Greek (TV series)

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Greek
Format	Teen comedy-drama
Created by	Patrick Sean Smith
Starring	Clark Duke Tiffany Dupont Scott Michael Foster Spencer Grammer Paul James Jake McDorman Amber Stevens Dilshad Vadsaria Jacob Zachar
Opening theme	"Our Time Now"
Composer(s)	John Swihart
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	44 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Lloyd Segan Shawn Piller
Running time	43 mins approx.
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC Family
Original run	July 9, 2007 – present
External links
Official website

Greek (promoted in faux-Greek alphabet as GRΣΣK) is an American comedy-drama television series which follows students of Cyprus-Rhodes University who partake in the school's Greek system. Most of the characters belong to either the fictional fraternities Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sororities Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒΖ) and Iota Kappa Iota (IKI).

The show airs on the ABC Family network, the UK BBC Three network, the Australian pay-TV network FOX8, the TV2 channel in New Zealand, on MuchMusic in Canada, on Virgin 17 in France, Universal Channel in Brazil, the German pay-TV network FOX and on MTV Italia and MTV Greece in Italy and Greece, respectively. It will begin airing on RTL 5 in the Netherlands.

Contents 1 Production 2 Cast of characters 3 Cast 3.1 Core regulars 3.2 Recurring 3.3 Former cast 4 Synopsis 4.1 Season 1 4.2 Season 2 5 Reception 6 Other Media 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Production

In April 2007, ABC Family announced plans to begin airing Greek in July of that summer. The show depicts a school similar to liberal arts school located in Ohio (i.e. Denison, Miami, etc.). The series premiered on July 9, 2007.^[1] Show creator Patrick Sean Smith began the show as a spec script of a show that he "really wanted to see," noticing a lack of shows in the format centering on college life. Citing "shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty" that "were pushing the envelope comedically in one-hour format," Smith saw the idea working for a younger set.^[2]

The first season was halted in September 2007 due to the Writers Guild of America strike and returned March 24, 2008. On May 1, 2008, ABC Family renewed Greek for a second season, the first episode of which aired August 26, 2008. The series was moved from the Tuesday lineup to Monday nights.^[3] Twelve more episodes were ordered for late spring 2009^[4] and aired beginning March 30, with Jesse McCartney joining the cast for multiple episodes.^[5] Johanna Braddy, who was featured in the 2004 ABC Family movie Pop Rocks, joined the cast as Jordan, who played a part in a love triangle opposite McCartney's character and the character of Rusty. Gregory Michael joined the cast as Grant, a new love interest for Calvin.^[6]

On January 31, 2009, it was announced that Greek would return for a third season, to premiere on August 31, 2009.^[7]

[edit] Cast of characters

[edit] Cast

[edit] Core regulars

Character	Actor/Actress	Status
Russell "Rusty" Cartwright	Jacob Zachar	season 1-present
Casey Cartwright	Spencer Grammer	season 1-present
Cappie	Scott Michael Foster	season 1-present
Calvin Owens	Paul James	season 1-present
Evan Chambers	Jake McDorman	season 1-present
Ashleigh Howard	Amber Stevens	season 1-present
Dale Kettlewell	Clark Duke	season 1-present
Rebecca Logan	Dilshad Vadsaria	season 1-present

[edit] Recurring

Character	Actor/Actress	Status
Wade	Derek Mio	season 1-present
Beaver	Aaron Hill	season 1-present
Ben Bennett	Daniel Weaver	season 1-present
Betsy	Eileen Boylan	season 1-present
Jordan	Johanna Braddy	season 2-present
Grant	Gregory Michael	season 2-present

[edit] Former cast

Character	Actor/Actress	Status
Max Tyler	Michael Rady	season 3
Andy	Jesse McCartney	season 3
Jen K	Jessica Rose	season 1-season 3
Heath	Zack Lively	season 1-season 3
Frannie Morgan	Tiffany Dupont	season 1-season 3

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Season 1

• US Premiere Date: July 9, 2007
• Chapter 1 DVD Release Date: March 18, 2008 (episodes 1–10)
• Chapter 2 DVD Release Date: December 30, 2008 (episodes 11-22)
• Total Number of Episodes: 22

As Season One progresses, each character comes into his/her own by learning to cope with the challenges of Greek life. Rusty -the male protagonist, a freshman wishing to shed his geeky image decides to rush Kappa Tau. His big sister, Casey - the female protagonist, is a Zeta Beta Zeta sister vying for a presidential bid. Throughout the season Casey and her boyfriend Evan, the pledge educator at Omega Chi struggle to deal with his infidelity with Rebecca Logan, a ZBZ pledge and senator's daughter. As a measure of coping with Evan's infidelity Casey spends the night with her ex-boyfriend Cappie, the president of Kappa Tau, which reawakens all of her old feelings for him and makes her question her feelings for him. This later becomes and issue when Cappie and Rebecca Logan begin dating. Rusty must deal with a myriad of new situations as well. His roommate, Dale, is a conservative Christian and germaphobe and while it may seem that they have nothing in common as the year progresses they become friends. But he must also face issues of being accepted by his pledge class and juggling his friendship with Calvin, a member of the rival fraternity Omega Chi. As the year progresses the two siblings become friends and support each other as they face the challenges of Greek life together.

[edit] Season 2

• US Premiere Date: August 26, 2008
• Chapter 3 DVD Release Date: August 18, 2009 (episodes 1-10)
• Number of Episodes: 22

Season two picks up in the middle of the second semester. Once everyone is back from Myrtle Beach everyone must deal with reality. Casey has to deal with the consequences of Rebecca getting drunk during Spring Break and becoming a YouTube sensation. As the semester finishes Casey tries to campaign for President against her former friend Frannie but both lose as the freshman class all voted for Ashleigh. Rusty and Calvin have to figure out a way to be friends in rival fraternities, something no one else thinks is possible. On top of that Rusty begins doubting why he is in college and gain's some much needed guidance from his RA named Max. Casey ends up meeting Max and the two start dating even though it is almost the end of the year. But as the semester comes to and end and the pledges are made into brothers or sisters a few surprises happen. The second part of the season centers around Casey and Max figuring out just how serious they want to be, Rebecca becoming her own person, and Ashleigh dealing with being president. Rusty has to deal with falling for a girl that someone else has taken as he and Dale adjust to living off campus.

[edit] Reception

• Criticism

Greek has been relatively well received by critics, receiving a score of 62 out of 100 from review aggregator Metacritic.^[8] In a review released soon after the premiere of the show, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the show "light-hearted fun" and "authentic" while the New York Times claimed that Greek "captures the spirit of the hedge-fund age like nothing else."^[9][10] Other critics did not find the drama as authentic, with Elizabeth Fox of the Philadelphia Inquirer criticizing the show's predictability and lack of originality as another "teenage soap opera."^[11] Other reviews were middling, calling the writing of the show acceptable and praising the strength of the cast.^[12]

The show has been noted by LGBT activists for the character of Calvin (Paul James), a black gay fraternity member who struggles with the stereotyping and homophobia that coming out of the closet entails. Critics have praised the character's "three dimensionality."^[2][13]

• Ratings

Over the course of the show's run, it has continually been growing its audience, most recently was the season 2 premiere which attracted a series high of 1.6 million total viewers, it also had triple digit increases in the key females 18-34 demographic.

[edit] Other Media

• Specials

In the United Kingdom, after each episode airs a special behind the scenes episode entitled "Greek Uncovered", which can be found on the BBC iPlayer and on BBC Three.^[14] In the Australian iTunes store, each week, a new episode (to Australia) will appear, after it is aired on FOX8.

• Music

The theme song for Greek is provided by the Plain White T's "Our Time Now". The band is signed with record label Hollywood/Fearless and has appeared in numerous Greek promotional materials as well as several episodes. It is evident that some band members are Kappa Tau brothers (Ep.12, "The Great Cappie") thus why the band plays at several functions.

The band has also performed in many other episodes including (from season 1) Ep. 3, "The Rusty Nail" and Ep. 6, "Friday Night Fright," where they sang "Hey There Delilah" and "Making a Memory."

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Greek Official Website
• Greek at MySpace
• Greek at the Internet Movie Database
• Greek Uncovered at the Internet Movie Database
• Greek at TV.com
• Greek Speak Podcast
• Greek Central Hungarian Fansite