Media Profiles

Linda Schuyler and Degrassi

Leslie Regan Shade
October 15, 2005

Linda Schuyler is the executive producer and co-creator of the hugely popular and multi-award winning Degrassi series. The series includes The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, and Degrassi-The Next Generation. These series have won two International Emmy's, nine Gemini Awards, two Prix Jeunesse's and countless other honours from festivals around the world. Schuyler was also the executive producer on the MOW X-Rated, which inspired the dramatic series Liberty Street and 3 seasons of Canada’s soap opera, Riverdale.
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The Degrassi series has been hailed for its realistic portrayal of young people, its treatment of social issues such as homophobia, rape, body image, pregnancy, single motherhood, family divorce, domestic violence, mental illness, etc., and for its dynamic portrayal of multi-cultural urban Toronto.

A former junior high school teacher before she embarked on Degrassi, Schuyler was awarded The Order of Canada in 1994. This award "pays tribute to Canadians who exemplify the highest qualities of citizenship and whose contributions enrich the lives of their contemporaries."

Schuyler is a founding member of the Association of Media Literacy and a co-founder and active Board member of the Playing With Time Foundation, which provides bursaries for Degrassi alumni to produce films. Schuyler is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), a member of the Centennial College Advisory Board for Radio and Television and she has a seat on the National Board of Canadian Women in Communications (CWC).

Her production company, Epitome Pictures hosted the first Prime Time Television resident program, which is a television writer’s workshop through the Canadian Film Centre. They have also provided facilities to the CBC training of new multi-camera dramatic directors and is a mentoring company for the CFTPA Intern programme.

Degrassi is seen in on the CTV network. In 2005, BBM figures rated the series as Canada's most-watched homegrown drama for Teens (T12-17) and Adults (A18-34, A18-49 and A25-54). Cable channel The-N (The-N (nighttime television for young people, owned by Viacom, airs Degrassi, where it is very popular, even out-performing US youth-oriented prime-time shows. However, The-N has censored some of the Degrassi Next Generation episodes, particularly Season 3, feeling that the content was inappropriate for an American youth audience. In particular, they refused to air a two-part episode in which one of the characters finds out she is pregnant and has an abortion.

Resources

Byers, Michele. (2005). Growing Up Degrassi: Television, Identity, and Youth Cultures. Toronto: Sumach Press, 2005.

CTV Insider on Degrassi
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows/20050321/
Insider_Degrassi_PR_050321

Degrassi The Next Generation TV Homepage
http://www.degrassi.tv/index.jsp

Epitome Pictures
http://www.epitomepictures.com/

Neihart, Ben. (2005, March 20). Grassi Is tha Best Teen TV N da WRLD! New York Times Magazine.

The Unofficial Degrassi Site
http://www.degrassi.ca/index.php