I Love Degrassi!
Ok, so you all know how much I love 80's cartoons (obviously, since I write this
zine), but I do have knowledge about other 80's TV shows. Degrassi happens to be one.
Infact, I would probably be writing a zine on Degrassi if there wasn't already one.
Where did my love for Degrassi all start? Well, I'm sad to say I'm not a ‘true'
Degrassi fan since I didn't watch the show when it was originally aired. But of coarse I
was too young at the time to understand or even enjoy the show. I remember when I was
about 7 watching the episode where the Zits filmed their music video and thinking "Gee,
that Lucy girl sure dresses cool!" and thinking that the Zits song was really good. haha!
But other then that I don't remember watching Degrassi in those days.
Then when I was in grade 6, CBC started to air Degrassi re-runs at 4:00, right
when I got home from school. My sister and her friend would make it a ritual to watch
Degrassi at my house everyday. I watched the first few episodes thinking "This is sooo 80's!"
(I wasn't into the 80's at that time so that was said as a bad thing). Then when I got over
the fact that it was an 80's TV show I got really into the show, making sure I watched every
episode to find out if Spike was pregnant or if Wheel's parents died. It became addictive in
a way. I started resighting lines, or when I was really goofy. I'd even act out scenes (ok,
I'm a big loser!). The best scene to act out was the scene where Snake finds Claude's dead
body in the boys bathroom, "Mr. Radich, come quick - boys bathroom - blood!", "Archie
get a hold of yourself. Janet call the police!". But the worst thing was when my friends
would come to me with their problems and I would compare their problems to the ones on
Degrassi. For example, "If you want to date this guy that your parents don't like, you're just
going to have to date him behind your parents back...like Michelle and BLT did!". Yeah, I
was pretty obsessed!
When I finally stopped appreciating the fact that it was being aired it was quickly
taken off and replaced by Carnation Street. I would come home from school, sit down with
my snack infront of the TV and debate weather to watch Oprah, or Ricki Lake, but I would so
much rather watching Degrassi. And stupid me never even thought of taping any of the
shows! I went to an old book store and bought everyone of the Degrassi books. It was great
to read them but the more I read the books, the more that I wanted to see the episode that
went along with it. So about a year went by, and I was still missing Degrassi. I even wrote a
letter to CBC to get them to play Degrassi again, but I sadly got no response.
Then something wonderful happened! A channel called Showcase started to air
Degrassi! Yay! They had "the Degrassi hour", Mon-Fri. The Jr High episodes were played at
7:00 and the High episodes were played at 7:30. This time I was smart, I taped every
Degrassi episode just incase they took Degrassi away again. Not long before I had every
Degrassi episode on tape (there's five tapes of them!), it was
again taken off the air. Of coarse I was sad, but not too sad because I could just pop in my
Degrassi tapes whenever I want.
I've heard that there's going to be a new Degrassi series made in 2005. It's just
a plan right now though, but if there is, I'm going to try to get in the show. Maybe by that
time I'll be old enough to play a teacher or something in the show!hehe.
Since Degrassi was made in Toronto with Canadian kids and all, you probably
would've thought that I've met some of the characters in the show. Though I have many
friends that have seen or met Degrassi characters, I've only been lucky enough to see one.
It was Easter of last year and my family was driving up to Toronto to visit with my Grandparents.
I was in the back seat listening to my walkman and gazing out the window when I saw
ARTHUR (the chubby kid who had wet dreams) driving by my car!! I told my dad to honk the
horn to get his attention, but he refused to, so I started banging on the windows and going
CRAZY! I told my dad to drive up beside him so I could moon him, but he definetly wouldn't
let me do that. So, that was my short and sad Degrassi meeting. I did have a totally awesome
Degrassi meeting dream though. I had this dream that was shopping in Toronto and saw
Arthur's cousin, Dorothy. She was with Tessa too! I went up to both of them and got into this
big Degrassi conversation. They were so nice to me. Then I went into a store and saw Wheels,
Joey and Snake. They weren't as nice to me though. Wheels was just as rude as he was in the
TV show. When I went to talk to Snake he was pretty nice, but he had his wife with him and
she thought that I was hitting on him so she got all mad at me and we got into a fight! Then
I woke up.
My friend told me that Dwayne (the kid with AIDS), lives in St. Cathrines. I found
out Dwayne's real name, Darren Brown,and tried to look up his phone number in the phone
book. Of coarse since his last name was Brown, there were millions of D. Brown's in the
phone book. But maybe one day, when I'm really bored I'll try to contact him. Geez, I'm
such a Degrassi stalker. If I find him, I'll try to get a interview and I'll put it in here!
If any of you reading this have a Degrassi encounter, tell it to me! I wanna hear it!
I went to the first Degrassi Convention!
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