Student Bodies (TV series)
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| Student Bodies | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Starring | Jamie Elman |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original run | 1997–2000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Student Bodies was a syndicated television comedy program produced in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1997 to 2000 that mixed animation with live action.
The show, originally made the for American market, and aired briefly on FOX, as well as CBC, Global and YTV in Canada, has been called "an imitation of Saved by the Bell" by critics, and featured an ensemble cast of high school students at a Thomas A. Edison High School.
Cody Anthony Miller (Jamie Elman), a cartoonist for an underground publication, that shares an office with the official campus paper, draws a strip called "Student Bodies". Periodically we see his thoughts on any given situation in the form of his own cartoons, a technique later seen on Lizzie McGuire.
Cody has an ongoing rivalry with Victor Kane (Miklos Perlus), the weaselly editor of the Student Voice, which is the fodder for many of his daydreams, as well as his girlfirends through the series, including Emily Roberts (Nicole Lyn), Grace Vasquez (Victoria Sanchez), Holly Benson (Katheryn Winnick), and Kim McCloud (Jennifer Finnigan), who replaced Sanchez during the second season.
Others in the cast were (Erin Simms), who played Morgan McKnight in the first season, and object of Chris Sheppard's (Ross Hull) infatuation, before he and Mags (Margaret Mary) Abernathy (Katie Emme McIninch) became a couple on the show. Jessica Goldapple played "Flash", (Francesca Albright) the photographer who was very loyal to Victor, and Mark Taylor played Romeo Carter.
Staff at Edison high included vice-principal Mrs. Morton, played by Michelle Sweeney.
In one episode when Emily and Flash are talking alone, they say if they ever seen the YTV show Are You Afraid of the Dark? Flash says she has and she thought "the guy with the glasses was really cute." This is a reference to Chris, who was also played by Ross Hull.
The resident nerd on Student Bodies (Often compared to "Screech" from Saved by the Bell,) was Stevie Blum played by Richard Azimov. He was a regular character for the first few seasons before the high school comedy became more of a teen drama, with scripts dealing more with parental relationships, sexual relationships and emotional struggles. This transformation of the show was a highly controversial move and ratings plummeted. Richard Azimov reported on his website (now defunct) that his removal from the show finally rewarded him with a modest amount of fan-mail disappointed with his absence but that he believed that the ratings plummet was from the removal of humor and "the guts of the characters and the writers."
[edit] Trivia
- The show sometimes has a touch of black comedy, such as depicting an animated character being perfectly content to work by himself, while another character has been hanged.
- Despite the fact that it was produced in Montreal, the show was broadcast in English; there was a translation called "Vice-Versa", and appeared on Radio-Canada.
- It was criticized for being a Canadian version of "Saved By The Bell".
