Greek (TV series)
| Greek | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Teen drama |
| Created by | Patrick Sean Smith |
| Starring | Clark Duke Tiffany Dupont (14 —) 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 | 33 (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 |
Greek (promoted in faux-Greek alphabet as GRΣΣK) is an American teen comedy-drama television series which airs on the ABC Family network, the UK BBC Three network, the Australian pay-TV network FOX8, and on the TV2 channel in New Zealand. The show follows students of Cyprus-Rhodes University who partake in the school's Greek system. It follows the life of Casey Cartwright and her brother, Rusty Cartwright. 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.[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 due to the Writers Guild of America strike and returned March 24. On May 1, 2008, ABC Family has 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.[3] 12 more episodes have been ordered for late spring 2009 [1] and will air March 30 with Jesse McCartney joining the cast. [2]
On January 31, 2009, it was announced that Greek would return for a third season.[4] Gregory Michael will be joining the cast as "Grant", a new love interest for Calvin.[5]
Cast of characters
- Rusty Cartwright (Jacob Zachar) is a Kappa Tau Brother. Casey's little (birth) brother and Cappie's little (fraternity) brother.
- Casey Cartwright (Spencer Grammer) is Rusty's older (birth) sister, Rebecca's older (sorority) sister and former Zeta Beta Zeta interim president.
- Cappie (Scott Michael Foster) is Rusty's Big Brother and president of Kappa Tau Gamma, ex-boyfriend of Casey and Rebecca.
- Calvin Owens (Paul James) is a gay brother at Omega Chi Delta and is best friends with Rusty. He once dated a KT.
- Evan Chambers (Jake McDorman) is Calvin's Big Brother and the newly elected president at Omega Chi Delta, who is currently dating Frannie, also the ex-boyfriend of Casey.
- Ashleigh Howard (Amber Stevens) is the newly elected President of Zeta Beta Zeta, and Casey's best friend slash ditsy sidekick.
- Dale Kettlewell (Clark Duke) is Rusty's straight-edged roommate, who starts his own group U-SAG (University Students Against Greeks).
- Rebecca Logan (Dilshad Vadsaria) is a Zeta Beta Zeta sister and senator's daughter, who continuously challenges the authority of her Big Sister, Casey.
- Frannie Morgan (Tiffany Dupont) is the dethroned Zeta Beta Zeta president, who formed her own sorority, Iota Kappa Iota.
Synopsis
Season 1
- US Premiere Date: July 9, 2007
- DVD Release Date: Chapter One: March 18, 2008 (episodes 1–10) Chapter Two: December 30, 2008 (episodes 11-22)
- 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, but accidentally outs his homosexuality to his unknowing fraternity brothers. 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: 22
In the Season 2 premiere, Casey has to deal with the consequences of Rebecca's actions during spring break which includes participation in a wet T-shirt contest. And has to choose between kicking Rebecca out of Zeta Beta Zeta or keeping her on probation. Teagan drops by Zeta Beta Zeta again to make sure that the "Rebecca Situation" is taken care of. After a confrontation with Rebecca (in which Rebecca walks out of the house) Teagan assumes that Zeta Beta Zeta wants Rebecca kicked out, but the girls rally against Teagan. Rebecca is welcomed back into Zeta Beta Zeta. Greek Week begins and Omega Chi are the reigning champs for fraternities (Zeta Beta being the champs for sororities) and Kappa Tau tries to take the title. Cappie and Evan's rivalry heats up with Greek Week and Rebecca's spring break video begins to circle throughout campus. The Zeta Beta Zeta presidential election causes quite a commotion as Frannie and Casey fight for votes, resulting instead with the election of Ashleigh who won accidentally when she encouraged the other girls not to fight each other. Cappie and Rebecca also break-up when it becomes clear to Rebecca that Cappie is still not over Casey, and that he can never "man-up" enough to be there for her when she really needs him. But Casey is going out with Max, a Senior Engineer from Rusty's program. However, when it comes to the summer and they have to go each their own way (Casey to Washington and Max to California), Casey decides that the relationship is not strong enough to bear the distance. In the end, Calvin and Rusty, as well as all other pledges become brothers in the respective houses, while Frannie leaves to create her own sorority, taking a lot of ZBZ sisters with her. In a cliffhanger, Casey, Ashleigh and Frannie all ask Rebecca what she wants to do.
Reception
Greek has been relatively well received by critics, receiving a score of 62 out of 100 from review aggregator Metacritic.[6] 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."[7][8] 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."[9] Other reviews were middling, calling the writing of the show acceptable and praising the strength of the cast.[10]
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][11]
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 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.[12] 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.
References
- ^ "Greek, Cats new offerings at ABC Family". TV.com. 2007-04-23. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
- ^ a b Juergens, Brian (2008-03-23). "Interview with "Greek" creator Patrick Sean Smith". After Elton on Logoonline.com. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
- ^ "ABC Family adds five to mix". TV.com. 2008-05-01. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
- ^ http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/01/exclusive-abc-f.html
- ^ http://www.afterelton.com/blog/brianjuergens/first-pics-gregory-michael-calvins-new-love-interest-greek
- ^ "Television: Greek (ABC Family". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
- ^ "Freaks and Greeks". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2007-06-29.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Bellafante, Ginia (2007-07-16). "'Greek' - Television Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Fox, Elizabeth (07-09-2007). "Teen soap opera tells a tale of Greek life". Philadelphia Enquirer.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Weigand, David (2007-07-07). "'Animal House' it ain't. Some are hot, and one's even gay". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Krochmal, Shana Naomi (2008-04-28). "Greek's Family Values". Out.com. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
- ^ "BBC iPlayer: Greek Uncovered". iPlayer. BBC. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
