get real TV / ‘REALITY’ PALES AS FX GOES TO WAR, A CULT KIDS’ SHOW MORPHS AND PUBLIC TV ENDURES. A lighter slice of teen angst

No one knows teens like the creators of “Degrassi” -- the Canadian franchise that has built a worldwide market for shows about pimply-faced teens with heavy-duty issues but precious little parental meddling. Or so goes the conventional wisdom. But now producer and former junior high teacher Linda Schuyler has launched a sister show, “Instant Star,” that takes the authentic teen soap format into the fantasy world of music stardom. And some die-hard “Degrassi” fans are having trouble adjusting.

In fact, “Instant Star” haters -- and defenders -- have flocked to the N’s message boards to express themselves as only teenagers can. “Instant Star is pure [expletive],” wrote one. “Wow, that’s really mean. But I agree,” another answered. Even some who thought after one episode that “Instant Star” rocked said it is no “Degrassi.”

Fan debate centers mostly on the show’s lead character: 15-year-old punk rocker Jude Harrison (played by real life singer-songwriter Alexz Johnson, 17). Would she really, as the first episodes depict, win an “American Idol”-type contest and instantly get a record deal? Would any punker even consider changing her song for the sake of corporate artistry and fame? Does her music rock or is it stupid and annoying?

Its creators aren’t worried. “Instant Star,” they said, was intended to be a lightweight contrast to “Degrassi: the Next Generation,” which continues to zealously strive for high school authenticity by tackling issues such as oral sex and STDs in its new season on the N network, which airs both shows in the U.S.

They are pleased with the early ratings for the show, which airs Fridays at 8:30 p.m. Like many smaller networks, the N repeats shows multiple times the night of the debut and the week thereafter. On July 1, the performance of “Instant Star” along with the return of “Degrassi” led the N to its highest-rated Friday night of the year.

Besides, they said, it took at least one season to build “Degrassi” fans who have become so rabid they forced its stars to take security measures during U.S. appearances.

“I’m just glad they’re talking about it,” Schuyler said. “I’m not surprised if kids get quite heated in their feelings to this. Music definitely polarizes kids.”

If Schuyler and Stephen Stohn, her husband and partner in the Toronto-based Epitome Pictures , have created a mystique of invincibility around them, it has surely come from their uncanny sense of what real teenagers are like.

“We wanted to create a safe, comforting environment for our viewers to drop into everywhere, where they could recognize themselves and their friends in the cast,” Schuyler said by telephone. In stark contrast to most American teen shows, “Degrassi” was cast with actors who were within one year of their character’s age. And none would be mistaken for Mischa Barton of Fox’s “The O.C.” -- some had acne and crooked teeth.

The “Degrassi” scripts, chock-full of dilemmas involving sex, sexually transmitted diseases, drugs, emotional dysfunction, school shootings and abusive boyfriends, are workshopped with the cast so out-of-touch adult language doesn’t creep in.

“Certainly, ‘Degrassi’ does have a double mandate: It’s our job to entertain first, then to educate,” Schuyler said.

Even some of the best teen dramas from Hollywood -- “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “The O.C.,” for instance -- have a glamorous sheen that renders them attractive as well as distant. In contrast, Sarah Tomassi Lindman, vice president of Noggin, and the N’s production and programming department, said, “We have the freedom to only worry about teens; there are other considerations we can discard, such as ‘Will a 25-year-old watch this show, or a 35-year-old woman?’ ” Each scene is told from a young person’s point of view; there are no story lines that are exclusively about adults or that sensationalize a problem.

“We never fly in guest stars to get pregnant,” as Schuyler put it.

The “Degrassi” franchise began with a semi-scripted documentary, “Kids of Degrassi Street,” which ran from 1980 to ’85 and evolved into the scripted dramas “Degrassi Junior High” and “Degrassi High,” which ran for three and two years, respectively. The shows ran primarily on public television stations in the U.S.

Viacom picked up the latest installment, “Degrassi: the Next Generation,” on its digital cable channel, Noggin, whose nighttime arm is known as the N. “We’re the only network that has a median age of 12 to 17,” broadcast or cable, Lindman said.

One snowy night a few winters back, Schuyler said, she was astonished to see teenagers standing in line to try out for “Canadian Idol.”

“They camped out overnight just to get people to listen to them so they could be a contender on the show,” she said. She turned to her husband and said, “I wonder if they have any idea what life will be like if they win this thing.”

Both Canadian Television and the N, which started commercial advertising in May 2004 and was hoping to broaden its range within its niche, were interested in the idea. Already, a second season is in production in Canada where Epitome works directly with CTV.

A career to covet

Unlike “Degrassi,” “Instant Star” involves “wish fulfillment” with its “fish out of water” theme. There are still messages in “Instant Star,” Schuyler said, but they are nowhere near as didactic as in “Degrassi.” “At the same time, we are also trying to be as truthful as we can in that unique environment,” she said.

Schuyler said the episodes move back and forth among three worlds: peers, friends and school; family; and the music industry. One or more will come to the fore in any given show, but the script will touch on all three. “It is for [Jude] a constant battle in terms of trying to find the balance between her three worlds,” Schuyler said.

The characters are prettier and have more money and fashion sense than the “Degrassi” gang, and parental involvement in the show’s plot lines is, as in “Degrassi,” at a minimum. But the writers insist on holding the young people accountable for their behavior in one way or another. For instance, Jude and her sister, Sadie, skip out to a party after Jude’s been grounded. The episode ends before we learn if they’re punished or even admonished by their parents, but Sadie gets humiliated in front of her friends after she drinks too much at the party.

Once she becomes an instant star, Jude still has to go to chemistry class, deal with a jealous sister and parents who are fighting. Not to mention boyfriend issues.

“It is a bit lighter while being as dramatic and as well-made,” Lindman said. “It’s not so much issue of the week. ‘Degrassi’ succeeds by showing teen life on a real level; ‘Instant Star’ succeeds by showing teens a life most of them don’t get to live.”

The new show has required slight adjustments too in Lindman’s hard-core teen-centric production philosophy. At age 17 when the shooting began, Johnson was two years older than her character, Jude. The show also features actors older than its teen audience who play recording stars Jude encounters.

But as on “Degrassi,” black and white characters mix and date easily and without comment, a situation the creators said reflects the reality in most high schools. “For most teens in the U.S. socioeconomic differences are much bigger hurdles to get over in dating than racial differences,” Lindman said.

Lindman said “Instant Star” can reach the “Degrassi” audience and build it at the same time. “ ‘Degrassi’ is a pretty intense and heavy show to watch. Fans enjoy it passionately, but it’s not the kind of viewing that all teens come to TV for. ‘Instant Star’ has the opportunity to reach out to viewers looking for more escapism from their TV.”

Teenage viewing is more fragmented than any other group, she said. “They watch everything from ‘SpongeBob’ to ‘Sex and the City.’ ” In testing this year, “Instant Star” ranked higher than any other network show since “Degrassi,” Lindman said.

Oddly enough, she said, the “Degrassi” cast members are more revered in the U.S. than in Canada, where the show runs next to “The Sopranos.” “They have a minimal level of celebrity there,” Lindman said.

“We did a screening last summer in New York,” she said. “Two of the boys came down. It was so crazy. The girls were screaming the entire time. You couldn’t hear what the cast members were saying. We had to escort them through a back door. Security was afraid they would have their clothes ripped off.”

That pandemonium followed cast members around America’s malls, where they held autograph signings. “[The fans] spent the night in the mall to be the first in line to get their autograph,” Lindman said. “Thousands of kids showed up in every market.”

It’s too early to tell whether fans will respond the same way to someone they haven’t seen grow up on TV or who doesn’t look or act like someone in their school.

But press reaction in the U.S. and Canada has been positive (with the exception of TV Guide, which called it Canada’s worst import since frostbite.) In Canada, where the show airs earlier, the second episode brought higher ratings than the first.

Despite the cranky bloggers, Lindman said she’s excited that “Instant Star” has elicited any emotional reaction at all. “Being passive and uninterested is the worst reaction your show can have.”

And as if to stir the “Degrassi” fans even more, the N recently announced that pop singer Alanis Morissette would appear as a Canadian principal in an August episode of “Degrassi: the Next Generation” that also features guest appearances by actor-writer-director Kevin Smith (“Chasing Amy”) and Jason Mewes (“Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”) playing themselves.