Wayside (TV series)

Wayside
Wayside title card
Format	Comedy Surreal humor
Created by	Louis Sachar
Developed by	John Derevlany
Written by	John Derevlany Dennis Heaton Rob Tinkler
Directed by	Riccardo Durante
Voices of	Mark Rendall as Todd Martin Villafana as Myron Lisa Ng as Dana Denise Oliver as Maurecia Kathleen Laskey as Mrs. Jewls Kedar Brown as Principal Kidswatter Sergio Di Zio as Louis Jayne Eastwood as Miss Mush Peter Oldring as Joe Terry McGurrin as Stephen Dwayne Hill Sarah Gadon as Rondi Megan Fahlenbock as John Grey DeLisle as Fluffy Tara Strong as Shari
Theme music composer	James Robertson
Opening theme	"Fly by the Wayside" by Skye Sweetnam and James Robertson
Ending theme	"Fly by the Wayside" (instrumental)
Composer(s)	Scott Bucsis
Country of origin	Canada
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Scott Dyer Doug Murphy Lin Oliver
Producer(s)	Lin Oliver
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Nelvana
Broadcast
Original channel	Teletoon
Picture format	720i (EDTV)
Original run	March 16, 2007 – August 29, 2008
External links
Website

Wayside (also known as Wayside School) is a Canadian animated television series created by Louis Sachar, developed and written by John Derevlany for Canadian television channel Teletoon. The series centers on Todd, a transfer student who attends Wayside, an offbeat educational institution based on Sachar's upbringing. The series' premise is based on Sachar's Sideways Stories From Wayside School book series, although several elements in the series differ greatly.

The series was conceived in 2004 by Derevlany, who later developed and wrote an hour-long pitch for Teletoon. Pleased, the company green-lighted Wayside for 25 episodes in 2007-2008. The series was later commissioned to air in the United States on Nickelodeon during the summer of 2007 before being pulled from the network's lineup and returning late in the year. The show premiered in reruns on Nicktoons on September 1, 2007 and was actually left the channel on September 1, 2008, then returned on July 13, 2009. Production ceased in 2008 for both countries, and any official word on continuation has yet to be announced.

Wayside has also been nominated for a "Best TV Series for Children" at the 2008 Cartoons on the Bay award ceremony. Despite favorable critical reception, the series has also received negative criticism, including unfavorable comparisons for its differences from the Sideways Stories book series.^{[citation needed]} Many tie-in media have been released, including a DVD release of the pilot episode under the title Wayside: The Movie, released in 2005, and a DVD of the first season, released on August 17, 2008.

Synopsis

The Teletoon, Nickelodeon Original Series Wayside series takes place at the fictional Wayside School, an unusual Escher-esque 30-story grammar school. The school had been accidentally built "sideways," with one classroom in each of the 30 stories instead of 30 classrooms on one floor. Like in the books, there are actually 29 floors in the school; the imaginary 19th floor is inhabited by the imaginary Miss Zarves. The series revolves around a new student at the school, named Todd, and his adventures adapting to life as a student at the top floor of Wayside School.

At Wayside, every floor appears to have lockers, stairs, classrooms, doors, and light fixtures. The first floor contains the principal's office; the second floor contains a bathroom and several rows of lockers, while the fifth, sixth, and seventh consist of the classroom for pottery, the school campgrounds, and the school library, respectively.

The twelfth floor contains the faculty lounge and pool, while the three floors above that contain the gym, the social studies classroom and gondola canal, and the cafeteria and kitchen.

On the (technically nonexistent) nineteenth floor, there are no doors, but a chute blocked by wooden boards. In the episode, "Dana Checks Out," in the hall and stairwell of what is considered the nineteenth floor, there are lockers in the background. On the two tallest floors, Ms. Mush teaches honors class in an auditorium on the twenty-ninetieth floor, while Mrs. Jewels teaches her students on the thirtieth. Every floor also appears to be a different color. To add to the school's Escher-esque style, all of the features of the floors — doors, lockers, stairs, etc. — are placed in very unusual ways, as seen in the Escher artwork, Relativity. All of the floors' features are either right-side up, upside-down, sideways, or suspended high above the floor, as seen with several lockers.

Episodes

Main Title: List of Wayside episodes

Characters

See also: Sideways Stories From Wayside School#Characters

Mrs. Jewels' class as seen in Wayside. From left to right: Stephen, Dana, Mrs. Jewels, Myron, and Maurecia. Dana, Mrs. Jewels, Myron, and Maurecia are among the series' main protagonists.

Wayside primarily centers Todd (voiced by Mark Rendall), a transfer student who attends Mrs. Jewels' class on the 30th floor and struggles to adapt and conform to Wayside's offbeat academic structure. Supporting characters include his friends Maurecia (Denise Oliver), a tomboy who has an enormous crush on Todd, Myron (Martin Villafana), a vain and self-centered student who wishes to become class president, and Dana (Lisa Ng), a Type A overachiever who obsessively maintains Wayside's rules and acts as Myron's campaign manager.

Recurring members of the school faculty include Mrs. Jewels (Kathleen Laskey), Todd's offbeat yet endearing teacher; Principal Kidswatter (Kedar Brown), the uptight, self-centered and insecure school principal who often makes up apparently arbitrary rules on a whim, without thinking about the consequences of these rules; Louis (Sergio Di Zio), the relaxed and friendly caretaker and supervisor at Wayside; and Ms. Mush (Jayne Eastwood), the Eastern European head chef of the school cafeteria and nurse who is best known for her friendly personality and horrible cooking skills, although she thinks is an excellent cook.

Minor students in Mrs. Jewels' class include Rondi (Sarah Gadon), an obese girl who is missing her two front teeth; Shari (Tara Strong), a female student who wears a smoky purple overcoat and frequently sleeps in class; Stephen (Terry McGurrin), a student who wears a Halloween elf costume; the Three Erics (Peter Oldring, Terry McGurrin, and Dwayne Hill), three similarly-attired students in Mrs. Jewels' class who perform many casual tasks collectively; Jenny (Denise Oliver), an Evel Knievel-esque stunt performer who often rides a motorcycle throughout the school; John (Megan Fahlenbock), who is usually upside-down and walks on his hands; Joe (Peter Oldring), a student who is known for his large orange-colored afro; Leslie (Tara Strong), a female student who uses her two pigtails to perform everyday tasks; Bebe Gunn (Grey DeLisle), a student best known for her advanced art skills, and Deedee (Stephanie Anne Mills), a student who wears a pink and purple shirt and has lemon-lime hair.

Several members of the school faculty also play minor roles, including Mrs. Gorf (Julia Chantrey), a replacement for Mrs. Jewels who had the ability to transform her students into apples before being transformed into one herself by Maurecia; Le Chef (Peter Oldring), the former French chef in the teacher's lounge who was to be appointed cafeteria chef in place of Ms. Mush but was later evicted from the school due to his obnoxious demeanor; Mr. Blunderbuss (Dwayne Hill), the adventurous fourteenth-floor teacher who often goes on hunting safaris throughout worldwide jungles, and Ms. Zarves, the teacher for the nonexistent nineteenth floor who is a frequent topic of discussion among Wayside students. Other recurring characters include Sammy, Ms. Mush's dead and petrified companion rat,;Poobinsky, an octopus that Ms. Mush attempts to cook for lunch but often unsuccessful, and Fluffy, Maurecia's short-tempered pet porcupine who often envies Todd.

Differences from the books

There are a number of notable differences between Wayside and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. For example, in the series, a large number of changes were made to the character of Todd; in the book series, he is not a transfer student, although two transfer students appeared in the book chronology, namely Sue and Benjamin Nushmutt. However, neither Sue nor Benjamin appear in the series, and Todd instead appears to take the latter's role as "new kid". Maurecia's personality also diverges from that of the series—in the books, she is normal girl with a love for ice cream who is never mentioned nor depicted to wear roller skates and is almost always featured with her best friend Joy, who never appears in the series. In addition, Mrs. Jewls has 16 students in the show, as opposed to the 30 students she has in the book series, 14 of which do not appear on the show. In the book, Mrs. Gorf is the students' first teacher, who is replaced by Mrs. Jewels after Mrs. Gorf is transformed into an apple and inadvertently eaten by Louis. In the series she is a substitute teacher for Mrs. Jewels.

Recognition

Critical reception

DVD Talk described Wayside as "a clever, often hilarious little show that demands a larger audience", praising the series' scripts and dialogue as "delight[ed] in mixing absurd humor with fond grade school memories."

DVD Verdict stated "The most satisfying part of Wayside is how the show feels perfectly balanced—it has enough wacky antics and bizarre events to satisfy young audiences, enough logical fallacies and defiant attitudes to amuse middle-aged kids, and enough clever and sardonic wit to please adults fortunate enough to find themselves in front of a television set while the show is playing," concluding that Wayside was "the perfect cartoon adventure for families of all ages."

Blogcritics reviewer negatively compared the animated series to the books which inspired it, stating that the series "doesn't have the magic that the books had," and noting that while the books provided "wacky, silly, with odd, funny, almost-realistic-but-not-quite characters", viewers get no such character development from the animation, and expanded that while the show is shared from an adult perspective, it is not meant to be enjoyed by parents and kids" watching it together, being "geared towards younger kids".

Boston Globe offered that while viewers familiar with the character development in the book series will see that the animated series "understandably, dispenses with the nuance in favor of kid-friendly slapstick and goofy conceptual jokes", the children and parents who have not previously encountered the books "won't know what they're missing."

Awards and nominations

In 2004, Wayside received a nomination for "Best TV Series for Children" at the 2004 Cartoons on the Bay award ceremony.

Merchandise

DVD box set for season 1.

Season		DVD release date
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	1	March 30, 2006 (Wayside: The Movie) August 29, 2007 (Season 1)	TBA	TBA
	2	TBA	TBA	TBA

In 2000, the pilot episode of Wayside was released and branded as Wayside: The Movie. The first season excluding the pilot was released on August 29, 2004 under the title Wayside School: Season 1.

External links

• Wayside: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database
• Wayside at TV.com
• Wayside (series) at the Internet Movie Database
• Official US Website
• Official CA Website
• Wayside Wiki on Wikia