Degrassi Junior High
Degrassi Junior High is a Canadian television series, the second series in the Degrassi franchise. The program aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1989.
The teen drama followed the lives of a group of students attending the titular fictional school. Many episodes tackled difficult topics such as bullying, drug use, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, homophobia, racism, and divorce, and the series was acclaimed for its sensitive and realistic portrayal of the challenges of teenage life. The cast comprised mainly non-professional actors, which added to the show's sense of realism.
The series featured many of the same actors who had starred on The Kids of Degrassi Street a few years earlier, including Stacie Mistysyn, Neil Hope, Anais Granofsky, Sarah Charlesworth and others. However, their character names and family situations had been changed, so Degrassi Junior High cannot, therefore, be considered a direct spinoff.
The legal counsel for all the episodes was Stephen Stohn who later became the executive producer of . The series was filmed at the unused Vincent Massey Public School in Etobicoke, Ontario.
Episodes
In 1987, Degrassi Junior High won an International Emmy in the Children and Young People category for the episode "It's Late", where Christine "Spike" Nelson gets pregnant at Lucy's party after having sex with Shane. Spike's baby was named Emma, to commemorate the award, and Emma would end up being the inspiration for the spin-off series, .Cast
International airings
In the United States, the Public Broadcasting Service began airing the series in September 1987. The program was distributed through PBS member station WGBH-TV in Boston. All three seasons were broadcast with episodes containing filler scenes added to replace the commercial breaks from the original Canadian airings. These episodes were later screened by cable channels Showtime in the mid-1990s and The N in the mid-2000s.In the United Kingdom, the BBC only screened the first season of the show, and only nine out of the thirteen episodes were shown during CBBC; contents of the other episodes were considered unsuitable for younger audiences. The episodes "Rumour Has It", "The Best Laid Plans" and "It's Late" were initially withheld, but later shown as part of the teenage strand DEF II. The episode "Parents' Night", which dealt with adoption, may not have been shown by the BBC at all.
From its first day of broadcasting in 1992, UK Gold screened Degrassi Junior High daily. The channel then screened Degrassi High in its entirety. Later in the mid 1990s, Degrassi Junior High later reran on The Children's Channel.
Home video releases
released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in 2005. Each season was released separately followed by a complete series collection. Degrassi Junior High: Complete Series, a 9-disc box set featuring all 42 episodes of the series was released on 25 October 2005.In Region 4, Beyond Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Australia in 2005–2006. They initially released each season as a separate release in 2005 followed by a complete series box set in 2006.
In October 2016 Via Vision Entertainment Re-Released The Complete Series on DVD.
| DVD name | Ep # | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | DVD Special Features |
| Season One | 13 | 1 February 2005 | 30 April 2007 | 15 February 2005 | - |
| Season Two | 13 | 7 June 2005 | N/A | 22 July 2005 | - |
| Season Three | 16 | 6 September 2005 | N/A | 31 October 2005 | - |
| The Complete Junior High Series | 42 | 25 October 2005 | N/A | 28 April 2006 | Degrassi Talks Series, Degrassi Behind The Scenes, Photo Gallery |
| The Complete Junior High & High Series | 73 | 11 October 2016 | N/A | 2 November 2016 | Degrassi High School's Out Degrassi Talks Series Degrassi Between Takes |