Degrassi: The Next Generation

Alliance Atlantis(2001–2008; seasons 1–2 as AAC Kids and seasons 3–7 as Alliance Atlantis)
 Echo Bridge Entertainment (2008–2011; seasons 8–10)
 DHX Media (2015; season 14)

### **Origin**

CTV (2001–09)
 The N (US, 2002-2009)
 TeenNick (US, 2010–15)
 MuchMusic (2010–13)
 MTV Canada (2013–15)

### **Genre**

Teen drama

**Degrassi: The Next Generation** (also known as ***Degrassi***  for seasons 10 to 14) is a Canadian teen drama television series and the fourth series in the Degrassi franchise, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979.

## Premise

The lives of the kids at Degrassi Community School dealing with the serious and sometimes taboo issues that plague teenagers.

## Characters

### Main

Main article: List of Degrassi: The Next Generation characters

## Production

### Concept

The *Degrassi* universe was created in 1979 by Playing With Time, a production company owned by former schoolteacher Linda Schuyler and her partner Kit Hood. The franchise began with *The Kids of Degrassi Street*, which was spawned out of three half-hour short films, and came to prominence with the critical and commercial successes of *Degrassi Junior High*, which debuted in 1987, and *Degrassi High,* which premiered in 1989. The two series followed an ensemble cast of students attending the titular schools as they confronted various issues. It became an international sensation, with the shows experiencing upwards of a million viewers on average in Canada, and received numerous accolades. The telemovie.*School's Out,* which concluded the franchise, aired in 1992.

Schuyler and original *Degrassi* series head writer Yan Moore began developing a new television drama in 1999, following a reunion of the original *Degrassi* cast on the CBC series Jonovision. As the months progressed, they began to think about what had happened to the original characters to develop a school-reunion theme. However, they decided that a series would not work effectively if based around adults instead of children. Moore realized that the character Emma Nelson, born to character Christine "Spike" Nelson at the end of *Degrassi Junior High'*s second season, would soon be entering middle school, and development for the series took a new direction by focusing on Emma and her school experiences.

Schuyler's husband Stephen Stohn suggested *Degrassi: The Next Generation* as the name for the new sequel series, borrowing the concept from *Star Trek: The Next Generation*, of which he was a fan. The project was pitched to CTV in May 2000, with the originally planned reunion episode serving as the pilot to the new series.

### DVD releases

The first twelve seasons of *Degrassi: The Next Generation* have been released on DVD. The box sets are released in Canada by Alliance Home Entertainment. In the United States, FUNimation Entertainment released the first six seasons and Echo Bridge Entertainment released seasons seven through twelve. Each season boxset includes extra features such as pictures, karaoke sessions, audition tapes, bloopers, deleted scenes and more. which is in use in, Oceania and Latin America.

The three-episode story arc from the fourth season in which Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes guest star has also been released as a single disc Region 1 DVD. FUNimation Entertainment released the disc on November 8, 2005, in two versions: the first subtitled as "Uncut, Uncensored and Unrated", and the second, "Rated." Each release has the same DVD extras, including an interview with Kevin Smith, bloopers and a *Jay and Silent Bob* Photo Album, except the Unrated release also features episode commentaries by Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Stacie Mistysyn, the associate producer Jim Jackman and writer Aaron Martin.

### Streaming

*Degrassi: The Next Generation* has been made available over various streaming platforms over the years. In the 2000s, episodes were made available to stream on CTV and TeenNick's websites in Canada and the United States respectively. It was also made available on ITunes in North America. In 2007, Puretracks in Canada offered episodes for download as a media file that could be only burned or copied three times.  In the US, Zune sold the full series. Beginning in spring 2022, all 14 seasons will be available to stream on HBO Max.

## Trivia

* It was announced all 14 seasons will start streaming on HBO Max March 25, 2022.