Wayside

Wayside
"Fly by the Wayside"
Genre: Comedy Running Time: 11 minutes Country: Canada Release Date: March 16, 2007 – January 15, 2008 (CAN) June 25, 2007 - September 18, 2008 (U.S.) Network(s): Nickelodeon Nicktoons Network (only 6 episodes) Teletoon YTV Created by: Louis Sachar Distributed by: ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks Nelvana Starring: Mark Rendall Denise Oliver Lisa Ng Martin Villafana Kathleen Laskey Kedar Brown Sergio Di Zio Jayne Eastwood Seasons: 2 Episodes: 26 (52 segments)

Wayside (also known as Wayside School) is a Canadian animated television series that was produced by Nelvana and aired on Teletoon and Nickelodeon from 2007 to 2008, though it initially started out as a 2005 television movie. The show aired in the United States on Nickelodeon from June 25, 2007, to February 14, 2008. The remaining 6 episodes of season 2 aired on Nicktoons Network on August 26-29, 2008, and September 18, 2008. It's loosely based on a book series called "Wayside School" by Louis Sachar. It currently airs reruns on YTV.

Why It Flies By The Wayside (In a Good Way)

1. Todd and Louis are tolerable characters.
2. Catchy theme song.
3. The traditional animation for the first season is smooth thanks to Mercury Filmworks.
4. Decent voice acting.
5. Occasional heartwarming moments.
6. Some decent jokes.
7. The character designs are great, which greatly assembles Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCracken, and Butch Hartman.
8. Some good episodes like Kindergarten King and Music Lessons.
9. It does teach a few good morals here and there.

Bad Qualities

1. Virtually no connections and several inaccuracies to the original book series.
   • Some of the characters' personalities are completely different from the ones in the books. For a complete list:
     • Most notably, Maurecia, who went from a sweet girl with a love of ice cream to a roller-skating tomboy who punches Todd around.
     • Myron went from one of the more level-headed students to a power-hungry idiot.
     • Dana went from a generally emotional girl to a psychotic rule-worshipping nerd.
     • Principal Kidswatter went from a minor antagonist to a carbon copy of cartoon Myron who hogs up screen time.
     • Jenny constantly rides a bike everywhere, whereas, in the books, she just happened to wear a motorcycle helmet.
     • John is constantly upside down, compared to his portrayal in the books, where he was the class genius who happened to read things upside down.
     • Stephen wears an elf costume in the cartoon and carries a jack-o-lantern around. In the book chapter "Stephen", where they got this characterization from, he instead wears a homebrew goblin costume, and he wasn't obsessed with Halloween, he was just the only one to come dressed for a Halloween party.
     • Other characters such as Bebe, Leslie, Joe, The Three Erics, and Rondi are regulated to backgrounders with barely any personality.
     • Some of the kids from the books are cut out completely; they include: Allison, Benjamin, Calvin, D.J., Dameon, Deedee, Jason, Joy, Kathy, Mac, Paul, Ron, and Terrance.
2. There are some mean-spirited moments toward the main protagonist, Todd, especially Mrs. Jewls often sending him home on the kindergarten bus for no discernible reason, even though it's accurate to the book, and Maurecia always punching him, just because she loves Todd.
3. Bland and/or annoying characters. Todd is the only one in the show with common sense.
4. The show suffers from unoriginality. One background song sounds extremely similar to "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor and another sounding very similar to "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer.
5. Some episodes make no sense. For example, "Pull My Pigtail", based on the chapter where Paul hesitates to pull Leslie's pigtails, is focused on Todd being forced to pull Maurecia's hair. Maurecia has a ponytail, even though Leslie is still in the show and has pigtails.
6. It teaches kids some bad morals just like (ex. punching the people that you love, using a different word for something that you hate, bully the person with common sense, being a jerk).
7. The flash animation season 2 is cheap-looking, stilted, and stiff.

Reception

Main article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayside_(TV_series)#Reception

Trivia

• Although he praised the animation, Louis Sachar himself didn't like the show.
• The animation for the pilot movie and the first half of the show was traditional. The rest was done in flash.

Episodes with their own pages

• Pull My Pigtail
• Class Cow

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