Instant Star

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Instant Star
Image:Instantstarlogo.jpg
Genre Teen drama/Comedy
Created by Linda Schuyler
Starring Alexz Johnson
Tim Rozon
Laura Vandervoort
Kristopher Turner
Simon Reynolds
Tyler Kyte
Wes Williams
Narrated by Alexz Johnson
Theme music composer Jody Colero, Jim McGrath & Stephen Stohn
Country of origin Flag of Canada Canada
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 52 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Stephen Stohn
Producer(s) Stephen Stohn
Location(s) Toronto, Ontario
Running time 30 minutes (with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel Flag of Canada CTV

Flag of the United States The N
Original run September 15, 2004 – June,2008
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Instant Star is a Canadian television program and a Gemini Award winner starring adolescent music competition winner Jude Harrison portrayed by Alexz Johnson. After its release, the program's popularity rose amongst teenagers, particularly in the United States and Canada. The show chronicles Harrison's experience in the recording industry whilst focusing upon character development.

Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn of Epitome Pictures produce the show. The program began to air on CTV in Canada prior to being picked up by Viacom-owned teen network channel The N in the United States. The show became the second most popular program on The N with Degrassi: The Next Generation, also produced by Schuyler and Stohn, ranking as most popular.

In 2005, after its first season, Instant Star was nominated for three Gemini Awards in the category of Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series. Nominations included: (1) Best Series; (2) Best Performance (Jude Harrison); and (3) Best Direction (Graeme Campbell). The show won the award for Best Direction for the episode You Can't Always Get What You Want.[1]

On August 28, 2007, the show received three more Gemini Award nominations, in the category of Best Children's or Youth Program or series. Alexz Johnson has again been nominated for Best Performance (for the episode, "I Fought the Law"); and there are two more nominations for Best Direction - Graeme Campbell (for "I Fought the Law"), and Pat Williams (for "Personality Crisis").

Three seasons of the show (each with 13 episodes) have been produced so far, with the filming of the fourth season in its final stages. The new season of Instant Star premieres Monday, June 2 at 8pm ET on The N. CTV and The N both pulled funding following the fourth season and the execs chose to end the show. Upset fans have started a petition.[2]

Contents

[edit] Cast

Cast Photo - Instant Star (Credit to Epitome Pictures)
Cast Photo - Instant Star (Credit to Epitome Pictures)

[edit] Starring

[edit] Supporting cast (Season 1)

[edit] Supporting cast (Season 2)

[edit] Supporting cast (Season 3)

[edit] Supporting cast (Season 4)

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Instant Stars

  • Season 1
  • Season 2
    • Winner: Mason Fox
  • Season 3
    • Winner: Karma
  • Season 4
    • Winner: Milo

[edit] Series plot

In each episode of the show, Jude Harrison must deal with the problems and challenges of both her musical career and her personal life, as one weaves into the other. She also faces dilemmas and choices in her relationships, dividing her feelings between the loves in her life, such as Tommy Q. (her producer and current boyfriend), Jamie (a life-long best friend and ex boyfriend), Spiederman (her lead guitarist/ex-boyfriend), and Shay (a major rap artist/ex boyfriend), while also recording with G-Major Records. These people are important to her music - the one thread that ties her life together. Her best moments are when she is working with others in creating and performing her music. In addition to her music and her loves, there is much else going on in her personal life and in the lives of those around her.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Instant Star episodes

[edit] Instant Star Minis

[edit] Season 3

Starting in Season 3, Instant Star Mini webisodes have appeared on The N.com's The Click.

  1. "If I Should Stay" - Tommy shows Jude how to find her everything.
  2. "The Flame" - Karma makes Tommy her own by sexing up her new single.
  3. "Warrior Princess" - Sadie is a ninja. Like a real, honest to God, nun chuck wielding, kick-your-ass-with-a-pole ninja.
  4. "Geometry Of Love" - Jamie puts on a lab coat and dissects the sordid steaming mass of Instant Star romance.
  5. "Instant Noir" - Gams, hats, dames, and Tommy kissing Jude. Wait, what are "gams" again?
  6. "My Best-Friend's Wedding" - Imagine the not-too-distant future... It's Jude's wedding day... So who the hell is she marrying?
  7. "8 Kilometers" - Lose yourself. No seriously, lose yourself before Spiederman starts rapping.
  8. "Hollywood Undercover" - Jude Harrison is secretly married and on drugs and viciously assaulting innocent reporters! It's all true! Kind of!
  9. "What You Need" - Watch Spiederman's first music video.
  10. "Hollywood Undercover 2" - That Jude. When she's not carousing with babes, she's cavorting with hotties.
  11. "Tommy and Portia" - Tommy and Portia spiral downward into mistrust and death.

[edit] Season 4

  1. "Higher Ground" - Mini webisode that features the brand new song Higher Ground.
  2. "I Just Wanted Your Love" - Nothing's like singing on kitchen a song about the old and good love.
  3. "Remind Yourself" - Spiederman Mind Explosion new song, featuring the over-possessive Karma.
  4. "That Was Us" - Flashback about the good moments between Jude and Tommy.
  5. "Live Like Music" - Not just hear it, live it.
  6. "Ultraviolet" - First mini performance of the 4th season by Jude, with Tommy and Jamie watching in two different places.
  7. "The Music" - Imagine that Jude never won Instant Star contest, and She plays on the streets With SME.
  8. "2Am" - The snow falls, Jude sings and Tommy wants to recover her love
  9. "Perfect" - It's Jude in gold sequins and the SME in crazy weirdness.

[edit] Instant Star: On the set

Along with Instant Star mini's, The N.com takes you backstage of Instant Star. Also appearing on The N.com's The Click.

  1. "Time to Sing Again" - Be there as Alexz steps on stage to perform the first song from the new season of Instant Star.
  2. "Tim and Alexz Time" - What Tim and Alexz have together no one can take away. Not that anyone's tried.
  3. "20 Minute Rain Delay" - The cast shot the boob-out bar mitzvah at a real celeb's house. Whose house was it is top secret. But after 20 minutes standing in the rain, they told us anyway.
  4. "One Flew Over the Photo Shoot" - Nothing says "photo shoot day" like Tim Rozon doing the cabbage patch.
  5. "Going Out With a Bang" - The thing about TV is, when you need to shoot a deadly car crash, you can't actually kill anybody.
  6. "On the Steps of a Mansion" - Tim Rozon proves it's not how well you sing, it's how well you do The Grab.
  7. "A Day in the Country" - Ahh, the Instant Star life: relaxing in a verdant meadow, napping with Tim Rozon, busting up $100,000 sports cars...
  8. "The Making of 'What You Need'" - It's true: Tyler Kyte really did write and perform Spiederman's first solo record. It's also true that Alexz Johnson's dressing room is way nicer than his.
  9. "Swing Kids" - For Jude's 18th birthday, she got just what she wanted. Namely, the Degrassi gym converted into a lush 1930s nightclub in less than three days.
  10. "12:10 AM" - It's the middle of the night, but the day's not over. How can the cast rock out when they've been working for 17 hours? Also: hear the new Jude song "Unravelling".
  11. "The Power to Rock"- You've got dozens of screaming fans and Alexz on stage. There's never any question who owns the room. See her break out the new Jude song "The Breakdown".
  12. "Cory Sings" - Cory Lee is on stage singing her new track "No Shirt No Shoes", but nobody has any idea what else is going on.
  13. "Time To Say Goodbye"- On the last day of the season, there are secret-goodbye messages, hugs, and a rooftop performance by Jude Harrison.

[edit] Music

Each episode of the series features a new song performed by Alexz. Usually, the song is about something that occurs in the episode, however, in some episodes there is no direct explanation to the lyrics. Some episodes can feature more than one song, but there is only one song per episode that is to be featured on the soundtrack for that season. For instance, there are 13 episodes per season, which means there are 13 main songs.

Alexz Johnson has done the vocals on both soundtracks, while even co-writing some of the songs with her brother Brendan. For the third soundtrack, it has been mentioned that Alexz will not be featured for all of the songs on the CD, because of the release of her upcoming debut album.

Just before the broadcast of the second season on The N, viewers had a chance to see Alexz Johnson in concert in a show called "Backstage Pass NYC", singing two of the songs from each season of the show, accompanied by her band from the show, Spiederman Mind Explosion.

[edit] Soundtracks

[edit] Broadcasters

Instant Star is broadcast in over 120 countries.

[edit] Availability on DVD

The DVD for Season 1 of Instant Star was released on May 22, 2007. The DVD for Season 2 of Instant Star was released on Dec. 4th 2007

[edit] References

  1. ^ Canada's Awards Database. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
  2. ^ Save Instant Star
  3. ^ YouTube - Instant Star Season 4 Interview
  4. ^ YouTube - Instant Star Season 4 Interview
  5. ^ YouTube - Instant Star Season 4 Interview

[edit] External links

[edit] Official websites