Talk:Degrassi: The Next Generation

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[edit] Good Article Nomination

Hello, I will be reviewing Degrassi: The Next Generation as a good article candidate. Just give me a few days as I'm making some notes and putting together a review. Thanks! Redfarmer (talk) 02:16, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Good Article Review

Well, it didn't quite take me as long to do your review as I thought, mainly because I didn't go to sleep like I planned. It was a nice read, too.

[edit] Verifiability

I'm impressed by the number of references. I did find a few occasions, however, where I was a bit concerned about statements having no sources and have tagged them accordingly.

Y Done

[edit] Style

Good style overall. I corrected a couple of minor issues I saw. The only big thing I saw is remember to put in italics the names of television series. In some cases, I note that the name 'Degrassi', when it stands alone, is not in italics. It should be each time as it is the name of a franchise of TV series. See WP:MOSTITLE#Italics.

Addressed in section below - As with Star Trek, the franchise is not italicised, but the series within it are. Anyway, to clarify, I've asked over at Wikipedia_talk:Manual of Style (titles)#Media Franchise their opinion on the subject.

[edit] NPOV Issues

Overall, the tone of the article is neutral. I've noted a few places with {{POV-statement}} tags where I have a concern about the article being neutral.

Y Done

[edit] Readability

My biggest concerns are with three sections and their readability. The Main and Recurring Characters section seems like a jumble of information that will overwhelm the casual reader as it is mostly a list of names, one after another. My best thought is a table could solve this, perhaps grouped by the season each cast member joined the show. Also, there's a lot of information in this section about why cast members left that was unsourced and I tagged. Perhaps much of this can be eliminated and added, with sources, to information on character and/or actor articles.

Hmmm... The ensemble show Lost, which is a FA, presents its character section in a similar fashion. I'm not so sure what the best thing to do about this is... I did remove the uncited info for which I couldn't find sources for.

Also, perhaps, for simplicity, the article could condense the information from the sections 'Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High guest roles' and 'Jason Mewes, Alanis Morissette, and Kevin Smith' into one section on guest appearances. It did not seem like Mewes, Morissette, and Smith warranted their own section since they only appeared in one major arc.

Y Done -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 03:17, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

The 'First Run Episodes' section is extremely confusing. Perhaps you could replace this with a table that simply listed, season for season, when the show aired in Canada and the United States and the dates it aired.

Another commenter above stated that the 'Syndicated repeats in the United States' section is confusing and I'm inclined to agree with them. There are a lot of numbers there and that tends, in my experience, to detract from readability. This section needs a major rewrite. I don't see that the article would need to list the times episodes air on each station. Perhaps just state which stations air episodes and simply that they don't all air at the same time. Thinking about it, I'm not even convinced you actually need the names of the stations that air it in there at all.

Y Done -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 06:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The 'DVD Releases' section can be condensed into a table to make it easier to read. For a good example of this, see Smallville (TV series).

[edit] Production section

Two things I noticed that seemed to be glaring ommisions:

*The article doesn't have much criticism in it at all. It mostly seems to give praise to the show. I must confess, I'm a closeted Degrassi fan and I seem to remember there's been quite a bit of criticism of the show for being too racy. Wasn't there an episode where Manny got an abortion that originally did not air in the United States because censors considered it too controversial? Perhaps this could start you on such a section. Y Done

  • There's not much here about how the actors were originally cast. Yes, they used child actors, but how did they pick who they picked?

I couldn't find anything other than what's already there. The original 11 child actors were picked from 600 auditionees. I don't actually have the DVDs to access any extra information (the wife would kick me out if I "wasted money on that garbage"!). Perhaps someone who does have them and reads this talk page will be able to provide more details. -- Matthew | talk | Contribs 06:16, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Overall

The article is well on its way to becoming a Good Article, but for now I feel like there's just too many small issues that need to be addressed before this article can pass. I'm going to fail it for now, as it doesn't seem they could be addressed in seven days if I were to put it on hold. I would encourage you to resubmit the show after the issues above have been addressed. Redfarmer (talk) 03:06, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Degrassi: The Next Generation

First posted at User talk:Matthewedwards 22 January 2008
  1. The italics-I've seen Degrassi alone italicized like this in other media, that's why I said this.
  2. The cast section is indeed extremely confusing. Think about it like a person who has never seen Degrassi before. As I said, I'm a closet Degrassi fan, so I understood it to some degree. Even I had to read it several times to get the full gist of it, though. The section basically throws a bunch of names and seasons at the reader all at once. It's information overload. I had a similar problem with an article I got up to GA status, Last of the Summer Wine, a show which also has a large cast and used a table to describe the decade in this case that each non-main cast member joined the series. Whether you use a table or not is up to you. However, it is bad form to simply have seven different paragraphs with a group of names in each paragraph.
  3. For the first run broadcast table suggestion, see Smallville (TV series)#Reception.
  4. You're probably right about the syndication information. It could probably be combined with something else. With the stations, it could become overwhelming as you're inviting everyone in the US with a station that airs reruns to add their station to the list. (I know that my local station back in the states that airs reruns is not on the list.)
  5. Just a suggestion, for some tidbits on casting, check the DVD special features for the first couple seasons. I remember it having something on casting.

Hope this helps. Cheers! Redfarmer (talk) 09:01, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The cast list in the infobox

The cast list is getting rather long (over 20 names), and is making the infobox quite large. Over at Lost (TV series) (where the cast list is around 13) and other ensemble shows, the consensus among editors was to not include the list. What are the opinions of people here? Are there any objections to the list being removed?

Secondly, there's a point raised in the GA review that I'd like to address here: The folks over at Wikipedia:WikiProject Star Trek decided not to itallicised the words "Star Trek" when referring to the franchise, and only when referring to the films and series. I'd suggest we do the same thing here. Use "Degrassi" UN-itallicised when referring to the franchise (and school, if not using the full name "Degrassi Community School"). With regards to The N's continued insistence to call D:TNG "Degrassi", other than the lead sentence in this article, it shouldn't be used anywhere else, as "Degrassi: The Next Generation", "DTNG" or "D:TNG" can all be used instead. Comments? -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 02:05, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

No objections. Tuvok[T@lk/Improve] 02:12, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
Agreed on the name and italics. Is the cast list in the infobox only those in the opening credits of the current season? If not, let's try cutting it down to that before removing all together. If so, then agree with removal, maybe with a note to see list? Collectonian (talk) 02:25, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
Looks like it's the cast list for season 7. -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 04:13, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
But is it just the ones from the opening credits (which are general the ones to go in the infobox, not the entire cast list)? Collectonian (talk) 04:14, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
Sorry - With the exception of Melissa McIntyre, they all appear in the current opening credits. -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 05:14, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
Hmmm...then yeah, probably best to just not have a list in the info box per the precedent of the others. Collectonian (talk) 05:31, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox Alignment

The infobox in this article needs fixed. The alignment is broken in Firefox 2.0.0.11. I'm not real sure what's the cause, and I don't want to break anything else.

YoungWebProgrammerMsg me 03:23, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm... Looks fine in IE7 and IE for Pocket PC. I don't have any other browsers to check it against, though. -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 04:27, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
Looks fine in FireFox to me. There was a recent edit in the TV Infobox template earlier messing something up, but its been reversed so maybe that is what it was. Collectonian (talk) 04:44, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
Fixed: Yeah, you're right. It's been fixed now. YoungWebProgrammerMsg me 11:13, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 2nd GA Nomination

GA review (see here for criteria)

This article has improved significantly since the failed FAC and 1st GA nom, but there is a minor thing that need fixing before I'm comfortable with passing the article.

  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose): b (MoS):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
    The 'Cast' section (specifically 'Main roles' does not cite after S1,so S2-S6 need cites and I'd like to see another for the second part of the S7 mention).
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects): b (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    Fair representation without bias:
  5. It is stable.
    No edit wars etc.:
  6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.
    a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
  7. Overall:
    Pass/Fail:
    Until the citation issue above is resolved, I've placed this nom on hold -MBK004 10:27, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

As per above, since the minor issues have been dealt with, I am now passing this article and promoting it to GA. -MBK004 23:39, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] CBS claims

User 68.239.246.51 recently made edits which claimed CBS aired the first two seasons of Degrassi, but pulled it due to poor ratings figures. I can't find anything anywhere online to support this, nor does it mention it in the Degrassi 411 Guidebook. I'm moving it here so that if it is true, it isn't lost and perhaps it can be verified and then added back to the article.

It premiered on CBS in the United States on October 14, 2001. After the second season, the show was dropped by CBS in the US due to low ratings, and new episodes began airing on The N, where repeats of the first two seasons were already airing.

-- Matthewedwards (talk · contribs · count · email) 22:52, 9 June 2008 (UTC)