Greek (TV series)

Greek
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	John Swihart
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	38 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Lloyd Segan Shawn Piller
Running time	43 mins approx.
Original release
Network	ABC Family
Release	July 9, 2007 – present

For other uses, see Greek.

Greek (promoted in faux-Greek alphabet as GRΣΣK) is an American comedy-drama television series which airs on the ABC Family network, the UK BBC Three network, the Australian pay-TV network FOX8, the TV2 channel in New Zealand and on Virgin 17 in France. The show 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).

Production

In April 2007, ABC Family announced plans to begin airing Greek in July of that summer. The series premiered on July 9, 2007. 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.

The first season was halted in September due to the Writers Guild of America strike and returned March 24. 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. Twelve more episodes were ordered for late spring 2009 [1] and aired from March 30 with Jesse McCartney joining the cast. [2]

On January 31, 2009, it was announced that Greek would return for a third season. Gregory Michael will be joining the cast as "Grant", a new love interest for Calvin. Even Johanna E. Braddy from the 2004 ABC Family movie Pop Rocks also joined the cast as Jordan, of whom Andy falls for.

Cast of characters

Main article: List of Greek characters

• Rusty Cartwright (Jacob Zachar) is Casey's younger brother and an active member of the Kappa Tau Gamma fraternity.

• Casey Cartwright (Spencer Grammer) is Rusty's older sister and an active member of the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority.

• Cappie (Scott Michael Foster) is Rusty's Big Brother and current President of Kappa Tau Gamma fraternity.

• Calvin Owens (Paul James) is a member of the Omega Chi Delta fraternity and is good friends with Rusty.

• Evan Chambers (Jake McDorman) is Calvin's Big Brother and the current president at Omega Chi Delta.

• Ashleigh Howard (Amber Stevens) is Casey's best friend and the newly elected President of the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority.

• Dale Kettlewell (Clark Duke) is Rusty's straight-edged roommate, who has a crush on Casey.

• Rebecca Logan (Dilshad Vadsaria) is a senator's daughter and an active member of the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority.

• Frannie Morgan (Tiffany Dupont) is the dethroned president of the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority and founder of the new Iota Kappa Iota sorority.

• Max Tyler (Michael Rady) is a CRU grad student in Engineering and is Casey's boyfriend.

• Andy (Jesse McCartney) is a CRU freshman who pledges the Kappa Tau Gamma fraternity under Big Brother Rusty's wing.

• Jordan (Johanna E. Braddy) is a CRU freshman who pledges the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority and is Rusty's and Andy's new love interest.

Synopsis

See also: List of Greek episodes

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. The fresh batch of pledges presents Rusty, a freshman wishing to shed his geeky image. His big sister, Casey, is a Zeta Beta Zeta sister vying for a presidential bid. Casey is dating an Omega Chi Delta brother, Evan, and her popularity starts to climb the charts. Evan is former best friends with Cappie, the president of the rivaling Kappa Tau Gamma fraternity and Rusty's Big Brother. After engaging in a long-winded conversation with Rebecca, Casey's undermining Little Sister, Cappie and Rebecca start dating. Casey's best friend, Ashleigh, is the Social Chair of Zeta Beta Zeta, and she befriends Evan's Little Brother, Calvin. Many secrets are revealed, and Rusty's first love, a Zeta Beta Zeta pledge sister, uses all the information she gathered as a pledge and writes a newspaper exposé that scandalizes the whole CRU Greek system, namely the Zeta Beta Zeta sisters, and causes Frannie, ZBZ president, to be dethroned. This causes Nationals to have to come in and investigate Zeta Beta.

Season 2

• US Premiere Date: August 26, 2008
• Number of Episodes: 20

Casey has to deal with the consequences of Rebecca's actions during spring break, and ZBZ Nationals assumes that the girls want Rebecca kicked out, but the girls rally against it. Subsequently, the presidential election causes a stir as Frannie and Casey fight for votes, and when Ashleigh finally speaks up about it, she gets the nomination instead. After the disappointing loss, Frannie announces that she's starting a new sorority in the fall (Iota Kappa Iota or IKI), taking much of the ZBZ girls with her and the fate of Rebecca's membership up in the air. Meanwhile, Cappie breaks up with Rebecca and evidently still has feelings for Casey even though she's already dating Max, a senior Engineer. After a long summer break from college life, a new rush of freshman turn Greek, with a ZBZ pledge catching Rusty's eye. Additionally, Evan breaks up with Frannie after realizing that she's using him for Greek social status and financial dependence.

Reception

Greek has been relatively well received by critics, receiving a score of 62 out of 100 from review aggregator Metacritic. 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." 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." Other reviews were middling, calling the writing of the show acceptable and praising the strength of the cast.

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

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. Comparably the season 2.1 finale only generated 0.95 million viewers, an erosion of 650,000 viewers since the season premiere.

Media

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. 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.

External links

• Official Website
• Greek at MySpace
• Greek at IMDb
• Greek Uncovered at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Greek Speak Podcast
• Greek: Behind the Scenes - Saturday Night Magazine (March 2009)