Higher Ground (TV series)

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Higher Ground
Higher Ground logo
Higher Ground logo
Format Drama / Adventure
Created by Michael Braverman
Matthew Hastings
Starring Joe Lando
Anne Marie Loder
Hayden Christensen
A. J. Cook
Kandyse McClure
Jorgito Vargas, Jr.
Meghan Ory
Kyle Downes
Jewel Staite
Deborah Odell
Jim Byrnes
Country of origin Flag of Canada Canada
No. of episodes 22
Production
Running time approx. 43 minutes (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel ABC Family (2000)
Original run January 14, 2000 – June 16, 2000
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Higher Ground was an Canadian television show, aired in 2000. Its theme revolves around the treatment of adolescents at a reform high school located in the mountains and woods of the Northwestern part of the United States.

The show focuses on a group called the "Cliffhangers" and stars Joe Lando, Anne Marie Loder, Deborah Odell, Jim Byrnes, A. J. Cook, Meghan Ory, Jewel Staite, Kandyse McClure, Jorgito Vargas Jr., Kyle Downes and Hayden Christensen, who would later be made famous by portraying Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

The show lasted only one season and deals with issues like drug, sexual and verbal abuse, self-mutilation, eating disorder, neglect, and suicidal attempts.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Located 25 miles from the nearest town, Mount Horizon High School is a facility that offers a sanctuary for troubled teenagers suffering from various kinds of abuse or disorders. The focus of Higher Ground is primarily on a group of students in the school, as well as on the headmaster, teachers and counselors. As the show progresses, the viewer becomes acquainted with the stories of each individual and the events that caused their troubles.

The daily schedule of Mt. Horizon's students includes regular classes, preparing food for others, various sport activities, such as climbing, football or rafting, which are mainly focused on mutual collaboration. Through these doings, students are taught both co-operation and confidence in own actions.

At Horizon, strict rules and policies are applied. No sexual intercourse between students, no drugs or alcohol use, no violence and no inappropriate touching. Violating of these rules may lead to expulsion from school and to immediate contacting of parents or respective authority. Newcomers are told these rules during his/her entry check-up.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Students

  • Scott Barringer

Scott is a 16-year-old intelligent, musically talented football player and athlete. Scott is the child of divorced parents. At 15, his father married a young woman who was closer to his age than her husband's. His stepmother seduced him and later began sleeping with him. Unsure of what might happen if the affair was revealed, Scott started berating her to his father and turned to drugs. His school work disintegrated and he was thrown off the football team. As a last resort for help, his father decided to send him to Horizon. At first, Scott had a short relationship with Juliette Waybourne, but later he became romantically involved with Shelby Merrick.
Scott Barringer is played by Hayden Christensen.


  • Shelby Merrick

At the age of 14, Shelby ran away from home because of her stepfather who sexually abused her for years, while her mother was in denial. On the streets, she became a prostitute and started using drugs. After a year, Shelby located her natural father in Los Angeles, but despite his good intentions, he could neither control his daughter nor help her with her emotional problems. Thus he made a deal with juvenile authorities that allowed her to go Horizon rather than Juvenile Hall. During the course of the show she falls deeply in love with Scott Barringer. Later, Shelby returns home after her stepfather has had a heart attack. At home, she finds out her stepfather was abusing her younger sister, Jess. When Shelby calls the cops, her mother, not wanting her daughters taken from her, finally reveals the truth, and the stepfather is taken into custody. Shelby is then returned to Horizon by her mother.
Shelby Merrick is played by A. J. Cook.


  • Katherine "Kat" Ann Cabot

Katherine is an African American, adopted child of kind, loving white parents. Even though she always knew she was adopted, a sense of alienation set in as she grew older, and Katherine felt she didn't fit in with either the white or the black culture. That confusion caused her grades to slip and to withdraw from her talents as a gifted athlete. The accidental death of Katherine's sister, the biological daughter of her adoptive parents, contributed to her lapse into depression. She was finally sent to Horizon by her parents.
Katherine Ann Cabot is played by Kandyse McClure.


  • Augusto "Auggie" Ciceros

Auggie came to Horizon to avoid a Youth Authority lockup. The youngest of five children, Auggie grew up in a middle class home on the fringe of the barrio. Although not a gang member, he was a tagger and had gained an impressive reputation. Eventually he was busted, but the court took mercy on Auggie who, at 15, can barely read or write. All through school, he was placed in educable mentally handicapped classes even though he was actually very intelligent. Horizon's teachers realized the real problem: profound dyslexia. He became romantically involved with Juliette Waybourne.
Augusto Ciceros is played by Jorgito Vargas, Jr.


  • Juliette "Jules" Waybourne

She's often referred to as "Princess" or "Queenie" by Shelby, which is derived from her appearance and behavior. She continually assaulted and abused herself with such means as bulimia and self-mutilation. Being influenced by her perfectionist mother, who has had many husbands in the last nine years, Juliette has grown up in three different households with eight siblings of three different fathers. Exacerbating her unstable surroundings, almost all of the children are extremely successful overachievers. Unable to compete with their accomplishments, she chose physically destructive measures to get the love and attention she craved. Her biological father, an airline pilot who was often away, finally brought Juliette to Horizon. She has a relationship with Augusto Ciceros.
Juliette Waybourne is played by Meghan Ory.


  • Ezra Friedkin

He was adopted at birth by parents who were looking more for a solution to their marital difficulties than for a child to love. When the marriage ended up in divorce, Ezra was caught in the middle of his parents' arguments. The experience forced him to be a pleaser, a mediator, a peacemaker, and a rule-follower. To comfort himself, Ezra turned to drugs and started using ketamine, with which he nearly overdosed himself. After Ezra was revived in the ER and spent 10 days recovering, he was sent to Horizon. He maintains close relation with Daisy Lipenowski.
Ezra Friedkin is played by Kyle Downes.


  • Daisy Lipenowski

Also known as Daisy Graves, she has hid herself beneath a mask of gothic make-up, clothes, and piercings. When years of emotional abuse at home began to threaten her physically, she assaulted her father with a seven-iron golf club, and was quickly sent to Horizon hence. Insightful and harshly honest, Daisy carefully hides her own inner pain and rage behind arrogance and morbid sense of humour. She has a strong friendship with Ezra Friedkin and later also with Shelby Merrick.
Daisy Lipenowski is played by Jewel Staite.

[edit] Teachers

  • Peter Scarbrow

The headmaster and chief administrator of Mt. Horizon High School for the past three years. In cooperation with the school's owner and founder, Frank Markasian, he has built Horizon to one of the finest, most progressive and most successful "emotional growth" schools in the Pacific Northwest. Physically, Peter is strong and healthy, an outdoor athlete into running, biking, climbing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking or windsurfing, even though he has screws in his knee. Prior to meeting Frank, Peter had bottomed-out. To keep up with the incredible physical demands of the business after a success at one of the biggest brokerages on Wall Street, he, at his 28, turned to cocaine and then to heroin. Drugs ultimately led to divorce and when, after his first overdose and a stint at a rehabilitation clinic, he began using drugs again, Peter ended up on the streets. Recovering at a Washington hospital after another near-fatal overdose, he met Frank, whose philosophy struck a chord with Peter. The two men bonded and Frank invited him to Mt. Horizon for recovery. Frank became Peter's mentor, best friend and surrogate father. Except for an occasional trip back to New York, he has remained at Mt. Horizon ever since. Peter developed a relationship with Sophie Becker, the conclusion of which is marriage.
Peter Scarbrow is starred by Joe Lando.


  • Sophie Becker

She met Peter Scarbrow during one of his drug rehabilitations and the two became friends, one of the reasons being their interest for adrenaline sports. Later Sophie departed abroad while Mt. Horizon was established. When she came back, Peter, eager for her not to leave his life again, eventually coaxes her to become more involved at the school. Sophie agrees and since then their mutual affinity begins developing. Later in the show is revealed she has endometriosis and thus is infertile. At the end, Peter accepts her offer of marriage.
Sophie Becker is played by Anne Marie Loder.

[edit] Episodes

Higher Ground consists of 22 episodes, each of which having its own quotation at the beginning. These quotes comes from famous writers, politicians and other significant persons.

1. Scott Free
  • Aired: January 14, 2000
  • Quote: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us look at the stars." ~ Oscar Wilde

Scott Barringer is brought to Mt. Horizon, a school for troubled teens, against his will. Meanwhile, Peter Scarbrow, the administrator of Mt. Horizon, learns that the school is in financial trouble and is facing foreclosure by the bank. Scott tries to run away, but gets caught, and we learn that he was seduced by his stepmother.


2. Babes in Arms

Peter is caught between his ex-wife Chloe and a new flame, Sophie Becker. The students help search for Ginger's 6 year old daughter Gracie, who wandered off into the woods during a picnic. Shelby Merrick is acting out terribly and must overcome the troubling shadows of her past in order to help rescue the little girl.


3. Walking the Line
  • Aired: January 28, 2000
  • Quote: "If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future." ~ Winston Churchill

Peter visits his father while in New York trying to get a loan, and back at the school the students dread taking their PSATs.


4. Our Strongest Link

To teach the kids to work as a team, they are entered in the Junior Eco-Challenge competition.


5. Hope Falls

After a student commits suicide, Hannah resigns and the school's founder decides to take the group on a trek to the site of his son's death 22 years earlier.


6. What Remains

A search-and-rescue mission is mounted to find Juliette, who has fallen into an uncharted cave containing ancient Indian bones.


7. Crossroads

Peter gives the group a parenting assignment, and Katherine's behavior with her boyfriend threatens her impending graduation.


8. Worlds Apart

Auggie's older brother tries to talk him into selling drugs to the rich kids at Horizon. Meanwhile potential investors visit the school, and Sophie and Peter try to figure out their relationship.


9. Seductions
  • Aired: March 3, 2000
  • Quote: "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." ~ Oscar Wilde

As a thunderstorm causes the school to flood, Shelby's attempt to seduce Scott brings him unpleasant memories.


10. Close Encounters

Scott travels down a treacherous river, trying to run away after an encounter with his abusive stepmother. Meanwhile, Shelby falls in love with a horse that's been abused and abandoned.


11. Best Behavior

Juliette is devastated when she isn't invited to her mother's wedding; Ezra is devastated when he learns that his parents' apparent reconciliation is a sham.


12. Wherefore Art Thou
  • Aired: April 7, 2000
  • Quote: "Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness." ~ James Thurber

After Auggie and Juliette run away, Auggie is arrested for stealing food, and Peter must try to obtain his release at a probation hearing.


13. Attention Deficit
  • Aired: April 14, 2000
  • Quote: "Somewhere in the world your Father is lost and needs you but you are far away." ~ William Stafford

When a tough father brings his troubled son to the school, the kid soon antagonizes the other students as the father treks through bear country with Peter.


14. The Kids Stay in the Picture
  • Aired: April 21, 2000
  • Quote: "From here there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Horizon's new boss wants to make a promotional film that uses actors instead of the actual students, and Scott's real mother shows up seeking to regain custody of him.


15. Exposed
  • Aired: April 28, 2000
  • Quote: "I'm giving you a longing look ... Everyday I write the book." ~ Elvis Costello

When an undercover reporter shows up to do an expose on the school, the students feed her the wild stories that she wants to hear.


16. Innocence
  • Aired: May 5, 2000
  • Quote: "The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day." ~ John Milton

As a winter storm moves in, the kids' solo treks are ruined, Shelby becomes lost, and Peter's visiting father has a heart attack.


17. Daised and Confused
  • Aired: May 12, 2000
  • Quote: "I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when my person reflected . . ." ~ Mary Shelley

Daisy returns home with Sophie and Shelby for her mother's funeral and must face her abusive, drunken father. Meanwhile, the Cliffhangers read and identify with Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein".


18. One of Those Days

Peter's brother arrives to contest their father's will; Sophie undergoes a medical procedure; Shelby's mother pulls her out of school to take care of her ailing, formerly abusive stepfather; Ezra steals the plot of Romeo & Juliet for his new play.


19. Because it's There

Scott tries to get Peter to get Shelby back to Horizon. Shelby finds out her stepfather abused her little sister Jess.


20. Falling Up
  • Aired: June 3, 2000
  • Quote: "Tragedies are about the depths that call up to certain men and insist that they descend." ~ Robert Bly

Peter gets hooked on pain killers. Scotts mother comes to visit. Shelby comes back to Horizon. This episode also features the song Wither by Canadian rock band glo.


21. Mended Fences

During Parents Week, Scott and Shelby get into a fight and Juliette meets Auggie's parents. Meanwhile, Shelby's sister runs away from home to Horizon; Scott lies and tells his father his stepmother never abused him.


22. Because I Love You

Scott's dad comes to take him back home. Scott tries to convince Shelby they can stay together even if he doesn't stay at Horizon. Kat talks Peter & Sopie in to having a MORP. David is back and Ezra is upset because Daisy likes David and not him. Scott gets into a fight with his dad on their way home and makes him take him back to Horizon. When he gets back Shelby asked him why he came back. He says: "Because I love you." Sopie asks Peter to marry her.

[edit] External links

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