Strange Days at Blake Holsey High

Black Hole High

The Strange Days at Blake Holsey High intertitle.
Also known as Black Hole High
Format Science fiction
Created by Jim Rapsas
Starring Emma Taylor-Isherwood
Shadia Simmons
Michael Seater
Noah Reid
Robert Clark
Jeffrey Douglas
Country of origin Canada
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 42 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 25 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel Discovery Kids
NBC
Original run October 5, 2002 – January 28, 2006

Black Hole High (also known as Strange Days at Blake Holsey High) is a Canadian science fiction television program which first aired in North America in October 2002 on NBC and Discovery Kids. It is set at the fictional boarding school of the title, where a Science Club (five students and their teacher) investigates mysterious phenomena, most of which is centered around a wormhole located on the school grounds. Spanning four seasons, the series developed into a success, and has been sold to networks around the globe.

Created by Jim Rapsas, the series intertwines elements of mystery, drama, romance, and comedy. The writing of the show is structured around various scientific principles, with emotional and academic struggles combined with unfolding mysteries of a preternatural nature. In addition to its consistent popularity among children, it has been recognised by adults as strong family entertainment. Forty-two episodes of the series, each roughly twenty-five minutes in length, have been produced, the last three of which premiered in January 2006. Those three final episodes that aired were combined into a film, Strange Days: Conclusions. The show was filmed at the Auchmar Estate on the Hamilton Escarpment in Hamilton, Ontario.

Contents

Premise

The show revolves around a group of five friends and their favourite teacher. Together they form the Science Club at Blake Holsey High, a boarding school located in southern Ontario. Strange things occur at Blake Holsey High, and the Science Club decides to discover what is going on. They consider what a wormhole, a floating Qigong ball, and Pearadyne Industries - a lab that was destroyed years ago right next to the school - all have to do with the mystery.

Main cast and characters

Main article: Characters of Strange Days at Blake Holsey High

Episodes

Main article: List of Strange Days at Blake Holsey High episodes

Significant objects and locations

History

Strange Days at Blake Holsey High began airing in Canada on Global and on NBC, as well as VRAK.TV in Quebec. In the United States, meanwhile, it aired on Discovery Kids and NBC. In late March 2003, almost six months after its North American debut, the series was sold to several international markets at the annual MipTV, which was held at Cannes, France. The United Kingdom broadcasting network ITV acquired the terrestrial television right to the series, while the pay television rights were sold to Fox Kids (which became Jetix in 2005) in Europe and Latin America, who showed the series in countries including the UK, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Panama. Fox Kids Europe has a partnership deal with the Disney Channel, which enabled the show to be broadcast in Australia, New Zealand, France and Asia. In Russia (Tomsk), the series airs on CTC. In Denmark, it airs on TV2 Denmark. It also airs in other European countries such as Norway (and other Scandinavian nations), the Netherlands, Portugal, Israel, Poland (it airs on Jetix), Turkey and Italy, as well as Colombia in South America. [1][2]

Fireworks Entertainment, the company behind Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, closed down after the production of Season 3. There were three additional episodes of the series, which aired as a finale film event on January 28, 2006 on the Discovery Kids channel, as "Strange Days Conclusions". As of June 2006, no episode or season of Strange Days at Blake Holsey High has been legally released to DVD in any country. In 2004 it was announced that a DVD box set of season one was to be released in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2004, and websites such as Amazon.com put up the DVD for pre-order. The release was later pulled without explanation.[3]

Strange Days at Blake Holsey High has been nominated for several awards, but won none. Writers Jeff King, Jeff Schechter and Thérèse Beaupré were nominated for episodes broadcast in the year 2003 at the 31st Daytime Emmy Awards in 2004, in the category Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series. Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Shadia Simmons and Robert Clark were each given Young Artist Award nominations in early 2003, although Taylor-Isherwood was placed in the supporting category, Simmons was elevated to lead, and Clark was considered a "guest actor". Simmons received a second nomination the following year, alongside Talia Schlanger (Madison). The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television nominated creative team Tony Thatcher, Adam Haight, Jeff King and Kevin May for Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series at the annual Gemini Awards in late 2004, and the Directors Guild of Canada also recognised the show in areas such as sound editing, team achievement, and the product as a whole in 2003 and 2004.[4]

In 2006 Strange Days was nominated for two Emmy Awards: "Outstanding Children's Series" and "Outstanding Writing".

The series went on hiatus in the UK in early September 2006, but returned on November 6, 2006. The show has since been removed from the Jetix schedules.

Related shows

Although it is not a spin-off, Strange Days at Blake Holsey High has significant connections with several other series for children.

Notes

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ Black Hole High - Series 1 - Vol. 1 (DVD). Retrieved November 13, 2006.
  4. ^ [3]

References

External links

Strange Days at Blake Holsey High