Summer Heights High


Summer Heights High is an Australian television mockumentary sitcom written by and starring Chris Lilley. Set in the fictional Summer Heights High School in an outer suburb of Sydney, it revolves around high-school experiences from the viewpoints of three individuals: the "Director of Performing Arts", Mr G; private-school exchange student Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan-Australian student Jonah Takalua. The series lampoons Australian high-school life and many aspects of the human condition and is filmed as a documentary with non-actors playing supporting characters. As he did in a previous series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year, Lilley plays multiple characters, including the aforementioned Mr G, Ja'mie and Jonah. The series premiered on 5 September 2007 at 9:30 pm on ABC TV and ended on 24 October 2007, only lasting eight episodes.
Summer Heights High was a massive ratings success for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was met with mostly positive critical reaction. In 2008, the series won a Logie Award for Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program. On 26 March 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 has developed two spin-off shows: Ja'mie: Private School Girl and Jonah from Tonga.

Format

According to the prologue, a production and filming team travelled to an Australian public high school and followed the daily life of the students and staff for one term. The team would film a documentary from the opinions of the students and staff, especially the three main characters: Ja'mie King, a Mean Girl–type perfectionist exchanged from a private school; Mr G, a drama teacher with an inflated sense of his talent; and Jonah Takalua, a stereotypical Tongan delinquent, all played by the series' writer, Chris Lilley.
The series is filmed in a documentary style, with the supporting cast drawn from the real-life students and staff of the school where the series was filmed. The program explored the facets of a typical Australian public high school such as social problems, bullying, teenage slang, stereotyping, sexism, racism, and homophobia by showcasing three different individuals: the bully; the rich private school girl; and the teacher. The three main characters' storylines never intersect, though the school principal Margaret Murray appears in all of their stories.

Cast and characters

The series focuses on three primary characters, all portrayed by Chris Lilley, at Summer Heights High:
  • Ja'mie King, a 16-year-old private-school exchange student who immediately makes friends with the four most popular girls in Year 11. She badmouths her new friends behind their backs, and plans an extravagant school formal. Ja'mie is manipulative, snobbish, unkind, and exhibits a racist attitude towards Asian students. The character first featured on Lilley's previous series We Can Be Heroes.
  • Jonah Takalua, a 13-year-old schoolboy of Tongan descent in Year 8. Having previously been expelled from two other schools, Jonah exhibits behavioral issues and is continually in conflict with classmates and teachers that places him at serious risk of expulsion. Jonah also has learning difficulties and attends a remedial English class at "Gumnut Cottage".
  • Mr G, an egomaniacal 37-year-old drama teacher who believes that he is an incredibly talented, well-liked teacher whose students share his intense passion for drama and performance; his narcissism places him in constant conflict with other staff members and the school's principal. Mr G is directing his latest school musical, which is based on the death of a student at the school who overdosed on ecstasy. The character was previously featured on the Seven Network sketch series Big Bite.
There are also a number of supporting characters:
  • Margaret Murray, the principal of Summer Heights High. Brereton was a real-life principal at Camberwell High School.
  • Rodney Parsons, a science teacher at the school who is also Mr G's officemate and close friend.
  • Doug Peterson, the student welfare officer who is determined to help Jonah and keep him from getting expelled; he also runs the "Polynesian Pathways" course.
  • Ms Wheatley, Jonah's language teacher who is constantly aggravated by Jonah and his friends.
  • Ms Palmer, teaches students with reading difficulties at Gumnut Cottage which both Jonah and Leon attend; she is Jonah's favourite teacher.
  • Leon Pullami, Jonah's best friend and partner in crime.
  • Holly, Bec, Jess, and Kaitlyn are the popular girls in Year 11 who Ja'mie befriends.
  • Ashley, a less-popular Year 11 girl who Ja'mie harasses and calls "fugly" on numerous occasions.
  • Candice Coxmurray, the star of Mr G's musical.
  • Keiran McKenna, Jonah's nemesis who is a Year 7 student and very talented breakdancer.
  • Toby, a Year 10 boy who has Down syndrome. He is originally Mr G's backstage assistant, but then plays the character of Mr G in the musical.
  • Rocky Takalua, Jonah's no-nonsense father, who constantly threatens to send Jonah back to Tonga if he misbehaves.
  • Ofa, the only girl in Jonah's friendship group.
  • Annabel Dickson, the inspiration for Mr G's initial musical. In the series her only appearance is in a photograph, but she's featured in a deleted scene on the DVD release.
  • Stuart, a student at the school.
Mrs. Murray, the principal, is the only character mentioned or acknowledged in all three of the main characters' lives. The main characters do not interact with each other, however:
  • Doug Peterson, the head of student welfare, is mentioned in Ja'mie's storyline in Episode 5 when she tells Mr. Cameron, the upper school head, that she's been cutting her wrists because he wouldn't let them have a formal.
  • One of the students who attends Gumnut Cottage with Jonah and Leon also appears in Mr G's musical
  • Miss Wheatley is acted out in Mr. G's musical, but her name is not mentioned.
  • When Mr. G was pointing to the 1999 staff photo in Episode 1, Mr. Cameron's picture is seen beside one of Mr. G.
  • A teacher named Mr. James makes two short appearances – once in Jonah's storyline in Episode 1, and once in Mr. G's storyline in Episode 3.

    Background and production

Summer Heights High was created and written by Chris Lilley, with all eight episodes directed by Stuart McDonald. Princess Pictures produced the series, with Laura Waters and Bruce Kane serving as executive producers. The series was filmed in Melbourne at Brighton Secondary College,

Episodes

Release

Broadcast

The series premiered on 5 September 2007 at 9:30 pm on ABC TV and continued for eight weekly episodes until 24 October 2007. Each episode was also made available for download as a vodcast directly after its screening via the ABC website and iTunes. The third episode was accidentally made available to the ABC website a week early, leading to it also being uploaded to YouTube prior to its television broadcast.
The series was sold overseas, with Lilley embarking on a promotional tour of the United States to promote the U.S. broadcast of the series, which began to air on HBO on 9 November 2008. Lilley had previously declined proposals to remake the series for American audiences. The series also aired on BBC Three in June 2008.

Home media

Summer Heights High was released on DVD in Australia on 25 October 2007, and was accompanied by a signing appearance by Lilley at an ABC Shop in Melbourne's CBD. It was a new first-day sales record for an ABC release, with 3,475 copies sold. Overall, Summer Heights High is the highest-selling Australian comedy television series on DVD.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released through ABC Shops and the 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's "Being a Poly". Part 2 of the soundtrack of the Summer Heights High album contained songs such as "My Name Is Mr G", "This Time You're Dead" and the Summer Heights High theme. Most of the songs from Part 2 are from the final musical.
"Naughty Girl" was released as a single on 8 March 2008 with remixes by Paul Mac, John Paul Talbot and Stylaz Fuego, peaking at number seven on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. There was also a new music video clip to go with the song.

Reception

Critical response

When Summer Heights High aired in Australia, reviewers generally praised Chris Lilley's humour. Writing for TV Tonight, David Knox called the series "a treat" and stated "Lilley is the best comic to emerge from the ABC since Kath & Kim came into their own". The Daily Telegraph published a review calling the series "astonishing work that will be long remembered".
Summer Heights High received generally favourable reviews from American critics; it holds a Metacritic score of 67 out of 100. Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times praised Lilley's performance of Jonah, saying the character "gives the series the heart without which it would otherwise expire". Some critics noted the humour may not translate to American audiences; David Hinckley of the New York Daily News said "while its outrageous characters are often amusing, their palate of jokes runs thin".

Ratings

The premiere episode of Summer Heights High did well in the ratings as a strong lead-in from the return of The Chaser's War on Everything. It peaked at 1.6 million viewers with an average of 1.22 million. Along with Spicks and Specks, Summer Heights High helped ABC TV to achieve its strongest midweek ratings for 2007. The second episode rated stronger than the premiere with an average of 1.375 million viewers tuning in.
The third episode managed to rate very well with 1.275 million viewers while the fourth episode fared well with 1.235 against the season premiere of Prison Break. The fifth episode only managed 1.156 million viewers, the lowest ratings for an episode of the show, although the program remained the highest-rating show in its timeslot. The sixth episode picked up slightly in viewers from the previous week with 1.192 million tuning in. The seventh episode grew in ratings as the penultimate episode, picking up to average 1.307 million viewers for the night. The eighth and final episode achieved the highest ratings for Summer Heights High with a total of 1.512 million viewers watching the concluding episode to the series.
Summer Heights High was the third most-downloaded ABC vodcast in 2007, with 1.2 million downloads in total.