Links
Setting The Edits Straight Once And For All
by thedonoman
A lot of the Degrassi message boards are riddled with comments such as "I hate The-N" and "What will the jerks edit next?" Well in no way is this article meant to defend The-N. But instead, I aim to set the record straight on what has and hasn't been edited. And why, just maybe, we should give the evil network another chance before writing them off as "total assholes."
Season 1
102 "Mother and Child Reunion Part 2" - A few images of Jordan and Emma in the hotel room are edited out. Specifically, Jordan touching Emma and whispering to in her ear.
112 "Wannabe" - Near the end of the episode they edit Paige saying to Manny, "FYI your attitude sucks."
114 "Under Pressure" - They edit a small conversation between Sean and Emma about Emma acting like a "Liberty."
115 "Jagged Little Pill" - A change from the CTV version is that instead of Sean giving Toby and JT an aspirin pill, The-N calls it a vitamin pill. A later edit, is Sean suggesting that Toby and JT "chew it slower, it'll give you a better high," in reference to the ecstasy they thought they were taking. The biggest change, was of course to the ending. An audio track of Toby and Ashley's parents is heard in the background, implying that they came home early to find the house in shambles.
- - The Season 1 edits were made in a very different era for Degrassi. It had just started out on the network, which was at the time very much more oriented towards younger viewers (i.e. it was still often referred to as 'noggin'). Simply trying to be thoughtful in concern of parents, they treaded lightly over a few dialogue lines. I think it's quite fair to say that the types of minor dialogue edits in Season 1 would not be made now a days.
One issue deserving another look however, is the edits to Jagged Little Pill. The reason The-N chose to wait to air Jagged Little Pill in succession with Karma Chameleon (season 2) was to help show the consequences of Ashley's actions. The last thing they wanted was kids to think for an entire summer that Ashley suffered no consequences after taking ecstasy. Concurrently, that's why they showed her parents returning home. The-N pulled out all the stops by making it clear that A LOT of bad things can happen when you mess with drugs, even if it impeded on the artistic freedom of the show. This notion of "consequence" is found at the center of all the major edits as we will see later.
Season 2
201/202 "When 
Doves Cry" - As did CTV, The-N edits out the scene in which Craig plays chicken with an oncoming train. Rumor also has it that The-N edited a scene of Craig's father beating him.
205 "Weird Science" - During the classroom scene in which Spinner's "family lineage" is standing proud, The-N chose to edit out a direct shot of it.
207/208 "Shout" - The-N edits Paige's rape scene, shortening it by a few seconds. Rumor also has it that a judge's expression is edited at the band contest.
213 "White Wedding Part 1" - Rumor has it that that they edit Manny and Joey inhaling helium from the balloons and Joey singing "Everybody Wants Something."
- - Season 2 sees much less editing going on. The CTV airing didn't include the "train scene" so therefore, I think that edit may have been made for time in the first place. The-N following suit, felt no pressure or reason to put it back in. The boner edit was simply out of "taste" so to speak. Showing a kid's crotch bulge just didn't seem like something necessary to put in. As far as the helium balloon thing, I haven't been able to confirm if that's even true.
The Shout episodes were difficult for The-N because they faced a huge outpouring of media coverage when they decided to air the episode. They chose to air it along with "How Soon Is Now" to help show the consequences of Dean's actions. At the end she states she's coming after him so the problem is at least resolved to an extent acceptable of "American TV standards."
Season 3
304/305 "Pride" - They edit Spinner suggesting all gays should be put on an island. Also, they edit Spinner asking Marco if him and Ellie broke up because "she wouldn't put out?" The scene in which Marco gets beat up is cut short, and a small dialogue edit of the word "faggot" is made. They also edit Spinner's writing on the wall, changing "Marco is a fag" to "Marco is gay."
308 "Whisper To A Scream" - They edit the tiniest little second of Ellie cutting her arm. CTV literally only sees a drop of blood more than the US.
314/315 "Accidents Will Happen" - The grand daddy of them all, the entire A plot in which Manny finds out she's pregnant and gets an abortion isn't aired.
- - Season 3's editing was very light with a few exceptions. Pride is focused on homosexuality, something that is a "hot button", especially on a kids network. That is why we see the large number of edits within the episode. I believe the main ones they wanted to address were the actual bashing scene, and the writing of the word faggot on the wall. The other edits that were made, I found were most likely made since they were already editing other things.
Now Accidents Will Happen. The entire plot of Manny getting pregnant and having an abortion was cut. I could spend alot of time talking about why it's a travesty or how I think they are wrong for not airing the show. But instead, I'm going to explain why they made their choice. It's two major things. One of course, is the consequence issue. Never on screen do we see any remorse for Manny getting the abortion and there's no negative outcome. It was essentially an abortion that worked out well. Two, they don't want kids only impression of an abortion to be that it's something you do when you get pregnant. Even though Emma and Craig are against it, they still felt it's too touchy.
Here's another thing often found on the boards. "If we can see Rick shooting people, why can't we see Manny getting an abortion?". It's because abortion is extremely controversial, while shooting people isn't. Everyone agrees that shooting people is wrong (or at least any reasonable person). Whereas abortion, while not as graphic or violent as a school shooting, is incredibly controversial. They wanted to shy away from that.
Will it air in the future? Well The-N's been playing a commercial with a clip of it in an RFR commercial. Does this mean anything? I don't think anyone can jump to conclusions until we see an official announcement from The-N. Although it would be a nice episode to hold people over until season 4's summer airing, I'm not predicting it to air anytime soon.
Season 4
409 "Back In Black" - The-N adds a little bit of dramatic music while Sean rides the jet ski.
411/412 "Voices Carry" - The-N changes the background music heard at the wedding reception.
- - As you can see Season 4 so far has faced no "real" edits. I'm not sure why they chose to add music in 409, possibly an artistic preference. And maybe 411/412 was a copyright issue with someone's music. Either way, they've at least for now stopped the editing. Which is what has spawned a lot of ugly rumors as to why.
Breaking The Biggest Myth
A lot of times I see people saying things like "Yeah, The-N didn't edit anything in Season 4 because CTV and Epitome told them they had to, or else the show would be sold to ABC Family." No! You are dead wrong and only further spreading myths whether you know it or not.
CTV has no say in what gets edited on The-N. The-N/Nickelodeon/MTV/Viacom bought the rights to air Degrassi in the U.S. exclusively when the show started airing in season 1. They aren't required by any group or company in Canada to air or not air certain scenes. The best evidence of why that is true is because they chose not to air an entire episode, and no one in Canada did a damn thing about it.
So why has The-N decided to edit less in season 4? It's a few reasons. First, their fan base has gotten huge and gotten online. When it started, no one would know the difference if something was edited or not. Now, with the power of downloading and the internet, people will know. Two, they feel that their audience has grown older in a lot of ways. When they were able to pass certain things by the network such as Paige's Rape and Marco's bashing, (the topics, not the "uncut" episode), it made it much easier for them to get away with smaller things later on. The idea is that things build upon others, and the standards of the newest episodes often gets matched up by what has been aired in the past.
As you'll notice, in season 1 the phrase "your attitude sucks" got edited. But now in Season 4 you can say "these ugly ass walls" "go straight to hell" "no one is doing a damn thing about it". Why? Because things have changed at The-N, the standards have broadened. They're not afraid of offending viewers. And PLEASE I can't stress it enough, it isn't because of CTV, it isn't because of Epitome, and it's not because of anyone other than The-N.
The above article was published by dTNGHO, please credit if cited or used
author contact info: donovan@korn.zzn.co
