FINALY! Some Degrassi news! For those of you under a really heavy rock, dear Stephen Stohn and TeenNick announced the other day that Degrassi, over the summer, will be brought to you in “telenovela” format aka a new half-hour episode EVERY Monday thru Thursday for SIX WEEKS. Pretty bad ass news, Degrassi. Pretty bad ass.

Oh. Em. Gee. 48 EPISODES?!?

I actually knew about this news since earlier in the week. My job in media (aka putting ads on the air) is constantly in presentations this time of year for networks to show what they have going on in 2010 to convince us to buy their airtime. TeenNick came to my company on Monday to present and showed us little clips of whats to come this summer, including the Degrassi Telenovela. I don’t think I can convey the excitement as I had to sit there and pretend to be listening very intently to the rest of the presentation. The urge to run to my computer and tweet blast everyone I know was really really enticing at that moment. I tweeted dear @stephenstohn and he very righteously told me to not reveal anything until the official announcement had been made and I totally respected that. But, alas, to not share the news with you all was very very difficult.

I got a glimpse of the Degrassi goes New York film too which looks all too amazing. Granted, it was a few seconds worth of shots but it seems it’s very Declan-centric. Probably circling around the Holly J/Declan storyline?

But really the BIG question is, what do YOU think of the Degrassi Telenovela format? The Nickelodeon President had this to say about the Telenovela format:

“We’re making additional episodes, a little more in the telenovela format, a little bit faster, cheaper and more efficient,” Zarghami said. “It will be, I think, a big success.”

Which we can ensue that Degrassi is, in fact, sacrificing quality over quantity. But what kind of quality are they talking about? Does it mean that the eps will visually be more crappy? But really, what does that matter? Most of the Degrassi eps look as if 10 year olds have directed them anyway. I doubt any change visually will be hardly noticed.

But does that mean quality of the storylines will be affected? Now that’s a different ballpark in itself. Once they start butchering storylines for the sake of more eps, you can bet your ass that fans will be pissed. But maybe more eps will give more time to give “lesser” characters some REAL storylines. Degrassi is NOTORIOUS for introducing a ton of sem-interesting characters and them having to drop most of them because they just didn’t generate too much interest. The lack of interest is because there just wasn’t enough time to build up a story and for people to become really invested in those characters. Maybe now characters like Leila, Dave, Blue can REALLY shine. And maybe even, GASP, Manny and Emma?! Where the fuck have they been this season???? Granted, it might have been out of the actors will that they’re not in so much this season but still.. come on.. they’re still in the damn credits..

I’m personally looking on the upside of this news. I think under-played characters can finally come to their own now with this new Telenovela format. Oh! And not to mention, 4 NEW episodes a WEEK?! BRING IT.

What do you think?? Leave some comments and let me know! =)

I’m not really one to be called a “crazy” fangirl. Sure I’m a girl and I’m a fan but honestly.. I’m in my twenties and that really isn’t my deal.

Ok so I waited for hours to see a few Harry Potter premieres, and maybe I went to go see some RPattz when he was filming “Remember Me” in the city. Twice. But it’s just that I live in the greatest city in the world, and hey, exciting things go on where I happen to live. It’s really more convenient than anything really!

So last November I was just going by my business at work in midtown Manhattan when Stephen Stohn had tweeted:

Times Square, being literally, blocks from where I worked, I tweeted Stephen telling him that I was going to see if their were filming during my lunch break. And I did just that. Want to know what I found?

Holy. Shit. Balls. Shame he's not legal..

I can’t even explain how CUTE he was. Like I’ve said before, I doubt this boy is 18 or whatever wikipedia is claiming. He’s tall and blue eyed and VERY handsome. Ugh, I’m not a creeper…

He was filming something for CTV when I was there and looked very preoccupied doing his thang. So I waited there and made some friends with one of the film crew guys (tip: make friends with ANY type of people involving filming!). He told me that he had some time before he had to go back up to MTV studios and that he would direct Landon to me first. At that point there were only about 3 other fans waiting to see Landon. But OF COURSE, the fact that we’re right smack dab in the middle of Times Square, we had a little group of passerbys there in an instant. Some lady asked me if I knew who that was, I told her and she had no clue but continued to keep standing there as if he was going to magically hand out some gold bars or something.

If you're a tourist, for gods sake, KEEP FUCKING MOVING. Sidewalks are small and this isn't some sort of scenic tour /endrant

By the time he was done, there was a decent crowd among us and from what went to “plenty of time for autographs” turned into “Landon only has a few minutes before he has to go back to the studio”. FUCK. But, the film crew guy was right on his word and had Landon come to me first. So I asked him if he could take a pic of us with my shitty Verizon cell phone.

So here I am, blubbering like an asshole asking Landon Liboiron for a picture, which he graciously said yes (!!) and the film crew guy is having trouble taking the pic with my phone. As we were standing there waiting for him to take it Landon goes, “Wow, that’s probably the girliest phone I’ve ever seen” talking about my pink case AND mini-mirror on the back. Needless to say I was dying at that point and just mustered some sort of giggle like an idiot. So film crew dude manages to fuck up and get back to my main screen, I fix it, and now the rest of the crew are getting restless bc he HAD to go back inside. So film crew guy tries again and he CLAIMS he took it. I get my phone back, after thanking Landon a million and one times like I had some sort of social anxiety issue, and there was no pic of us. Basically he lied because he couldn’t get his fat fucking fingers to press the button correctly.

So Landon signs a few more autographs and heads up, thanking everyone (soo adorable) and then he was gone. So I’m on my way back to work, giddy as a schoolboy, when I notice someone familiar walking the opposite direction of me.

Oh hi, creator of Degrassi, and the BEST SHOW EVER.

Now don’t ask me how I managed to recognize an executive producer when I’ve probably walked passed Chase Crawford and didn’t even know it. I guess his pic is on twitter, I’ve seen enough “behind the scenes” Degrassi things, and he’s actually spoken to me online directly before when he was active on degrassi.tv.. aaaaanyway… so Stephen Stohn was walking towards me and I knew I had to do something. So what do I do? I literally STOP HIM IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS TRACKS. I said something along the lines of. “Oh Mr. Stohn (AND I pronounced it “stone” like how it’s supposed to, I’m sure I got brownie points for that) I’m so sorry for stopping you but I just want to thank you for creating a really great show. I’ve been watching since I was 14 and I feel like I can definitely relate to so many of your characters.. blahblahblah.. thank you thank you thank you” you get the picture. And the man was SO SWEET. All he did was smile and say thank you back and say that he loves it when fans come up to him to tell him that. I told him all about how I got to meet Landon and take a pic with him. He was with an exec from TeenNick whom he graciously introduced me to. But wait, this gets better, following not too long behind him was actually Linda Schuyler (above in pic), Stephen Stohn’s wife and co-creator of Degrassi. So he introduced me to her and I basically spilled me love and devotion to her. I didn’t want to keep them long so I gracefully backed out of conversation so that they could get back to where they were going.

I tweeted Stephen Stohn later that day and he replied:

so cool.. And I’m glad you got to meet Landon

You could not knock off the SMILE off my face for days.

Oh and here’s one better. They were actually filming when I asked Landon to take a pic with me so you can actually see me on this little snippet about :19 seconds in and then again :57 seconds in. I’m in a purple/fuchsia hoodie and I’m ACTING A FOOL. The things we do for Degrassi.. eh?

So Degrassi fans, here I am, ready and roaring to go. When the very fabulous Erin posted application for Degrassi bloggers I nearly fell over in my chair. Unless you were a regular at a forum or REALLY dedicated on making your twitter Degrassi-centric, there really was never an outlet for me to get what I wanted to say out there. I nearly fell again when I realized that, oh snap, applications were due a week ago. To make a long story short, I basically poured my little Degrassi lovin’ soul to Erin and here I am. To Erin, thank you for giving me my little spot on the interwebs. Hopefully I can be as entertaining as I think I am.

So just to introduce myself, I’m Bianca, your typical twenty-something recent college grad who just started a full time job in advertising a mere three weeks ago. I hail from the greater New York City area where I was born and raised.

Lets hear it for Newwwwwwwww Yorrkkkkkkkkkkkkk

I’ve been a Degrassi fan since 2003 when one July 4th weekend, Noggin (pre The-N), decided to show one of their Every Degrassi Marathons back when the marathons only lasted a weekend instead of a full week straight now. I remember flipping channels and seeing the girl from ‘In a Heartbeat’ a poorly rated show that only did like 20 or so episodes.

Oh hai, Shawn Ashmore <3

Lo and behold the girl turned out to be Lauren Collins and when Shawn Ashmore never showed up on the show I realized I was watching a tiny show called Degrassi.

Who knew 7 years later, I’d be blogging about it.