6teen

6teen
Genre	Teen sitcom Dramedy
Created by	Jennifer Pertsch Tom McGillis
Written by	Jennifer Pertsch Tom McGillis Sean Cullen George Westerholm
Directed by	Jennifer Pertsch Tom McGillis
Voices of	Christian Potenza Brooke D'Orsay Stacey DePass Megan Fahlenbock Jess Gibbons Terry McGurrin Jamie Watson Darren Frost Emilie-Claire Barlow Stephanie Anne Mills Lauren Lipson
Composers	Don Breithaupt Anthony Vanderburgh
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	95 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Scott Dyer Doug Murphy Tom McGillis Jennifer Pertsch
Producers	Jaelyn Galbraith Tom McGillis
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Nelvana (seasons 1–3) Fresh TV (season 4)
Original release
Network	Teletoon
Release	November 7, 2004 (2004-11-07) – February 11, 2010 (2010-02-11)
Related
Total Drama

6teen is a Canadian animated sitcom originally produced by Nelvana, with the final season produced by Fresh TV. It premiered on November 7, 2004 on Teletoon. In the United States, the series first premiered on Nickelodeon on December 18, 2005, and was removed from the schedule on May 13, 2006. The show later relaunched on Cartoon Network on October 23, 2008 through June 21, 2010. Tom McGillis, president of Fresh TV and one of the creators and executive producers of 6teen also confirmed the special episode, tweeting "6teen reunion episode coming soon. They've aged! #8teen".

With the first 78 episodes and both 45-minute-long specials produced by Nelvana, 6teen ended with a total of four seasons of 95 22-minute-long episodes (including two one-hour specials). The series finale aired on February 11, 2010 and included an acoustic version of the theme song by Brian Melo. DVD and iTunes releases have been made in both Canada and the United States, and the first 4 seasons are available on the streaming service Tubi TV. A special reunion PSA titled "Vote, Dude!" was released on September 12, 2018, with the original cast reprising their respective roles to raise awareness for voting in the 2018 US midterm elections, though no plans to bring back the show have been announced.

Plot

6teen is an animated sitcom for children, pre-teens, and teenagers. The plots take place almost entirely in a gigantic shopping mall known as the Galleria mall. The Galleria mall is a cross between the Eaton Centre (located in Toronto, Ontario) and the West Edmonton Mall. The series follows the cast of six sixteen-year-old friends in everyday lives, including their first part-time jobs.

6teen is focused on the common problems related to teenagers. The main characters are: Jude, Jen, Nikki, Jonesy, Caitlin, and Wyatt. They deal with first crushes, first jobs, first bank accounts, and a sweet taste of freedom. Nikki finds herself stuck working at The Khaki Barn, a store where she would not shop herself, while Jen has found her dream job at a sports shop, but makes some mistakes. As a running gag, Jonesy manages to get fired from a new store in almost every episode with a few exceptions. Wyatt falls hopelessly in love with his older co-worker. Jude works at the hockey rink as a Zamboni driver. Caitlin endures the daily humiliation of working at the lowest store in the mall's hierarchy of cool – The Big Squeeze, a lemonade stand shaped like a giant lemon, where she's required to wear a hat shaped like a lemon as a part of her uniform.

Production

6teen is created and directed through the use of a 2D digital software package known as Harmony, which was developed by the Toon Boom Animation studio in Montreal, Quebec. Because this software ensures smoother animation and eliminates the need for black trace lines, the program can be fashioned entirely on computer without the use of paper.

6teen (the original working title for the series being The Mall) is scripted by a team of writers which includes series creators and directors Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch, along with Sean Cullen (The Sean Cullen Show), and George Westerholm (This Hour Has 22 Minutes). On the subject of their work, McGillis concludes:

Our biggest goal was to connect with our audience. What surprised us was not the fact that teenagers were watching adult sitcoms, but why they were watching them? They recognize and appreciate smart writing. So, although 6teen's subject material is directed toward teens, the writing style is classic sitcom, with fast-paced dialogue, and multiple plot lines.

The show's principal characters were designed by Peter Avanzino. Original music is composed by Don Breithaupt and Anthony Vanderburgh. There are seven main cast members who voice 6teen. Brooke D'Orsay performs the voice of Caitlin, while Stacey DePass performs the voice of Nikki, Megan Fahlenbock voices Jen, Jess Gibbons voices Wyatt, Christian Potenza voices Jude, and Terry McGurrin voices Jonesy. Jamie Watson provides the voices of Coach Halder and Ron the Rent-a-Cop.

Characters

From L-R Jen, Caitlin, Jude, Wyatt, Nikki, and Jonesy.

Character name	Voiced by	Description
Jude Lizowski Hugo Lisowsky (French)	Christian Potenza	He is an easygoing Polish Canadian boy with a knack for extreme sports, over-the-top comportment and pranks. A younger version of Jude is featured in the Total Drama spin-off, Total DramaRama.
Caitlin Cooke Katherine "Kathy" Cloutier (French)	Brooke D'Orsay	She is a peppy, spoiled teenage girl with a love for shopping. She is not originally a part of the group, but became their friend when she started working to show her father she can earn money after she maxed out her credit card.
Jonesy Garcia Costa Rica Garcia (French)	Terry McGurrin	He is a tall, half-Hispanic and half-Filipino Canadian womanizing teenage boy, the joker of the group and in a relationship with Nikki Wong. He also picks on Jennifer Masterson and calls her "step-sis" because his father eventually marries Jen's mother.
Nicole 'Nikki' Wong	Stacey DePass	She is a rebellious punk rocker Chinese Canadian girl with a quick, sarcastic wit and is in a relationship with Jonesy Garcia.
Jennifer 'Jen' Masterson Julie Maréchal (French)	Megan Fahlenbock	She is a responsible, athletic girl that serves as the "mother hen" of the group. Her mother remarries to Jonesy's father, reluctantly making the pair step-siblings.
Wyatt Williams Vincent Williams (French)	Jess Gibbons	He is a Black Canadian musical boy with a caffeine addiction.

Episodes

Main article: List of 6teen episodes

Canada

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	27		November 7, 2004 (2004-11-07)	June 22, 2005 (2005-06-22)
2	27		November 2, 2005 (2005-11-02)	December 21, 2006 (2006-12-21)
3	26		September 5, 2007 (2007-09-05)	April 25, 2008 (2008-04-25)
4	13		September 10, 2009 (2009-09-10)	February 11, 2010 (2010-02-11)
Webisode			September 12, 2018 (2018-09-12)

United States

Season	Episodes	First Airdate	Last Airdate
Season 1	27	December 18, 2005 (Nickelodeon) December 26, 2005 (The N) October 23, 2008 (CN)	May 13, 2006 (Nickelodeon) January 5, 2006 (The N) March 25, 2010 (CN)
Season 2	27	July 20, 2006 (The N) November 11, 2008 (CN)	July 28, 2006 (The N) November 3, 2009 (CN)
Season 3	26	November 26, 2008 (CN)	November 10, 2009 (CN)
Season 4	13	April 5, 2010 (CN)	June 21, 2010 (CN)

Reception

Throughout the show's run, 6teen has received critical acclaim. In the winter/spring of 2005, the program ranked among Teletoons' Top 10 for children ages ten years old and up in both English and French markets. It was also the only Canadian production to be nominated for a Pulcinella Award in 2005 under "TV Series for All Audiences". Furthermore, on June 2, 2007, 6teen received an award from the Alliance for Children and Television for being the best of children's television to fall under the age group of nine to fourteen years old that year. Carole Bonneau, vice-president in charge of Teletoon's programming, has remarked about 6teen:

Aesthetically appealing, with an upbeat musical score, combined with its power to invite empathy from teens towards the main characters, with 6teen Teletoon delivers a series that is a perfect match for today's generation.

In Canada, the show garners about 2.5 million viewers each episode. In the United States, 6teen's ratings were around 1.8 million viewers each episode, and ratings held there and then even increased, making it one of Cartoon Network's top shows (October 2008 – September 2009). The highest rating 6teen received on Cartoon Network was 3.7 million viewers, on Thursday, June 11, 2009, immediately after the season premiere of Total Drama Action. As time went on (starting in October 2009), 6teen began a slow drop in ratings. The 6teen series finale, which aired on June 21, 2010, received a total of 1.6 million viewers, which is lower than previous 6teen episodes.

In 2009, the show won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song (Main Title and Promo) for its theme song, "6teen", which was performed by Phil Naro.

DVD releases

6teen home video releases

Season		Episodes	Years active	Release dates
				Region 1
	1	27	2004–05	Take This Job and Squeeze It: December 13, 2005 Episodes: "Take This Job and Squeeze It" • "The Big Sickie" • "A Lime to Party" Idol Time at the Mall: April 11, 2006 Episodes: "The Five Finger Discount" • "Breaking Up with the Boss' Son" • "Idol Time at the Mall" Employee of the Month: July 4, 2006 Episodes: "Employee of the Month" • "The Fake Date" • "The Girls in the Band" Deck the Mall: November 7, 2006 Episodes: "The Slow and The Even-Tempered" • "Deck the Mall" • "Mr. Nice Guy" Stupid Over Cupid: January 16, 2007 Episodes: "Stupid Over Cupid" • "Cecil B. Delusioned" • "The One with the Text Message" The Sushi Connection: May 15, 2007 Episodes: "The Sushi Connection" • "Clonesy" • "Enter the Dragon" Dude of the Living Dead: September 18, 2007 Episodes: "Boo, Dude!" • "Dude of the Living Dead" The Complete First Season: November 13, 2007 Episodes: "Take This Job and Squeeze It" – "Clonesy" Snow Job: February 19, 2008 Episodes: "Bring It On" One Quiet Day: May 20, 2008 Episodes: "The (Almost) Graduate" • "One Quiet Day" • "It's Always Courtney, Courtney, Courtney!" The Khaki Girl: August 5, 2008 Episodes: "The Khaki Girl" • "The Swami" • "The Birthday Boy" Special Yearbook Edition: December 2, 2008 Episodes: "Stupid Over Cupid" – "Boo, Dude" Season 1 Volume 1: October 6, 2009 Episodes: "Take This Job and Squeeze It" – "The Girls in the Band"
	2	27	2005–06	Snow Job: February 19, 2008 Episodes: "Snow Job" Season 2 Volume 1: September 22, 2009 Episodes: "Going Underground" – "The New Guy" • "Losing Your Lemon" • "The Lords of Malltown" Season 2 Volume 2: January 12, 2010 Episodes: "Major Unfaithfulness" • "Waiting to Ex-Sale" • "The Hunted" – "The Wedding Destroyers" • "Jonesy's Low Mojo" – "Girlie Boys"
	3	26	2007–08	Season 3, Volume 1: May 4, 2010 Episodes: "Sweet 6teen" – "2-4-1" • "Oops, I Dialed It Again" • "Insert Name Here" • "Double Date"

External links

• 6teen at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show