Summer Heights High | |
---|---|
Genre |
Comedy Mockumentary |
Created by | Chris Lilley |
Written by | Chris Lilley |
Directed by | Stuart McDonald |
Starring | Chris Lilley |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 8 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Laura Waters |
Running time | 27 minutes |
Production company(s) | Princess Pictures |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Picture format |
576i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV) |
Original release | 5 September | – 24 October 2007
Chronology | |
Preceded by | We Can Be Heroes |
Followed by | Angry Boys |
Related shows |
Ja'mie: Private School Girl Jonah from Tonga |
External links | |
Website |
Summer Heights High is an Australian mockumentary television series written by and starring Chris Lilley. Set in the fictional Summer Heights High School in an outer suburb of Melbourne, it is a documentary series of high-school life experience from the viewpoints of three individuals: "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; private-school exchange student Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan student Jonah Takalua. The series lampoons Australian high-school life and many aspects of the human condition and is filmed documentary-style with non-actors playing supporting characters.
As he did in a previous series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year, Lilley plays multiple characters in Heights, including the aforementioned Mr G, Ja'mie and Jonah. Filmed in Melbourne at Brighton Secondary College, the series premiered on 5 September 2007 at 9:30 pm on ABC TV and continued for 8 weekly episodes until 24 October 2007. Each episode was also released as a weekly podcast directly after its screening via both the official website and through any RSS podcast client in either WMV or MPEG-4.
Summer Heights High was a massive ratings success for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was met with mostly positive critical reaction. In 2008, the series won a Logie Award for Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program.
On 26 March 2008, it was announced that the show had been sold for international distribution to BBC Three in the United Kingdom, HBO in the United States, and The Comedy Network in Canada.