Clarissa Explains It All

''Clarissa Explains It All'' is an American teen sitcom created by Mitchell Kriegman for Nickelodeon. In the series, Clarissa Darling ( Melissa Joan Hart), is a teenager who addresses the audience directly to explain the things that are happening in her life, dealing with typical adolescent concerns such as school, boys, pimples, wearing her first training bra, and an annoying younger brother.

A total of 65 episodes were produced and aired from March 23, 1991Television section, ''New York Times'', March 17, 1991, and March 23, 1991. to October 1, 1994.''TV Week'' guide, September 29 – October 5, 1994, ''Bryan-College Station Eagle''. From August 1992 onwards, the series headlined the popular SNICK (Saturday Night Nickelodeon) lineup. Reruns of the show have appeared intermittently on TeenNick's channel block The '90s Are All That, eventually NickRewind, from 2011 to 2020.

In 2015, Kriegman released a novel, ''Things I Can't Explain'', which serves as a sequel to the series. In the novel, Clarissa is now in her late 20s and trying to navigate life as an adult. In March 2018, it was reported that a sequel to the series was in development at Nickelodeon, with Clarissa now as a mother. In March 2022, Melissa Joan Hart revealed the reboot was not moving forward at the network.

Premise

The main characters in the show are Clarissa Darling, her family (consisting of her father Marshall, her mother Janet, and her younger brother Ferguson) and her best friend Sam, all living in a small, unnamed suburban town. Clarissa had a pet baby alligator, Elvis, which she kept in a kiddie-sandbox and appeared sporadically in early episodes.

''Clarissa'' was credited with becoming the first Nickelodeon series to feature a female lead, which led the network to create other shows such as ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'', ''The Amanda Show'' and ''The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo''. Its popularity among both boys and girls also helped to debunk a myth that a children's series with a female lead would not appeal to boys.

Clarissa dealt with normal adolescent issues such as first crushes, getting a driver's license and preparing for college and working. These topics were dealt with far less dramatically than they were on other similar shows at the time (such as ''Full House'' and '' Blossom''). For instance, in one episode Clarissa accidentally shoplifts a piece of lingerie but is neither caught by store security nor punished by her parents; she spends most of the episode trying to figure out how to remedy the situation on her own. Although terms like " hell" and "sex drive" were occasionally uttered during the show's run, most dialogue was kept family-friendly. One running gag involved her friend Sam often entering the scene by a ladder (accompanied by a characteristic chord of guitar music) through her bedroom window. A repeating theme during the series was the sibling rivalry between Clarissa and Ferguson, showing their repeated attempts to harm or even (as in the series premiere) to "kill" each other.

Unique to the show was Clarissa's tendency to tackle the episode's central theme through the creation of a fictional video game. The show also integrated some of Hart's real-life likes, such as the band They Might Be Giants.

Episodes

The decision to structure the episodes into five seasons of thirteen episodes each was made after the show ended its original broadcast run. During the original run of the series, the seasons were not well defined.

Characters

Main

* Clarissa Marie Darling ( Melissa Joan Hart) – A smart, witty, sarcastic and realistic teenage girl. Despite her rationalism, she often tends to exaggerate any problem she is facing. She was approximately 13 years old when the series began and was a freshman at Thomas Tupper Junior High School. Her interests include computer game programming, photography, journalism and rock music. Though she is usually mild-mannered, she can be just as selfish and calculating as her younger brother Ferguson. Clarissa is best known for her unique fashion sense, typically involving very colorful, mismatched clothing. During Season 1, Clarissa had an alligator named Elvis, but in the first episode of Season 2, Clarissa explained that her parents sent Elvis back to Florida when he grew too big. In Mitchell Kriegman's novel, ''Things I Can't Explain'', Clarissa further elaborated that he "disappeared under mysterious circumstances" and "it took years to get mom to confess that she gave away the reptilian Elvis without telling me after Ferguson tried to shove a pocket watch down its throat thinking it would win him the role of Captain Hook in the school play." In reality David Ellis, who worked as art director in-house on the series, suggested that the show may have been under pressure from the ASPCA to remove the alligator from later episodes and that it would also represent the idea that Clarissa was also growing older.
* Ferguson W. Darling ( Jason Zimbler) – Clarissa's younger brother, a mischievous redhead. He and Clarissa continually antagonize each other. She refers to him with several epithets such as "Ferg-face", "Fergwad" or "Fergbreath." He loves money and comes up with get-rich-quick schemes. He is also a Young Republican who idolizes Dan Quayle and Ronald Reagan. He attends school with her and is approximately one or two years younger. In some episodes Clarissa and Ferguson occasionally collaborate, usually to the advantage of both. However, he is somewhat less popular at school than Clarissa. Ferguson's mom gave him her maiden name for a first name. Despite achieving fame relatively early in his career, unlike co-star Hart, Zimbler decided to not pursue an acting career and attended college instead. As Zimbler later recalled, "somewhere on the show, I think I grew up."
* Samuel "Sam" Anders (Sean O'Neal

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