''Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High'' is an American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

television series loosely based on

Francine Pascal Francine Pascal ('' née'' Rubin, born May 13, 1938) is an American author best known for creating the Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. ''Sweet Valley High'' was the backbone of the collection, and was made into a popular television se ...

's book series of the same name. The program starred

Brittany Daniel Brittany Ann Daniel (born March 17, 1976) is an American actress. She is the twin sister of photographer and former actress Cynthia Daniel Cynthia Lynn Daniel (married name: Cynthia Hauser) is an American photographer and former actress. ...

and

Cynthia Daniel Cynthia Lynn Daniel (married name: Cynthia Hauser) is an American photographer and former actress. She is the twin sister of actress Brittany Daniel and is best known for her role as Elizabeth Wakefield in the 1990s syndicated teen drama ''Swee ...

as the two lead characters and ran from September 5, 1994, to October 14, 1997. The program was produced by Teen Dream Productions, Inc. in association with and distributed by

Saban Entertainment Saban Entertainment, Inc. (along with Saban International; currently operating under the legal name is BVS Entertainment, Inc.) was a worldwide-served independent American-Israeli television production company formed in 1980 by Haim Saban and S ...

in the United States, and its international sister company, Saban International N.V. in the Netherlands. After three seasons in

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

(mostly on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

stations), the show moved to

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...

for its fourth and final season in September 1997, where it was canceled the following month of October, due to low ratings. The show was also broadcast internationally, outside of the United States on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

in the UK.

Synopsis

The series revolves around the lives of Elizabeth and

Jessica Wakefield ''Sweet Valley High'' is a series of young adult novels attributed to American author Francine Pascal, who presided over a team of ghostwriters to produce the series. The books chronicle the lives of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefiel ...

, beautiful blonde twins who live in the fictitious Sweet Valley, California, and their gang of friends. Elizabeth is warm, friendly and sincere, while her twin sister Jessica is flirty, mischievous, and irresponsible.

Episodes

Cast and characters

as Jessica "Jess" Wakefield, the outgoing, party loving, fashionable, and wilder Wakefield twin *

as Elizabeth "Liz" Wakefield, the quieter, more sensible and down to earth Wakefield twin * Amarilis (season 1) as Patty Gilbert, Jessica's cheerleader friend *

Ryan James Bittle Ryan James Bittle (born March 21, 1976) is an American actor. He began appearing on television in 1994. Early life Bittle was born in La Crescenta, California, the son of Kathy Homewood, a nurse, and ICU director, and Jim Bittle, a Glendale fire ...

(seasons 1–2) and Jeremy Vincent Garrett (seasons 3–4) as

Todd Wilkins ''Sweet Valley High'' is a series of young adult novels attributed to American author Francine Pascal, who presided over a team of ghostwriters to produce the series. The books chronicle the lives of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefiel ...

, Elizabeth's boyfriend * Brock Burnett (season 1) and Christopher Jackson (season 2) as

Bruce Patman ''Sweet Valley High'' is a series of young adult novels attributed to American author Francine Pascal, who presided over a team of ghostwriters to produce the series. The books chronicle the lives of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefiel ...

, Todd and Winston's rival, and enemy of Jessica's * Amy Danles as Enid Rollins, Elizabeth's best friend *

Bridget Flanery Bridget Christine Flanery (born March 24, 1970 in Guthrie Center, Iowa) is an American actress. Early life Bridget Christine Flanery was born on March 24 in Guthrie Center, Iowa. Flanery has an older sister, Jill, and three brothers, James, B ...

(seasons 1–2) and Shirlee Elliot (seasons 3–4) as Lila Fowler, Jessica's best friend * Michael Perl as

Winston Egbert ''Sweet Valley High'' is a series of young adult novels attributed to American author Francine Pascal, who presided over a team of ghostwriters to produce the series. The books chronicle the lives of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakef ...

, Todd's best friend * Harley Rodriguez as Manny Lopez, Todd's and Winston's friend, and early on the right-hand man to Bruce Patman, Enid's eventual boyfriend * Tyffany Hayes (seasons 2–4) as Cheryl "Tatyana" Thomas, supermodel friend of Elizabeth, Jessica and Todd * John Jocelyn (season 3) as Reginald "Shred" Patman, Bruce's cousin and Winston's friend * Manley Pope (season 4) as Devon Whitelaw, boyfriend to Elizabeth and Jessica *

Andrea Savage Andrea Kristen Savage (born February 20, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, and writer known for her roles in projects such as the Comedy Central mockumentary series '' Dog Bites Man'' (2006), the comedy film '' Step Brothers'' (2008), Hulu ...

(season 4) as Renata Vargas, Jessica's and Lila's friend, and briefly Todd's girlfriend

Production

It was announced that in June 1994 that twin sisters

and

got cast in the series.

Home media

In August 1996, two ''Sweet Valley High'' VHS tapes were released by WarnerVision Entertainment and Saban Home Entertainment titled 'Kidnapped' and 'Dangerous Love', which featured exclusive music videos based on the songs featured in the TV series. Although more releases were planned, they never saw the light of day after

WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...

folded WarnerVision Entertainment into Warner Home Video and ended their agreement with Saban. On March 8, 2005,

Buena Vista Home Entertainment Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,Region 1. A DVD release of Season two was also planned, with an old promotional trailer being posted online in 2013; however, this release was canceled due to unknown reasons.

Soundtrack

In 1995, a

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

album was released featuring original songs that were in the series along with a longer version of the show's theme song (sung by Kathy Fisher).

Track listing

#"Sweet Valley High Theme" (Long version) #"Lotion" (Jessica's Theme) #"Rose Colored Glasses" #"She's Got the Answers" #"Not Myself Today" #"Alive" #"Rest of My Life" #"My Jessica" #"All to Myself" #"Secrets" #"My World" #"On Our Own" #"She Walks in Roses" #"Sweet Valley High Theme" (TV version)

References

External links

*
Sweet Valley Unlimited:: Your Source to Everything Sweet Valley

''Sweet Valley High'' theme song, season 1
{{UPN Kids 1990s American comedy-drama television series 1990s American high school television series 1994 American television series debuts 1997 American television series endings American television shows based on children's books English-language television shows First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Sweet Valley (franchise) Television shows based on American novels Television series about twins Television series by Saban Entertainment Television shows set in California UPN Kids UPN original programming