It's not a rip off, it's an homage.

[brak666]

So, The N has finally started airing new episodes of Degrassi again. One of the first episodes they've aired is one called "Take on Me" which is Degrassi's homage to The Breakfast Club: Five kids in saturday detention(Hazel, Sean, Ellie, Toby, and Jimmy, the princess, criminal, basket case, brain, and jock respectively). There's even a scene with the principal working out in the gym. At one point Jimmy even calls Hazel "princess". There are a few differences in the coupling that ensues. Hazel and Jimmy end up together, as do Sean and Ellie. It was cool in a nostalgic kind of way. It just makes me feel really old when I think about how most of the show's target audience will not realize what this story was lifted from. Almost as old as the time I went to the message board at The N and realized that a great deal of the show's younger viewers (in the US anyway) were not aware of the previous Degrassi series. Apparently the whole "Next Generation" aspect was lost on them. God, I hope those same kids don't think TNG was the first Trek.