Life is a Beach is an episode of the Canadian Boys in-universe comedy/drama TV series Secondary School by the Sea. It is perhaps the most famous episode in the whole series, being rerun many times on the COCBC Channel, and has been recently re-animated to match up with more modern times as from its original 2002 airdate.
Premise[]
Dartmouth, Jollimore and all their students go on the annual summer day trip to the beach to celebrate the start of the warmer weather and cool themselves down by splashing around in the sea. While Jollimore is obviously excited, Dartmouth has some much darker thoughts on his mind about how the students will try to finish him off beside the seaside.
Plot[]
One hot, sunny summer morning, Dartmouth arrives at the school to find Jollimore dressed in black shorts, black sandals, and a rainbow-coloured lei. He questions his fashion, stating that he's supposed to be teaching in class. Jollimore replies that he's dressed like this because today is the annual start-of-summer school trip to the beach, ands Dartmouth sarcastically asks if it's THAT time of the school year again.
Dartmouth and Jollimore enter the playground, where all their students (who are dressed just like Jollimore) are waiting to board a coach to the beach. Dartmouth orders them to stand in line while he checks over each student and stows away their baggage, during which he has his hand cut by a concealed knife blade. Initially displaying his pain, Dartmouth quickly hides the injury from Jollimore with his usual facade of stoicism.
Once they're let onto the bus, the students waste no time in grabbing a seat for each of themselves, where they immediately start tapping away on their electronic devices. In his paranoic state of mind, Dartmouth suspects that they may be planning to kill him via text message, whispering so Jollimore won't hear. The two teachers sit at the very front of the bus directly behind the driver, so in case of emergency they can inform him in a matter of seconds.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Dartmouth & Jollimore Prepare for the Beach (alternative).jpg (369 KB)")
.jpg "Dartmouth & Jollimore swimsuits (alternative).jpg (1.1 MB)")
Characters[]
- Dartmouth
- Jollimore
- Dartmouth and Jollimore's students
- The coach driver
- The truck stop store clerk
- The beach truck driver
Trivia[]
- This episode's title is a play on the phrase "life's a beach" or "life's a bitch", reflecting both the seaside setting and Dartmouth's pessimistic outlook on life.
- This episode was originally going to be titled "Sea Strife", a pun on "Sea Life", referring to Dartmouth's misery and mishaps while at the beach.
- This episode is one of several early Secondary School by the Sea episodes which were later re-animated to suit modern times. One example is the students' smartphones and tablets, which were early-2000s-style cellphones in the 2002 original.