System Crash was a Canadian TV show that aired on YTV from 1999 to 2001. The format was a hybrid Kid Com and Sketch Comedy: the premise involved the Media Club at Lambton Junior High in what is obviously Toronto, documenting the previous week's events. Each episode was built around a particular theme, and the actors played consistent characters from sketch to sketch. Recurring sketches were frequent, with many appearing in each episode.
Not to be confused with Radio Active, another Canadian Series which aired around the same time and also focused a group of media students (who ran the school's radio station). That show was shot in Montreal, was a straight Kid Com without sketch elements, and had a much lower production budget (System Crash actually shot on location at a real school and had a large cast of extras in each episode, among other things).
This show contains examples of:
- Butt-Monkey: Burnbaum. Nobody respected him at all. He seemed to take it in stride.
- Granola Girl: Zoe.
- Junior High: Lambton is a junior high school. (It was "played" by the now-closed Eastern High School of Commerce in East Toronto.)
- Last-Name Basis: Nathan Burnbaum is always just Burnbaum.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: The entire Lambton Media Club began to be credited in the opening starting in season 2.
- Revolving Door Casting: The show ran four seasons, and just one of the six original cast members lasted the duration (Haleigh Sheehan as Zoe). Replacement actors didn't tend to last long either, except for Owen Rotharmel as Beau (joined in season 2 and stayed until the end).
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Usually avoided with cast changes, but when Nathaniel Siegler (who played the popular Burnbaum) left after season 3 it was decided to create a clone named Bobby Battleford, who even took over his "Burnbaum Helps" sketch.
