Mother and Child Reunion (Degrassi: The Next Generation) - Production

Production

Linda Schuyler had co-created The Kids of Degrassi Street in 1979 with Kit Hood, and Yan Moore was a writer on that series. As the children grew up, the Degrassi franchise developed into Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High. In 1999 two episodes of Jonovision, a CBC Television talk show aimed at teenagers, reunited some of the cast members from the series. At the same time, Schuyler and Moore were developing a new television drama. When the Jonovision reunion episode proved to be popular, Schuyler and Moore wondered about reuniting the characters, too. As the months passed, they began thinking about what might have happened to the characters of Degrassi High and realized that the character Emma Nelson, born at the end of Degrassi Junior High's second season, would soon be entering junior high school. Stephen Stohn, Schuyler's husband suggested Degrassi: The Next Generation as the name for the new sequel series, borrowing the concept from Star Trek: The Next Generation, of which he was a fan.

The new series was offered a place on a number of television networks, with CTV and CBC (the franchise's former network) vying as the top contenders. CTV won through, offering $10 million for a fifteen-episode season. The project was greenlit in May 2000, with the originally planned reunion episode serving as the pilot to the new series. CTV announced the new series at its annual press conference in June 2001, and said the pilot would air in the fall.

In contrast to the previous Degrassi series, which were filmed on and around De Grassi Street in Riverdale, Toronto, Degrassi Junior High used Vincent Massey Public School, then known as Daisy Avenue Public School, as its primary filming location, and Centennial College was used in Degrassi High. Degrassi: The Next Generation is filmed at Epitome Pictures' studios in North York, Toronto. A 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) former printing factory was converted in 1997 for Epitome, consisting of four soundstages and a backlot. The exterior of Degrassi Community School was located on the studio's backlot, and used the same colours and glass pattern as Degrassi High's Centennial College.

Production on "Mother and Child Reunion" began earlier than expected, as CTV initially planned to launch the series in January 2002. At the eleventh hour the broadcaster decided to bring it forward to October 2001 to coincide with the back-to-school season. The episode was written by series co-creator Moore, also credited as creative consultant, and script editor Aaron Martin. Co-creator Schuyler, with her husband and Epitome Pictures partner Stohn, served as executive producers. The line producer was David Lowe. "Mother and Child Reunion" was directed by Bruce McDonald, who had previously directed the films Roadkill (1989), Highway 61 (1991), Hard Core Logo (1996), and the television series Queer As Folk (2001–2005). Epitome Pictures sought funding from the Government of Canada, through its two Crown corporations, Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund, which provide financial support to Canadian audiovisual productions. Filming began on July 3, before Epitome Pictures could finalize their contracts with Telefilm and the Television Fund. Other financial contributors included Royal Bank of Canada, Cogeco, Shaw Communications, and Bell Canada.

To appeal to Degrassi's established audience, a number of references to events which occurred in Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High and School's Out were written into the episode. Throughout those two series, Joey would frequently wear a fedora which became that character's trademark prop. The fedora made a reappearance in this episode, and was worn by Manny, Spike, Snake, Caitlin and Lucy, but not Joey, and it appeared in every scene which featured a character from the old series. The accident in School's Out when Wheels hit Lucy while drink-driving was discussed twice, first at the bar when the characters were discussing their lives, and a second time when Wheels came to the reunion to apologize to Lucy. Finally, Joey and Caitlin made amends; their relationship had ended when he cheated on her with Tessa in School's Out.

Prior to the episode airing, a website was created with a "virtual school" in which fans could "enrol" in order to receive regular emails from their character "classmates" and discuss ongoing plots, in an effort to provide a complete viewing experience for the audience. As the broadcast date of the episode neared, more content was added to the website to make it appear as if it were a true school reunion website. The website was actually seen on screen when the characters Spike and Caitlin were reminiscing about their high school days.

"Mother and Child Reunion" aired on the terrestrial television network CTV on October 14, 2001 and was advertised as a television special. In the United States it was broadcast on July 1, 2002 on The N, a digital cable network, and served as the final episode of season one. In Australia, the episode aired on the terrestrial network ABC TV on August 1, 2002. The episode has been released on DVD as part of the complete first season DVD boxset, which was released in Canada on October 19, 2004, in the U.S. on September 28, 2004, and in Australia on September 8, 2010. The episode is also available at iTunes Stores to download and watch on home computers and certain iPod models, and at Zune Marketplace for the Xbox 360 and Zune media players.