Vampire High facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Vampire High
Vampire High DVD cover.
Created by	Garry Blye Mark Shekter
Starring	Jeff Roop Meghan Ory Ilona Elkin Joris Jarsky Karen Cliche Paul Hopkins Adam MacDonald Marianne Farley Jodie Resther Patrick Thomas David McIlwraith Wendii Fulford Daniel Pilon Victoria Barkoff
Country of origin	Canada United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	25 mins.
Release
Original network	YTV
Picture format	480i (4:3 SDTV)
Original release	September 15, 2001 - May 4, 2002

Vampire High is a Canadian TV show that aired from 2001 to 2002. It's about a special school where young vampires learn to live among regular teenagers. The show explores the challenges faced by both the vampires and human students. They deal with typical teen problems like friendships, crushes, and fitting in. Professor Murdoch guides them, but he also has secrets that could put everyone in danger.

About the Show's Story

The story of Vampire High begins with a big event called "The Great Eclipse." This event caused a war among vampires. Some vampires, called the "Fury," were very aggressive. Others, known as the "Elders," wanted peace. To save young vampires, the Elders sent them to a special private boarding school called Mansbridge Academy.

Professor Murdoch is in charge of this experiment. His goal is to teach the young vampires how to live peacefully with humans. Mansbridge Academy is also home to human students. These human students are often from wealthy families and are sent there because their parents don't know what else to do with them.

The show mainly focuses on the school at night, when the vampires are active. Five main vampires are part of this experiment: Drew, Karl, Essie, Marty, and Merrill. They try to learn how to control their vampire instincts and become more "human."

When the series starts, we meet Sherry, a human girl who feels a bit lost. She's looking for true friendship and love. She spends her time thinking and recording her thoughts. As the story unfolds, she becomes very important to one of the vampires.

Meet the Characters

Main Characters

• Drew French (played by Jeff Roop) is a quiet and mysterious vampire. He's the unofficial leader of the night students. Drew has been a vampire since the 1800s. In his human life, he was an artist named Edward Vincente. He falls in love with Sherry, a human student. Drew believes Sherry is his "One," which is a vampire term for a soulmate. He can see and hear things happening far away. When Sherry faces a sad event, Drew is deeply affected.
• Sherry Woods (played by Meghan Ory) is an unusual human girl. She falls in love with Drew, the vampire. Before Drew, she dated Nick McAllister, but she ended it because he was too bossy. Sherry still had some mixed feelings about Nick, but she eventually gave her heart to Drew. After learning Drew is a vampire, Sherry becomes very ill. Drew tries to save her, but she passes away.
• Merrill Young (played by Ilona Elkin) is a vampire who seems shy and smart at first. But as the show goes on, we see she can be sneaky. She believes Drew is her "One" and gets very upset when he falls for Sherry. Her jealousy might have played a role in Sherry's illness. Later, she starts to like Marty, another vampire. Merrill can read minds and enter people's dreams. She is very determined to make the experiment work. The vampire who turned her is named Patsy LaRue. Merrill also has a pet rat named Bela.
• Karl Todman (played by Paul Hopkins) is a new vampire. He is easily influenced, especially by Marty. He looks up to Drew and has a romantic relationship with Essie. Before becoming a vampire, Karl was a popular football player. As the youngest vampire, he struggles the most with his new life and misses being human. He once bit a former classmate. Karl has a mother and a younger sister who don't know he's a vampire.
• Essie Rachimova (played by Karen Cliche) is a glamorous vampire from a royal family. She claims that some historical figures were also vampires. She has a complicated relationship with Karl. Essie can make people believe things or forget things. She sometimes uses this power to make humans forget seeing vampires.
• Marty Strickland (played by Joris Jarsky) is a rebellious vampire with a good sense of humor. He joined the Mansbridge experiment for easy access to blood. But he slowly starts to reconnect with his human side. He has a rivalry with Drew and becomes interested in Merrill. Marty can move objects with his mind.
• Dr. Reginald Murdoch (played by David McIlwraith) is the mysterious head of Mansbridge Academy and the experiment. He works hard to make the experiment a success and keep the vampires from harming the human students. It's not fully clear what he is, but he seems to be neither human nor vampire. This might explain why he is not affected by vampire powers and never seems to sleep.
• Dillan Vanderson (played by Marianne Farley) is a human student who arrives later in the year. She has a strong personality. Merrill initially suspects Dillan is possessed by a legendary huntress who targets vampires. However, it turns out Sherry was possessed by the Huntress. After Sherry's passing, Dillan becomes her roommate and friend. By the end of the series, it seems Dillan might become Drew's new love interest. In the last episode, after being bitten by Karl, her eyes briefly turn red, suggesting she might be turning into a vampire. This was not explored further because the show was canceled.

Other Characters

• Mimi Sperling (played by Jodie Resther) is Sherry's best friend, and later Dillan's. Her father was a rock star. Mimi doesn't like Mansbridge but knows she needs to be there. She often comes close to being a vampire's victim without realizing it.
• Nick McAllister (played by Adam MacDonald) is Sherry's ex-boyfriend. He is obsessed with Sherry and has a rivalry with Drew, even though they never meet. Nick is a mean jock who often bullies Malcolm Frye. He suspects Malcolm likes Sherry.
• Malcolm Frye (played by Patrick Thomas) is a friend to Sherry and Mimi. He's often bullied by Nick and is a computer expert. Malcolm causes trouble when he posts online about seeing Karl, who is supposed to be dead. He has a crush on agent Marianne Hackett and is fascinated by vampires and ghosts. Malcolm is actually the son of the school's security guard, Dwight Frye.
• Vakaal (played by Daniel Pilon) is one of the Elders who oversee the Mansbridge experiment. He is very old and powerful. He often visits Mansbridge to check on the experiment's progress.
• Marianne Hackett (played by Wendii Fulford) is an agent for the Biomorphic Predatory Disease Agency (BPDA). This group hunts vampires. She suspects there are vampires at Mansbridge and wants to prove it. She also suspects Dr. Murdoch is involved. She uses a laser gun and a crossbow to fight vampires.

Vampires in this series sleep in coffins during the day and burn in direct sunlight. However, there's no mention of garlic or crucifixes affecting them. Like vampires in the Twilight series, they are very fast and strong. Each vampire also has a unique power, like Essie's mind-wiping, Marty's ability to move objects with his mind, or Merrill's mind-reading. While immortal, older vampires in this series become weaker and slower until they can't move.

The name "Wrenfield High" is a nod to Renfield, a character from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Also, Dwight Frye, Malcolm's father, is named after the actor Dwight Frye, who played Renfield in the 1931 Dracula movie.

Behind the Scenes

Vampire High has 26 episodes and takes place at the fictional Mansbridge Academy. The idea for the series came to Mark Shekter during a night flight. He first thought of it as a comic book, but then decided to make it a TV show. He wrote the first episode before his plane even landed!

During filming, not all the scripts were finished. New scripts were written as they went along, and the actors even helped develop their characters.

The show's production was paused for a while due to money issues, but it later continued. Then, Meghan Ory, who played Sherry, wanted to leave the series. So, her character had to be written out of the show. A new main character, Dillan Vanderson, played by Marianne Farley, was then introduced.

After the first season, the show was canceled, even though the script for a second season was already written. The reasons for the cancellation were not officially given.

The first DVD for the series was released on March 1, 2005. Four episodes were combined into a 90-minute movie called Vampire High — School's A Pain In The Neck!. Later, two more DVDs were released: Vampire High: Second Semester High School Bites and Vampire High Bites Back. They're Dying To Meet You!.

In 2011, a documentary called Vampire High: 10 Years Later Documentary was made. This 25-minute documentary discusses how the series was produced.

DVD Releases

There are three DVDs available for Vampire High.

Episode Guide