Summer Heights High

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Summer Heights High
Summer Heights High intertitle
Genre	Mockumentary comedy
Created by	Chris Lilley
Written by	Chris Lilley
Directed by	Stuart McDonald
Starring	Chris Lilley
Country of origin	Australia
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	8 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Laura Waters
Running time	27 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC TV
Picture format	16:9
Original run	5 September 2007 – 24 October 2007
Chronology
Related shows	Big Bite We Can Be Heroes
External links
Official website

Summer Heights High is a Logie Award-winning^[1] Australian television mockumentary series written by and starring Chris Lilley. It is a parody of high school life epitomised by its three protagonists: effeminate and megalomaniac "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; self-absorbed, privileged teenager Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan student Jonah Takalua. It lampoons Australian high school life and many aspects of the human condition and is filmed in a documentary style, with non-actors playing supporting characters.

Following a similar format to Lilley's previous series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year, Lilley plays multiple characters in the show. Filmed in Melbourne at Brighton Secondary College,^[2] the series premiered on 5 September 2007 at 9:30pm on ABC TV and continued for eight weekly episodes. Each episode was also released as a weekly podcast directly after its screening via both the official website and through any RSS podcast client in either WMV or MPEG4.

Summer Heights High was a massive ratings success for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was met with mostly positive critical reaction.^[3] The series debuted on 5 September 2007 and the eight-part series ended on 24 October 2007. On 26 March 2008, it was announced that the show had been sold for international distribution to BBC Three in the United Kingdom and HBO in the United States and Canada.^[4]

Contents 1 Format 2 Characters 2.1 Ja'mie King 2.2 Mr G 2.3 Jonah Takalua 2.4 Other Characters 3 Episodes 4 Soundtrack 5 Ratings 6 International syndication 6.1 Premieres 6.2 Currently showing 7 Controversy 8 DVD release 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Format

According to the prologue, a production and filming team travelled to a typical Australian public high school and followed the events and daily lives surrounding the students and staff for one term. The team would film a documentary from the opinions of the students and staff, especially the three main characters: Ja'mie King, a mean girl-type prefect exchanged from a private school; Mr G, a charismatic drama teacher; and Jonah Takalua, a stereotypical Pacific Islander delinquent, all played by the series' writer, Chris Lilley.

The series is filmed in a documentary style, with the supporting cast drawn from the real-life students and staff of the school where the series was filmed. The characters from Summer Heights High are from Australia and they speak with an Australian accent. The programme explored the facets of a typical Australian public high school such as social cliques, bullying, teenage slang, stereotyping, profanity, racism and homophobia by showcasing three different individuals: the bully, the exchange student (originally from a private school) and the teacher. The three main characters in the show do not interact with each other in any way; however, some secondary characters such as the school's principal, Ms. Murray, have appeared and been mentioned in the story of more than one main character.

[edit] Characters

There are three primary characters featured in Summer Heights High, all portrayed by Chris Lilley.

[edit] Ja'mie King

Ja'mie King, a private school exchange student, immediately makes friends with the most popular girls at Summer Heights High. It becomes obvious however, that her friendship is not genuine when her so-called friends discover a poster she has made of them calling them "povo skanks." Her manipulative character is reinforced when she manages to convince her new friends that the poster was meant as a joke and that they need to "get a sense of humour."

Ja'mie exhibits a racist attitude toward Asian people, as well as general snobbishness. She makes several attempts to alienate Bec from their group of friends, as she is of Singaporean descent. She also harasses Holly about having large breasts, Jess for having skin problems, and Kaitlyn for being dumb and doing restricted maths. During the show, Ja'mie falls in love with year 7 student Sebastian, who is at least 3 years younger than she, and decides to go out with him. However, the relationship only lasts a short amount of time as Ja'mie steals Sebastian's mobile phone and finds out a girl named Madeline has been texting him, asking to sit with him in English class. Ja'mie dumps him and claims he made her "question [her] hotness".

Later on in the show, Ja'mie and her friends form a student representative council, and decide to organize a Year 11 Formal. Ja'mie plans to have it at a popular nightclub with an expensive DJ. However, at $450 a ticket, the student council faces cancelling the event because students can't afford tickets. Instead, Ja'mie arranges a day to raise money for AIDS in Africa, which is enough to cover Formal expenses. The Head of Senior School learns that the reason for this fundraiser isn't to raise funds as intended, but to fund the expensive Formal. As a compromise, Ja'mie is offered to hold the Formal in the school's staff room, with no DJ and cheap, hand-made decorations.

She invites Tamsin (a lesbian student) to the Formal, as she wants to make a big impression, but when Tamsin finds out that Ja'mie is not lesbian, she ditches her by SMS, forcing Ja'mie to instead take Sebastian, with whom she gets back together, and stays with this time, despite still checking the messages on his phone. The Ja'mie segment ends with her leaving the school after her term at Summer Heights High in the car with her mum and friend Brianna. At the very end, she stands up through the car's sun-roof and shouts, "Public school rocks!" although this is rather ironic, as she throws the jumper away rather than keep it as a souvenir.

[edit] Mr G

Helen 'Greg' Gregson, aka Mr G, is a 36-year-old drama teacher at the school. Mr G not only believes that he is an incredibly talented and well-liked teacher, but also that his students share his intense passion for drama and performance. His narcissism places him in constant conflict with other members of staff, and the school principal in particular. His self-centred attitude extends to frequently losing his temper with the students, and he is hostile to the disabled students being involved in his musical as he is under the belief that they will damage its quality. It is clear that he is unaware that his own perception of his teaching abilities is not shared by most students. He has written several musicals for the school, including "You Can't Skate, Mate", based on the Avril Lavigne hit single Sk8er Boi; and "Tsunamarama", based on the events of the 2004 Tsunami disaster, set to the music of Bananarama. Also IKEA, the musical. Mr G has previously been featured on the Seven Network sketch series Big Bite.^[5]

[edit] Jonah Takalua

Jonah Takalua is a 13-year-old school boy of Tongan descent in year 8 at Summer Heights High, which is his third school after being expelled from two others for setting fire to a student's locker and drawing a penis on the principal's car. He causes trouble at the school by treating his teachers with a lack of respect, and bullying younger students. His most hated teacher appears to be Ms. Wheatley, his English teacher. There is constant conflict between the two characters and as a result he is at serious risk of being expelled. Jonah also has difficulties learning, and attends "Gumnut Cottage", a remedial English class for students at Summer Heights High who have reading difficulties. After threatening Ms. Wheatley, Jonah is expelled from the school. In the closing scene his graffiti tag *dick*tation appears at numerous locations around the school, and this is seen as his final revenge.

[edit] Other Characters

• Margaret Murray (Elida Brereton) - The principal of Summer Heights High. She is often referenced in all three stories but plays the biggest part in Mr. G's story. She is not fond of Mr. G's irrationality which almost caused Mr. G to resign though she was able to stop him when she told him that she would continue the production of the musical whether he was there or not.

• Rodney Parsons (Stan Roach) - A science teacher at the school who is also a close friend to Mr. G and shares an office with him. Rodney is also a piano player and provides musical accompaniment for the school musicals.

• Doug Peterson (David Lennie) - The student welfare officer who is determined to help Jonah and to keep him from getting expelled. Mr. Peterson also runs the "Polynesian Pathways" course.

• The Year 11 Girls - Despite Ja'mie's harassment, Holly, Bec, Jess, and Kaitlyn almost instantly become her friends. Together, they form a student representative council. Also in the council is less popular girl, Ashley, who volunteered to show Ja'mie around the school. Although Ashley seems to have the qualities of a nice girl, Ja'mie doesn't like her, calling her 'fugly' on numerous occasions.

• Leon - Jonah's best friend and partner in crime.

• Candice Coxmurray (Kelly Dingledei) - Candice is the star of Mr. G the Musical, as Annabel/ Jessica

• Keiran (Ashley Mclerie) - Jonah's breakdancing nemesis, a year 7 student who is actually a very talented breakdancer.

• Annabel Dickson (Coby Ramsden) - The Girl who died of an ecstacy overdose and Mr G is making a musical about (while she is only portrayed in the series in a photograph, she is featured in a deleted scene).

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released through ABC Shops and the Australian iTunes Store, the latter also containing audio extracts from songs in the series including Mr. G's "Bummer Heights High", "Naughty Girl", "She's A Slut" and Jonah's "Being A Poly". Part 2 of the soundtrack of the Summer Heights High album contained songs such as "My Name is Mr G", "This Time You're Dead" and the Summer Heights High theme. Most of the songs from Part 2 are from the final musical.

"Naughty Girl" was released as a single on 8 March 2008 with remixes by Paul Mac, John Paul Talbot and Stylaz Fuego,^[6] peaking at number 7 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. There was also a new music video clip to go with the song.

[edit] Ratings

The premiere episode of Summer Heights High did well in the ratings as a strong lead-in from the return of The Chaser's War on Everything. It peaked at 1.6 million viewers (5 capital cities) with an average of 1.22 million.^[7] Along with Spicks and Specks, Summer Heights High helped ABC TV to achieve its strongest midweek ratings for 2007.^[8] The second episode rated stronger than the premiere with an average of 1.375 million viewers tuning in.^[9]

The third episode managed to rate very well with 1.275 million viewers ^[10] while the fourth episode fared well with 1.235 against the season premiere of Prison Break.^[11] The fifth episode only managed 1.156 million viewers, the lowest ratings for an episode of the show, although the programme remained the highest-rating show in its timeslot.^[12] The sixth episode picked up slightly in viewers from the previous week with 1.192 million tuning in.^[13] The seventh episode grew in ratings as the penultimate episode, picking up to average 1.307 million viewers for the night.^[14] The eighth and final episode achieved the highest ratings for Summer Heights High with a total of 1.512 million viewers watching the concluding episode to the series.^[15]

[edit] International syndication

In March 2008, it was announced that international broadcast rights had been bought by the BBC in the United Kingdom and HBO in the United States.^[16]

[edit] Premieres

• 10 June 2008 – BBC Three in the United Kingdom^[17]
• 9 November 2008 – HBO in the United States.^[18]
• 30 August 2008 – TV1 in New Zealand, on^[19]
• 12 September 2008 – TV H6 in Togo and Kenya^[20]
• 14 December 2008 - yes stars Comedy in Israel

[edit] Currently showing

• BBC Three is doing a re-run of the entire series which started on 17 November 2008. It is also available for viewing online through the BBC's Flash-based iPlayer website.
• HBO Canada

[edit] Controversy

Even before Summer Heights High aired, some community groups complained about a "rape joke" and Mr G's inappropriate "touching" of a boy with Down syndrome.^[21]

The Herald Sun reported that parents and some teachers have considered the possibility that the show is influencing children to misbehave at school. Students were reportedly imitating Jonah and Ja'mie, repeating lines that were bullying, racist and homophobic.^[22] Education Union branch president Mary Bluett stated in response that the show was "clearly tongue-in-cheek".^[23]

After episode three, the family of a girl who died taking drugs at the 2007 Good Vibrations Festival in Sydney, Annabel Catt, complained that the program had been lampooning her death.^[21] The ABC apologised to the family, stating that the situation was purely coincidental and assured them that filming of the episode in question had been completed eleven days before their daughter's death. The ABC thereafter began to display a message before each episode stating that there is no link between the series' characters and people in real life.^[21]

The writer for a similar Network Ten series called Sit Down Shut Up in 2000 claimed that Lilley had borrowed ideas for characters and plots from the series including the school name and aspects of the Mr. G character.^[24]

[edit] DVD release

Summer Heights High
	Set details	Special features
	8 episodes 2 disc set 16:9 Aspect Ratio Subtitles: yes English (2.0 stereo) Total running time: approx 465 minutes	3 hours and 48 minutes of deleted scenes, bloopers and outtakes[25] Mr. G: 80 minutes Ja'mie: 80 minutes Jonah: 50 minutes
	Release dates
	Region 4 – 25 October 2007 Region 2 – 6 October 2008 Region 1 – 24 February 2009

Summer Heights High Special Edition
	Set details	Special features
	8 episodes 3 disc set 16:9 Aspect Ratio Subtitles: yes English (2.0 stereo) Total running time: 729 minutes	Over 5 hours of deleted scenes, bloopers and outtakes Behind-the-Scenes Featurette Mr G's Performance at the Logies "Naughty Girl" Music Video Trivia Game Scenes Recreated by Fans
	Release dates
	Region 4 – 6 August 2008

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Summer Heights High
• Summer Heights High on MySpace
• Summer Heights High at the Internet Movie Database
• Summer Heights High at TV.com
• Summer Heights High View Online

v • d • e Chris Lilley Characters Daniel Sims • Ja'mie King • Pat Mullins • Phil Olivetti • Ricky Wong • Mr G • Jonah Takalua • Characters in Summer Heights High Television series Big Bite • Hamish & Andy • We Can Be Heroes • Summer Heights High (List of episodes) Miscellaneous Ned (film) • "Naughty Girl" (song) • Hamish & Andy (radio show)