There’s no getting around it: Degrassi was never a great show. Kids who followed the fictional lives of Spike, Joey, Wheels, Snake, et al (and who now follow those of Emma, Craig, Marco, and Ashley on Degrassi: The Next Generation) were never in the grip of a brilliantly put-together piece of work.

But it was addictive all the same.

But the last thing Degrassi fans past and present really care about is how the show got made. Perhaps because she is so close to Degrassi, Kathryn Ellis tends to miss this point. A publicist and occasional writer for the original series, Ellis is married to its head writer. This probably accounts for the book’s odd tilt toward the technical. We get mini-bios on almost all the actors who appeared in the series’ four incarnations, as well as an episode guide, but there’s also an awful lot of space given to interviews with the crew and creative staff. Backstage dirt is one thing, but do we really need a detailed breakdown of the responsibilities of the first assistant director? Or an interview with the executive producer on his writing routine? Not even hardcore Degrassi-heads take the show this seriously.

To be fair, pretty much everything a fan needs is in this book somewhere, as long as he or she can sift through the dull shop talk. Where the focus is on the particular ethos of the show – the characters, the locations, and especially the issues dramatized in the series – Degrassi: Generations does a decent job, though one hampered somewhat by its “official” status. There’s no gossip here, despite some eyebrow-raising gaps in the cast files. (What’s Wheels doing now?) Also, aside from film director Kevin Smith (who contributes an affectionately goofy introduction), I doubt whether there is much overlap between fans of the original series and those of the new, separated as they are by, well, a generation.