Clarissa Explains It All
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| Clarissa Explains It All | |
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 title card |
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| Genre | comedy |
| Creator(s) | Mitchell Kriegman |
| Starring | Melissa Joan Hart Jason Zimbler Elizabeth Hess Joe O'Connor Sean O'Neal |
| Narrated by | Melissa Joan Hart |
| Opening theme | Rachel Sweet |
| Ending theme | Rachel Sweet |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Mitchell Kriegman Marjorie Cohn Brown Johnson |
| Running time | 30 minutes (with commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nickelodeon |
| Picture format | NTSC |
| Audio format | stereophonic sound |
| Original run | March 1, 1991 – December 3, 1994 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Clarissa Explains It All was an American situation comedy television series from Nickelodeon starring a then unknown Melissa Joan Hart. Sixty-five episodes were shown during the three seasons. The teen sitcom ran from March 1, 1991 to December 3, 1994. In the series, Clarissa, a teenager, breaks the fourth wall and describes the things that are happening in her life (dealing with typical teen concerns such as school, pimples and an aggravating little brother) to her television audience.
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[edit] Plot and background
The main characters in the show are Clarissa Darling, her family (consisting of her father Marshall, her mother Janet and her brother Ferguson Darling) and her best friend Sam. Clarissa and Sam's relationship was a novelty on television at the time, due to few television series allowing a girl and a boy to be merely friends without romance blossoming. (One episode featured the idea of their having a romance, but ultimately ended without their getting together.) Clarissa also had a pet baby alligator, named Elvis, which she kept in a kiddie-sandbox in the left corner of her room.
The show was filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was an enormous success, generating some of the highest ratings for a cable production, remarkable given its status as a "kids" TV show. The final two seasons of the show headlined the popular SNICK (Saturday Night-Nick) lineup, which was a lead-in to shows like All That, and Are You Afraid of the Dark? Despite its seemingly innocent reputation, in hindsight Clarissa probably pushed a few boundaries at the time, even making subtle references to sex and teen partying, though in a light-hearted, contemporary fashion. In one episode in the series, Clarissa even shoplifts lingerie--albeit accidentally. Unique to the program was its representation of each episode's theme by showing Clarissa tackling the issue of the episode through a fictional computer game.
A pilot for a follow-up series, Clarissa Now, was shot for CBS in 1995, but was not picked up. However, the pilot was shown on a few occasions on Nickelodeon after the original series had ended production. The series would have revolved around Clarissa's internship at a New York City newspaper. Comedian Robert Klein co-starred as the newspaper's crusty editor, Hugh Hamilton.
In 2002 Hart said that she would not be interested in a cast reunion project; "No. Shirley Temple taught me one thing. And that was once you finish a career, you move on."
In May 2005, the show's first season was released on DVD as part of the Nickelodeon Rewind Collection by Nickelodeon's sister company, Paramount Pictures. The second season was scheduled to be released a few months later, but has been postponed indefinitely.
[edit] Cast
- Melissa Joan Hart – Clarissa Darling
- Jason Zimbler – Ferguson Darling
- Elizabeth Hess – Janet Darling
- Joe O'Connor – Marshall Darling
- Sean O'Neal – Sam Anders
Guest players on the show, although relatively infrequent, included future stars Michelle Trachtenberg, James Van Der Beek and Megyn Price.
[edit] Crew
- Created by Mitchell Kriegman
- Editor: Rick Fernandes
- Graphics: Don St. Mars
- Construction Coordinator: Ed McMillian
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Trivia
- The show's unique theme tune was sung by comedian/actress Rachel Sweet. The song consisted entirely of "Na, na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na, na-na", punctuated with the occasional "Way cool!" or "All right! All right!", and underscored by rhythmic instrumentation, ending with a resounding "Just do it!".
- As a sign of affection, Marshall will usually call Clarissa "sport".
- The show was credited with becoming the first Nickelodeon series to feature a female lead, which led the network to create other such shows, namely The Secret World of Alex Mack andThe Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, and later Unfabulous and Zoey 101.
- Mindless Self Indulgence wrote a song called "Clarissa", which makes references to the show.
- Clarissa's computer was an Amiga.
- One of the few Nickelodeon shows to actually say and spell out the words "hell" and "sex" on screen.
- A guitar lick was played throughout the series whenever Sam would come through Clarissa's window. Clarissa would also say "Hey Sam!" before the lick will be played.
- In the Season 2 premiere of Nick Arcade, Melissa Joan Hart and Jason Zimbler (as the red team) took on Elizabeth Hess and Joe O'Connor (as the yellow team) in a special charity episode. While Hart and Zimbler won, every one of the players were invited to go into the video zone to battle the game wizard of the day, "Merlock".
- The band The Number Twelve Looks Like You has a song titled "Clarissa Explains Cuntainment," based off the show's title.
- In the first episode, Clarissa states that she likes John Linnell of the band They Might Be Giants. In addition to this, posters of the band are featured prominently in Clarissa's room.
- On the episode where Ferguson is learning a new language, one of them is "Yugoslavian." While Yugoslavia was a European country, it was made up of six nations. Each nation had its own language (Bosnia-Bosnian, Croatia-Croatian, Macedonia-Macedonian, Serbia & Montenegro-Serbian, Slovenia-Slovenian), therefore "Yugoslavian" is technically not a language.
[edit] See also
| SNICK and TEENick television series |
|---|
| 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd • 6teen • All That • The Amanda Show • Are You Afraid of the Dark? • The Brothers Garcia • Caitlin's Way • Clarissa Explains It All • Clueless • Cousin Skeeter • Drake & Josh • Hangin' with Mr. Cooper' • The Journey of Allen Strange • Just for Kicks • Just Jordan • KaBlam! • Kenan & Kel • The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo • The Naked Brothers Band • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide • The Nick Cannon Show • The Ren and Stimpy Show • Romeo! • Roundhouse • Rugrats • Sabrina, the Teenage Witch • The Secret World of Alex Mack • Space Cases • Taina • Unfabulous • Zoey 101 |
