Radio Active was a Canadian TV show that aired from 1998 - 2001 on YTV (and briefly on Fox Family in the US), based on the Quebec French series Radio Enfer. The premise was simple: a group of students at Upper Redwood High School manage and run their own school radio station, entitled Radio Active. Chaos frequently ensued as the group worked to avoid and undermine the sneaky teacher-supervisor Ms. Noelle Atoll, who always believes (usually rightly so) that they're up to something.
The original cast of characters consisted of students George S. Goodwin III, Tanya Panda, Morgan Leigh, Kevin Calvin and Ethan St. John. In 1999, Kevin and Ethan were replaced by Blair Resnicky and Roger Richards, who remained for the remainder of the show. The students were joined by supervisor Ms. Atoll and incompetent vice principal Mr. Noseworthy, and occasionally joined by Morgan's annoying younger sister, Sarah.
Not to be confused with the British radio show of the same name, nor with actual radioactivity. Also not to be confused with the superficially similar System Crash, another Canadian Series about students in a media club which aired around the same time.
This show contains examples of:
- Adaptational Diversity:
- Unlike Radio Enfer’s main cast, this series has several main characters of color in Tanya and Kevin.
- Tanya could also count as a Race Lift of Enfer’s Camille Bergeron, as they share similar bubbly personalities and (at least early on) trademark overalls.
- Additionally, the white Sarah is played by Vanessa Lengies, who is half-Egyptian.
- Adapted Out: Due to budgetary limitations, the overall cast is whittled down to about half of Radio Enfer’s, most notably omitting the school principal, while Enfer’s Rodolphe Giroux was a major character.
- Agony of the Feet: One later episode had Morgan beat out Tanya to win the audition for a commercial featuring a pair of high-heeled shoes. She later refused to do the commercial because she objected to its sexualized content, so the shoe company offered the job to Tanya. Tanya accepts the commercial, and finds that the shoes are really painful to walk in. She's later shown giving herself a Foot Bath Treatment.
- Alliterative Name: George Goodwin and Roger Richards.
- Anachronism Stew: In-Universe: Ms. Atoll in “A Christmas Atoll” criticizes the gang’s supposed 70s-set “Christmas Past” scheme, as they’re wearing costumes ranging from being reminiscent of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to Roger’s Tony Manero suit. Them ending the skit by dancing the waltz doesn’t help. Considering the teenage characters would’ve been born not long after the 70s ended, these oversights could be Foreshadowing that Ms. Atoll is dreaming the whole thing.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Sarah, to Morgan.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Morgan and Kevin. To a lesser extent, later, Morgan and Blair.
- Big "NO!": Morgan fakes a love note from her to nerd Lenny Porter-McKinsky as part of a scheme to get Kevin in trouble. Later, during The Stinger, Mr. Noseworthy tells Morgan that Lenny is looking for her and talking about "going steady". Morgan has an Oh, Crap! reaction and turns to Kevin, who confirms that he gave her note to Lenny. Morgan then screams this trope.
- Bookends: Both the first and last episodes center around the group’s efforts to help their Jerk Jock pass an important test to bring up their average grade, in an effort to keep the Radio Active program from being shut down. Ms. Atoll even acknowledges this parallel.
- Bottle Episode: Every single one. This series was made on the cheap. In the entire first season, only the eight regulars appeared, very literally; there were no other people in the entire school. Even then, one or more of them was often missing. The producers decided to splurge on a few token extras in later seasons, but it did little to hide the "budget" feeling.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- Utilized a few times, such as once by Sarah at the end of one episode to address the audience, and George in “Bully for You” to shove in Product Placement, only for Roger to reply “Stop talking to the wall like that, you’re freakin’ everybody out!”
- “Return to Sender” has George realize that he and the others never get to see much of the other teachers. Blair then joins George in breaking said fourth wall and says “They’re around. Somewhere.”
- Canada Does Not Exist: Averted, as episodes mention Canadian references periodically. Borders on Where the Hell Is Springfield?, though, as despite the show being filmed in Montreal, it’s not mentioned where in Canada Upper Redwood High is located, leading to a few fans thinking it was set in Ontario, given the distinct lack of French anywhere (even for an English school in Quebec).
- Catchphrase: "I remember when I was your age..." by Mr. Noseworthy.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Kevin and Ethan are never seen or heard from again after Season 1. The closest anyone comes to acknowledging Kevin is in the final episode, where Ms. Atoll (under Bookends) alludes to the events of the first episode (echoed in this one), meaning she certainly remembers Kevin, and, knowing her, isn’t too sad that he’s gone.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: George Goodwin.
- Dean Bitterman: Good lord, Ms. Atoll. Her efforts in this should especially be noted, since she’s not even a principal or vice principal, but merely the English teacher supervising Radio Active.
- Didn't Think This Through: Morgan faked a love note from her to school nerd Lenny Porter-McKinsky as a way to get Kevin in trouble. She succeeds, but apparently didn't consider that Kevin might give Lenny her note. When Mr. Noseworthy tells her that Lenny is talking about going steady with her and Kevin confirms that he gave Lenny the note, Morgan screams a Big "NO!".
- Disappeared Dad: Whenever Morgan and Sarah’s house is referred to, only their mother is mentioned to be living with them.
- Disco Dan: Mr. Noseworthy is shown as being completely out of touch with contemporary youth culture. When he briefly takes over the radio station, he plays ridiculously outdated music like "Goodbye My Coney Island Baby" by Barney's Barbershop Quartet. Ms. Atoll is also shown to be out of touch, albeit less so.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Ms. Atoll in spades, and due to her position, she usually gets away with it. Her special hatred for Kevin and doling out the worst of these punishments to him were a Running Gag in Season 1.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The junk food ban and resulting titular scheme of “The Junkfood Racket” plays a lot like Prohibition, with Morgan and Roger dressing in black suits and talking in old-timey accents, and Mr. Noseworthy calling himself “Elliot Nessworthy”.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Zig Zagged in the episode where Blair had a female bully. While a lot of her bullying was played for laughs, the other members of Radio Active were genuinely horrified and supportive of Blair.
- The Dreaded: Ms. Atoll, and for good reason.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The most obvious one is Kevin and Ethan being part of the first season cast instead of Roger and Blair.
- Some Season 1 episodes used a different segment of the show’s theme music for the opening sequence.
- The first dozen or so episodes had some examples of Getting Crap Past the Radar (as YTV was geared a bit more towards teenagers back then), such as George having a video rental from a place he called “Video 30”, only for the box to actually read “Video XXX”.
- “Fraudcast”, the pilot episode, shows Ms. Atoll somewhat enjoying the rock music Morgan puts on the air to distract from Kevin’s scheme, as well as know enough about Jimmy Spleen & the Arteries to say that “[they] broke up years ago.”. Subsequent episodes would never show such tolerance towards rock (or pop) music again, to the point of threatening to remove the genres entirely from the station in at least one later episode.
- George refers to his pet Fidel as a gerbil in “Tanya’s Psychic Connection”, “Stalag 16 1/2”, and “The Secret Admirer”. All subsequent mentions and appearances have him as a hamster.
- Kevin has a long, extended Dream Sequence in the third act of “The Evil Empire”, complete with slow motion, freaky sound effects, and overall creepy (if also still silly) tone. The whole sequence comes off as out of place when viewing the series as a whole.
- Ms. Atoll’s luck with men seems to be Retconned between Season 1’s “Blackmail” and later on in Season 2’s “Smart and Smarter”. The former episode has a romantic postcard addressed to her by a lover (mentioning a passionate past encounter) found by Sarah and later Kevin, which she snatches away, while the latter episode shows her having to be taught basic date etiquette by Tanya, as if she’d literally never been on a date before.
Then again, it was never made clear whether that postcard was from a man or a woman…
- Earpiece Conversation: There's an episode wherein Kevin is being coached through an oral exam by a hidden microphone with Morgan on the other end.
- The End... Or Is It?: One episode has the cast believes that aliens have infiltrated the school. By the end, they agree on a codeword to share between them, so they'd know each other apart from body-snatchers or spies. The ending shot shows Mr. Noseworthy scratching at something on his neck, with the implication that he is possessed by an alien, or is an alien.
- Evil Is Hammy: “Evil” might be subjective, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a single subtle or subdued line or gesture from Ms. Atoll.
- Gender Flip: Two notable examples, combined with Adaptation Personality Change.
- In Radio Enfer, the role of the Reasonable Authority Figure trying to relate to the teens with varying degrees of success was taken by guidance counselor Jocelyne Letendre. Here, Mr. Noseworthy fills that role. This is all made funnier by the fact that Mr. Noseworthy is not the guidance counselor, but the assistant principal, making his attempts to relate to the gang come off as more overtly earnest but more pathetic, as well as make him an Adaptational Wimp and Authority in Name Only next to Ms. Atoll.
- Ms. Atoll’s counterpart is without question Firmin Laplante, the series’ math teacher and resident Large Ham. While Laplante was a Jerkass Compulsive Liar and Hated by All, it’s clear that he’d have been fired long ago were it not for nepotism, and no one really takes him seriously. Fellow Large Ham Ms. Atoll, however, is pretty much worse on every front. Not only is she seen as The Dreaded by virtually everyone, but her position all but guarantees her gleefully wielding full control and punishments over Radio Active, to at times absurd lengths. While Laplante was The Starscream with a Small Name, Big Ego, Atoll never needed to be, because she was (in practice) already at the top of the staff food chain (with this series’ principal never seen), and means every word she says with Brutal Honesty, playing Evil Feels Good to the nth degree. Despite her getting several instances of compromise, groundedness, Pet the Dog, and Hidden Depths, they’re few and far in between. Basically, imagine Laplante supervising Radio Enfer, and getting away with every lie and stunt he pulls through sheer power and intimidation, and thanks to a smaller staff, has fewer people around to call him out on his behavior.
- The Ghost: The characters occasionally mentioned other students like nerdy Lenny Porter-McKinsky or wrestling team captain Dutch Kowalski, but they never appeared on-screen. Wendy Gwendolyn would finally appear in Season 3’s “The Wendy Gwendolyn Conundrum”.
- High School: Obviously.
- High-School Dance: At least twice. Neither dance is actually shown, but the preparation of each of the main characters is.
- In one case, the center of the episode is the group finding dates, with Morgan teaching her younger sister that the best way to convince a guy to go with you is to tell him you don't want to go, and her master plan to go with the captain of the football team is to... tell him she's going with Kevin.
- The later episode was focused on how everything was going wrong in the planning (Morgan has a huge zit, Tanya can't decide how to do her hair, and so on), until Roger saves the day at the last minute that the new theme is "everyone has flaws".
- Hilarious Outtakes: Played over the end credits starting in the second season, alternating with Stinger scenes (those being a mainstay from the series’ start).
- I Am Spartacus: In one episode, a mysterious "DJ X" has been broadcasting messages that Ms. Atoll doesn't approve of, using voice distortion to conceal their identity. When Ms. Atoll finally simply gathers all the crew together and insists they tell her who DJ X is, or face punishment, they all, one by one, claim to be DJ X... except Roger, who is punished for it.
- Is This Thing Still On?: Quite a few times, given the premise.
- One episode involves Morgan accidentally playing herself singing along on the radio, and becoming a hit. As a result, each of the others makes an attempt to get some skill of theirs known by trying to fake up having done the same thing, and the student body quickly becomes sick of it.
- “No Trouble Atoll” has Ms. Atoll be the victim of this due to George’s attempted mike repairs, delivering some Laser-Guided Karma for her disregarding school procedures to punish Morgan, though the gang regrets this later.
- Jerk Jock: Kevin, and later, Blair.
- Large Ham: The entire cast, though it’s undeniably to the show’s benefit.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: The third season’s amount of extras and guest stars for students at least tripled in amount compared to the previous two seasons.
- Literal Genie: Mr. Noseworthy was once hypnotized into falling in love with the first thing he saw. And then he was shown a chair.
- Meaningful Name:
- Ms. Atoll, the strict disciplinarian that no one likes.
- Her temporary replacement in “No Trouble Atoll”, Coach Hadrass. Subverted when he turns out to be pretty genial and generous, with only his initial drills and exercises being supposed to work the gang to the bone.
- Mistaken for Gay: Ethan (and George), by Kevin, after the latter found a love letter in his locker and Ethan unthinkingly confirms it's from him, as he thinks Kevin is talking about his application to join the hockey team. Leads to such lines as, "I thought you knew, I've wanted this for a long time." and "You won't be disappointed, I've been practicing with George". When George tells Kevin that he wrote the letter, Kevin panics, convinced that his new cologne is responsible for his sudden attractiveness to men. It turns out the letter really was written by George, but he hadn't intended to give it to Kevin.
- Moustache de Plume: In one episode, the class is eager to meet an attractive female author who was known for invoking this trope only for it to turn out to be Ms. Atoll. She explains that it's not enough to be a woman pretending to be a man to get anywhere in writing, you also have to pretend to be a woman pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman.
- Mundane Made Awesome: George's favorite comic book is "Normal Man", a superhero who does regular things all day.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Doesn’t usually result due to lack of effort, though whether this works varies by the episode.
- Quote Mine: Roger is extolling the virtues of Mr. Noseworthy on the radio show. However, due to "technical difficulties", the sentence, "In his field, competence knows no equal!" is rendered as, "In...competence knows no equal."
- Race Lift: An in-universe example in the Christmas special, where the gang pretend to take Ms. Atoll back in time to when she was a teacher. In this scene, Ms. Atoll's past self is played by Tanya. Lampshaded by Ms.Atoll.The Ghost of Christmas Past: This was you, over 20 years ago.Ms. Atoll: I used to be black?
- The Rashomon: In one episode, Ms. Atoll flies off the handle because someone has defaced and damaged a CD. Morgan tries to find out what happened to cause a CD to get damaged, and so sets up an office and interviews the others. Everyone had a different report on what happened in the room, how everyone acted and what happened to the CD. The only constant in any of them is that George was reading a comic book, wearing a hat (which changes depending on who's telling it). George's retelling consists entirely of a shot of the comic book while the voices of the other cast members can be heard babbling incoherently in the background.
- Recycled Premise: Curiously often, though enough was usually different to keep it from being stale. Season 1 had Kevin and Ethan have several of these episodes each, but with said episodes airing consecutively.
- Remember the New Guy?: Averted in “The Leader”, where Blair and Roger mention that they’re new students at Upper Redwood High.
- School Contest Episode: A B-Plot in “The Interception” has Tanya don her Rough Overalls in trying to clean up her school in attempts to win a contest, but it was All for Nothing due to the contest judges getting scared off when they heard George pretending to be a mafia goon while popping balloons, pretending they were gunfire.
- School Play: In one episode Ms. Atoll "suggests" that the main cast put on a radio play.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Ms. Atoll in “Return to Sender”, stunning even Sarah and Tanya.
- Sound Defect: The radio play is full of this. After a while they simply try their best to work with it.Morgan (as narrator): "Church bells began to ring..."Ethan's cell phone starts ringingMorgan (as narrator): "...they were cellular church bells..."
- Speaking Like Totally Teen: Downplayed with Mr. Noseworthy, as he’s too earnest in doing this to really offend the gang.
- Spoiler Title: “Rogercus” spoils both Roger’s alter ego identity of DJ X and the I Am Spartacus pulled by the others. The latter’s hilariously subverted by the fact that Roger himself does not say he is DJ X, which alerts Ms. Atoll to zero in on him.
- Stern Teacher: Ms. Atoll, though it’s very much combined with Sadist Teacher, given the glee she takes in doling out detentions and other unreasonable punishments.
- Stylistic Suck: Ms. Atoll’s old Hand Puppet kids show from 1983 in “Sock It to Me”, which also borders on Anachronism Stew, seeing as it’s dressed, designed, and styled like a show from the late-60s/early-70s. note Its basic setup: Ms. Atoll playing the xylophone and singing with two sock puppets on her hands. The Stinger shows that she doesn’t consider the concept a total Old Shame, either.
- Suddenly Shouting: You guessed it, Ms. Atoll.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Kevin and Ethan were replaced by Blair and Roger, who had similar roles on the show. Subverted in that Blair was more of a Dumb Jock who more often Didn't Think This Through than Kevin did in their respective schemes, while Roger was a little more straightlaced, ethical, and better with technology than Ethan was.
- Two-Teacher School: Lampshaded—Ms. Atoll and Mr. Noseworthy are the only teachers the students can name. (Coach Hadrass in “No Trouble Atoll” was the only other teacher seen on-screen.)
- Uncle Sam Wants You: Ms. Atoll’s posters in “The Evil Empire” have her in this pose.
- When I Was Your Age...: Mr. Noseworthy; see Catchphrase.
- Whole-Plot Reference: “Dead Comic Book Society” is an obvious one for Dead Poets Society, with the gang other than Morgan forming the titular society, Morgan butting heads with her mother over appearing in a play, Roger in trouble with his father over a not-perfect grade, and Blair having a good run of luck with a new girl.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: One episode in which the students plan to use this to convince Ms. Atoll not to give them homework over the holidays. It turns out to be All Just a Dream. (Or Was It a Dream?)