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Higher Ground (TV series)

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Higher Ground
The Higher Ground logo
The Higher Ground logo
Created byMichael Braverman
Matthew Hastings
StarringJoe Lando
Anne Marie Loder
Hayden Christensen
A. J. Cook
Kandyse McClure
Jorge Vargas
Meghan Ory
Kyle Downes
Jewel Staite
Deborah Odell
Jim Byrnes
Country of originCanada
No. of episodes22
Production
Running time60 minutes approx.
Original release
NetworkABC Family (2000)
ReleaseJanuary 14, 2000 –
June 16, 2000

Higher Ground is a Canadian television show, aired in 2000, whose main theme is a treatment of adolescents at a reform camp in the mountains and woods of Pacific Northwest.

It revolves around a group called the "Cliffhangers" and starred Joe Lando, Anne Marie Loder, Jim Byrnes, A.J. Cook, Meghan Ory, Jewel Staite, Kandyse McClure, Jorge Vargas, Kyle Downes and Hayden Christensen, who would later be made famous by portraying Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

The show lasted only one season and dealt with issues like drug, sexual and verbal abuse, self-mutilation, eating disorder, neglect, and suicidal attempts.

Background

Located 25 miles from the nearest town, Mount Horizon High School is a school for teenagers who suffered any kind of abuse or disorder. Story focuses on a group of individuals with such problems, as well as on the school headmaster, teachers and a few counselors. As the show progresses, the viewer becomes acquainted with events that caused these problems and also with possible solutions to them.

Daily program of Mt. Horizon's students includes regular classes, preparing food for others, various sport activities, such as climbing, football or rafting, which are mainly focused on mutual collaboration. Though these doings, students are taught both co-operation and confidence in own actions.

In Horizon, strict rules and policies are applied. No sexual intercourse between students, no drugs or alcohol usage, no violence and no inappropriate touching. Violating of these rules may lead to expulsion from school and to immediate contacting of parents or respective authority. Newcomer is told these rules during his entry check-up.

Characters

Template:Spoiler

  • Augusto "Auggie" Ciceros

He came to Horizon to avoid a Youth Authority lockup and the constant threat of being sent to "juvie" forces him to cooperate. The youngest of five children, Augusto grew up in a middle class home on the fringe of the barrio. Although not a gang member, he was a tagger and had gained an impressive reputation. Eventually, he was busted, but the court took mercy on Augusto who, at 15, can barely read or write. All through school, he was placed in educable mentally handicapped classes. Horizon's teachers realized the real problem: profound dyslexia. His high IQ was discovered, making Auggie possibly the highest native intelligence at Horizon. He became romantically involved with Juliette Waybourne.
Augusto Ciceros is starred by Jorge Vargas.

  • Daisy Lipenowski

Also known to as Daisy Graves, she has hid herself beneath a mask of Goth, make-up, clothes, and piercings. When years of emotional abuse at home began to threaten her physically, she assaulted her father with a seven-iron golf club, and was quickly sent to Horizon hence. Insightful and harshly honest, Daisy carefully hides her own inner pain and rage behind arrogance and morbid sense of humour. She has a strong friendship with Ezra Friedkin and later also with Shelby Merrick.
Daisy Lipenowski is starred by Jewel Staite.

  • Ezra Friedkin

He was adopted at birth by parents who were looking more for a solution to their marital difficulties than for a child to love. When the marriage ended up in divorce, Ezra was caught in the middle of his parents' arguments. The experience forced him to be a pleaser, a mediator, a peacemaker, and a rule-follower. To comfort himself, Ezra turned to drugs and started using ketamine, with which he nearly overdosed himself. After Ezra was revived in the ER and spent 10 days recovering, he was sent to Horizon. He maintans close relation with Daisy Lipenowski.
Ezra Friedkin is starred by Kyle Downes.

  • Juliette Waybourne

She's often referred to as "Princess" or "The beauty queen girl", which is derived from her appearence and behavior. She continually assaulted and abused herself with such means as bulimia and self-mutilation. Being influenced by her perfectionist mother, who has been through a succession of husbands' in the last nine years, Juliette has grown up in three different households with eight siblings of three different fathers. Exacerbating her unstable surroundings, almost all of the children are extremely successful overachievers. Unable to compete with their accomplishments, she chose physically destructive measures to get the love and attention she craved. Her natural father, an airline pilot who was often away, finally brought Juliette to Horizon. She has strong affinity with Augusto Ciceros.
Juliette Waybourne is starred by Meghan Ory.

  • Katherine "Kat" Ann Cabot

Katherine is black and also adopted, but, unlike Ezra, she was adopted by kind, loving white parents. Though she always knew she was adopted, a sense of alienation set in as she grew older, and she felt she didn't fit in with either the white or the black culture. That confusion prompted her grades to slip and for her to withdraw from her talents as a gifted athlete. The accidental death of her stepsister also contributed to her lapsing into depression. She was finally sent to Horizon by her parents.
Katherine Ann Cabot is starred by Kandyse McClure.

  • Scott Barringer

A 16-year-old intelligent, musically talented footballer and athlete. A divorce of Scott's parents, which he partially felt responsible for, put Scott in the middle of their breakup. At 14, his father married a young woman Scott disparagingly referred to as a "trophy wife." Closer to his age than her husband's, his stepmother seduced him half a dozen times before Scott's thoroughly confused and rebellious behaviour discontinued it. Without revealing this to his father, Scott berated her to his father, who tried to bring the two of them together to be friends. The more his father became clueless, the more Scott acted out. Soon he started using drugs and also petty theft. His school work disintegrated and he was thrown off the football team. As a last resort for help, his father decided to send him to Horizon. At first, he has a short relationship with Juliette Waybourne, but later he became romantically involved with Shelby Merrick.
Scott Barringer is starred by Hayden Christensen.

  • Shelby Merrick

At the age of 14, Shelby ran away from home because of her father who sexually and emotionally abused her for years while her mother didn't do anything even though she knew about this doing. On the streets, she became a prostitute and started using drugs. After a year, Shelby located her natural father in Los Angeles. But despite his good intentions, he couldn't neither control his daughter or help hr with her emotional problems. Thus he made a deal with juvenile authorities that allowed her to go Horizon rather than Juvenile Hall. Shelby developed a defence mechanism as a cover for lack of self-esteem, which made her a person difficult to deal with, but during the course of the show she developes at first close friendship and later love to Scott Barringer.
Shelby Merrick is starred by A. J. Cook.

  • Peter Scarbrow

The headmaster and chief administrator of Mt. Horizon High for the past three years. In cooperation with the school's owner and founder, Frank Markasian, they have built Horizon to one of the finest, most progressive and most successful "emotional growth" schools in the Pacific Northwest. Physically, Peter is strong and healthy, an outdoor athlete into running, biking, climbing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing and hang-gliding, even though he has screws in his knee. Prior to meeting Frank, Peter had bottomed-out. To keep up with the incredible physical demands of the business after a success at one of the biggest brokerages on Wall Street, he, at his 28, turned to cocaine and then to heroine, which became his undoing. Drugs ultimately led to divorce and when, after his first overdose and a stint at a rehabilitation clinic, he began using drugs again, Peter ended up on the streets. Recovering at a Washington hospital after another near-fatal overdose, he met Frank, whose philosophy struck a chord with Peter. The two men bonded and Frank invited him to Mt. Horizon for recovery. Frank became Peter's mentor, best friend and surrogate father. Except for an occasional trip back to New York, he has remained at Mt. Horizon ever since. Peter developed affinity for Sophie Becker, whose conclusion is marriage. Peter Scarbrow is starred by Joe Lando.

  • Sophie Becker

She met Peter Scarbrow during one of his alcohol rehabilitations, and the two became friends, one of the reasons being their interest for adrenaline sports. Later Sophie departed abroad while Mt. Horizon was establihed and when she came back, Peter, eager for her not to leave his life again, eventually coaxes her to become more involved at it. Sophie agrees and since then their mutual affinity begins to develop. Later in the show it's revealed that she has endometriosis and thus is barren. At the end, Peter accepts her offer for marriage.
Sophie Becker is starred by Anne Marie Loder. Template:Spoiler-end

Episodes

Higher Ground consists of 22 episodes, each of which having its own quotation at the beginning. These quotes comes from famous writers, politicians and other significant persons as well as from unknown sources.

1. Scott Free
  • Aired: January 14, 2000
  • Quote: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us look at the stars." ~ Oscar Wilde
2. Babes in Arms
3. Walking the Line
  • Aired: January 28, 2000
  • Quote: "If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future." ~ Winston Churchill
4. Our Strongest Link
5. What Remains
6. Crossroads
7. Worlds Apart
8. Seductions
  • Aired: March 3, 2000
  • Quote: "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." ~ Oscar Wilde
9. Hope Falls
  • Aired: March 10, 2000
  • Quote: "Never deprive someone of hope; It might be all they have." ~ Unknown
10. Close Encounters
  • Aired: March 17, 2000
  • Quote: "Tell me who admires you and loves you, and I will tell you who you are" ~ C. A. Sainte-Beauve
11. Best Behavior
12. Wherefore Art Thou
  • Aired: April 7, 2000
  • Quote: "Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness." ~ James Thurber
13. Attention Deficit
  • Aired: April 14, 2000
  • Quote: "Somewhere in the world your Father is lost and needs you but you are far away." ~ William Stafford
14. The Kids Stay in the Picture
15. Exposed
16. Innocence
  • Aired: May 5, 2000
  • Quote: "The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day." ~ John Milton
17. Daised and Confused
  • Aired: May 12, 2000
  • Quote: "I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when my person reflected . . ." ~ Mary Shelley
18. One of Those Days
19. Because it's There
20. Falling Up
  • Aired: June 3, 2000
  • Quote: "Tragedies are about the depths that call up to certain men and insist that they descend." ~ Robert Bly
21. Mended Fences
22. Because I Love You
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