Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn founded Epitome Pictures in 1992,[1] and purchased its first studio building in 1995, to film Riverdale.[2] At the time, the studio was allegedly "in a sorry state, with snow melting on the leaking roof and cans catching the water".[2] Its main headquarters were located on a 100,000 square-foot lot in Bartley Drive in Toronto, Ontario.[3] In April 2014, the company and its library, including the Degrassi series produced before Epitome (The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, and the non-fiction documentary series Degrassi Talks), was acquired by fellow Canadian television producer DHX Media for $33 million.[4][5]
After the buyout, Epitome's assets were absorbed into DHX Media, and the studio was renamed DHX Media Toronto in 2016. On April 2, 2019, DHX announced plans to sell the Bartley Drive studio for $12 million, as part of their intentions to streamline its physical operations across Canada.[6] In September that year, DHX Media was renamed WildBrain.[7]
Playing With Time, Inc. was a Canadian film and television production company based in Toronto, Ontario, and the predecessor of Epitome Pictures. Founded by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1976,[8] the company is best known for producing The Kids of Degrassi Street, as well as Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, the first, second, and third respective entries of the Degrassi franchise. Schuyler, a Grade 7 and Grade 8 media teacher at Earl Grey Senior Public School in Toronto in 1976,[9] met Hood, then an editor for television commercials, when she needed help from an experienced editor to save the "muddled footage" of one of her projects.[10] Hood and Schuyler found a balance; editor Hood was inexperienced in writing, and Schuyler was inexperienced in editing, leading to their creative partnership.[10] The production offices were located on 935 Queen Street East,[11] where the Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High cast would routinely gather to be taken to the schools where the respective series were filmed.[12]
Epitome Pictures later owned the rights to the three previous Degrassi shows produced by Playing With Time.[4]
