Seldom does a Canadian producer find herself in a situation where just about every broadcaster across the nation wants in on her unborn series, but that’s precisely the position Linda Schuyler of Epitome Pictures found herself in when she decided to appropriate Degrassi to the 21st century.

Despite multiple offers from broadcasters, ‘CBC and CTV were the main contenders for the series, which was conceived as a converged project, but only CTV was able to support us with development money for both the TV and Web component, and their support was quite substantial,’ says a giddy Schuyler, sitting in her five-year-old corner office, across the lot from the newly designed high school set.

Now midway through production, Degrassi: The Next Generation introduces a whole new batch of teens going through the trials and tribulations of adolescence in 2001, 10 years after CBC first aired the last episode of Degrassi High.

‘But the old Degrassi never really went away,’ says Schuyler, who is momentarily interrupted when a message from Telefilm Canada pops up on her computer, letting her know some much-anticipated funding has come in.

‘After the series wrapped in 1991, it went into immediate repeats on CBC, then it moved to Showcase, then back to CBC, then back to Showcase, until the last round last summer on CBC where Slawko [Klymkiw, executive director of network programming] programmed it after school. And what was incredible is that it attracted a whole new teen audience who today are connecting with the storytelling, despite the ’80s clothes.’

Likewise, Degrassi’s success has always hinged on its honest storytelling.

‘It was the first series to really deal with teen problems from a teen perspective, since the stories came from the kids themselves,’ says director Eleanor Lindo, who was brought back from the original series to direct episodes of The Next Generation.

The original Degrassi troupe grew out of a workshop. Few of the kids were trained actors and unions were not involved in the shoot. Today, while the goal of the series remains the same, the actors are now unionized, meaning they’re restricted to working no more than 10 hours a day, and there’s less of an opportunity to work with the kids on storylines and perspective.

Also, audiences today, admits Lindo, are far more sophisticated than they were in the 1980s. ‘The level of production of the original series wouldn’t be accepted by kids today.’

Likewise, the new series, budgeted at $10 million for 15 half-hours (two of which make up the pilot episode), is significantly more polished. The kids, for example, are mostly trained actors who are given access to makeup, hair and wardrobe.

And while many of the past themes still resonate with teenagers today, the Internet brings a whole new set of circumstances to the show.

In addition to the role the Internet plays in various plotlines, Degrassi: The Next Generation offers viewers an integrated media experience.

The companion website (www. degrassi.tv), developed by online partner Snap Media, is intended to create a virtual school, in which viewers enroll and are assigned a student number and locker (space to create their own Web pages). It has the appearance of a real school website, where the fictional students from the series will interact with the virtual students, who can also interact with each other. Online stories can develop through the personal content of the characters’ Web pages, school news and announcements, and e-mail newsletters.

And the stories told via the two components – the Internet and TV – will be related, but not the same.

Originally, CTV was set to launch the series in January 2002, but at the eleventh hour the broadcaster decided to bump it up to October, to coincide with the back-to-school season.

‘With the accelerated air date, we had to start production before our Telefilm and CTF contracts were in place,’ says Schuyler. ‘We had to take a huge leap of faith financially.’

But leaps of faith are what put Schuyler on the world map in the first place. The Degrassi franchise wasn’t just a hit in Canada, where, among its many accolades, it won nine Gemini Awards; Degrassi Junior High and its successor Degrassi High sold in more than 100 countries, attracting fans from Israel, Sweden, South Africa and China.

True to its roots, The Next Generation explores the issues affecting teens as they struggle between being kids and being adults.

The scene being shot on this particular day, from episode four, ‘Eye of the Beholder,’ sees an overweight Terri (Chrissy Schmidt) feeling insecure about what she looks like before a school dance. To build up her confidence, the slim and menacing Paige (Lauren Collins) pulls out a bottle of liquor. As the girls proceed to get drunk and talk about boys, Paige gives Terri the age-old advice ‘They love it when you take the lead.’

But if any woman heeds this advise best it’s Schuyler, who on this Friday afternoon continues to run a tight ship while dealing with a broken water main, a car trapped in a sinkhole, an aphid invasion, and a computer worm in her accountant’s office that sent out her cost reports to all her nearest and dearest friends.

‘I’m verging on the edge of hysteria, but we’re on time and we’re on budget,’ she says.

The pilot episode, directed by Bruce McDonald, is a one-hour Degrassi reunion featuring almost all the former cast, as well as special guest Don McKellar. It sets up the new series, which literally centres on the next generation of Degrassi students, starting with Spike’s (Amanda Stepto) daughter Emma (Miriam McDonald), who was born to the pregnant teen 12 years earlier on the original Degrassi.

In addition to McDonald and Lindo, directors on the series include Jim Allodi (The Uncles), Anthony Browne and Paul Fox.

Schuyler and story editor Yan Moore cocreated the series.

Story editor Aaron Martin, Susin Nielsen (who launched her career with 16 episodes of the original Degrassi) and Tassie Cameron (Cake) round off the writing team.

Gavin Smith is DOP.

The ensemble cast includes Sarah Barrable-Tishauer, Daniel Clark, Ryan Cooley, Shane Kippel, Aubrey Graham, Cassie Steele, Melissa McIntyre and Jake Goldsbie, along with Collins, Schmidt and McDonald.

Stephen Stohn (Riverdale) is exec producing.

Production wraps Oct. 24 and the series kicks off on CTV Oct. 14.

Alliance Atlantis has international.

-www.degrassi.tv

-www.epitomepictures.com