Instant Star
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| Instant Star | |
|---|---|
 Alexz Johnson as Jude Harrison. |
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| Genre | Teen drama |
| Running time | Half hour (including commercials) |
| Creator(s) | Linda Schuyler |
| Producer(s) | Stephen Stohn |
| Starring | Alexz Johnson Tim Rozon Laura Vandervoort Kris Turner Barbara Mamabolo Wes "Maestro" Williams Tyler Kyte Simon Reynolds Jane Sowerby |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original channel |  CTV
|
| No. of episodes | 26 Season three premieres in early 2007 |
Instant Star is a Canadian television program starring Alexz Johnson as adolescent music competition winner Jude Harrison. After its release, the program's popularity rose amongst adolescent females, particularly in the United States and Canada. The show chronicles Harrison's experience in the recording industry whilst focusing upon character development.
Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn of Epitome productions produce the show. The program began to air on CTV in Canada prior to being picked up by Viacom-owned teen network channel The N in the United States. The show became the second most popular program on The N with Degrassi: The Next Generation, also produced by Schuyler and Stohn, ranking as most popular.
In each episode of the show, Jude Harrison must deal with the problems and challenges of both her musical career and her personal life, as one weaves into the other. She also faces dilemmas and choices in her relationships, dividing her feelings between the loves in her life, such as Tommy Q. (her producer), Jamie (a life-long best friend of hers), Spiedermen (her lead guitarist), and Shay (a major rap artist), while also recording with G-Major Records. These people are important to her music - the one thread that ties her life together. Her best moments are when she is working with others in creating and performing her music. In addition to her music and her loves, there is much else going on in her personal life and in the lives of those around her.
Each episode of the show is highlighted by an original song performed by Jude Harrison (Johnson). Usually, the lyrics pertain to what happens in the episode, but sometimes, the focus is simply on the performance, and the lyrics are incidental. Each season introduces 13 new episodes along with 13 corresponding songs. Many consider the show's music rather well crafted for a teen show, rating some songs higher than those of other teenaged and young adult artists.[1] [2] Alexz Johnson did all of her own singing on both soundtrack albums, while also co-writing five of the songs in the first season (including "24 Hours", "Let Me Fall", and "Skin"). Working with her brother Brendan (who also plays the guitar) she has written the songs for a solo album apart from the show, and has prepared demos of the songs, with a view to starting the recording in January/February, for release in 2007 under the Capitol label.
Just before the broadcast of the second season on The N, viewers had a chance to see Alexz Johnson in concert in a show called "Backstage Pass", singing two of the songs from each season of the show, accompanied by her band from the show (and in real life), Spiederman Mind Explosion.
After its first season, Instant Star was nominated for three Gemini Awards (Canadian equivalent of the American Emmy Award) in the category of Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series. Nominations included: (1) Best Series; (2) Best Performance (Alexz Johnson); and (3) Best Direction (Graeme Campbell). The show won the award for Best Direction for the episode You Can't Always Get What You Want.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- Alexz Johnson - Jude Harrison
- Tim Rozon - Tom "Tommy Q" Quincy
- Kristopher Turner - Jamie Andrews
- Barbara Mamabolo - Katerina "Kat" Benton (Season 1) (recurring Season 2)
- Laura Vandervoort - Sadie Harrison
- Simon Reynolds - Stuart Harrison
- Jane Sowerby - Victoria Harrison
- Andrea Lui - E.J. Li (Season 1)
- Tracey Waterhouse - Georgia Bevans (Season 1)
[edit] Supporting Cast
- Wes "Maestro" Williams - Darius Mills
- Mark Taylor - Kwest
- Matthew Brown - Shay Mills (Season 1,2-)
- Tyler Kyte - Vincent Spiederman
- Christopher Gaudet - Wally Robbins
- Ian Blackwood - Kyle Bateman
- Miku Graham - Portia Mills Quincy (Season 2-)
- Zoie Palmer - Patsy Sewer (Season 2-)
- Nicholas Rose - Mason Fox (Season 2-)
- Cory Lee - Karma (Season 3)
Special Guest Stars
- Stacey Farber - Herself (Episode 208, Personality Crisis)
- Aubrey Graham - Himself (Episode 208, Personality Crisis)
- Jordan Todosey - Helen (Episode 210, Problem Child)
[edit] Featured tracks on Instant Star (Season One)
- 24 Hours (A video was released in the US for this song.)
- Waste My Time Featuring "Shay", played by Matthew Brown and performed by Evren
- Skin
- Time To Be Your 21
- Let Me Fall
- Temporary Insanity
- That Girl
- Pick up the Pieces
A soundtrack album featuring all the songs from the show was released in Canada. It has recently been released in the USA on Apple's ITunes music service.
[edit] Discography
| Year | Album | Chart Statistics | Singles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 |
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| 2006 |
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[edit] DVD Releases
Instant Star has been officially confirmed to be released on DVD. The release date is set as December 5th, 2006. No artwork has been picked, though bonus features have been. They will include:
- Behind The Scenes
- Making of "24 Hours"
One of the official confirmations have been made. A promo for theThe DVD set was posted onto hit site YouTube from the Fourth Season DVD Set of Degrassi.
The Instant Star DVD has been pushed back to Early 2007, due to the fact that no release or any information was released before the 5th of December.
There is still no info on the dvd and someone could have just put the stuff up to lie.
[edit] References to Popular Culture / Trivia
- In the series premiere episode, Even Better Than The Real Thing, one character says that the company will bring in a well known song writer. Immediately, Jamie suggests Billie Joe Armstrong from the band Green Day. Jude also asks if Tim Armstrong from Rancid was the person they were talking about.
- Jude is a fan of The Ramones.
- While Jude and Spiederman are talking about their relationship, Jude suggests that they were never really a Romeo-and-Juliet couple. Spiederman then says they were more like Bart and Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons.
- In the episode I Fought The Law, a poster of Eminem is hanging on the glass wall during the opening scene.
- Nicholas Rose and Tyler Kyte play in a band together called Sweet Thing.
[edit] Broadcasters
One hundred and twenty countries have bought broadcast rights to the show: including Mexico (where it airs on the cable network MTV Latin America) Poland (on ZigZap), New Zealand (on TV2 a free to air station), Australia (where it airs on pay tv stations Foxtel and Austar on the channel Nickelodeon), Germany (where it is broadcast on the music channel VIVA) and Brazil (where it airs on the cable network Multishow).
[edit] Episodes
In May 2006, this message was posted on the official Instant Star website:
We had the first songwriting camp last week, and then today we listened to the new songs for this season and talked about them--there are some fantastic songs for Season 3!
The screenwriters have already created the outline for 301 (Lose Yourself) and 302 (Like a Virgin), in which the cliffhangers are resolved pretty much and a new character is introduced.
