6teen

6teen
Genre	Comedy Animation
Created by	Jennifer Pertsch Tom McGillis
Directed by	Karen Lessman
Voices of	Christian Potenza Brooke D'Orsay Stacey DePass Megan Fahlenbock Jess Gibbons Terry McGurrin Jamie Watson Darren Frost Emilie-Claire Barlow Stephanie Anne Mills Lauren Lipson
Composers	Don Breithaupt Anthony Vanderburgh
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	93 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Scott Dyer Doug Murphy Tom McGillis Jennifer Pertsch George Elliott (S3-4) Brian Irving (S3-4)
Producers	Jaelyn Galbraith (line producer; (S2) Tom McGillis (S1)
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Nelvana Fresh TV (seasons 3-4)
Original release
Network	Teletoon (Canada) Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network (U.S.)
Release	November 7, 2004 (2004-11-07) – February 11, 2010 (2010-02-11)
Related
Total Drama Stoked

6teen (originally titled The Mall) is a Canadian animated comedy television series originally produced by Nelvana, with the final two seasons being produced by Fresh TV. It began airing on November 7, 2004 until its final episode aired on February 11, 2010 on Teletoon. In the U.S., the series was first aired on Nickelodeon on December 18, 2005, and was removed from the schedule on May 13, 2006. The show was later aired on Cartoon Network (along with Total Drama Island and Stoked) on October 23, 2008 until June 21, 2010.

With the first 78 episodes and both 45-minute-long specials produced by Nelvana, 6teen ended with a total of four seasons of 93 22-minute-long episodes (including two one-hour specials).

Plot

6teen is an animated comedy for older children, preteens, and teenagers. The plots take place almost entirely in a megaplex shopping mall known as the Galleria Mall. The Galleria Mall is a cross between the Toronto Eaton Centre and the West Edmonton Mall. The series follows the cast of six 16-year-old friends in everyday lives, including their first part-time jobs. The show is rated TV-PG.

6teen is focused on the common issues related to teenagers. The main characters are: Jude, Jen, Nikki, Jonesy, Caitlin, and Wyatt. They deal with first infatuations, first jobs, first bank accounts, and a sweet taste of freedom. Nikki finds herself stuck working at The Khaki Barn, a store where she would not shop herself, while Jen has found her dream job at a sporting goods store, but makes some mistakes. As a running gag, Jonesy manages to get fired from a new store in almost every episode with a few exceptions. Wyatt falls hopelessly in love with his older co-worker. Jude works at the Food on a stick. Caitlin endures the daily humiliation of working at the lowest store in the mall's hierarchy of cool – The Big Squeeze, a lemonade stand shaped like a giant lemon, where she's required to wear a hat shaped like a lemon as a part of her uniform.

Production and revival

6teen is created and directed through the use of a 2D digital software package known as "Harmony", which was developed by the Toon Boom Animation studio in Montreal, Quebec.

6teen (the original working title for the series being The Mall) is scripted by a team of writers which includes the series' creators and directors Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch, along with Sean Cullen (The Sean Cullen Show), and George Westerholm (This Hour Has 22 Minutes). On the subject of their work, McGillis explained,

Our biggest goal was to connect with our audience. What surprised us was not the fact that kids were watching adult sitcoms, but why they were watching them. They recognize and appreciate smart writing. So, although 6TEEN's subject matter is aimed at kids, the writing style is classic sitcom, with fast-paced dialogue, and multiple plot lines.

The series' main characters were designed by Brad Coombs and the music composed by Don Breithaupt and Anthony Vanderburgh. There are seven main cast members who voice 6teen. Brooke D'Orsay performs the voice of Caitlin, while Stacey DePass provides the voice of Nikki, Megan Fahlenbock voices Jen, Jess Gibbons voices Wyatt, Christian Potenza voices Jude, and Terry McGurrin voices Jonesy. Jamie Watson provides the voices of Coach Halder and Ron the Rent-a-Cop.

With the first 78 episodes and both 45-minute-long specials produced by Nelvana, 6teen ended with a total of four seasons of 93 22-minute-long episodes (including two one-hour specials).

In the final episode ("Bye Bye Nikki?"), it included an acoustic version of the theme music by Brian Melo.

A special reunion PSA titled "Vote, Dude!" was released on September 12, 2018, with the original voice cast reprising their respective roles to raise awareness for voting in the 2018 US midterm elections, though no plans to bring back the show have been announced.

Characters

From L-R Jen, Caitlin, Jude, Wyatt, Nikki, and Jonesy.

Character name	Voiced by	Description
Jude Lizowski	Christian Potenza	An easygoing Jewish Canadian boy with a knack for extreme sports, over-the-top comportment and pranks. A younger version of Jude is featured in the Total Drama spin-off, Total DramaRama.
Caitlin Cooke	Brooke D'Orsay	A peppy, spoiled blonde-haired English Canadian girl with a love for shopping. She is not originally a part of the group, but became their friend when she started working to show her father she can earn money after she maxed out her credit card.
Jonesy Garcia	Terry McGurrin	A tall, flirtatious Latin Canadian boy, the prankster of the group and in a relationship with Nikki Wong. He also picks on Jennifer Masterson and calls her "step-sis" because his father eventually marries Jen's mother. A running gag throughout the series is Josney getting fired after he gets a new job at the mall.
Nicole 'Nikki' Wong	Stacey DePass	A rebellious punk Chinese Canadian girl with a quick, sarcastic wit and is in a relationship with Jonesy Garcia. A younger version of Nikki made a cameo appearance in the second episode of Total DramaRama (similar to Jude's age), titled "Duck Duck Juice".
Jennifer 'Jen' Masterson	Megan Fahlenbock	A responsible, athletic Irish Canadian girl and the tomboy of the group. Her mother remarries to Jonesy's father, reluctantly making the pair step-siblings. Jen also has a controlling side and often pushes herself in other people's business.
Wyatt Williams	Jess Gibbons	A music-loving African Canadian boy with a caffeine addiction. Despite being the sensitive artist of the group, Wyatt is also more or less the voice of reason of the group, often being the most objective of them along with Nikki; Although having a much softer demeanour to him.

Episodes

Main article: List of 6teen episodes

Canada

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	27		November 7, 2004 (2004-11-07)	June 22, 2005 (2005-06-22)
2	27		November 2, 2005 (2005-11-02)	December 21, 2006 (2006-12-21)
3	26		September 5, 2007 (2007-09-05)	April 25, 2008 (2008-04-25)
4	13		September 10, 2009 (2009-09-10)	February 11, 2010 (2010-02-11)
Webisode			September 12, 2018 (2018-09-12)

United States

Season	Episodes	First Airdate	Last Airdate
Season 1	27	December 18, 2005 (Nickelodeon) October 23, 2008 (CN)	May 13, 2006 (Nickelodeon) March 25, 2010 (CN)
Season 2	27	November 11, 2008 (CN)	November 3, 2009 (CN)
Season 3	26	November 26, 2008 (CN)	November 10, 2009 (CN)
Season 4	13	April 5, 2010 (CN)	June 21, 2010 (CN)

Reception and honours

Throughout the show's run, 6teen has received critical acclaim. In the winter/spring of 2005, the program ranked among Teletoon's Top 10 for children ages ten years old and up in both English and French-language markets in Canada. It was also the only Canadian production to be nominated for a Pulcinella Award in 2005 under "TV Series for All Audiences". Furthermore, on June 2, 2007, 6teen received an award from the Alliance for Children and Television for being the best of children's television to fall under the age group of nine to fourteen years old that year. Carole Bonneau, vice-president in charge of Teletoon's programming, has remarked about 6teen:

Aesthetically appealing, with an upbeat musical score, combined with its power to invite empathy from teens towards the main characters, with 6teen Teletoon delivers a series that is a perfect match for today's generation.

In Canada, the show garners about 2.5 million viewers each episode. In the U.S., 6teen's ratings were around 1.8 million viewers each episode, and ratings held there and then even increased, making it one of Cartoon Network's top shows (October 2008 – September 2009). The highest rating 6teen received on Cartoon Network was 3.7 million viewers, on Thursday, June 11, 2009, immediately after the season premiere of Total Drama Action. As time went on (starting in October 2009), 6teen began a slow drop in ratings. 6teen's final episode, which aired on June 21, 2010, received a total of 1.6 million viewers, which is lower than the past 6teen episodes.

In 2009, the show won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song (Main Title and Promo) for its theme song, "6teen", which was performed by Phil Naro.

Censorship

Because 6teen was targeted towards a more mature audience (preteens and teenagers), in certain episodes were considered too risque or inappropriate by the U.S. channels such as Cartoon Network and Paramount's Nickelodeon. This led to 24 episodes being censored or removed in the U.S. With the Canadian legalization of same-sex marriage occurring around the time of the series' release, many episodes of 6teen included references and innuendos to homosexuality, most of which were censored in the U.S. Other censorships and bans in the U.S. included a plot line that focused on shoplifting, and nude images that were modified from the series' original blur-out to a full black bar.

External links

• 6teen at IMDb
• Nelvana production website
• Fresh TV production website