So, like all popular things, Degrassi has its very own Wikia. There's information on all of the actors and their characters, such as age, first appearance, last appearance, and reason for leaving (the latter three pertaining to characters only and the latter two being the same and also only if applicable). For example: http://degrassi.wikia.com/wiki/Alli_Bhandari First Episode: S8, E1 http://degrassi.wikia.com/wiki/Adam_Torres First Episode: S10, E9 Last Episode: S13, E7 Reason: Passed away during surgery after a car accident Some characters don't have a "Reason" field for their leaving, likely because it's unknown, though there are some that actually show as unknown, but most do and have specific reasons (e.g., graduated), but for some, it just says the storyline ended. What exactly does that mean? http://degrassi.wikia.com/wiki/Dave_Turner First Episode: S9, E2 Last Episode: S13, E8 Reason: Storyline ended
They're still making new episodes, but at this point it's less relevant in the entertainment industry than cave paintings.
I'd say it's more like The Days of Our Lives. It's a ridiculous long runner, but at least it maintains reliable quality. At least that's the impression I get from commercials.
Sort of, yes, I guess. That's kind of a short way to explain it. What's the longer way? Like, what causes their storyline to end, what are signs that show their storyline is ending, and why not just keep them on the show at least until they graduate or whatever? Munro Chambers, who plays Eli, for example, is still on the show, but his character has been a graduate for a long time. Using Dave, for example, why suddenly disappear after episode eight of season 13 with no explanation? Even if those characters with "storyline ended" served their purpose, shouldn't the last episode they appear in have some implication that they leave even if they don't explicitly show the character leaving somewhere? Unless maybe I just missed it from the episodes I've seen. http://degrassi.wikia.com/wiki/Dave_Turner#Season_13 Nothing there seems to show that he was going to disappear after episode eight. Or maybe he still is there, but as a background character who wouldn't really be noticed? Declan Coyne, for example, had "storyline ended," but he went back to New York, so it was implied that said episode was his last episode. The only other thing I can think of is that they actually do show signs that they'll no longer be on the show. Going back to what I said about implicating, instead of on their last episode, maybe they show it through various past episodes by, for example, them having fewer lines or appearing as background characters, but I'm not sure. So going back to Dave, maybe it was implied near the end of season 12? For the last few episodes of season 12, he was absent and in season 13, he only appeared in episode eight.
*cracks knuckles* Kind of a long winded explanation here; hopefully I was able to help. And this is basically how I learned how to write a script a few years ago, but your mileage may very with different writers. Spoiler It all comes down to how stories are told. Now, this is based off a lot of assumptions on the show, which I have not seen. Like with most stories, it starts from Joseph Campbell's idea of "The Man With A Thousand Faces", which basically says that every story ever told follows a very specific outline. This outline is called The Hero's Journey, where the hero starts off in the ordinary world, called to adventure in the new world, faces enemies and makes friends, and then returns back to their old world, but with the knowledge of the new world. This is an abridged version of the journey of course, which follows various stages and goes into deeper aspects. I bring this up because when you're learning how to write a script for a movie, television show, etc., this is one of the first things taught to you. The best way to describe THJ is as an outline or road map. It's not necessary to know the way, but if you're stuck at certain place, you at least know what kind of scene should come next. Along with this, I was taught about theme of a story, that goes hand in hand. The theme is the moral lesson of the story, or at least brings up a question. The journey is to reflect the theme by show different aspects of what it wants to say. Just about every important character in a story is motivated by the theme, whether they are aware of it or not. A character has certain wants, but they also have deep needs that are associated with the theme. What motivates the hero to go on the journey is his want, but what is driving the entire story in general is the theme. On a deep level, it doesn't really matter if the character gets what they want; what's important is that they learn the lesson the journey wanted them to learn. If they do, it's generally a happy ending, and if they don't, then it mostly ends in tragedy. But it's that what leads to a character's exit. It's the final test at the later part of the the story being told where a character is faced with their "final" test. Whether they pass or fail, they have fully completed their journey. There is nothing more for them to learn, which basically means they are no longer necessary to the story. Sometimes they actually leave, having learned their lesson and realizing that it's somewhere else. Maybe it ends with their death or going to jail because they didn't learn from their journey. This is what is mean that the character is no longer important to the story. Now, when it comes to TV shows, maybe there's characters who are never mentioned or seen again after a certain episode. Again, it's because they completed their own journey, or they aided one of the major characters, and that was their purpose. Let's take Saved by the Bell. After Hours did a great video where they talked about all of Zack's ex-girlfriends that appeared in an episode or two, and then just disappear. The girls served the purpose of showing that Zack dated around, and sometimes added things to the story, but they only served that one small purpose. They exist somewhere in that particular universe, but because they don't play an important thematic role anymore, we don't see them anymore.
oh god I just read the title of the song as "Shark in the Week" and I just got so pissed off about it and I had a full rant prepared about how it had nothing to do with shark week... I'm just... done...
Thanks for the great explanation! So when it's not something specific (e.g., moved to X location to attend X university) and, in addition, you don't get any implications, what are you supposed to assume happened?
That's more up the viewer. There's two ways you can go about it: 1. Come up with a conspiracy theory to why all these characters have disappeared. Again, I sight the the After Hours episode on Saved by the Bell where they point out that if you look on the wiki page for the show, with every girl, it says somewhere that they "were never seen again". OR 2. They go on with their lives outside of the show. We don't see them anymore because they're not relevant to that particular plot. You only get a snapshot of the main character's lives in television shows/movies, but never the full picture. In reality, they probably still interact (depending on how things went on in that particular arc), but because they are not relevant to a particular story anymore, there is no need to see them.
