The Best Years is a
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
teen drama series set in Boston, Massachusetts. The show revolves around
Samantha BestSamantha Best is a fictional character portrayed by Charity Shea on the television show The Best Years.-Background information:...
, who receives a scholarship to attend the fictional
Ivy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group...
, Charles University, despite bouncing between foster homes for ten years. The series was created by producer and writer of
Degrassi: The Next GenerationDegrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama television series, set in the Degrassi fictional universe created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1980. Degrassi: The Next Generation is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, following The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi...
, Aaron Martin. The first season was produced by
Global Television NetworkGlobal Television Network is a Canadian English language privately owned television network. It is owned by Canwest Media Inc., a division of Canwest which is headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Throughout the 1990s, it dominated primetime ratings in key markets such as southern Ontario, B.C...
, and was shown on Global in Canada and
The NThe N was the original name for what is now called TeenNick, a 24-hour television channel in the United States aimed at teenagers and young adults....
in the United States. When The N produced a second season for the U.S.,
E!E! was an English language privately-owned television system in Canada. Owned by Canwest, it operated from 2001 to 2009...
picked up the rights to air it in Canada. The show’s theme song is titled ‘Infinite Possibility’ and was written and performed by Mark Wiebe, also known as Markattack or Sinewave. Outdoor scenes from the show were filmed on the campus of the
University of GuelphThe University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a medium-sized university located in Guelph, Ontario, established in 1964. While the U of G offers degrees in many different disciplines, the university is best known for its focus on life sciences, based in part on a long-standing history of...
in Guelph, Ontario, as well as the
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated north of the city's Financial District on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. The university was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in the...
, and interior scenes of the campus were re-created at the Toronto Film Studios.
Season 2 was made specifically for the U.S on
The NThe N was the original name for what is now called TeenNick, a 24-hour television channel in the United States aimed at teenagers and young adults....
, and aired the entire season before Canada re-picked it up after cancellation, again.
Plot
Samantha Best grew up in foster care after her parents died ten years earlier. Her strong, outgoing personality makes it easy for her to make friends. Samantha almost immediately befriends the rest of the show's cast. Her new found friendships and her enrollment in the university become rocky after a drunken accident that causes another student's death, but with luck, honesty, loyalty, and determination, her status at the school was saved, yet her friendships remained rocky.
The subsequent episodes create strong character development, showing that each character has their own negative side as well as positive, while sticking to very realistic story lines.
When the series returned for a second season, after a significantly long hiatus, the story picked up eight months after season one with many characters absent and replaced with new characters. While the first season focused on darker, topical drama (cocaine addiction, child molestation, suicide, etc.), the second season was much lighter in tone and focused more on romantic entanglements instead. The shift in tone resulted in characters who were no longer as aggressive or hostile towards each other as they had been in season one.
Ratings
According to Mediaweek, ratings for the series have been good. The show debuted with 323,250 total viewers on Friday, the 29th of June at 8:30 p.m. ET, which more than doubled the time period average.
DVD Release
On March 10, 2009, E1 Entertainment released the complete first season of
The Best Years on DVD in Region 1. Available online, and in very select stores.
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Best-Years-Season-1/11024
The 4-disc set contains all 13 season one episodes as well as over 70 minutes of exclusive bonus features:
- Behind-the-Scenes Footage
- Cast Interviews
- Outtakes from the Wrap Reel
- Audition/Screen Test Segments
| DVD Name |
Ep # |
Release Date |
| The Complete First Season |
13 |
March 10, 2009 |
External links