CREDIT: CTV

Snake (Stefan Brogren) and Spike (Amanda Stepto) tie the knot in tomorrow's special one-hour episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

CREDIT: THE GAZETTE

Back in the days of Degrassi Junior High (from left in three rows): back, Darrin Brown (Dwayne), Anais Granofsky (Lucy), Stefan Brogren (Snake); middle, Siluck Saysanasy (Yick), Pat Mastroianni (Joey), Amanda Stepto (Spike); front, Dayo Ade (BLT), Stacie Mistysyn (Caitlin), Cathy Keenan (Liz).

You've got to hand it to the creative team behind CTV's justly celebrated teen series, Degrassi: The Next Generation. They're nothing if not a clever bunch.

Here's the programming dilemma: How do you take a high-school show aimed squarely at the acne-and-braces demographic and proceed to broaden its potential audience base?

Easy - if you know what you're doing. Resurrect some of the classic characters from the franchise's two-decade history, inject them logically into its latest prime-time series and watch prematurely nostalgic children of the 1980s get all misty - and addicted.

The culmination of that cunning strategy hits prime time tomorrow night in a Very Special Episode titled White Wedding, which, like every other instalment of the new series, is named after a pop hit from the '80s, in another nod to kids of that decade. In tomorrow's show, Spike (Amanda Stepto) and Snake (Stefan Brogren), two of the key characters from the franchise's best series, the seminal Degrassi Junior High, are headed to the altar about 15 years after they first met. (Come on, we all knew - or at least hoped - it would happen someday, didn't we?)

Snake, aka Archie Simpson, and Spike, aka Christine Nelson, have been regulars on Degrassi: The Next Generation during its two seasons on CTV. Spike's now a hairdresser and single mom and Snake's a popular teacher who has Snake's daughter Emma (Miriam McDonald) in his junior-high class.

This season, they've been joined full time in the cast by Degrassi's most popular character of all time, the scheming, fedora-sporting Joey Jeremiah (Pat Mastroianni), who's now a mature, widowed used-car salesman with a daughter and stepson of his own.

On tomorrow night's episode, the trio are joined by another pair of erstwhile Degrassi Junior High classmates and fan favourites, Caitlyn (Stacie Mistysyn) and Lucy (Anais Granofsky), who show up for the wedding. Things get a little hairy, however, when Spike discovers she's pregnant again, leading to a wedding-day confrontation with a jittery Snake that throws the whole event into question, adding to Emma's frazzled state. (She's her mom's maid of honour and de facto wedding planner, and has just gotten a really bad perm, to boot.)

Spike's unexpected pregnancy also raises the spectre of abortion, an eternally divisive issue that's handled with typical élan by the show's sharp writers, who have made it their specialty over the years to deal simply and effectively with such potentially dicey subjects without even a hint of condescension toward their young audience. The emotionally wrenching scene where Spike discusses her options with Emma, inadvertently calling her a "mistake" in the process, is a highlight of the episode and a perfect example of what Degrassi does best.

As usual, the drama on Degrassi is lightened by some well-placed but unobtrusive touches of comic relief. In this case, it's the desperate but inept attempts by Joey's stepson Jake (Craig Manning) and a pair of his horny high-school chums to catch a glimpse of the stripper that Joey hires for Snake's bachelor party.

One thing I appreciate in a television program is continuity, and you get the sense watching Degrassi: The Next Generation that executive producer Linda Schuyler and the rest of her team are very careful in how they handle the legacy of the franchise that's now become essential viewing for successive generations of Canadian teens.

I've spoken with Mastroianni in the past and read interviews with other Degrassi alum, and it's refreshing that they seem perfectly comfortable being known for the rest of their lives for the classic characters they created 15 years ago. And why not? Sappy as it sounds, if you grew up in the '80s, Spike, Snake, Joey et al felt like your friends, coping with the same problems you and your real-life chums were experiencing. The Spike-Snake nuptials feel like the long-awaited union of a couple of old friends, just another example of how emotionally affecting the best television, even of the fictional variety, can be when crafted by the right hands.

Degrassi Junior High was an awfully compelling, comforting and enlightening series that deserved all of the acclaim and international success it garnered. In terms of quality teen dramas, it remains peerless, but Degrassi: The Next Generation is proving to be a worthy successor.

That the classic characters, not to mention the franchise as a whole, have managed to age so gracefully is one of the best stories in Canadian television and provides a blueprint that should be meticulously studied by networks all over the continent that seem constantly baffled by the prospect of creating realistic, intelligent dramatic programs that teens will actually want to watch.

All right, that's enough gushing for today.

White Wedding, the one-hour special episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, airs tomorrow night at 7 on CFCF-12 and CJOH-8. Through Jan.26, CTV will be airing all-new episodes of the series at its regular time slot of Sundays at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. The show's official Web site is at www.degrassi.tv

bboshra@thegazette.southam.ca