It is truly a shame I wasn't a teenager in the 80's. I was too young when this show was first being aired, and I have to depend on those reruns.
Anyway, this is by far the best television teenage drama series I have ever seen.
The actors portraying the characters were around the same age as the characters, making it realistic, unlike many series for teens.
It dealt with real life situations teenagers face in realistic ways. There are not very many television shows for teenagers I can actually say that about. In fact, I don't think that there was any problems which weren't covered. Drug abuse, sex, sexual orientation, teenage pregnancy, abortion, dating, alcohol abuse, AIDS, stress, depression and suicide, death in the family, racism, sexism. We all felt the tension when Spike found signs of pregnancy, ending in her famous line "Mum, I'm pregnant". We all had sympathy for Wheels, when his (adoptive) parents died and how he dramaticly changed since then, ending in the tragedy in School's Out, in which he kills a small child from drunk driving (his parents having been killed from drunk driving) and is last seen in prison. We all had different reactions and attitude's towards Claude's suicide. We also all had different reactions and attitudes towards Heather's abortion. We all yelled "I knew that would happen eventually!" when Simon and Alexa got married at the end of School's Out. I could go on.
I hope Degrassi continues airing from generation to generation.
