Degrassi High

The television series Degrassi High is a continuation of Degrassi Junior High. Those junior high kids are now older teenagers, navigating their way through the high school years trying to figure out who they are and what they want to be. Degrassi High has all the typical components of a show about high school, friendships being tested, relationships being made and broken, and each student's decision on whether or not to give in to the peer pressures they are faced with.

Degrassi High is a Canadian television series that was popular both there and in the United States. Between the original Degrassi Junior High and the later named Degrassi High, the show ran from 1987 to 1991. Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler were its creators. The main characters of the show included Joey, Snake, and Wheels, three best friends who tried being in a band, which they named The Zit Remedy. The band had only one song called Everybody Wants Something, but it was a hit.

Other characters included Spike, Caitlin, twins Heather and Erica, Lucy, Arthur, Yick, Alexa, Nancy, Melanie, Alex, Kathleen, and many others. With so many main characters of the show, several story-lines were often detailed and brought into one in each episode. All of their paths crossed at some point, most quite often, whether they were friends or not, and whether they were in the same grade or not.

At the time, most shows on TV would skip around the real-life dramas, but Degrassi High certainly did not. The show told it like it was, depicting real-life scenarios that most would truly be faced with. Sex, teen pregnancy, abortion, AIDS, abuse, suicide, death, depression, bullying, racism, and being gay were just a few of the controversial issues that were discussed throughout the series. Near the end of the series, Spike got pregnant and had her daughter, Emma. Later, Emma and her friends would go on to be the focus of a new show, Degrassi: The Next Generation. Many characters from the original went on to play the parents and teachers of this new generation of students at Degrassi High.