The Kids of Degrassi Street is a Canadian children's television series created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler. The first entry in the Degrassi franchise and the only one to focus on children instead of teenagers, it follows the lives of a group of children living on De Grassi Street in Toronto. It was produced by Hood and Schuyler's independent company Playing With Time. The series originated as a collection of annual standalone short films that started with Ida Makes a Movie, a live-action adaptation of the Kay Chorao book which premiered on the CBC on December 8, 1979. It became a full series in 1982 when the CBC ordered five more episodes.
It is notable for featuring several actors who would later star in Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High playing different characters.
Contents
Development
Linda Schuyler, who taught grades seven and eight at Earl Grey Senior Public School in Toronto, formed the company Playing With Time with Kit Hood in 1976. At the time, Schuyler had been teaching her students an early version of media studies, which included filmmaking with Super-8 film. Discovering that there was a lack of resources on the subject, Earl Grey librarian Bruce Mackey ordered several books about filmmaking, one of which was the picture book Ida Makes a Movie, which was written by Kay Chorao.
Neither were aware that Ida Makes A Movie was a preschool book, in which the titular character was a cat. Nonetheless, Schuyler felt the story was powerful, and became interested in making a live-action adaptation, featuring children instead of cats. She sought the advice of then-lawyer and future Epitome Pictures co-founder Stephen Stohn, who advised her to forego a lawyer, and instead propose the deal herself. Schuyler flew to New York, where she met with Chorao and secured a $200 deal to adapt the book into a movie. Yan Moore, who would eventually become Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High's head writer, became a writer for the series after he rectified problems with the story of the episode Casey Draws The Line.
Filming
The series was shot in Toronto, with many of the scenes being shot on Degrassi Street itself.
Opening sequence and music
The opening sequence consists of a short piano piece, set to black and white stills of the Leslieville neighbourhood.
Wendy Watson and Lewis Manne, who later composed the music for Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, composed the music for The Kids Of Degrassi Street, with John Forbes initially performing the music on a Fairlight CMI.
Cast
The Kids of Degrassi Street featured many of the same actors who would later appear on Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, including Stacie Mistysyn, Neil Hope, Anais Granofsky, Sarah Charlesworth, John Ioannou, in different unrelated roles.
Zoë Newman as Ida Lucas (episodes 1–5, 9–10, 13, 23)
Dawn Harrison as Catherine "Cookie" Peters (episodes 1–3, 11)
Allan Meiusi as Fred Lucas (episodes 1–3, 5)
Peter Duckworth-Pilkington as Noel Canard (episodes 2–7, 9, 14)
Nancy Lam as Sara (episode 2) & Irene Chow (episodes 3, 5, 10)
Stacie Mistysyn as Lisa Canard (episodes 4–5, 7–11, 14, 17–18, 20–26), later appears as Caitlin Ryan on Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High
Nick Goddard as Chuck Riley (episodes 4–6, 8–10)
Sarah Charlesworth as Casey Rothfels (episodes 5, 7, 10–11, 14, 16–17, 19–26), later appears as Susie Rivera on Degrassi Junior High
Stacey Halberstadt as Sophie Brendakis (episode 6)
John Ioannou as Pete Riley (episodes 8–10, 12, 14–17, 19–26), later appears as Alex Yankou on Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High
Jamie Summerfield as Martin Schlegel (episodes 8–9, 13, 15–16, 21–24, 26)
Tyson Talbot as Billy Martin (episodes 8–10, 12, 14–15, 19, 21, 23–26), later appears as Jason Cox on Degrassi Junior High
Broadcast
Ida Makes A Movie premiered on CBC on September 12, 1979. By 1982, the CBC, enamored with the short films that Hood and Schuyler were producing, ordered five more, effectively turning the annual movies into a television series. In the lead-up to Degrassi Junior High, the series was re-run on Sundays at 5:00pm, until it was replaced by its successor in the same timeslot. In the United Kingdom, the series debuted on BBC One on July 9, 1984, with the final episode airing on June 16, 1986. In Australia, the series debuted at 6:00pm on February 2, 1987, on ABC TV.
Print media
In late 1986, James Lorimer & Company published a series of illustrated paperback books based on the television series, written by Schuyler and Hood with the assistance of author Eve Jennings.
Home media
On July 31, 2007, WGBH Boston Home Video released The Kids of Degrassi Street: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
In Region 4, Beyond Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Australia on March 12, 2008.