Preview
DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION
February 14
CTV
Given the rate at which cinematic franchises are crossing over these days, anything is possible: Jason versus Freddy, Alien versus the Predator and now Kevin Smith versus Canadian teen melodrama.
"There is a long history of that in cinema," says Smith, best known as the director and star of tightly scripted comedies featuring himself as the trench coat-wearing Silent Bob. "Abbott and Costello met every fucking screen monster there was, for God’s sake. This is kinda like that. This is like Jay and Silent Bob meet the monster that is Caitlin Ryan."
For those who haven’t followed Smith’s career as a filmmaker, Jay is Silent Bob’s onscreen hetero life mate, played by Jason Mewes. Over the course of five films, the two have got themselves into all kinds of misadventures, from saving the world to loitering outside convenience stores. Caitlin Ryan is the hottie from the seminal Canadian TV series Degrassi Junior High (1987-1992), a show that Smith championed for years, on- and off-screen. The fact that these three characters converge in the final three episodes of this season of Degrassi: The Next Generation is good news for fans of Smith’s dick-and-fart-joke humour. Much like Smith’s films, Degrassi explores the minutiae of everyday life, injects it with unexpected humour and has the winning hustle of an underdog.
Given Smith’s media-whore nature (Jay and Silent Bob have worked their way into everything from comic books and shoe commercials to Scream 3), the fact that he finally fulfilled his dream to appear on Degrassi is no shock. The surprise is the lengths to which he is going to prove his love for the show. Just look at the press junket he undertook in support of Degrassi.
"I hesitate to call it a junket," says Smith. "I’d like to call it a cross-Canada tour of goodwill on behalf of Degrassi." Well, whatever he chooses to call it, he went city-to-city, glad-handing the press in support of the little Canadian series that could. "I’m just out there preaching the gospel of Degrassi, trying to get more people to watch," he says.
"The dream is that after the tour, there will be a little more interest in the show. Maybe we grab some people who… haven’t watched it before. Maybe they drop in to see our stuff and stick around to watch the show once we’re gone."
Smith got hooked on Degrassi Junior High while working weekends at a New Jersey convenience store. Watching PBS on quiet Sunday mornings, Smith was treated to the finest teen melodrama that Canada had to offer. By the end of his first episode he was weeping.
For those who grew up watching the old-school series, a lot has changed since The Zit Remedy broke up. As the current season of Degrassi TNG draws to a close, Smith, playing a slightly altered version of himself, turns up in Toronto scouting locations for his new film Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh? When he finds Degrassi High, Smith makes it his base of operations, and he winds up locking lips with Caitlin (Stacie Mistyshn) – now a stepmother to one of the current Degrassi students.
As if that wasn’t enough, Alanis Morissette (who played God in Smith’s film Dogma) makes a special guest appearance, plus viewers get to watch Mewes hit on teenage girls. The script is peppered with typically self-effacing dialogue that Smith penned himself, and he positions himself in the Degrassi community with a sense of ease that isn’t usually seen on Canadian television.
"I brought a little smidge of harmless chaos to the show," he says. "There was definitely some madlibbing going on, which is so strange because I’m such a Nazi about (dialogue) in my movies. I won’t let people ad lib in my shit, but in this thing I was madlibbing like I was Ben Affleck, just making up dialogue and shit. And it’s funny because everyone else – they rule them with a tight iron fist on the show, and nobody is allowed to digress from the text. So I’d be sitting there throwing out little charming bon mots, if you will, to Stacie, and her hands were tied."
While fans of Smith will be chomping at the bit to hear some of his well-aimed wisecracks, he doesn’t know if his celebrity status will translate outside the realm of movie geeks.
"I think most people are thinking, ‘Why is that balding, bearded, fat gentleman on Degrassi? Who is that? He shouldn’t be around teenagers,’" says Smith. "The big fear is that this is the episode where people go, ‘Remember how good that show used to be? They jumped the shark during the fucking Jay and Silent Bob episode.’"
CELEB TOP FIVE
Kevin Smith’s Top Five favourite moments from the old-school episodes of Degrassi:
1. After many ill-fated dates between Joey and Caitlin, she finally storms out. He follows her and it’s pouring out and they kiss in the rain. This was a moment we totally appropriated for Chasing Amy. That is my all-time favourite Degrassi moment.
2. The scene where Caitlin finds out that Joey was cheating on her and she says, "Tessa Campanelli? You were fucking Tessa Campanelli?" It’s one of the best moments in TV.
3. Joey Jeremiah getting left back.
4. The Heather-and-Erika-abortion storyline because that was the first Degrassi I ever saw. It was totally gripping and something they never would have got away with in the States and never would have tried in the first place.
5. The episode at the end of the Degrassi High series after Claude had shot himself in the bathroom and after Joey had the fight with Duane, the bully who winds up having AIDS, when he and Caitlin finally reunite and hook up. |
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