6teen

6teen is an animated sitcom for older children, preteens, 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 Toronto Eaton Centre and the West Edmonton Mall. The series follows the cast of six 16 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.

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.[8] 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.[8]

The show's principal characters were designed by Brad Coombs. 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.

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.[10] It was also the only Canadian production to be nominated for a Pulcinella Award in 2005 under "TV Series for All Audiences".[10] 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.[11] 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",[12] which was performed by Phil Naro.

Because 6teen was targeted towards a more mature audience (pre-teen and teen), certain episodes were deemed too risque or inappropriate by American channels Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. This led to 24 episodes being censored or pulled in the United States.[13] With Canada's legalization of same-sex marriage occurring around the time of the show's release, many episodes of 6teen included references and innuendos to homosexuality, all of which were censored in the US.[14] Other censorships and bans in the United States included a plotline that centered around shoplifting, and nude images that were modifed from the show's original blur-out to a full black bar.

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• 6teen on IMDb
• 6teen at TV.com