Degrassi is a Canadian teen drama television franchise created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler, that follows the lives of youths attending the eponymous secondary school in Toronto.

The initial run of the franchise ended with the controversial television film School's Out (1992), which received mixed reviews but drew double the average viewership of the series, followed by the docuseries Degrassi Talks (1992), in which actors spoke to teens nationwide about various issues.

In the 1990s, the series increasingly developed a cult following through re-runs, and a successful televised cast reunion in 1999 helped spark the franchise's revival with Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–2015), which originally aired on CTV in Canada and The N in the United States.

Schuyler had met Hood, who had a career in editing television commercials, when she needed help from an experienced editor to save the "muddled footage" of one of her projects.

[4] Bruce Mackey, Earl Grey's librarian and a friend of Schuyler, procured her several books about filmmaking upon her request, one being Ida Makes a Movie, by the American author Kay Chorao.

[6] Before leaving, Schuyler sought legal advice from Stephen Stohn, a young entertainment lawyer who had recently graduated from law school,[7] and who would eventually become her producing partner and husband.

[8][9] Stohn recalled in his 2018 memoir Whatever It Takes that he advised Schuyler that being out of print, buying the rights to the book on her own would be "relatively straightforward", and that involving lawyers would make the process "unnecessarily complicated.

[10] The film featured production techniques that Schuyler and Kit Hood felt were missing from children's programming: it was shot in a cinéma vérité style, with handheld camera work and entirely on-location shooting.

[13] Several of the actors from The Kids Of Degrassi Street would return with new roles, including Neil Hope, Stacie Mistysyn, Anais Granofsky, and Sarah Charlesworth.

[15] The repertory company also meant that even major characters could be relegated to the background if not the main focus of the episode, which according to Kathryn Ellis, was "nearly unheard-of on other television shows.

[21] Upon its debut, it immediately garnered critical acclaim in Canada, where it was considered to be an alternative to the American sitcoms of the era that were perceived as unrealistic and heavy-handed in their portrayal of societal issues.

[34] In November 1988, after the premiere of the third and final season of Degrassi Junior High, Linda Schuyler alluded to the potential of a high-school followup when discussing the direction of the franchise with the Montreal Gazette, although she was unsure if it would go forward.

[43] Despite continued success and demand from CBC,[44][page needed] WGBH was finding it increasingly difficult to fund the show from the children's department of PBS, and were forced to back out.

[44][page needed] During development of the television movie in early 1991, six Degrassi actors – Amanda Stepto, Pat Mastroianni, Stacie Mistysyn, Rebecca Haines, Siluck Saysanasy, and Neil Hope – travelled around Canada to interview teenagers about various health and social issues for the six-part documentary series Degrassi Talks, which aired on CBC in six installments from February 29 to March 30, 1992, each tackling a specific issue that the series had portrayed.

[52] The movie, which mostly focused on a love triangle between Joey, Caitlin (Mistysyn), and Tessa Campanelli (Kirsten Bourne), garnered a positive, yet mixed reception.

[60] The success of the reunion inspired Yan Moore and Linda Schuyler, now running Epitome Pictures, to develop an interest in creating a new Degrassi series by December 1999.

[67] At the same time, Stephen Stohn was in talks with TeenNick to produce 48 episodes of a telenovela-style teen show, which he later pitched as the tenth season of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

[67] Season 10 premiered on July 19, 2010, and marked a change in production style to a telenovela/soap opera format, and for the first time, episodes airing in Canada and the United States on the same day.

"[77][78] Linda Schuyler, franchise co-creator, and Stephen Stohn, creative partner on The Next Generation, issued a joint statement confirming that they would not be involved in the new series, stating that the "time is perfect to pass the baton" to Azzopardi and Cohen.

Filming was scheduled to begin July 1, 2022 and end November 30, 2022,[79] However, in August 2022, reports surfaced of the restructuring of HBO Max, which led to fears of the reboot's potential cancellation.

The relationship between Ellie Nash (Stacey Farber) and Craig Manning (Jake Epstein) intensifies, and Stüdz, a band led by Peter Stone (Jamie Johnston), seem poised for their big break.

Jane Vaughn (Paula Brancati) is invited there to front a rock band for a TV performance, Spinner Mason (Shane Kippel) and Emma Nelson (Miriam McDonald) decide to marry in a spur of the moment situation.

[94] From 2006 to 2007, four graphic novels based on Degrassi: The Next Generation were released as part of the Extra Credit series, with the books centering on the characters Ellie Nash, Emma Nelson, Spinner Mason, and Marco Del Rossi respectively.

[101] In 1989 the series was profiled by John Fisher Burns, also of the New York Times, who asserted it was "remolding the pat-a-cake image of what the industry, with at least some sense of paradox, likes to call ''children's television.

"[104] While met with some skepticism, including from The Ottawa Citizen's Tony Atherton[105] and The Seattle Times' Melanie McFarland,[106] Degrassi: The Next Generation also went on to receive critical acclaim.

[120] This decision was met with backlash from the show's producers, with co-creator and director Kit Hood lambasting the network for giving the episode "an American ending, happy, safe but incomplete..." and requested his name be removed from the credits.

Linda Schuyler said that the impetus for the show's inclusion of LGBT themes stemmed from her colleague Bruce Mackey, who was central to the early development in the franchise, and who hid his sexuality from his professional life.

[129] Degrassi has been cited as the potential starting point for the modern television teen drama,[130] and it is said to have influenced shows including Beverly Hills, 90210[131] and Dawson's Creek.

"[140] Nina Dobrev, who portrayed Mia Jones in later seasons, went on to star as the lead character of the popular supernatural teen drama television series The Vampire Diaries.

Each season of Degrassi: The Next Generation was released on DVD by Alliance Atlantis each year throughout the 2000s in big box sets that contained a variety of bonus content, including audition tapes, deleted scenes, and bloopers.