. [...] When you look more natural, its helping the show." Some of the clothing choices however were not of the actors; actress Nicole Stoffman did not dress like her sexually provocative character Stephanie Kaye. However, the "outrageously-coiffed" hair of character Christine "Spike" Nelson, was the real hair of actress Amanda Stepto, who was an avid fan of punk rock music.

## Episodes

### Degrassi Between Takes

Degrassi Between Takes is a half-hour documentary special that aired on 30 October 1989, a week before the premiere of the sequel series Degrassi High, on CBC. The documentary is a behind-the-scenes look at Degrassi Junior High, shot during the show's third season and narrated by Peter Gzowski. The special focuses on the development and impact of the series, with footage of the cast at the Gemini Awards, working on set, socializing in public and on publicity tours.

## Release

### Initial broadcast

The series premiered on CBC on 18 January 1987 and concluded on 27 February 1989. From its debut, the show ran on Sundays at 5:00 p.m. Starting from its second season, due to a budget squeeze, it was then moved to Monday nights at 7:30 p.m, and then later by then-new CBC programming chief Ivan Fecan, who championed the series to primetime at 8:30 p.m, between the popular American series Kate & Allie and Newhart. Fecan was one of the biggest proponents of the series and viewed it as a standard for Canadian television writers; in 1988, he stated that there was "nothing bogus about that show", and that he wished that he had "20 more shows like it". When Fecan called Schuyler to inform her of the move, she reportedly disagreed, feeling that the series wasn't ready for prime time. She eventually agreed to the decision, under the condition that if the move was unsuccessful, the series wouldn't be cancelled and instead be moved back to its original timeslot. Following its move to prime time, the viewership increased 40 percent.

In the United States, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) debuted the series on 26 September 1987. On PBS, the show aired on Saturdays at 7:00 p.m. In New York City, the series aired on Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. on WNET starting from 22 September 1987. The first two thirteen-episode seasons were aired as one twenty-six-episode season during the 1987–88 television season. The third season premiered in the United States on 10 December 1988 with the series finale airing on 15 April 1989. The program was distributed through PBS member station WGBH-TV in Boston, who also offered financial support for the show. Due to PBS's lack of commercials, the American airings often featured scenes that were not seen in Canada.

By November 1988, Degrassi Junior High was being shown in over forty countries, including Australia, Greece, China, France, and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, where it began airing on the BBC starting from 5 April 1988, several episodes from the first season were banned, including several episodes about Spike's pregnancy and the episode "Rumour Has It", which involved rumors of a teacher and a student being homosexual. Despite the banned episodes airing on DEF II on BBC2, the rest of the series was not aired. The series concluded its BBC run on 10 May 1988, with re-runs of the aired episodes from the first season continuing into 1989. In Australia, the show debuted on ABC TV on 8 February 1988, as part of The Afternoon Show hosted by James Valentine, where it aired at 5:00 p.m. The series finale aired in Australia on 10 October 1989.

In France, Junior High and High were aired under the banner Les Années collège (The College Years) on Antenne 2 starting from September 10, 1988.

### Re-runs and syndication

In Canada, the series re-ran on CBC starting from summer 1991. On 1 September 1997, the show began to air in re-runs on Showcase. In the United States, the series was rerun on Showtime starting from 14 August 1994, in its original 1987 CBC timeslot. Starting from 8 October 2005, coinciding with the premiere of Degrassi: The Next Generation's fifth season, the show along with its sequel debuted on the Noggin block The N with a two-hour block, followed by standard re-runs.

In Australia, re-runs aired starting on ABC from 1992. It later re-ran on ABC1's Rollercoaster and ABC2. By 2001, it had been syndicated in over seventy countries. In the United Kingdom, UK Gold screened Degrassi Junior High daily starting from its launch in 1992. Later in the mid-1990s, Degrassi Junior High later reran on The Children's Channel.

### Use in schools

The series was often shown in schools as part of health and sex education curricula. Educational materials relating to the series were released by WGBH in the United States during its original run, including discussion & activity guides. 25,000 copies of the Degrassi Junior High Discussion and Activity Guide were distributed to educators. In 1989, ten schools in Omaha, Nebraska were reported as using the first season of the series in their seventh and eighth grade human growth and development curriculum.

### Home media and streaming

The series has seen multiple home video releases as well as releases to streaming. In the United States, the series is distributed on home video by WGBH Boston Home Video, who released a twenty-one volume VHS boxset in 2000. WGBH would later release it on DVD in Region 1 in 2005. Each season was released separately followed by a complete 9-disc boxset. The 2005 WGBH box set, as well as the individual sets, include various special features, including the Degrassi Talks series, the 1989 Degrassi Between Takes documentary, printable materials, wallpapers, and a pop quiz.

In Region 4, the show's home media releases are distributed by Beyond Home Entertainment (under the imprint Force), who released a seven-disc set in 2006, including an extra disc containing special features. The special features are similar to the Region 1 box set, omitting the pop quiz. The series was also made available on YouTube.

In July 2023, Degrassi Junior High was made available on Amazon Prime Video in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

## Reception and impact

### Critical reception

Degrassi Junior High was a critical and commercial success as well as a cultural phenomenon in Canada, where it is considered one of the country's greatest television achievements. It established the franchise's popularity and longevity. According to American psychiatrists David A. and Beatrix Hamburg, research on adolescent reactions to the series found that young viewers found it "exceptionally appealing", highly effective in presenting their issues, and successful in stimulating in-depth discussion. Favourable reviews regularly came from critics from the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, and the Montreal Gazette. The Canadian press, including CBC itself, celebrated the series and its international success and considered it to be one of the most groundbreaking and one of the greatest children's television series of all time. In particular, Toronto Star film and television critic Jim Bawden's regular championing of the series was credited by cast member Stefan Brogren with influencing its move to prime time. After its move to prime time, critics felt it had been well deserved.

It was also a cult hit and received favourable reviews in the United States. Speaking of the show's upcoming premiere on PBS, Fred M. Hechinger of the New York Times pondered whether the show's then-uncommon way of addressing adolescent issues would have an impact; "Can teen-agers be won over to entertainment that is not mindless, violent or sexually irresponsible?". In 1989, in the lead-up to the premiere of its third season, the series was profiled by John Fisher Burns, also of the New York Times, who asserted it was "remolding the pat-a-cake image of what the industry, with at least some sense of paradox, likes to call ''children's television.'" Writing for New Jersey's The Record, Joel Pitsezner remarked that he was so impressed with the series that he skipped two press conferences to watch more episodes, citing in particular the "intelligent and sensitive writing" of Yan Moore, the "believable interplay" between the actors, and in particular the portrayal of the "pain and awkwardness of the early teen years", the latter of which he believed to be its best quality.

Praise for the series was often directed to its portrayal of controversial topics, its casting choices, character development, balance of comedy and drama, cinematography, writing and low-budget production, which critics felt offered a more sincere and realistic depiction of adolescence in opposition to other youth and family-focused television programs of the period, which were widely viewed as trivializing serious issues and leaning heavily towards moralism. Writing for the Edmonton Journal, Bob Remington described the show and its characters as an exception to the "unrealistically antiseptic" television series such as The Cosby Show and Our House. Dave Rhein, in a review for wire service Gannett, declared that it "put to shame" other efforts to make a realistic show targeted towards teenagers. Other critics, including Janice Kennedy of the Montreal Gazette, who also often covered the series in her Children's Television column, and Anne Weiss of Cinema Canada magazine, praised the show's cinematography; Kennedy praising the producer's decision to shoot on film instead of video tape, and Weiss suggesting its "highly developed psychological use of the camera" was influenced by soap operas. The portrayal of the characters was praised by Steve Sonsky of the Miami Herald, who felt that it differentiated the series from others with teenage characters that were less realistically problematic.

Retrospectively, the series has continued to receive critical acclaim. Ian Warden of The Canberra Times, speaking of the show's continued reruns on ABC-TV, asserted in 1995 that it was "perhaps the best sustained piece of children's television drama ever made". In 2000, Leah McLaren of the Globe and Mail would recall disliking the series with her friends as a teenager, before later appreciating the "raw beauty" of the series as an adult. In addition, McLaren called it "way ahead of its time, both aesthetically and conceptually". Ottawa Citizen critic Tony Atherton, in a mixed review of the premiere episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, made numerous comparisons between the characters of the older and newer series, and felt that due to the "deluge of teen dramas since". Next Generation would not make the same impact as the "groundbreaking" original series. David Berry of the National Post noted the difference between the show and the "slicker" Next Generation, saying that it was "like someone snuck a piece of avant-garde socialist realism onto mainstream network airwaves".

Reviewing the DVD release of its first season in 2007, Andrew Mickel of Den of Geek felt the show still held up twenty years after its debut, and singled out the character of Joey Jeremiah, which he compared to Ferris Bueller, as being a "big casting draw". Although also praising the series for its realism and sincerity, Exclaim!'''s Noel Dix felt that the DVD release leaned too much towards having an educational purpose rather than having "the fans in mind". Brodie Lancaster of the Sydney Morning Herald commented on the age-appropriate casting, calling it a "rare occurrence in the genre" of teen drama.

### Television ratings

In Canada, the show reached a quarter of the adolescent viewing audience aged 12 to 17. In total, it received a 4 percent share of the viewing audience, which translated to several million viewers, despite minimal funding from the US public broadcasting system. By season two, Degrassi Junior High was receiving an average of 1.4 million viewers with a peak of 1.9 million, aided by its move to a prime time slot. The show's season 3 premiere, the two-parter "Can't Live With 'Em", drew 1.7 million viewers. The number accounted for 21 percent of the entire audience during that slot. By 1988, Degrassi Junior High was the highest-rated drama series in Canada.

In the United Kingdom, the series drew in six million followers by 1988, making it the highest-rated children's television series in the country, despite the BBC banning several of its episodes.

### Awards and nominations

Degrassi Junior High has received twenty-eight awards, including eight Gemini Awards, three Parents' Choice Awards, three Chris Awards, and one International Emmy Award. The series won a Rockie Award for Best Continuing Series at the Banff Television Festival in 1988, where it drew praise from MTM Enterprises senior vice president and judge Laurence Bloustein, and marked the first time it had won an award outside of children's categories. Despite the win, the next year's festival saw an episode that addressed AIDS unanimously rejected for being "sloppily executed". The episode "It's Late" won the International Emmy Award for Children & Young People in 1987, and the series was nominated again for the award in 1988 for the second season episode "Great Expectations".

Out of the eight Gemini Awards won by the series, including one won in 1987 for Best Children's Series, it won four in 1988, including Best Continuing Dramatic Series, and Best Direction in a Dramatic Comedy Series for Kit Hood. When one award was announced, thirty four cast members took the stage. Furthermore, actors Pat Mastroianni and Stacie Mistysyn won the Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress in a Dramatic Role awards in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Mastroianni's win in particular was considered an upset, as he had beaten several established Canadian actors such as Scott Hylands and Donnelly Rhodes. Nineteen members of the cast, including Mastroianni, Mistysyn, Amanda Stepto, Stefan Brogren and Neil Hope were nominated for the Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast in 1990, but lost to A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story.

### Influence on teen drama

Degrassi Junior High was one of the first drama series in Canada to exclusively target teenage audiences. Michelle Byers. editor of Growing Up Degrassi, states that while largely excluded from most discussions about teen television, Degrassi was "probably one of the earliest examples of the genre". According to the book The Greatest Cult Television Shows of All Time, the series was a trailblazer for future teen-oriented drama series "mainly because it understood teenage culture better than almost any other show produced before or since". The series is widely described as an early teen drama and an influence on several key series of the genre. most specifically Beverly Hills, 90210, which Degrassi Junior High is frequently compared to. For many years, an urban legend, supported by Pat Mastroianni, circulated that American television producer Aaron Spelling had attempted to adapt the series for a US audience, but was unsuccessful, and instead created Beverly Hills, 90210. Linda Schuyler denied the rumor in 2008, but indicated Spelling may have been aware of Degrassi. The Guardian's Sarah Hughes suggested that Beverly Hills, 90210 was "Spelling's answer" to Degrassi Junior High. Writing about the death of actor Neil Hope, the New York Times's Paul Vitello said the show anticipated Beverly Hills 90210 as well as the MTV's The Real World. It has also been named as an influence on Dawson's Creek, 7th Heaven, and Felicity. Various academic studies have been written about the comparison between Degrassi and American teen drama series.

### Promotion and fan reaction

The cast members became national celebrities as a result of the show's success. They would often embark on promotional tours across North America and even in Europe for the series during its run. They were primarily accompanied by Kathryn Ellis, who acted as the publicist. When travelling by plane, one of the actors would be in charge of checking the others through the airport. They were warmly received in most places, and participated in various cultural activities. The actors frequently visited Halifax, Nova Scotia in particular.

The success of the show led to the actors making appearances at public service events. For instance, Bill Parrott, who played Shane McKay, co-hosted the launch of the Kids Help Phone hotline in Toronto. The actors often participated in meet-and-greets and book signings at shopping malls and other places, where they drew a reaction comparable to Beatlemania. The actors were also sometimes conflated with their characters by fans and viewers. Amanda Stepto, who portrayed Spike, was mistaken for being pregnant like her character, and often received baby products and toys. Kit Hood expressed his concerns over the fan reactions: "That's what scares me is that the audience sometimes expects the kids to have knowledge about their characters that they don't have in real life".

Despite their international fame, and an on-set tutor, the actors were still required to attend school, and some recalled their teachers not being lenient about their busy schedules. Pat Mastroianni recalled that his geography teacher gave him a low grade despite succeeding in other subjects; Rebecca Haines recalled her parents threatening to remove her from the show if her grades were low enough. Speaking to the Edmonton Journal, Haines stated: "Some teachers can be jerks about it. [...] When you get home at eight at night, after working all day, you don't feel like writing an essay".

### UNICEF partnership

In 1989, UNICEF Canada entered a partnership with Degrassi Junior High, with the cast being named UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors. The cast members would make various appearances and appear in several public service announcements. Pat Mastroianni and Amanda Stepto flew to New York City to tour the Headquarters of the United Nations and meet other ambassadors. That same year, coinciding with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which was ratified by Canada in 1991), a ten-minute video called The Degrassi Kids Rap On Rights that was distributed in Canadian schools nationwide. The video, narrated by Amanda Stepto, focused on the impending ratification of the Convention and highlighted the childhood experiences of several cast members in refugee camps and natural disasters.

### In popular culture

American filmmaker Kevin Smith was a particular fan of Degrassi Junior High, having discovered it while working at a convenience store in New Jersey, and acknowledged an infatuation with Stacie Mistysyn and her character Caitlin Ryan. Smith wrote a piece about his enthusiasm for the series for Details magazine in November 1996, where it is claimed that he spent \$3,000 on the series on home video. Smith has referenced the series several times in his work, including Clerks, which features a character named Caitlin Bree, and Chasing Amy. He attempted to cast Mistysyn in his 1995 film Mallrats in the role of Rene Mosier, but was denied by Universal Pictures, who wanted a better-known name. As a compromise, Smith made Shannen Doherty, who got the role, wear a Degrassi jacket for the character. Smith, along with Jason Mewes, guest-starred on and wrote several episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation, in which they play fictional versions of themselves filming a Jay and Silent Bob movie at the school. Smith later wrote the introduction to The Official 411: Degrassi Generations by Kathryn Ellis.

Reviewing the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Boston Globe critic Ty Burr quipped that it sometimes felt like "Degrassi Junior High with dragons".

### Cult following and legacy

The series endured a significant cult following after its initial broadcast. Throughout the 1990s, an online fan community emerged, with the creation of various fansites about Degrassi Junior High and its sequel series. The fan sites, part of a webring created by Mark Aaron Polger, featured multimedia related to the show and spawned fan fiction, including a 1998 story called Degrassi: The Next Generation that centred around Spike's daughter Emma and included a character named Paige, similar to the real series of the same name that debuted in 2001. In 1996, a website named Degrassi Update appeared which chronicled public sightings of the Degrassi Junior High cast and drew mixed responses from cast members. A small reunion was organized on 24 August 1999 at Centennial College where the sequel series was filmed, and the cast reunited on the CBC youth show Jonovision, hosted by Jonathan Torrens, on 24–25 December 1999. The Jonovision reunion, which according to Torrens saw in-studio viewers attend from as far as San Francisco, served as a catalyst for the development of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Epitome Pictures (the company that eventually produced Next Generation) would later send Polger a draft statement of claim over his use of the Degrassi name, claiming he was confusing the public, and threatening legal action. After he sent various media outlets a press release, and garnered support from other fans of the series, Epitome withdrew the claim. Polger criticized Epitome Pictures for showing a lack of gratitude for the online community's impact on the show's continued success.

In 2017, the series was named by the Toronto International Film Festival as one of Canada's 150 most significant contributions to the cinematic landscape. Pat Mastroianni, after appearing at numerous fan conventions, later organized Degrassi Palooza, a convention celebrating the legacy of the 1980s Degrassi series and featuring a reunion of 26 cast and crew members, at the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel in mid-June 2019.

## Print media

Starting from 1988, a series of mass-market paperback novelizations were released by James Lorimer & Co. The books would often centre on a particular character on the show and expanded upon storylines from the series, although the novel Exit Stage Left, which centres around various students as they organize a school play, is original. A thirteenth book, based on the characters Arthur Kobalewscuy and Yick Yu and written by Kathryn Ellis, remains unreleased.

The books were also published in other places; in Australia, they were published by ABC in November 1990, with more published in January 1991. The books also saw French Canadian releases by Les Éditions de Minuit.

## See also

- The Kids Of Degrassi Street — predecessor to Degrassi Junior High featuring some of its actors in different roles
- Degrassi High — sequel series of Degrassi Junior High, following the same characters in high school
- Degrassi: The Next Generation — 2001 reboot of the series, featuring several characters from Degrassi Junior High'' as adults

1987 Canadian teen drama television series

1980s Canadian LGBT-related drama television series

1980s Canadian teen drama television series

Gemini and Canadian Screen Award for Best Drama Series winners


HMS Ark Royal (1914)

HMS Ark Royal was the first ship designed and built as a seaplane carrier. She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1914 shortly after her keel had been laid and the ship was only in frames; this allowed the ship's design to be modified almost totally to accommodate seaplanes. During the First World War, Ark Royal participated in the Gallipoli Campaign in early 1915, with her aircraft conducting aerial reconnaissance and observation missions. Her aircraft later supported British troops on the Macedonian Front in 1916, before she returned to the Dardanelles to act as a depot ship for all the seaplanes operating in the area. In January 1918, several of her aircraft unsuccessfully attacked the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben when she sortied from the Dardanelles to attack Allied ships in the area. The ship left the area later in the year to support seaplanes conducting anti-submarine patrols over the southern Aegean Sea.

After the end of the war, Ark Royal mostly served as an aircraft transport and depot ship for those aircraft in support of White Russian and British operations against the Bolsheviks in the Caspian and Black Sea regions during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. She also supported Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft in British Somaliland in the campaign against Diiriye Guure's Darawiish and Mohammed Abdullah Hassan in 1920. Later that year, the ship was placed in reserve. Ark Royal was recommissioned to ferry an RAF squadron to the Dardanelles during the Chanak Crisis in 1922. She was reduced to reserve again upon her return to the United Kingdom the following year.

The ship was recommissioned in 1930 to serve as a training ship, for seaplane pilots and to evaluate aircraft catapult operations and techniques. She was renamed HMS Pegasus in 1934, freeing the name for the aircraft carrier ordered that year, and continued to serve as a training ship until the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939. Assigned to the Home Fleet at the beginning of the war, she took on tasks as an aircraft transport, in addition to her training duties, until she was modified to serve as the prototype fighter catapult ship in late 1940. This type of ship was intended to defend convoys against attacks by German long-range maritime patrol bombers by launching fighters via their catapult to provide air cover for the convoy. Pegasus served in this role until mid-1941 when she reverted to her previous duties as a training ship. This lasted until early 1944 when she became a barracks ship. The ship was sold in late 1946 and her conversion into a merchant ship began the following year. However, the owner ran out of money during the process and Anita I, as she had been renamed, was seized by her creditors in 1949 and sold for scrap. She was not broken up until late 1950.

## Design and description

The Royal Navy had conducted trials in 1913 with a modified cruiser, Hermes, to evaluate the ability of seaplanes to work with the fleet. They were successful enough that the Admiralty allocated £81,000 in the 1914–1915 Naval Programme to purchase a merchant ship for a more thorough modification than had been possible with Hermes to better accommodate seaplanes. A tramp steamer was purchased in 1914 that had just begun construction at the Blyth Shipbuilding Company so it could be easily modified to suit its new role.

Ark Royal was laid down on 7 November 1913 by the Blyth Shipbuilding Company in Blyth, Northumberland, as a freighter, probably intended for the coal-for-grain trade in the Black Sea. She was purchased in May 1914 and was launched on 5 September 1914. The ship was commissioned on 10 December 1914.

Extensive changes to the ship were made in converting her to a seaplane tender, with the superstructure, funnel, and propulsion machinery moved aft and a working deck occupying the forward half of the ship. The deck was not intended as a flying-off deck, but for starting and running up of seaplane engines and for recovering damaged aircraft from the sea. The ship was equipped with a large aircraft hold, 150 feet (45.7 m) long, 45 feet (13.7 m) wide and 15 feet (4.6 m) high along with extensive workshops. Two 3-long-ton (3.0 t) steam cranes on the sides of the forecastle lifted the aircraft through the sliding hatch of the hangar onto the flight deck or into the water. She carried 4,000 imperial gallons (18,000 L; 4,800 US gal) of petrol for her aircraft in standard commercial 2-imperial-gallon (9.1 L; 2.4 US gal) tins.

She could carry five floatplanes and two to four wheeled aircraft. The seaplanes would take off and land in the water alongside the carrier, lifted on and off the ship by cranes; the other aircraft would have to return to land after launch. Her original complement of aircraft consisted of a Short Folder, two Wight Pushers, three Sopwith Type 807 seaplanes and two to four Sopwith Tabloid wheeled aircraft.

Ark Royal had an overall length of 366 feet (111.6 m), a beam of 50 feet 10 inches (15.5 m), and a draught of 18 feet 9 inches (5.7 m). She normally displaced 7,080 long tons (7,190 t), with a displacement of 7,450 long tons (7,570 t) at deep load. The ship had one vertical triple-expansion steam engine driving one propeller shaft. The ship's three cylindrical boilers generated enough steam to produce 3,000 indicated horsepower (2,200 kW) from the engine. The ship had a designed speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph); she made a speed of 10.64 knots (19.71 km/h; 12.24 mph) during her sea trials with 2,675 shaft horsepower (1,995 kW) in December 1914. Ark Royal carried 500 tonnes (490 long tons) of fuel oil, enough to give her a range of 3,030 nautical miles (5,610 km; 3,490 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

The ship was armed with four QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns and two machine guns. Her crew totalled 180 officers and men, including 60 aviation personnel. "Her truly unique feature was the steadying sail on the mizzen to help keep her head to the wind; she remains the only aircraft carrier to have been fitted with a sail."

## Service

### First World War

The ship proved to be too slow to work with the Grand Fleet and for operations in the North Sea in general, so Ark Royal was ordered to the Mediterranean in mid-January 1915 to support the Gallipoli campaign. Under the command of Commander Robert Clark-Hall, the ship sailed on 1 February 1915 and arrived at the island of Tenedos on 17 February. She attempted to fly three of her seaplanes on the day of her arrival to reconnoitre the Straits, but two of them had engine troubles and the third could not take off because the water was too calm, a common problem with many early seaplanes. A Wight Pusher eventually managed to get into the air and discovered new fortifications down the Straits; it dropped a single 20-pound (9.1 kg) bomb on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles and returned with seven bullet holes in its skin. Two days later, the ship's aircraft attempted unsuccessfully to spot for the fleet as they bombarded the Ottoman fortifications defending the Straits. They conducted more aerial reconnaissance and observation missions in support of the fleet later in the month and in early March as it moved further up the Straits. Ark Royal lost her first aircraft on 5 March as the propeller of one of her Sopwiths splintered into pieces at 3,000 feet (910 m). Both of the aircraft's crewmen were recovered by the destroyer HMS Usk.

Later in the month, the ship's aircrew learned to spot mines from the air and were moderately successful, although they failed to detect the minefield that sank one French and two British predreadnoughts and damaged a British battlecruiser on 18 March. Later in the month, Ark Royal and her aircraft were relieved by No. 3 Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). In preparation for the squadron's arrival, the ship's crew cleared a vineyard on the island to serve as an airfield and unloaded its crated aircraft on 26–27 March. From 31 March to 7 April, Ark Royal and her companions made several fake landing attempts and her aircraft bombarded the port of Smyrna with little effect. When she returned to Tenedos on 8 April, she exchanged her Tabloids, which had never flown from the ship, for a pair of Sopwith Schneider single-seat floatplanes. In addition, she received two Sopwith Type 860s, another Wight Pusher, and a Short Type 166, all two-seat floatplanes, as replacements. The ship had no room for all these aircraft and she used the collier Penmorvalt to store them and for additional workshop space. Her aircraft resumed reconnaissance and observation missions over the Dardanelles; aircraft discovered a large ammunition dump on 12 April, and provided corrective data to direct gunfire from HMS Lord Nelson onto the target.

Ark Royal's aircraft provided support to the Australian and New Zealand troops at Anzac Cove as they landed on 25 April on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Two days later, the ship was taken under fire by the Ottoman predreadnought Turgut Reis, firing across the peninsula, and she had to move in a hurry to avoid being hit. A month later, the battle on the peninsula had bogged down and the success of the German submarine U-21 in sinking two British predreadnoughts forced Ark Royal to move to a safer anchorage at Imbros at the end of May. There she became a depot ship for all the seaplanes in the area, while her own aircraft continued to support operations at Gallipoli. On occasion, aircraft were loaned out to other ships for reconnaissance or observation missions.

The ship left Imbros on 1 November for Mytilene, from where her aircraft flew aerial reconnaissance missions over Smyrna, before she continued onwards to Salonika, where she arrived on 8 November. While based there, her aircraft supported British troops fighting the Bulgarians, spotted for British ships conducting shore bombardments, and conducted anti-submarine patrols. At this time, Ark Royal operated five Short 166s and a couple of Sopwith seaplanes. On 27 March 1917, the ship was transferred to Mudros to serve as a depot ship for all the seaplanes assigned to No. 2 Wing RNAS, which controlled all RNAS aircraft in the area. By the end of 1917, she operated a mixture of Short Type 184 and Sopwith Baby aircraft.

On the morning of 20 January 1918, the Ottoman battlecruiser Yavûz Sultân Selîm, together with the light cruiser Midilli (formerly the German Goeben and Breslau, and still with German crews), sortied from the Dardanelles to attack British warships based at Mudros. Yavuz struck a mine shortly after they exited the mouth of the Dardanelles so they switched targets and sank two British monitors off Imbros Island. As they were returning to the Dardanelles, the two ships were attacked by two of Ark Royal's Sopwith Babies with 65-pound (29 kg) bombs. One Baby was quickly shot down and the other was forced to make an emergency landing with engine problems off Imbros; the pilot was able to taxi the aircraft onto a beach and it was recovered several days later. Midilli struck five mines and sank on the return whilst Yavuz struck two more mines and then ran aground inside the Straits. Ark Royal's Short 184s attempted to bomb her at dawn on the following morning, but all ten bombs missed, and an attempt to attack the ship with a Short 184 modified to carry a 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo failed when the weight of the torpedo proved to be more than the aircraft could lift.

On 3 April, the ship was transferred to the island of Syros, where she could support the seaplanes of No. 62 Wing of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on anti-submarine patrols; part of the former No. 2 Wing RNAS redesignated when the RNAS and the Royal Flying Corps were merged to form the RAF. Ark Royal was transferred to Piraeus in October and was still there when the Armistice of Mudros with Turkey was signed on 31 October. The ship joined the Allied fleet that occupied Constantinople after the surrender.

### Interwar years and the Second World War

After the war, Ark Royal transported aircraft across the Black Sea to Batumi, where they were ferried across the Caucasus to the British naval forces supporting White Russian forces fighting the Bolsheviks in the Caspian Sea during the Russian Civil War. The ship was withdrawn from the Black Sea in late 1919 and disembarked her seaplanes at Malta to load a dozen Airco DH.9 bombers and 181 personnel of the supporting Z Force for transport to British Somaliland. The ship arrived in Berbera on 30 December and the squadron was unloaded to support the air and land campaign against Diiriye Guure. Ark Royal served during this campaign solely as a depot and repair ship for the RAF. She was withdrawn before its conclusion and transferred to the Black Sea to support the White Russian forces there as they began to collapse. The ship twice ferried refugees from the Caucasian coast to the Crimea and, after the second voyage, had to be fumigated at Constantinople after an outbreak of typhus among her passengers. During the summer of 1920, Ark Royal ferried RAF aircraft and personnel to Basra. She then returned to Britain for a refit and was put into reserve at Rosyth in November.

She was recommissioned in September 1922 to transport 4 Squadron, equipped with a dozen Bristol F.2 Fighters, out to the Dardanelles during the Chanak crisis. The aircraft were ferried semi-assembled and then transferred to the aircraft carrier Argus where they were fully assembled. On 11 October, the F.2s flew from the carrier to an airfield at Kilya on the European side of the straits. The ship remained in the area until she was given a brief refit at Malta in early 1923. Now equipped with Fairey IIID seaplanes, Ark Royal returned to the Dardanelles until she was transferred back to the United Kingdom late in the year. Upon her arrival, the ship was placed back in reserve and became the depot ship for the reserve of minesweepers at Sheerness until 1930.

In 1930, Ark Royal was recommissioned again as a training ship and an aircraft catapult was installed on her forecastle, forward of her cranes. For the next nine years, the ship conducted trials and evaluations of catapults and seaplane launch and recovery equipment and techniques. On 21 December 1934, she was renamed HMS Pegasus to release her name for a new carrier that was then beginning construction. The ship was assigned to the Home Fleet when the Second World War began, and was mostly used to train sailors in catapult launching and shipboard recovery techniques. The ship used the Fairey Seafox, Supermarine Walrus, and Fairey Swordfish of 764 Naval Air Squadron. She also served as an aircraft transport and was present in Scapa Flow, having just delivered some aircraft, on 14 October when the battleship Royal Oak was sunk by the . As the closest ship to Royal Oak, Pegasus was able to rescue some 400 survivors.

Pegasus was converted to the prototype fighter catapult ship in November 1940, carrying three Fairey Fulmar fighters from 807 Naval Air Squadron between 1 December and 10 February 1941, which were replaced by aircraft from 804 Naval Air Squadron between 10 February and 23 July. These fighters were supposed to defend convoys against attacks from Focke-Wulf Fw 200 maritime patrol bombers and to prevent them from radioing location reports to U-boats. If out of range of land, the fighters would have to ditch at sea and hope to be recovered by a ship from their convoy. The ship escorted nine convoys between December 1940 and July 1941. At some point during the war, the ship's anti-aircraft armament was supplemented with a pair of Oerlikon 20 mm light anti-aircraft guns mounted in the bow, the ship's bridge was enlarged and the mast was replaced with a tripod mast bearing a Type 291 air warning radar. The ship then became a seaplane training ship again, hosting 763 NAS aboard from 20 April 1942 to 13 February 1944. Pegasus then became a barracks ship until May 1946 and was then listed for disposal in June.

She was sold to R. C. Ellerman on 18 October, renamed Anita I, and registered under the Panamanian flag. Under the management of the Compania de Navigation Ellanita, the ship sailed from Cardiff to Antwerp in October 1947 to begin conversion to a freighter. The work ceased in early 1948 and Anita I was seized by her creditors and auctioned off to a Dutch shipbreaking firm on 16 June 1949. She was resold once more before the ship was purchased by the British Iron and Steel Corporation in October 1950. Later that year, the ship was broken up for scrap at Thos. W. Ward, Grays, Essex.

1914 seaplane carrier of the Royal Navy

World War I aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom

World War II aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom


Francis William Reitz

Francis William Reitz, Jr. (Swellendam, 5 October 1844 – Cape Town, 27 March 1934) was a South African lawyer, politician, statesman, publicist, and poet who was a member of parliament of the Cape Colony, Chief Justice and fifth State President of the Orange Free State, State Secretary of the South African Republic at the time of the Second Boer War, and the first president of the Senate of the Union of South Africa.

Reitz had an extremely varied political and judicial career that lasted for over forty-five years and spanned four separate political entities: the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, the South African Republic, and the Union of South Africa. Trained as a lawyer in Cape Town and London, Reitz started off in law practice and diamond prospecting before being appointed Chief Justice of the Orange Free State. In the Orange Free State Reitz played an important role in the modernisation of the legal system and the state's administrative organisation. At the same time he was also prominent in public life, getting involved in the Afrikaner language and culture movement, and cultural life in general. He was a South African Freemason.

Reitz was a popular personality, both for his politics and his openness. When State President Brand suddenly died in 1888, Reitz won the presidential elections unopposed. After being re-elected in 1895, subsequently making a trip to Europe, Reitz fell seriously ill, and had to retire. In 1898, now recovered, he was appointed State Secretary of the South African Republic, and became a leading Afrikaner political figure during the Second Boer War. Reluctant to shift allegiance to the British, Reitz went into voluntary exile after the war ended. Several years later he returned to South Africa and set up a law practice again, in Pretoria. In the late 1900s he became involved in politics once more, and upon the declaration of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Reitz was chosen the first president of the Senate.

Reitz was an important figure in Afrikaner cultural life during most of his life, especially through his poems and other publications.

## Family

Francis William Reitz, Jr., was born in Swellendam on 5 October 1844, as the son of Francis William Reitz, Sr. MLC, model farmer and politician, and Cornelia Magdalena Deneys. He was the seventh child in a family of twelve. He grew up at Rhenosterfontein, the model farm (Afrikaans: plaas) of his father, situated on the borders of the Breederivier (Broad River) in the Cape Colony.

Reitz married twice. His first marriage (Cape Town 24 June 1874) was to Blanka Thesen (Stavanger, Norway, 15 October 1854 – Bloemfontein, 5 October 1887). She was the sister of Charles Wilhelm Thesen, and the daughter of Arnt Leonard Thesen, tradesman, and Anne Cathrine Margarethe Brandt. The Thesen family had settled in Knysna, Cape Colony, from Norway in 1869. The couple had seven sons and one daughter. After the death of his first wife Reitz remarried (Bloemfontein, 11 December 1889) with Cornelia Maria Theresia Mulder (Delft, Netherlands, 25 December 1863 – Cape Town 2 January 1935), daughter of Johannes Adrianus Mulder, typesetter, and Engelina Johanna van Hamme. At the time of her marriage Mulder was acting director of the Eunice Ladies' Institute at Bloemfontein. With his second wife he had six sons and one daughter.

Deneys, his son, fought against the British in the Second Boer War, commanded the First Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers during World War I and served as a Member of the Union Parliament, Cabinet Minister, Deputy Prime Minister (1939–1943), and South African High Commissioner (1944) to the Court of St. James's. His book, Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War, has for many years been regarded as one of the best narratives of war and adventure in the English language.

## Education

Reitz received his earliest schooling at home, from a governess, and at a neighbouring farm. When he was nine years old, he went to the Rouwkoop Boarding School in Rondebosch (Cape Town). Here he stood out for his academic achievements and was subsequently elected Queen's Scholar by the Senate of the South African College in Cape Town. In the six years he spent at the College, after arriving in 1857, he received a broad education in arts and sciences, and developed himself into a well-balanced young man with obvious leadership qualities. He graduated from South African College in September 1863 with the equivalent of a modern bachelor's degree in arts and sciences.

By then, Reitz had developed a keen interest in law, and he continued his studies at South African College, reading law with professor F.S. Watermeyer. The latter's death only months after Reitz started working with him, made Reitz decide to continue his studies in London, at the Inner Temple. It was a decision that needed deliberation, as his father was hoping for his son to return to the farm in due time, and the financial situation of the family was not strong. However, Reitz did go to London, and finished his studies successfully. He was called to the bar at Westminster on 11 June 1867. During his time in England Reitz became interested in politics, and regularly attended sessions of the House of Commons. Before returning to South Africa he made a tour of Europe. Back in South Africa, Reitz established himself as a barrister in Cape Town, where he was called to the bar on 23 January 1868.

## Early career

In the beginning Reitz found it hard to make a living, as competition among lawyers in Cape Town was quite severe at this time. Nevertheless, he succeeded in making a name for himself, due to his sharp legal mind and his social intelligence. Being part of the western Circuit Court of the Cape Colony gave him a lot of experience in a very short time. At the same time, Reitz nurtured his political interests by writing lead articles for the Cape Argus newspaper, for which he also reported on the proceedings of the Cape Parliament and acted as deputy editor. In 1870 Reitz moved his legal practice to Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State. The discovery of diamonds on the banks of the Vaal River, Reitz thought, would lead to a growth of legal work and enable him to set up a thriving practice. This was not to be, however, and after a few months Reitz left Bloemfontein to set up as a diamond prospector in Griqualand West, where he bought a small claim near Pniel from the Berlin Missionary Society. This enterprise also proved unsuccessful, and again after only a few months Reitz returned to Cape Town. This time, his Cape Town law practice was successful, ironically because of the British annexation of the Orange Free State diamondfields (1871) and the economic prosperity this emanated for the Cape Colony.

In 1873 Reitz was asked to represent the district of Beaufort West in the Cape Parliament. The day he took his seat, 30 May, his father, who was the representative for Swellendam, announced his retirement from the Assembly. As so many of Reitz's activities up to that point, his parliamentary career was short-lived. Only two months later, President Johannes Brand of the Orange Free State offered Reitz the position of chairman of the newly formed Appellate court of the Orange Free State, despite the fact that Reitz was not fully qualified (inter alia too young). Reitz refused the offer for this reason, but when another candidate also refused, Brand insisted on the nomination of Reitz, and convinced the Volksraad to appoint him.

## Judge and official of Orange Free State

With his appointment to the judiciary of the Orange Free State, Reitz came into his own. His arrival – now almost thirty years old and just married – in Bloemfontein in August 1874 was the start of a residency of twenty-one years, as well as the start of a glowing career, to be crowned with his election as State President.

Before the mid-1870s, the judicial system of the Orange Free State was rather amateurish and haphazard in character, particularly because most of the judges were legally unqualified. Most of the judicial procedures were in the hands of district magistrates, the so-called Landdrosts, whose main task was administrative. Reitz's first task was to ameliorate this situation, which he did with much vigour. Well within his first year of tenure the Volksraad passed an Ordinance, in which both a professional Circuit Court and a Supreme court were called into being. Reitz became the first president of the Supreme court and consequently also the first Chief Justice of the Orange Free State. Right from the beginning Reitz showed himself to be a fighter, opposing the Volksraad on more than one occasion, tackling deeply ingrained political traditions that stood in the way of the modernisation of the judicial system, but also fighting hard to get the salaries and pensions of state officials improved. As a colonial – he was born in the Cape Colony after all – he had to win the confidence of the Boer population to have his ideas accepted. This he did by travelling with the Circuit Court through the country for over ten years, acquiring insight into and empathy for their way of life and their often conservative and always God-fearing beliefs. It helped that Reitz himself was a religious person and that he had started out in life in the Afrikaans speaking countryside of the Cape Colony. Eventually he became the symbol of Afrikanerdom for many Orange Free Staters.

Institutionally, Reitz did much for the codification and review of the laws of the Orange Free State. With his colleagues C.J. Vels, O.J. Truter, and J.G. Fraser Reitz published the first Ordonnantie boek van den Oranje Vrijstaat (Ordinance Book of the Orange Free State) in 1877, making the acts and ordinances of the republic available to the larger public. He also played a role in the revision of the constitution of the Orange Free State, with regard to articles on citizenship and the right to vote, was chairman of the examination committee for aspirant practitioners, and contributed to the improvement of the prison system and the district administration.

## State President of Orange Free State

Already in 1878, voices sounded for Reitz to run for the presidency, but President Brand's position was still very strong and Reitz openly praised his qualities and refused to stand against him. In the late 1870s and early 1880s the political temperature ran high in the Orange Free State. The annexation of the South African Republic (Transvaal) by the British in 1877 and the First Anglo-Boer War of 1880–1881 in which that republic regained its autonomy impacted deeply on political sentiments in the Orange Free State. On the one hand there were those who propagated caution in the relationship with the British, on the other there developed a political movement that strongly propagated a (reawakened) Afrikaner national consciousness. Reitz was part of the latter, and together with C.L.F. Borckenhagen, editor of the Bloemfontein Express newspaper, he wrote a constitution for the Afrikaner Bond (Afrikaner Union), a political party originally set up by leading Afrikaner politicians in the Cape Colony, like Rev S.J. du Toit and his Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners ('Society of True Afrikaners') and Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr and the Zuidafrikaansche Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging ('South African Boer Protection Association'). Among the supporters of this new Afrikaner nationalism in the Orange Free State was also Reitz's successor, M.T. Steyn, then still a young lawyer. The constitution was presented in April 1881, and several months later Reitz became the chairman of the Bond. His overt political activities earned Reitz criticism from those who feared a breakdown of relations with the British. It is obvious, however, that a wind of change was blowing through the Boer republics and among the Afrikaners in the Cape Colony, which was to change Anglo-Boer relations drastically.

In the Orange Free State President Brand was one of the politicians who held on to a more cautious and consolidating policy towards the British government at the Cape, maintaining strict neutrality. In this position Brand followed the habit of a lifetime, and it earned him a British knighthood. Despite the changing political climate and the polarisation of political positions, Brand remained hugely popular with the burghers of the Orange Free State. The presidential elections of 1883 could on content have become a political battle between the pan-Dutch Afrikaner Bond supporters and followers of the Brand-line. However, Reitz, as the ideal pan-Dutch candidate, again refused to stand against Brand. Only when Brand died in office five years later, the time was ripe for change. Reitz stood candidate and won a landslide victory on the ticket of Afrikaner nationalism. He was inaugurated as state president in the Tweetoringkerk (Two-Towers Church) in Bloemfontein on 10 January 1889.

As president Reitz was one of the first Afrikaners to actively develop a so-called Bantu policy, in philosophy and terminology going beyond contemporary ideas on segregation between white and black. Under his government Indian immigrants were by law forbidden to settle in the Orange Free State (1890). This led to a confrontation with the British government and an extensive correspondence between Reitz and the British high commissioner in Cape Town, in which internal sovereignty was claimed and established.

In economic terms, the late 1880s were a period of growth in the Orange Free State. Agriculture picked up, and the railway system became an important source of income as well. Reitz was instrumental in the modernisation of farming, propagating new techniques and a scientific approach to the prevention of plagues. Here Reitz showed himself the agriculturalist and model farmer his father had been before him.

Under Reitz's presidency the new meeting hall for the Volksraad, the so-called Vierde Raadszaal (Fourth Council Hall) was opened (1893), and the new Government Building received a second floor (1895). Outside Bloemfontein the road network received attention.

As could be expected, immediately after he was inaugurated, Reitz contacted the government of the South African Republic with the objective to establish new and closer political ties. Already on 4 March 1889 the Orange Free State and the South African Republic concluded a treaty of common defence at Potchefstroom. Treaties about trade and the railways were to follow. Even earlier, in January 1889, the Volksraad charged Reitz to negotiate a customs treaty with both the British South African colonies and the South African Republic. On 20 March 1889 a Customs Conference was held in Bloemfontein which led to an agreement between the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony which was hugely beneficial for the former. The economic benefits grew further when new railway lines were opened between the Cape Colony and Bloemfontein (1890) and between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg (1892), directly connecting Cape Town with Johannesburg and turning the Orange Free State into a transit economy. For Reitz the development of a unified South African railway system was also a political goal: the railways as a means to diminish mutual distrust and create unity and mutual understanding between the white population of South Africa.

Reitz's policies were appreciated by the Volksraad, reflecting the change in the mood of the Afrikaner electorate towards Afrikaner nationalism. Months before the presidential election of 1893 the Volksraad endorsed Reitz's candidature with a vote of forty-three against eighteen. Reitz accepted the endorsement on the condition that he be allowed three months leave to Europe. On 22 November 1893 he was re-elected, again with a landslide majority.

The trip to Europe was far from just a family holiday. In Britain Reitz made some strong public statements, defending the republican system of government in South Africa and opposing British intervention in 'Bantu affairs'. On the continent Reitz was received by several heads of state and political leaders. In October 1894 he returned in Bloemfontein. Soon after Reitz was diagnosed with hepatitis, which moreover affected his already strained nerves and led to sleeplessness. The situation was so serious that he eventually had to resign the presidency. The Volksraad accepted his resignation on 11 December 1895.

In June 1896 Reitz travelled to Europe once more on a five-month trip to recover from his debilitating illness. On his return to South Africa he established himself in Pretoria in the South African Republic in July 1897, where he set up a new law practice.

## State Secretary of South African Republic

Reitz did not stay a private person for long because a conflict between the South African Republic legislature and judiciary resulted in the dismissal of the Chief Justice. Reitz then took up an appointment as judge in early 1898 and quickly became part of the inner circle of the Transvaal administration. At the time the relationship with the British was already rapidly deteriorating and the government of the South African Republic was taking action to reinforce its national and international position. One of the measures taken was to replace State Secretary W.J. Leyds, who had the Dutch nationality, with a South African. Leyds was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Europe to represent the Republic abroad. Reitz took his place as State Secretary in June 1898, after Abraham Fischer had declined.

As State Secretary Reitz had a complicated and hefty job. After the State President he was the most important member of the Executive Council (Uitvoerende Raad). As the most senior civil servant he was responsible for the oversight over the implementation of the laws and regulations, as well as for all the correspondence of the President, official government reports, etc. He was also an intermediary between the Executive Council and parliament, the First and Second Volksraad, and a key figure in the foreign affairs of the State. Experienced and well organised as he himself was Reitz managed to quickly modernise the structure of the state apparatus, by implementing regulations for the running of the government departments, appointing an archivist for his own, and by prescribing that all correspondence with the government should be in Dutch.

The State President of the South African Republic, Paul Kruger, was not an easy man to work with, and in some circles it was predicted that Reitz would quickly find himself subordinated to Kruger. This was not the case, however. On occasion the two men clashed on matters of policy, but Reitz remained true to his own convictions, gaining some influence over Kruger in the process. Originally praised by the British for his diplomatic courtesy, their attitude quickly changed when they understood that Reitz was a protagonist of Transvaal independence. Reitz was sometimes rather brazen in his political statements, so when he claimed the South African Republic to be a fully sovereign state, the British jumped on him.

In view of rapidly mounting British pressure and an ensuing armed conflict over the position of the Uitlanders and economic control over the Witwatersrand gold fields, foreign policy in the South African Republic was eventually determined by a triumvirate: State President Kruger, State Secretary Reitz, and State Attorney General J.C. Smuts. During 1899 they decided that an offensive attitude towards British demands was the only way forward, despite the risks this entailed. Reitz sought and received the support of the Orange Free State for this approach. On 9 October 1899 the South African Republic and the Orange Free State issued a joint ultimatum to the British government to retract their demands.

The British government did not give in to the ultimatum, and two days later, on 11 October 1899, the Second Anglo-Boer War (South African War) broke out. When the British army marched on Pretoria in May 1900, the government was forced to flee the capital. From that moment on, Reitz was responsible for the continuous relocation of its seat throughout the Transvaal, which occurred sixty-two times until March 1902. In May of that year, Reitz took an active part in the peace negotiations with the British, and he was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Vereeniging, signed in Pretoria on 31 May 1902.

## Self-chosen exile and return to politics

Although instrumental in drafting the Treaty of Vereeniging, Reitz personally did not want to swear allegiance to the British government and chose to go into exile. On 4 July 1902, he left South Africa and joined his wife and children in the Netherlands. To alleviate his financial troubles, Reitz set out on a lecture tour in the United States. A waning interest in the Boer cause since the war was over made the tour fail and forced Reitz to return to the Netherlands. There, his health failed him again, leading to his hospitalisation and an extensive period of convalescing. He was then supported by his friends W.J. Leyds and H.P.N. Muller and the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Vereeniging (Dutch South-African Society).

In 1907, after the old Boer republics received self-government, and in the run-up to the formation of the Union of South Africa, leading Afrikaner politicians J.C. Smuts and L. Botha asked Reitz to return to South Africa and play a role in politics again. Together with his wife, he established himself in Sea Point, Cape Town. In 1910, already sixty-six years old, he was appointed president of the Senate of the newly formed Union of South Africa.

These were no easy years, again, as former Afrikaner compatriots found each other on two sides of the political fence, in a rapidly changing world. As in his earlier life, Reitz remained a man of outspoken convictions, which he aired freely. As such, he came into conflict with the Smuts government, and in 1920 he was not re-appointed as president of the Senate. He did remain a member of that House until 1929, however.

## Honours and death

As an important public figure, Reitz was honoured and remembered in different ways. In 1923, Reitz the University of Stellenbosch bestowed on him an honorary doctorate in law for his public services. Already in 1889, a village was named after him in the Orange Free State. In 1894 one also named a village after his second wife, Cornelia. A ship named after him, the President Reitz, sank off Port Elizabeth in 1947. The Jubilee Diamond, found in the Free State village of Jagersfontein in 1895 was originally named the Reitz Diamond, but renamed in honour of the sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1897.

When he finally retired from public life, Reitz moved to Gordon's Bay, but returned to Cape Town several years later, where he had a house in Tamboerskloof and was taken care of by his daughter Bessie, a medical doctor. He remained active to the end with writing and translating. Reitz died at his house Botuin on 27 March 1934, and received a state funeral three days later, with a funeral service at the Grote Kerk. He was buried at the Woltemade cemetery at Maitland.

## Cultural figure

Reitz was an important figure in Afrikaner cultural life. He was a poet and published many poems in Afrikaans, which made him a progenitor of the development of Afrikaans as a cultural language. As such he sympathised with the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Society of Real Afrikaners), established in the Cape Colony in 1875. Although he never became a member himself, he was an active contributor to the society's journal, Die Suid-Afrikaansche Patriot. With his literary work, Reitz was solidly anchored in the so-called First Afrikaans Language Movement, although he was less interested in the didactic drive of that movement than in writing in Afrikaans as a purely cultural activity. Much of his work was based on English texts, which he translated, edited, and adapted. In the process he produced completely new works of art.

For Reitz, Afrikaans was predominantly a language of culture, not of government, where he propagated the use of the official language of the Boer republics, Dutch. During his presidency of the Orange Free State, where the use of English was significant among the burghers, he strongly promoted the use of Dutch, against politicians like John G. Fraser and others who were in favour of English.

Institutionally, Reitz promoted the foundation of the Letterkundige en Wetenschappelijke Vereeniging (Literary and Scientific Society) of the Orange Free State, of which he was chairman for a while, the library at Bloemfontein, and the National Museum of the Orange Free State.

South African politician and statesman

Members of the House of Assembly of the Cape Colony

Presidents of the Senate of South Africa

State Presidents of the Orange Free State