History Main / RadioActive

''Radio Active'' may refer to:

''RadioActive'' was a Canadian TV show that aired from 1998 - 2001, based on 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''. [[HilarityEnsues Chaos frequently ensued]] as the group worked to avoid and undermine the sneaky teacher-supervisor Ms. Noelle [[MeaningfulName Atoll]], who always believes (usually rightly) 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 [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute 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 [[{{KYTV}} the British radio show of the same name]], nor with actual [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactivity]].

----
!!This show contains examples of:
* AbuseIsOkayWhenItsFemaleOnMale: [[ZigZaggedTrope 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.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Sarah, to Morgan.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Morgan and Kevin. To a lesser extent, later, Morgan and Blair.
* BottleEpisode: 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 [[LivingProp token extras]] in later seasons, but it did little to hide the "budget" feeling.
* CatchPhrase: "I remember when I was your age..." by Mr. Noseworthy.
* CloudCuckooLander: George Goodwin.
* EarpieceConversation: There's an episode wherein Kevin is being coached through an oral exam by a hidden microphone with Morgan on the other end.
* HeyItsThatVoice: Michael Yarmush, who plays Ethan, is much better known as a voice actor. He had a very successful career playing young boy characters, most famously the first WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}.
* HighSchool: Obviously.
* HighSchoolDance: 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".
* IAmSpartacus: 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.
* IsThisThingStillOn: 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.
* JerkJock: Kevin, and later, Blair.
* LiteralGenie: Mr. Noseworthy was once hypnotized into falling in love with the first thing he saw. And then he was shown a chair.
* MeaningfulName: Ms ''Atoll'', the strict disciplinarian that no one likes.
* MistakenForGay: 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 [[EvenTheGuysWantHim sudden attractiveness to men]]. It turns out the letter really ''was'' written by George, but he hadn't intended to give it to Kevin.
* QuoteMine: 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."
* TheRashomon: 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.
* SchoolPlay: In one episode Ms. Atoll "suggests" that the main cast put on a radio play.
* SoundDefect: 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 ringing''
-->'''Morgan (as narrator)''': "...they were cellular church bells..."
* SpiritualSuccessor: The show ''Fries With That'' - same production company, same network ({{YTV}} ''still'' airs re-runs in pretty good timeslots), and one of the same leads. The acting and writing styles are virtually identical. To his credit though, the returning actor, who plays George in ''RadioActive'', plays a very different character (more an Ethan/Roger type).
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Kevin and Ethan were replaced by Blair and Roger, who had similar roles on the show.
* TwoTeacherSchool: Lampshaded--Ms. Atoll and Mr. Noseworthy are the only teachers the students can name. (A few other teachers appeared, but never in more than one episode.)
* WhenIWasYourAge: Mr. Noseworthy; see CatchPhrase.
* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: 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 AllJustADream. (OrWasItADream)

* SoundDefect: The radio play features George running the sound board, which means none of the sound effects are appropriate, which culminates in pure chaos when a loud explosion sound effect scares everyone causing them to drop their scripts.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Michael Yarmush, who plays Ethan, is much better known as a voice actor. He had a very successful career playing young boy characters, most famously the first {{Arthur}}.

Not to be confused with the British radio show of the same name, nor with actual [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactivity]].

* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: 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 AllJustADream. (OrWasItADream?)

* AccidentalInnuendo: Mr. Noseworthy talking to Kevin about musicians, bringing up the most awkward names in the biz, like Englebert ''Hump''erdink and Joe ''Cock''er

* IsThisThingStillOn?: 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.

* JumpTheShark: The actors who played Kevin and Ethan had much more energy and chemistry with their castmates than their replacements. The hole left by their departure was never really filled.

* MistakenForGay: 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'd wanted this for a long time." and "I've been practicing with George - at his house, and just now, in the common room". It turns out it really was written by George, but he hadn't intended to give it to Kevin.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The show ''FriesWithThat'' - same production company, same network ({{YTV}} ''still'' airs re-runs in pretty good timeslots), and one of the same leads. The acting and writing styles are virtually identical. To his credit though, the returning actor, who plays George in ''RadioActive'', plays a very different character (more an Ethan/Roger type).

* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: 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 AllJustADream. (OrWasItADream?)

* WhenIWasYourAge: Mr. Noseworthy; see CatchPhrase.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The show ''Fries With That'' - same production company, same network ({{YTV}} ''still'' airs re-runs in pretty good timeslots), and one of the same leads. The acting and writing styles are virtually identical. To his credit though, the returning actor, who plays George in ''RadioActive'', plays a very different character (more an Ethan/Roger type).

* TwoTeacherSchool: the only teachers we ever see, with the exceptions of possible one-offs in episodes, are Ms. Atoll and Mr. Noseworthy.