Summer Heights High is an Australian television sitcom written by and starring Chris Lilley. Located at the fictional Heights High School on the outskirts of Sydney, this is a series of high school life experience documentaries from the point of view of three individuals: "Director of Performing Arts" Mr. G; private school exchange student, Ja'mie King; and a disobedient and vulgar student Tanga, Jonah Takalua. The series railed against Australian high school life and many aspects of the human condition and was filmed in a documentary style with non-actors playing a supporting character.
As he did in the previous series, We Can Be Heroes: Discovering The Australian of the Year , Lilley plays many characters in Heights, including Mr. G, Ja'mie mentioned above. and Jonah. Filmed in Melbourne at Brighton Secondary College, the series aired on 5 September 2007 at 9:30 on ABC TV and continued for 8 weekly episodes until October 24, 2007. Each episode was also released as a live weekly podcast after its screening through both official websites and via an RSS podcast client either in WMV or MPEG-4.
Summer Heights High was a huge success ranking for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was greeted with a positive critical reaction. In 2008, the series won the Logie Award for the Most Popular Most Popular Entertainment/Comedy Program.
On March 26, 2008, it was announced that the show had been sold for international distribution to BBC Three in the United Kingdom, HBO in the United States, and The Comedy Network in Canada.
Following the success of Summer Heights High , Lilley premiered the next mockumentary series Angry Boys on May 11, 2011. Simultaneously Angry Boys , the success of the Lilley inspired series to continue the story of characters in two spin-off events; Ja'mie: Private School Girls that aired in 2013 and focus on the character of King Ja'mie, and Jonah from Tonga which continues the story of Jonah Takalua and aired in 2014. Lilley has long mentioned that she wants to complete the Summer Heights series with performances that focus on Mr. G.
Video Summer Heights High
Format
According to the prologue, the production and filming teams traveled to public high schools in Australia and followed the daily lives of students and staff for a semester. The team will film a documentary of the opinions of students and staff, especially three main characters: Ja'mie King, a flat-girl perfectionist exchanged from private schools; Mr. G, a self-proclaimed drama teacher; and Jonah Takalua, a stereotypical Turing, all played by series writer Chris Lilley.
The series was filmed in a documentary style, with support players drawn from real-life students and school staff where the series was filmed. The program explores aspects of Australian public secondary schools such as social issues, bullying, adulthood, stereotypes, sexism, racism and homophobia by displaying three distinct individuals: bully; rich private school girls; and his teacher. The three main character plotlines never crossed. The principal, Margaret Murray, appears in all their stories.
Maps Summer Heights High
Character
There are three main characters featured in Summer Heights High , all played by Chris Lilley.
King Ja'mie
Ja'mie King, a private school exchange student, soon made friends with the four most popular girls at Summer Heights High, but it soon became clear that his friendship was not genuine when the girls found his poster mocking "public school skanks". His manipulative character was reinforced when he convinced his new friends that the poster was meant to be a joke and that they needed to "get a sense of humor".
Ja'mie demonstrates the general arrogance, unfriendliness, and racist attitude towards the Asian people. He made several attempts to exclude Bec, Singapore's offspring, harassing Holly about her huge breasts, Jess about her skin problem, and Kaitlyn for being a slow student.
During the show, 11th grade student Ja'mie fell in love with Year 7 student Sebastian, but when he stole his cell phone, he discovered that a girl named Madeline had sent an SMS to her, asking to sit with her in English class. Ja'mie dumped him and claimed he made him "question his sexiness".
Ja'mie and his friends went on to form student councils and set up the Year 11 formalities. Ja'mie plans to have them in the popular nightclub with expensive DJs, but with tickets for $ 450, the student council will cancel the event because the students can not buy tickets. Instead, Ja'mie arranges a day to raise money for AIDS in Africa, which is sufficient to cover formal spending. Senior School Principals learned that the reason for this fundraiser is actually to fund the expensive formal. As a compromise, Ja'mie offered to hold a formal in the school staff room, without DJs and handmade cheap decorations. He invites the lesbian student Tamsin to the formal to make a big impression, but when Tamsin finds out that Ja'mie is not a lesbian, he refuses by texting, forcing Ja'mie to take Sebastian; they stay together this time, though he's still checking his phone messages.
The Ja'mie storyline ends with him leaving school after his tenure at Summer Heights High in the car with his mother and Brianna's friend. In the end, he stood on the roof of the car and shouted, "Rock public school!"
Mr. G
Hellen 'Greg' Gregson, aka Mr. G, is a homosexual and selfish 37-year-old drama teacher from Summer Heights High. Mr. G believes that he is a very talented and well-liked teacher whose students share his intense passion for drama and performances. Narcissism puts him in constant conflict with other staff members, and especially the principal. He often loses his patience with his students and is hostile to mentally handicapped dramas because he believes they will undermine the quality of his music. It is clear that he did not realize that some of his students shared his perceptions of teaching ability. She has written several musicals for school, including You Can not Skate, Mate , based on Avril Lavigne hit single "Sk8er Boi", and Tsunamarama , based on the 2004 tsunami disaster, is set to Bananarama music, and also IKEA, The Musical . Mr. G has previously been featured in the Seven Network Big Bite sketching series .
Mr G's main plot revolves around his last school music, based on a girl at school, Annabel, who died after an overdose on ecstasy. It follows the casting and creative process, where short temperament and perfectionist G make the project even more difficult for everyone involved. Eventually Annabel's parents intervened and told Mr. G that they were uncomfortable with the dramatization of her daughter's life and death, especially the song "Naughty Girl" who painted Annabel as a bland drug-addicted party girl. Mr. G then quickly wrote "Mr. G: The Musical" and was forced to throw a boy with Down's syndrome as a leader. Mr. pet dog G, Celine, was hit by a car, and all aspects of his life seemed to be in a downward spiral. However, the music goes without a hitch, with Mr. G providing vocals. In reflection, Mr. G expresses the happiness that "Mr. G: The Musical" can happen, and claims the project was saved because of his creative genius. It is then revealed that Celine survived a car accident, and life returned to normal for Mr. G.
Jonah Takalua
Jonah Takalua is a 13-year-old schoolgirl of Tongan in Class 8 at Summer Heights High, which is his third school; he was expelled from 2 others for burning student lockers and for pulling a penis in the car of the principal of each school. He points out that all teachers lack respect and constantly insult their classmates. He seems locked in the fiercest conflict with his English teacher, Miss Wheatley; Constant conflicts between them place them at serious risk of being excluded. His characteristic insults to the teacher are: 'Puck you, miss/sir.'
Jonah had difficulty learning and attended "Gumnut Cottage", the English Summer Heights High class. His teacher is Ms. Jan Palmer, who seems to understand Jonah better than any other teacher. Although Jonah acted in his class, they began to establish connections. He and his friends Leon, Thomas, Ofa and Joseph have formed a Polynesian breakdancing group called Poly Force. His most hated partner seems to be Keiran, a breakdance competitor in Year 7. Jonah, a bully, and fighting with him constantly. When Miss Wheatley caught Jonah throwing Keiran boots on the roof, he was banned in the amphitheater where his group hung and was forced to stay at least 10 meters from all the Grade 7 students. The buildup of Yunus microaggressions against Miss Wheatley eventually made him overreact by shouting at him and telling him that he "is enough". Shortly after, Jonah was expelled.
Mrs. Murray, the principal, is the only character mentioned or acknowledged in the life of the three main characters. The main characters do not interact with each other; however:
- Doug Peterson, head of student welfare, is mentioned in the Ja'mie storyline in Episode 5 when he told Mr. Cameron, the top school principal, that he has cut his wrist because he will not let them have a formal.
- One of the students who attended Gumnut Cottage with Jonah and Leon also appeared in Mr G's musical
- Miss Wheatley acts in Mr G's musical, but her name is not mentioned.
- When Mr. G pointed to a 1999 staff photo in Episode 1, a picture of Mr. Cameron is seen next to Mr. G.
- A teacher named Mr. James made two brief appearances - once in the storyline of Jonah while he was in the toilet in Episode 1, and once in Mr. G's storyline when he was in the staff room demonstrating his songs in Episode 3.
Episode
Soundtrack
A soundtrack was released via ABC Shops and 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 "Being a Poly". Part 2 of Summer Heights High's album soundtrack contains songs like "My Name Is Mr. G", "This Time You're Dead" and "Summer Heights High" theme. Most of the songs from Section 2 come from the last musical.
"Naughty Girl" was released as a single on March 8, 2008 with remixes by Paul Mac, John Paul Talbot and Stylaz Fuego, peaking at number seven on the Australian ARIA Charts. There are also new music video clips to include with the song.
Ratings
The premiere episode of Summer Heights High did well in the rankings as a strong lead-in of the return of The Chaser's War on Everything . It peaked at 1.6 million viewers (5 major cities) with an average of 1.22 million. Along with Spicks and Specks , Summer Heights High helped ABC TV to achieve its strongest midweek rankings for 2007. The second episode was rated stronger than the premiere with an average of 1.375 million viewers set.
The third episode managed to judge very well with 1,275 million viewers while the fourth episode fared well with 1,235 against the premiere of Prison Break season. The fifth episode only managed 1.156 million viewers, the lowest ranking for the event episode, although the program remains the highest rated event on its timeslot. The sixth episode took a bit in viewership from the previous week with 1,192 million tuning in. The seventh episode grew in rank as the second episode from the rear, taking up an average of 1.307 million viewers for the night. The eighth and final episodes reached the highest rank for Summer Heights High with a total of 1.512 million viewers watching this episode of the series.
Controversy
The series is famous for its controversial depictions of issues such as mental disability, homosexuality, sexual harassment, and racism. Even before Summer Heights High aired, several community groups complained about "rape jokes" and "touches" unfeasible G of a boy with Down syndrome.
The Herald Sun reported that parents and some teachers have considered the possibility that the show affects children to err in school. The students reportedly imitated Jonah and Ja'mie, repeating the bullying, racist, and homophobic lines. Union Education Union president Mary Bluett stated in response that the show was "clearly tongue-in-cheek".
After episode three, where the character Annabel died after taking ecstasy, Annabel Catt's family, a girl who died of drugs at the 2007 Vibration Festival in Sydney, complained that the program had railed against Annabel's death. ABC apologized to the family, stating that the situation was purely coincidental and assured them that the filming of the episode had been completed eleven days before the death of his daughter. ABC then began displaying messages before each episode stating that there is no link between the series characters and the people in real life.
A writer for 2000 Network Ten series Sit Down, Shut Up claims that Lilley has borrowed ideas for characters and plots of the series including the school name and character aspects of Mr. G.
DVD release
References
External links
- Official website
- Summer Heights High on IMDb
- Summer Heights High on TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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