School's Out (1992 film)

School's Out is a 1992 Canadian television movie featuring the characters of the popular Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High series. Originally, the movie was intended to be the series finale of the entire Degrassi saga, but in 2001, the franchise was revived with a new series, Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Plot

It is graduation time for the gang at Degrassi High, and everyone is making plans for the summer and their future. Most are preparing for university or far-off travel except for Joey Jeremiah (Pat Mastroianni) who is preparing for another year in high school. His longtime girlfriend Caitlin Ryan (Stacie Mistysyn) has taken a number of extra classes and completed high school in three years and has graduated with Joey's former peers.

Eager to hold on to her before she leaves for university to study journalism, Joey proposes to Caitlin at a graduation party hosted by Lucy Fernandez (Anais Granofsky). Caitlin demurs, explaining that she is not ready for that kind of commitment. Joey storms out, only to run into classmate Tessa Campanelli (Kirsten Bourne) fresh from an argument with her boyfriend Todd (Christian Campbell), and agrees to give her a ride home.

Arriving at the Campanelli house, Tessa pulls Joey toward her for a kiss. The next day, on a break from the photo shop where she works, Tessa visits Joey next door at the drug store where he works and asks him on a date. Joey, though initially hesitant, accepts Tessa's offer, has a great time, and, as he tells Wheels (Neil Hope) the next day, gets to "third base." Tessa confides in her co-worker, Spike (Amanda Stepto), the details of the relationship. Spike reminds her that Joey and Caitlin have a pattern of breaking up and reuniting. Tessa rejects Spike's argument, noting that Caitlin will be leaving for university in a matter of weeks anyway. With Caitlin working most evenings and weekends and Joey working days, they spend little time together and Joey starts seeing Tessa more frequently and they soon go all the way. As the summer goes on, Joey sees both Tessa and Caitlin with neither realizing he is dating them both.

By the middle of August, Tessa discovers she is pregnant and decides to have an abortion. When she realizes that Joey is still with Caitlin with no intention of breaking up with her, she dumps him. Joey and Caitlin finally make love on his nineteenth birthday, approximately a week before Caitlin, Lucy, and Snake are all scheduled to depart for university. It's Caitlin's first time, though she is unaware that it is not Joey's. Unbeknownst to Joey, Caitlin has decided to attend a local university in order to remain close to him.

The next day, at an end of the summer lake house party, hosted by Lucy's boyfriend Bronco (L. Dean Ifill), Caitlin accepts Joey's earlier marriage proposal. Joey, who had been teasing Snake (Stefan Brogren) all summer about his inability to get a girlfriend brags once more about his abilities with women. Snake finally lashes out at Joey for all the teasing and blurts out about him sleeping with Tessa. Caitlin overhears and confronts Joey about it. She storms out after breaking off their engagement and telling Joey of her would-be plans to study locally in order to be with him. Immediately after unintentionally breaking up Joey and Caitlin, Snake realises that former classmate Allison Hunter (Sarah Holmes) is drowning and rushes in to the lake to rescue her. Everyone congratulates him for saving her life, but he breaks down in a flood of emotion and anxiety.

Wheels, who had been drinking heavily, leaves the party with Lucy to get more chips but ends up crashing into another car. The crash kills a two-year-old boy in the other car, and seriously injures Lucy and the driver of the other car. The next day, Joey visits Wheels in jail, where Wheels tells him he has been charged with one count of criminal negligence causing death, two counts of criminal negligence causing injury, and drunk driving. He asserts that it was not his fault that the child was not wearing a seatbelt or that Lucy wanted to get more chips. Caitlin visits Lucy at the hospital where she is immobilized and unsure if she will ever see or walk again. Later, Joey stops to see Snake as he prepares to leave for university and asks why he won't accept Wheels' phone calls. Snake is disgusted by Wheels, particularly in light of Wheels having lost his own parents to a drunk driver. He apologizes to Joey for saying what he said at Bronco's place. Joey accepts his apology, saying that Caitlin would have found out sooner or later.

Two months later, most of the gang get together for the wedding of Alexa Pappadopoulos (Irene Courakos) and Simon Dexter (Michael Carry). Absent are Wheels, Erica (Angela Deiseach), and Lucy. Wheels, still incarcerated, is planning to plead guilty for his crimes. Erica is teaching abroad in the Dominican Republic and has met a new boyfriend in the process. Meanwhile, Lucy has since regained vision in one of her eyes, but is still not well enough to attend the wedding. Snake is accompanied by his girlfriend Pam (Tara Burt) whom he met at university, and he appears considerably more self-assured; he is still vocally disgusted by Wheels. Both Snake and Caitlin are receptive to Joey's apologies for the way he had behaved toward them. Joey and Snake make plans to hang out before he goes back to university, and as Simon and Alexa have their first dance as husband and wife, former fiancés Joey and Caitlin share a dance as friends. He predicts that she will be famous.

Reception

The film proved a success and drew in around 2.325 million Canadian viewers on its initial showing, doubling the average audience that Degrassi High received.^[1] Although common in cable television, the scene where Snake utters the infamous line "Joey Jeremiah spends his summer dating Caitlin, and fucking Tessa" was the first time the word "fuck" was heard on Canadian broadcast television. When the show was first broadcast in the United States in 1993, the line was edited out.

Soundtrack

The film featured eight songs from Toronto-based rock group Harem Scarem. Songs by popular Canadian '80s singer (now Styx lead singer) Lawrence Gowan are also featured in the film.

Follow-up and references in The Next Generation

Exposition in the 2001 Degrassi: The Next Generation pilot episode, "Mother and Child Reunion, Part 1" provides update to the Lucy and Wheels plot. Snake, no longer dating Pam, is still furious at Wheels and mentions that he was released from prison. Lucy's eyesight is restored (whether in one or both eyes is unclear) and, having completed extensive physical therapy, she is able to walk well with the use of a cane; at the same time, she has completed an honours bachelor's degree, a master's degree and most of the work for a Ph.D. Joey and Caitlin have gone their separate ways and not seen each other in many years (though it is unclear if Alexa and Simon's wedding was the last time). Joey is now a used car dealer and a widowed father of a young daughter. His prediction for Caitlin, however, has come true: she lives in Los Angeles and is famous as the host of an environmental-political television series. At the reunion, Caitlin breaks up with her new fiancé Keith (Don McKellar); as she takes off her ring while sitting alone with Joey, she asks him, "Bring back any memories?" Alexa and Simon are still married, as evidenced by the characters sitting together and Irene Courakos being credited as "Alexa Dexter" vice "Alexa Pappadopoulos." Alison is shown to be none the worse for wear when flirting with both Joey and Keith.

In the Degrassi: The Next Generation Season 1 DVD extras, a deleted scene from "Mother and Child Reunion" depicts a video interviewing people at the reunion. Alison Hunter says she is a waitress and wants to become a star in Hollywood. Dwayne Myers says that while he is HIV positive, he is AIDS free. Kathleen Mead is shown being jealous of Caitlin's success after high school. She says she is pitching an idea for a new television show called "Mead in Canada." Diana Economopoulos is now Diana Platt; she and her husband are accountants. She has two children and brags about her website. Yick Yu says that he and Arthur Kobalewsky are co-owners of a web design company. Alexa and Simon Dexter live around Ottawa with their two children and Alexa now a quintessential soccer mom is pregnant with their third. Ricky is a lawyer and is helping write copyright laws for the internet. Rainbow is a documentary film maker. Liz O'Rourke says she is now working with the mentally disabled (although she is later revealed to be a midwife in the episode "Father Figure"). Trish Skye says she had problems but has been clean and sober for two years; she works at a funeral home and is a freelance writer. In the same video Spike mentions that she bought out her mother's hair salon and comments on the "weird deja vu" of Emma now attending Degrassi; Snake also appears and notes that he is a teacher at the titular school, and still single.

Beginning in the second season, Spike and Caitlin are shown to have somehow become close friends, despite Caitlin having gone away to Carleton University in Ottawa, followed by pursuit of a broadcasting career in Los Angeles, while Spike stayed in Toronto to follow in her mother's footsteps as a hairstylist and single mother.

In the third season episode "Father Figure" Spike is pregnant with Snake's baby and has a baby shower. Among the people attending are Erica and Heather Farrell. Spike's daughter, Emma, also reconnects with her birth father, Shane McKay, and learns that he is mentally challenged as a result of his fall off of the bridge when he was a teenager. At the end of the episode, Spike gives birth and Liz O'Rourke acts as the midwife.

The third season episode, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", brought closure to one School's Out plot line, and re-cycled another. At a bowling alley, Joey reunites Wheels with Snake who initially wants nothing to do with him. While Joey leaves them to fetch refreshments, however, the two bond over both having wanted to die (Wheels after killing the child and injuring Lucy, and Snake now that he is battling leukemia and undergoing chemotherapy); the three, now balder and wiser, loudly sing the Zits' only song, Everybody Wants Something, as Joey drives them back to their respective homes.

In the same episode, Joey's stepson, Craig Manning (Jake Epstein) finds himself in a nearly identical love triangle to that of Joey's from twelve years earlier. After a disagreement with his reasonably responsible and mature (but chaste) girlfriend Ashley Kerwin (Melissa McIntyre), Craig is seduced by the younger but sexually aggressive Manny Santos (Cassie Steele). Craig continues cheating on Ashley with Manny until exposed and rejected by both of them in the two-part episode "Holiday." Joey consoles him, and relates how he was engaged to Caitlin but lost her by cheating with Tessa Campanelli; the conversation, however, leads to Craig making Joey realise that he still loves Caitlin and should leave Sydney (Elisa Moolecherry). Joey explains to Caitlin, "I moved on, but I never left." Their romance is rekindled until the end of the fourth season when they part on friendly terms. Like Tessa, Manny also has an abortion a few episodes later in "Accidents Will Happen" Part 2.

In the fifth season episode "The Lexicon Of Love" Part Two, it is Joey who takes in Snake when Spike (now Snake's wife) learns that Snake kissed another woman and orders him out of their house. Since Spike is depressed about Snake, Caitlin comes to cheer her up. She throws a girls party and among those that come are Lucy and Liz.

Home media

DVD release

School's Out was released on DVD on October 9, 2007 as part of the Degrassi High Complete Series set.^[2]

Individual of Degrassi School's Out DVD

VHS release

References

External links

• School's Out at official Degrassi website
• School's Out at Degrassi.ca
• School's Out at the Internet Movie Database
• School's Out at TV.com