Clarissa Explains It All

Hello, nurses and friends of nurses. Yakko Warner

here, and you're listening to a podcast on the

Geekcast Radio Network. Lucky you. I should have

been quiet, and I would have put that in the

damn clip. I don't know what to say, the monkeys

won't do. And I also don't know what to say about

those crazy producers from the Geekcast Radio

Network. You're driving me crazy! It's time for

the Telecast, brought to you by the Geekcast

Radio Network. for the show, Optimus Solo. Alright,

thank you once again, second -hand theme song

singers. As they said, I am your host, Optimus

Solo, and I would like to say hello and welcome

to the third episode, that's right, the third

episode of The Telecast, brought to you by the

Geekcast Radio Network. Today, as I was in episode

two, I am joined by Geekcast Radio Network's

very own Mike TFG1 Blanchard. Hello, sir. Don't

you mean second -rate singers? Secondhand and

second -rate singers. They're just terrible.

And today we are going to be talking about...

That's right, folks. We are talking about another

Nickelodeon classic. This time, Clarissa explains

it all for those of you that hadn't picked up

on that yet. And before we get too far into our

discussion, here's some quick background information

on the show. Clarissa debuted in 1991 in the

spring, and it ended its run in the fall of 1994.

So if you were alive between 91 and 94, hopefully

you saw this. It aired on Nickelodeon, like we

said before. It was a 30 -minute show. had 65

episodes that span across five different seasons.

It's basically an American sitcom that focuses

on, obviously, Clarissa. She's a teen girl that

usually breaks the fourth wall and describes

things that are happening in her life that would

happen to the typical teenager, like problems

with school, problems with boys, problems with

her sibling, and whatnot. And she kind of explains

that all to the television audience as the show

continues out through its course. What do you

remember about Clarissa? He remembers laughing

during Clarissa. No, I just, you know, you said

breaking the fourth wall, and it didn't occur

to me until now. Technically, Clarissa is a female

version of Ferris Bueller in the 90s. Very close,

yeah. I love this show. This show is awesome.

I remember watching this. on snick i remember

watching it in reruns and it was just really

really interesting because i don't think you

had a tv show back then and any kind of tv show

that did what she did yeah and and this was i

want to say this is one of the very first uh

as far as like a show aimed towards the pre -teen

slash teen audience that had a a sole female

lead character And like you said, I do remember

watching it as part of SNCC. It was actually

on before SNCC as well. The first three seasons,

I believe, were before SNCC. And then they used

it since it was kind of an established popular

show as basically the main show in the last two

seasons to basically launch the SNCC. Right.

And it would lead it into things like Are You

Afraid of the Dark and some of the other shows

that came later. But yeah, I remember watching

it with my sister. My sister was, like I've said

numerous times throughout different podcasts

that we've done, she was a few years older than

me. She was a senior in high school and I was

a freshman. And she really liked this character,

maybe because it was one of the few female leads

of that time period. So I watched a lot of episodes

with her. But I also liked it as well. I wasn't

just watching it because she was watching it.

Are there just general memories about the show

or things that you remembered even without watching

any in preparation for this record? I mean, I

know we're going to get into it later, but I

honestly, it's been years since I've seen Clarissa.

I mean, obviously, I think I watched about 10

episodes before we recorded this, but, you know,

just to prep for this. I honestly couldn't remember

if I was going to like the parents or not. Yeah.

I couldn't remember hardly any of the side characters

at all. And, of course, we're going to get into

this, so maybe we should just do that. But, I

mean, it's one of those things where I remember

every major side character except for the parents.

I couldn't remember whether I was going to like

them or not or whether I used to like them, and

I guess we'll get into that. Yeah, and just real

quick before we start talking about those guys,

the one thing that I remembered even before watching

a single episode of this, and one of the only

things I could remember about the show, like

just crystal clearly, was the theme song. The

theme song has always stuck with me, and that's

something which we'll talk about a little bit

more later. But that's something that I could

remember, and I remembered exactly how it went,

the whole thing, without ever watching the video.

I obviously remember things about the actual

Clarissa character and how she interacted with

the audience. But like you, I couldn't remember

with the parents, the siblings, the friends,

who I liked, who I didn't like until I started

watching the episode. So we can get into the

characters and the who's who here. Obviously,

Clarissa is the main character played by Melissa

Joan Hart. who needs no introduction. She's about

14 years old when the series starts, so she's

about an 8th grade level when the show starts,

and the show takes her 8th grade year and her

whole high school years until, so by the time

the series is over, she's a senior in high school.

So that's basically her character, and most people

would recognize her for the fashion sense, her

crazy, mismatched, colorful, weird types of fashion,

things that in today's world would be absolutely

fitting right in. But in the 90s, it was a tiny

bit different. But what were your thoughts on

the actual character of Clarissa? I like her.

She's interesting. Like I said, she's kind of

like a female 90s version of Ferris Bueller,

but she doesn't have... the scheming mischievousness

of ferris she doesn't have she's like her her

whole thing isn't to you know go out and have

you know a a i guess you'd call it senior day

where you know senior cut day or you know what

i mean right but it's one of those things where

Because she does break that fourth wall and she

does talk to us, that's what it reminded me of.

And I like how easily she'll talk to the audience

and then cut right back into whatever scene it

is. Like she'll be talking to us and then you'll

hear. The ladder chink on the side of her window.

And, you know, she turns around and she says,

oh, hi. You know, I mean, it's a very fluid motion

that Melissa Joan Hart brought to the character

of Clarissa to be talking to the audience and

then be talking to the actual characters in the

show. Yeah, I agree. And I thought it was pretty

a pretty smooth transition from her. dialogue

with the audience to the actual show. And just

looking at her in comparison to other female

lead characters we had throughout maybe the 80s

and the 90s, how did you like her in comparison

to, let's say, people like Pippi Longstocking

or Blossom, or sometimes she's compared to Lisa

Turtle from Saved by the Bell because of her

fashion sense and stuff like that. What were

your thoughts about Clarissa in comparison to

other female characters that we had? I mean,

see, I can't really compare them because they're...

Yes, as far as the fashion sense stuff, yeah,

Clarissa, Blossom, and Lisa are all kind of similar

because they all have that wacky fashion sense.

But, I mean... I don't know. Blossom, I like

that show. It was all right, but it wasn't the

best thing in the world. Yeah. What about, this

might be easier for you, what about future Nickelodeon

female characters like Lizzie McGuire, Hannah

Montana, and the stuff that came in later generations?

Those are Disney characters. Disney, excuse me,

that's what I meant. Anyways. I didn't mean Nickelodeon,

I meant just female characters that came later.

Right. I think Clarissa kind of, open the door

for them like like clarissa and lizzie are almost

fairly similar because on lizzie's show you have

instead of lizzie physically instead of hillary

duff physically talking to the camera like melissa

joan hart did you have it break away to an animated

version of of lizzie doing the same thing that

that clarissa would do talking to the camera

right you know what i mean I don't know if you've

ever seen the show. I've seen enough to know

what you're talking about. OK. So I think that

Clarissa kind of paved the way for not just female

characters but every kind of character as far

as ones that would talk to the audience in some

way, shape or form. Yeah. I mean granted – Sorry

to cut you off there, but granted, Ferris really

started it, but as far as on television, it was

really Clarissa that did it, I think. Yeah, and

the other thing I was going to say was, one thing

that Clarissa kind of had that I liked as far

as being the lead female character, she was a

lead female character who didn't have, they didn't

feel it necessary to make her someone who was

trying to be an actress or someone who was a

singer or someone that had this. She's just a

normal teenage girl. Right. You know what I mean?

They didn't feel the need to fluff this up by

making her some type of, you know, whatever.

She's just a normal teenage girl that's going

through junior high, high school problems. I

mean, it's, I don't know. It's kind of like the

character. Not as serious, but it's kind of like

the character Claire Danes played in My So -Called

Life, even though that's a much more serious

tone to it. Yeah. But just a female character

going through life that has nothing special about

her, but is just talking about things that every

single person can relate to. Yep. Another character

that we should probably mention, this is probably

the other biggest star on the show, is her younger

brother. Ferguson Darling, who was played by

Jason Zimbler. He was the redhead younger brother.

Some people may remember him, some people may

not, but he's a couple years younger than Clarissa,

so he's sixth, seventh grade when the show starts

and probably in his second or third year of high

school. He was probably a sophomore in high school

by the time the show was over. What were your

opinions of Ferguson? Oh, God. That good? Ferguson...

Ferguson is Ferris without breaking the fourth

wall, honestly. I'm sorry. With these two characters,

I'm constantly going to say that and compare

them to Ferris Bueller because, honestly, it's

like the creators of this show took everything

about Ferris Bueller and split it up between

the brother and sister. Yeah. Ferguson really

wasn't. He's probably my least favorite character

in the series. He's really inconsequential to

the point where the only time he actually has

anything useful is when he and Clarissa are having

a brother -sister fight. I saw one episode where

he was giving her the silent treatment and she

was doing everything and anything to get a reaction

out of him, but he just wouldn't budge. Yeah,

I saw that same episode. That's good. I don't

know. I just – I don't know. Well, one thing

I didn't say is she is also obsessed with the

Donald Trump slash Bill Gates. That's basically

who he wants to be when he grows up. He wants

to be this business -rich – he has an ego out

of this world. This is going to be somewhat maybe

controversial here, but I'm convinced that someone

at Nickelodeon had a fetish with redheaded boys.

Because in Salute Your Shorts, one of the main

characters, played by Danny Cooksey, is a redhead.

Adventures of Pete and Pete are both redheads.

Ferguson's a redhead. I haven't looked forward

into the other Nickelodeon shows we're going

to cover, but someone had a thing for redheaded

kids. But yeah, I'm with you, and I think I should

come up with some type of cool sound effect for

whenever we agree on something. But I agree,

he's my least favorite character on this show.

Oh, I just had an idea. I don't know if you could

use it or not, but whenever Homer Simpson says

bling. We're going to have angels singing from

the heavens or something when we agree on something.

So those are the main two characters. And then,

of course, we have the best friend of Clarissa,

Sam Anders, who's played by Sean O 'Neill. You

know, he's the best friend. One thing that's

kind of interesting about him is. That he and

Clarissa basically always have this best friend

relationship. And I like the fact that they never

try to make it more than that. Yeah. It's one

of those things where I think something could

have happened. But it's also one of those things

where I'm glad it kind of didn't because, you

know. It's such an easy route to go down. Yeah.

And it's kind of nice that they stayed away from

that and it was really just those two friends.

And you kind of got that, especially from Clarissa's

character, that she was the type of person that

could have these best friends that are guys that

there didn't have to be anything else about.

Some girls, it might be harder to pull that off,

but Clarissa kind of had that personality or

that character that you could believe it. And

while we're talking about Sam, we have to talk

about his little guitar rift theme little thing

there. Oh, God, I love that. His entrance, which

was always the ladder slamming up against the

window, which had a specific noise, and then

Clarissa would turn to him and say, hey, Sam,

or whatever she said, and then we'd have the

guitar rift, and then he would appear. Yep. And

that is very much a classic Clarissa. Yeah, I

love that guitar rift. That little guitar rift

is so cool. And if you're paying attention, you

may hear it at some point. And then besides Sam,

that basically leads us to the two parents, Janet

and Marshall Darling, played by Elizabeth Hess

and Joe O 'Connor. What were your opinions now

that you've watched a few episodes about the

parents since you said you didn't really remember

what to think about them beforehand? I don't

know about your opinion, but unlike my opinion

of Pete and Pete's parents last week or 10 days

ago or however long it was, I absolutely love

these two parents. They're not like quintessential

parents. They're not like, say, Bill and Claire

Huxtable or Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable or

anything like that. But, you know, they're fun

parents. They're serious parents. They're not

ancillary characters at all. No, and I hear angels

singing again. Yeah, I agree with you. I actually

really enjoy these parents. I was convinced when

I was watching this that I knew the mom from

something else, but I have looked at IMDb and

every other different site I can find, and she's

never been in anything else that I've seen. But

it must have had that much of an impact on me

as a kid that I, you know, her look was very

familiar to me. And like as soon as I saw the

YouTube videos of her, I was like, oh, I remember

her perfectly now. Even though beforehand I wouldn't

have even been able to tell you what color hair

her mom had. Right. Her voice is also. And that's

the other thing we got to talk about with the

parents and the kids. I know you're going to

get to Marshall in a minute, but Marshall and

Janet. Marshall has red hair. Janet has blonde

hair. If you look at the two kids, Ferguson has

red hair and Clarissa has blonde hair. Perfect,

absolute perfect casting. No, I'm serious, because

not only did they have the same color hair, but

you can virtually envision Clarissa looking like

her mom later, and you can see Ferguson in Marshall.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So whoever did that casting,

hats off. Exactly. You like both parents? You

like one parent more than the other? I like them

both equally. Because not only do they make a

good team as parents, they also make good individual

parents. As far as, you know, like say Janet

Darling is off somewhere doing, I forget what

the heck she did. What was she on the show? She

was an architect, and I can't remember what she

was. She's either an architect or a doctor. I

don't know. He's an architect. I know he does.

He builds things, but I can't remember what she

did. I could have sworn she was a nurse or something

like that. I don't know. Yes, every once in a

while, one would be gone, and Clarissa would

go to either one parent or the other, whether

it was advice or dealing with a problem or whatever

it was. But, yeah, I like them both equally.

Like you said, they're way better than the parents

on Pete and Pete. Um, overall though, just taking

these, I mean, cause these were the five main

characters. Everybody else is just, uh, side

side effects here, but out of these main five

characters, do you have a favorite character?

I like Sam. He's pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, we

both hate Ferguson, so that's clear. Yeah. I

mean, it seems like cheating. I do think Clarissa

is my favorite character in this, just because

I really like the way she interacted with the

audience. And at the time, whatever age I was

at this point, you know, like 12 or 13, I was

about the same age as she was when the show started,

actually. You know, I could just really relate

to her. And it was something that I hadn't seen

a lot of as far as someone interacting with the

audience in the way that she did. You know, like

you said, we've seen it in Paris Bueller, and

we've seen it a couple times. You saw it a little

bit in Saved by the Bell with Zach. Yeah, kind

of, but he wasn't so much doing it to – No, he

wasn't necessarily explaining everything. He

would do it for a specific purpose in that episode.

But we'd seen it maybe little bits and pieces,

but this was one of the first times where it

was an actual TV series where the person was

having this much contact with me as an audience

member. Right, exactly. The other thing I wanted

to bring up really quick was as far as the contact,

it's not just like her talking to us. And then

a situation happens where she turns back to the

show. It's also if a situation happens and it

ends and it's something good or bad or whatever,

she will immediately turn to the camera and say,

oh, well, you know, and she'll say whatever she'll

say. So it's not just the one version of her

talking to the audience and then going back into

the show. It's also if something happens on the

show. she'll turn to the audience and say, oh,

well, that worked out okay, or whatever. Right.

And I think I much prefer that style and the

interaction that they did with Clarissa and the

audience much more than the narrating that we

had in Pete and Pete. Oh, yeah. I mean, they're

two individual things, but right. Right. I mean,

one show went this way and one show went the

other way, but I prefer the actual seeing the

character talking to me rather than just the

narrating playing over top of the action. Was

there any other characters that you wanted to

mention or any that you remembered? Not really.

I don't remember the other three that are listed

at all. Yeah, I mean, there's a couple characters.

She has multiple boyfriends throughout the time.

She has multiple classmates or friends. But most

of the side characters were really just one or

two off shots. There was a notable appearance

by a future star. I don't know what episode he

was in, but James Van Der Beek, as a younger

self, makes an appearance in one of the episodes.

Oh, wow. And Wayne Brady shows up as a pizza

man in one of the episodes. Those are the only

two bigger names that I could find in any of

the cast listings for this show, so I didn't

get to see the episodes that they actually appeared

in, but I would be interested to see what they

both look like. Yeah. All right, then I guess

that does it for the Who's Who, and it is time

for... The Good. The Bad. All right, so we've

talked about the characters a little bit, and

we've mentioned a few things that we liked and

didn't like about the show. What other things,

whether it be running gags or just different

parts about the show that you really like the

most, or are there any parts that you don't like?

I mean, I already kind of said that. I mean,

we kind of already agreed that Ferguson is the

character that we don't like. And he's ugly.

And he's ugly. Talk about being a redheaded stepchild.

But, you know, other than Ferguson, there really

isn't anything about this show that I don't like.

The music is awesome. The characters are awesome.

The way the characters interact with each other

is awesome. I never found that the character

interaction between the parents and Clarissa

or Ferguson. Or Sam and anyone else in the main

cast, because I know a few times that Sam does

come into contact with the parents. I didn't

really find anything forced or anything between

the actors at all. It's a pretty fluid show.

You mentioned the music. I want to touch on that

a little bit. First of all, I already kind of

talked about it, but the theme song for this

show is awesome. For having a theme song that

really doesn't have any words, it is just a cool,

cool theme song. And I really like that. But

they didn't just have it as a theme song. They

would have that as kind of like the little bumper

type things in between a segment or when they

went to commercial and came back. And I love

the bumpers where it's just Clarissa on the screen

with the title and her doing different things

or Ferguson trying to do things with the title

and her like. kicking him out of the way yeah

i love the bumpers for the show yeah they were

amazing so you had cool theme song you had cool

music and uh visuals with the bumpers and then

obviously like we said the uh the entrance little

music ditty for when sam comes in yeah hi sam

hey clarissa So I think all the music was good.

You talked a little about the relationship between

the characters. I especially liked the relationship

between the brother and sister relationship between

Clarissa and Ferguson. As much as I don't like

Ferguson, they did the whole brother -sister

thing just about perfect. Yeah, they did. The

name -calling was constant. Just the general

dislike for two teenage siblings. Was done perfect.

Yeah, it was. I mentioned it before. I love the

fact that they didn't try to make the romantic

angle with Sam and Clarissa. That was cool. One

thing we haven't mentioned, what were your thoughts

about the way that Clarissa used the computer

and the computer graphics to outline different

things? Did you see that in any of the episodes

you were watching? Yeah, I saw her. I don't know

about computer graphics, but I did see her use

a computer several times. And I guess we could

say she's a closet geek. Yeah, I think she was

a closet geek because I remember one specifically

where... Well, this might have been the same

one that we were talking about before with the

silent treatment. I think it was that episode

where she goes to the computer and she shows

Sam what's going to happen as far as her rigging

up. Right, yeah, that was that episode. Yeah,

like she has this whole plan of how to get her

brother back. I think she was going to dump something

on him. Yeah, what it was was it was a plan for

him to be in the bathroom. And it was like this

whole Tom and Jerry, cat and mouse, like Tom

builds a contraption. And it's all this cause

and effect stuff like, you know, a pin hits a

needle and the needle hits a domino. And it's

all this whole domino effect. All strapped. Yeah,

yeah. And, yeah, I did see her use it because

she mentions to the SAM that she got this new

CAD program, which obviously is computer -aided

design and drafting or whatever you call it.

And, yeah, I did see her use the computer. I

think that's the only episode I saw her use it.

I know she does it other times, though, because

when I saw it in that episode, I remembered her

going to the computer when I used to watch it.

So, I mean, it might date it a little bit because,

obviously, the computer is an old -fashioned

computer or whatnot. But I think it was cool

that, you know, for that time being that they

brought the computer into, you know, it's hard

to, in a television show. that's supposed to

be talking about life as a teenager in the 90s,

how do you bring in the fact that kids were on

the computer without it being boring to the audience?

I mean, you can't just show somebody playing

the computer. Right. So I thought it was a cool

maneuver to get at the fact that computers were

in homes at this time, kids were using them and

stuff, and they knew about them without it being

boring. It was like, okay, this is what I'm going

to do, and she would show it on some type of

CAD program or whatever. And I don't know. I

kind of like that. Like I said, it might date

it a little, but I think it was worth it. I think

we've talked about actually just about everything

else. I like the parents better than on Pete

and Pete. Love the theme song music. Hate Ferguson.

Did you have any other things about the actual

show moments or anything that you wanted to talk

about? I don't think so. I kind of wish. I know

the show is all about her. I don't know if there

are any episodes that show this. I kind of wish,

and I think I could be falsely remembering this,

I kind of wish that there would have been an

episode where her and Sam's roles were reversed.

I think there was one episode where her and Ferguson's

roles were reversed. Ah, screw that. No, I'm

just saying, I think there was one where the

title came across and actually said Ferguson

explains it all. And just for that one episode,

everything was kind of flip -flopped. Right.

But, yeah, it would have been cool to see it

from Sam's angle. Well, not only Sam's angle,

but what I wanted to see was I wanted to see

her go to his house with a ladder. And, you know,

this is something that I don't know how many

times this was done beforehand. In a show, as

far as the person putting the ladder up and coming

through the window, but it was definitely done

afterwards. I mean, Dawson's Creek basically

ripped this right out of this, didn't it? Yeah.

I mean, unless it came beforehand. Maybe there

was some show that I'm not remembering that was

before the 90s where they did this. Not that

I can remember. Maybe if people want to call

into the voicemail or send you an email. Yeah,

please do. Let us know if this is something that's

happened in TV history or if this was like a

first type thing in Clarissa that then Dawson's

Creek ripped off or were they taking it? Is it

just a standard thing that's happened throughout

the decades? I don't know if it's something that

happened throughout the decades. The first time

I remember it is Clarissa and then Dawson. So,

I mean, you could say that Dawson kind of ripped

it off from Clarissa. Yeah, because I can't think

of anything else that I've seen it in that we

could tell that they ripped it off from. But

it's basically almost exactly done like it is

in Dawson's without the sound. Six never came

through Blossom's window, did she? Oh, geez.

I don't know. You had Blossom written down in

the notes earlier. I'm just asking. No, no, I'm

saying that's a good question. That's a good

question. I'm trying to remember if Six ever...

I don't think Six... No, I don't think Six ever

came through Blossom's window. So those TV aficionados

out there, please call into the voicemail and

answer the question. When is the first time that

consistently a character entered through a window

in a TV show with a ladder? 502 -526 -5821. Yeah,

and we'll give that again at the end of the show.

But we're not talking about just a one -time

shot where someone came in through the window.

We're talking about where it was a recurring

theme in a TV show for someone to use a ladder

to get into their friend's or someone else's

room. Right. So I think that does it for the

good, the bad, and the ugly of Clarissa Explains

It All. And now it is time for Take It Away,

Guys. Things that make you go, hmm. All right,

here are some of the things that you might not

know about Chris Explains It All. Number one

thing that you might not know is that, like our

previous two episodes, Clarissa Explains It All

was nominated for awards. This show was nominated

for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's

Program in 1994. And Melissa Joan Hart, Sean

O 'Neill, and Jason Zimler all received multiple

Young Artist Award nominations, which Melissa

won three of for her role as Clarissa. So that's

one thing you might not know about the show.

So our string of award -winning shows continues

here on the telecast. A number two thing that

you might not know is in 2002, Melissa Joan Hart

said that she had no interest in ever being a

part of a cast reunion project. The only reason

I bring that up is because lots of times when

we talk about these old shows, everyone says,

oh, you know, it would be great if we had some

type of reunion or we could see them all together

again. Well, apparently it's never going to happen

for this show. The number three thing that you

might not know about Clarissa Explains It All,

that before Clarissa, Melissa Joan Hart appeared

in a 1985 episode of the ABC weekend specials

at the age of nine. So when we get to the ABC

weekend specials later on in the telecast, we'll

have to see if we can dig up that episode and

see what Melissa Joan Hart looked like when she

was nine. And the fourth thing that you might

not know about Clarissa Explains It All is a

pilot for a follow -up spin -off series named

Clarissa Now was shot for CBS in 1995. It was

not picked up as a series, but the pilot was

shown on a few occasions on Nickelodeon, and

it is available on YouTube. The series basically

revolves around Clarissa. After she leaves high

school, she's going into college, and it's her

internship at a New York City newspaper. So basically

there was plans for a second show. I know I watched

this pilot. Did you watch the whole pilot or

just part of it? No, I watched both parts. Okay.

What did you think about this pilot for the show

entitled Clarissa Now? I actually remember seeing

this on TV. Wow. Yeah. I remember seeing this

on TV, and I remember the first thing I kind

of thought of was almost like Nickelodeon's version

of Murphy Brown. It was kind of, and it was very

similar. I mean, she was still breaking the fourth

wall. She was still interacting with the audience.

Right. She's the only character that's going

to be there as far as the ones that we saw from

Clichy Explains It All. It was kind of interesting.

It was interesting, but it's just, it didn't

have the same dynamic. No, no, not at all. It

just didn't. I don't know, the problem that I,

I don't know. You know what it reminds me of?

What? a certain other show that tried to do a

spinoff that really didn't last that long of

a girl going off on her own. Yes. Which will

be covered in season two. Yeah. So we'll talk

about that later. Um, I think you had something

else too, that, uh, as far as trivia or things

people might not know about, Clarissa explains

it all. When I was looking for episodes on YouTube,

I found, and I, When Kevin first, I'm going to

pull back the curtain here a little bit. When

Kevin and I were first going over the schedule

and everything else, he had a show on there for

this season of the telecast called Nick Arcade.

I did not remember what the hell Nick Arcade

was, so I said I wasn't really interested in

that show. Well, when I was going through looking

for episodes of Clarissa, I found a special that

said Nick Arcade's special Clarissa Explains

It All. And it's Clarissa and – well, it's Melissa

and Jason and the two parents. I forget the –

Elizabeth and – Yeah, Elizabeth and Joe. So it

was basically the four main cast members of Clarissa

Explains It All on Nick Arcade. And for those

of you who don't know, Nick Arcade is basically

Nickelodeon's video power, is basically what

it is. And they have this little digital Mikey

that goes across the board and you can play different

arcade games of that time. And I absolutely loved

watching that. And I actually love, I remember

watching Nick Arcade. Now, unfortunately, we're

going to have to vie for it to be the listener

choice episode. Yeah, and for those of you that

don't remember or have not listened to episode

zero or one when I briefly mentioned it, we are

giving you guys the choice to pick our second

to last episode of this first season of the telecast.

So if Nick Arcade is something that you want

to see us talk about or you want to hear more

about, we'll give you details later on as to

what you need to do. do to cast your vote, but

that's one option that you could be voting for.

I say we do a double episode. Nick Arcade and

Video Power, they can be tied together. Mike

is very big on us choosing Video Power as the

listener's choice. To hell with the listener's

host choice, damn it. No. So stay tuned for a

little bit later this episode to hear more about

the listener's choice. So I think we can do our

VH1 impression and talk a little bit about where

these guys are now. Melissa Joan Hart shouldn't

need any discussion here. Everybody knows what

Melissa Joan Hart is doing these days. She's

still acting. She obviously went on to be the

star of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She appeared

in the movie Can't Hardly Wait as the yearbook.

She was in Clueless. Her last series that I remember

was a series called Melissa and Joey, even though

I didn't really watch any of it. So I don't know.

Melissa and Joey is still going. It just started.

Season one just ended. I don't know if it's any

good or not. I haven't seen any episodes. It

is, actually. I've actually watched a couple

episodes. So basically, besides being married

and having a few kids, she's still doing the

whole acting thing. You know who she's married

to, though? I do, but I don't remember. Lead

singer, oh, what's his name? Mark something.

The lead singer of Course of Nature. Yeah, yeah.

I don't remember what his last name is, but yeah.

Clueless. You mean Clueless the TV series, right?

Right. Did I say movie? No, but you just said

Clueless. I just wanted people to, you know,

for it to be defined for people that you're meaning

the TV series and not the film. Yeah, so don't

say we said something wrong. Right. Anything

else on Melissa Joan Hart today? A little bit,

yeah, actually. I loved Sabrina. I thought that

was a really good show. I wanted to give you

guys a little bit of background on Melissa and

Joey for those of you who may not have seen it

like Kevin. To me, it's kind of like a 21st century

who's the boss. Interesting. She plays a politician

who has custody of her sister who has passed

away's kids. And Joey Lawrence comes in. And

basically is a bald Tony Danza. He has to be

the nanny. Interesting. It's a very funny show.

I've seen about six episodes of the first season.

It airs on ABC Family. It was airing Tuesday

night at 8 Eastern on ABC Family. But it's a

very good show. She also was, oh, what's the

character? She was in Superman the Animated Series

as one of the voices. Saturn Girl. Saturn Girl.

And she also voiced Dee Dee, the Dee Dee twins

from Batman Beyond Return of the Joker. The funny

thing about this is that Bruce Timm had originally

had a Raggedy Ann type of character look. from

one of the old BTAS villains, and he never got

to use it. So when they were doing Return of

the Joker, they said, oh, well, here's Bruce

Dimson. Oh, we need another character for the

Joker's gang. So here's this little Raggedy Ann

thing, and she did the two characters, Delia

and Deidre Dennis, who are actually granddaughters

of Harley Quinn. uh, in, uh, the DC animated

universe. And she did both of the voices. It's

basically the same voice, but it's two different

characters. Right. Um, and that gives me a chance

for a shameless plug. Everybody go to behind

the voice actors .com. Look up Melissa Joan Hart

and you can see both the Saturn girl and the

DD twins. And you can hear her voice as both

of those. You can play a little sound clip. So

there you go. I'm not going to miss an opportunity

to plug my own site. Anything else on Melissa

Joan Hart? I didn't mean to cut you off. No,

no. It's really great to see her acting. Still

acting today and still working and everything

else. Like I said, I absolutely love Sabrina

the Teenage Witch. That was a really, really

great series as well. Yeah. Her Ferguson, her

younger brother, played by Jason Zimler. What

he's doing now is basically this was his last

television role, Clarissa. So he didn't really

do anything in actual television or movie world

as far as acting. He graduated high school, went

off to Notre Dame, and now he works as a theater

director. He actually founded his own theater

with with one other person in Portland, Oregon,

2007. And the name of the theater is called the

Re Theater Instrument. So he's a director of

theater now. And you're going to see this trend

continue because the mom, Elizabeth Hess, is

currently teaching acting in New York University's

Tisch School of the Arts and at Fordham University

at Lincoln Center. So she's also on the other

kind of the other side of things where she's

teaching. And whereas the brother was is directing

now, she's teaching acting. And the friend, Sean

O 'Neill, kind of in the same vein, he's in musical

theater now. No, I'm going to go back to him.

But Sean O 'Neill, just to get the three theater

people out of the way, he did do a tiny bit of

voice work like Melissa Joan Hart in the 2000s,

but he's basically doing musical theater work.

I don't know where or what productions he's been

in, but he's more along the musical lines and

singing and almost like this operatic voice training

that he's done. The other person that we haven't

talked about, the dad, is the only other person

that's really gone on in the acting. world joe

o 'connor most recently appeared in the series

mad men as the character joe vogel he's been

in a number of different things that's kind of

one spot uh type things but he's also scheduled

this is kind of interesting for us geeks and

nerds out there to have a minor role as a reporter

in the 2011 movie green hornet That's interesting.

Yeah, so we'll see him again there. I mean, he's

not the type of person that garners lead role

type things. But he's basically a good character

actor that plays a lot of minor roles in different

TV shows, movies, etc. So that does it for those

five. So that takes us to, if you're interested,

how can you watch this show now? Whether you

watched it as a kid or whether you have no idea

what the show is and you're interested in it

now, there are some different ways that you can

watch this. First of all, it is partially available

on DVD. This kind of continues a trend so far

of the telecast of none of these shows being

completely available on DVD. Season 1 is available.

That's it. So you have two discs, Season 1 collection.

That's the first 13 episodes of Season 1. It

does give you one or two special features. One

of them is called Nick Time Capsule. I'm not

sure exactly what that consists of. And one of

them is said to be MTV Cribs Look at Clarissa's

House. I don't know exactly what that's like.

But those are the two special features. So if

you're wanting it actually on DVD, you can only

get Season 1 out of the five seasons. Season

2 was scheduled for release. It actually had

had multiple news releases about the release,

but sometime in 2005, it just basically disappeared

off the schedule, and there's been no word of

it for the last five years. That's not necessarily

a good sign for those people that wanted the

whole collection on DVD. So basically, if you

want to see anything past Season 1, there's only

two ways for you to watch it, and that is YouTube,

or I believe you have some word on how you can

watch it through iTunes. Yes, if you go to iTunes

and you search Clarissa Explains It All, you'll

come up with Best of Clarissa Explains It All

Volume 1 and Volume 2. Each of these little sets

are $6 .99 apiece, and you get... Seven episodes

each. So it's about a dollar an episode. Yeah,

that's not bad, though. Actually, if you buy

them – sorry, Kevin. No, I'm just saying if there's

diehard fans, that's not that bad. Right. I would

suggest if there is a diehard fan out there that

wants to buy it through iTunes, buy the season

at $7, $6 .99 plus tax. Do not buy individual

episodes because it's going to cost you more.

The episodes are $1 .99 apiece, so two times

– whatever. But unfortunately, if you want to

see – I mean obviously season one, you can watch

it in DVD quality. But if you want quality viewings

of any of the season two through five episodes,

basically right now iTunes is your only option.

Because the YouTube, just discussing a little

bit about that real quick, the YouTube is going

to be a little bit frustrating as it was with

Salute Your Shorts. Yeah. Because Viacom, who

is obviously the company that owns all of the

old Nickelodeon stuff. Right. It seems to be

somewhat active in yanking stuff off of YouTube.

So what you get is, just like Salute Your Shorts,

you get part one of this show or this episode

with no part two, or you get parts two and three

with no part four. And it's better quality than

the Salute Your Shorts YouTube feeds, not as

good a quality as the Pete and Pete feeds. So

it's somewhere in the middle. I mean, it's better

than the Salute Your Shorts feeds, but still,

it's very hard to get an entire episode. And

just to go back a little bit, just for Kevin's

own personal knowledge, there are two volumes

of Salute Your Shorts in iTunes. I don't know

what seasons they are. They are $8 .99 apiece.

And there are only six episodes on each one?

Yeah, there's only six episodes on each one.

I'm pretty sure we brought that up in the Salute

Your Shorts episode. No, that's all right. It

seems to be a little theme going on with these

Nickelodeon shows that since they're not on DVD,

people have fought for them to be at least available

on iTunes. I don't know if with Salute Your Shorts

there was actually a cast member that was behind

the entire push for it. I don't know with Clarissa

if it was, you know. If it was like a network

person that decided it or someone behind the

scenes or if there was a petition or what happened.

But like I said, it's unfortunate. But if you're

wanting to watch this on YouTube, it's not terrible.

You're going to be able to see bits and pieces

and maybe remember the show a little bit. But

you're going to be frustrated if you want to

see a complete story. Did you find any episode

where you could watch all? parts of it not really

because at the time i didn't have the money to

get it through itunes but on youtube i mean you

you didn't find one that had all like four parts

to it uh not really because they were the one

the way i searched for it i found like a whole

list of like whatever person's channel it was

they had like four five six nine different episodes

like the episode oh what was it we talked about

it earlier in the show um silence one yeah Um,

the silence one, I would find like part one of

that and then it would actually skip to the,

the, the Nick arcade stuff and then it would

go to part two. Yeah. But actually some of them

I actually clicked on and it would actually even

say Viacom has pulled this for copyright reasons.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, like I said, if you're

a diehard fan, you can find it on season one.

Otherwise you might have to shell out a little

bit for the iTunes, um, or be very frustrated

watching it on YouTube. And I don't know what,

like the Volume 1, Volume 2 thing in iTunes,

I don't know what seasons those are from. I didn't

really look at the description. I just looked

at how many episodes and what the price was.

Hopefully it's not Season 1 or that would kind

of suck. Double dip, you can watch Season 1 on

DVD or iTunes, but no other seasons ever. Which

I'm surprised because it did last five seasons,

65 episodes. It was one of the highest rated,

actually at the time, I don't remember what year

for what season, but one of the seasons was like

the highest rated cable show. Which is ridiculous

for a kid's show. That's awesome, though. Yeah,

but that's why I'm a little bit surprised that

we haven't seen more DVD releases, especially

given the fact that Melissa Joan Hart is still

out there and everybody knows who she is. You

would think they'd be able to capitalize on that,

but who knows as far as copyright stuff. Right,

and you also said that she had mentioned a while

ago back in 2002 that she would never do a reunion.

So maybe there's – and of course we don't know

because we haven't talked to her. I'd like to

actually interview her, but it's one of those

things where we don't. don't know but maybe just

on our part speculation it could be the fact

that maybe she has bad feelings towards nickelodeon

or somebody i'm not saying she does it out yeah

Well, and I can see that a lot of people don't

want to necessarily live in the past and don't

want people constantly thinking of you as, you

know, Clarissa or as this person you used to

play, especially if you've gone on to other things.

So, you know, for whatever reasons, it doesn't

look like you're going to get all of them on

DVD anytime soon. No, unfortunately not. All

right. Well, I think we're going to go to a quick

transmission. Please stay tuned, though, because

you're going to hear a little commercial about

the Viewer's Choice episode as well as a few

other Geekcast radio -related things. So don't

touch that dial because we'll be right back.

We'll return. after these messages. Clarissa

explains... Me, Clarissa. First of all, I can

deal with just about anything. Fart face. Worms.

Mom's tofu sundaes. Even when I panic, it's cool

panic. May I be excused to freak out? I'm not

allowed to drive until I'm old enough to get

my license. Carrots are such sticklers for the

law. And the 95 ,000 Christmas cards? Well, um,

I can explain. Clarissa explains it all, every

Sunday at 6 .30, 5 .30 Central. On Nickelodeon.

Hey guys, it's Optimus Solo from Geekcast Radio

Network's The Telecast, coming to you with an

important message about our Listener's Choice

episode. That's right. For the first time in

Geekcast Radio Network history, we are giving

you, the listener, a chance to choose the topic

in one of our shows. This is how you can cast

your vote for what the topic should be. Head

on over to geekcastradio .com and click on the

Telecast tab at the top of the page. Once there,

you can find our complete Season 1 schedule with

all 35 episodes. Please look this over, because

we would hate for you to cast your vote for a

show that is already on our schedule. Once you've

done this, just scroll to the section titled

Listener's Choice and click on the Comments button.

All that's left for you to do now is to cast

your vote through a comment. For example, you

might say, Hey, I see that Nick Arcade is not

in your Season 1 lineup, so I'd like to cast

a vote for Nick Arcade to be the Listener's Choice

episode. It's that simple. So please go cast

your vote for your favorite show, and stay tuned

for Episode 34 to see which show becomes our

very first Listener's Choice. That does it for

now. This has been Optimus Solo from the Telecast.

Clarissa explains... Sam! What you gotta know

about my bud Sam is that he'd do anything to

help a friend in need, who is usually me. Okay,

what is it this time? Who else could come up

with a straight jacket on short notice? Here's

all that junk you wanted. Even go door -to -door

in elf wear. Ow! That's Sam. Why do I have the

feeling I'm not going to like this? What are

friends for? Clarissa explains it all every Sunday

at 6 .30, 5 .30 Central. On Nickelodeon. Now

back to the show. Do you see how your patience

paid off? All right. Thanks for staying with

us, everyone. And, of course, now it's time for

our never -ending effort to bash the pricks at

IGN. That's right. It is time for the IGN replacement

crew. And what do you give? Clarissa explains

it all. One through four. Four. Mike gives it

a resounding four. Four, yeah. It's a shame that

this – and this is the other thing. I wish that

Nickelodeon would – and I know they won't do

this unless it's like on digital cable. But like

I have basic classic. I wish Nickelodeon would

do a channel that is just like retro Nickelodeon

or just some sort of old school Nickelodeon.

Kind of like what Cartoon Network did with Boomerang

where they just show all the old shows. Yeah,

I mean, I know it did appear at one time on the,

what was it, the N or Noggin or something. Yeah,

Noggin, yeah. But I don't think that was a, it

wasn't like it was a block dedicated to all old

stuff. It was just that Clarissa did make an

appearance in that. Right, yeah. I am not quite

ready to give out my first four for the telecast.

I'm going to give this one a strong three. I

did love the show back in the day, and I would

watch it if it's free on TV, like if they re

-aired it, like what you're saying, in some type

of block like that. I had no problem watching

it on YouTube, but I just don't have any desire

to, even if it was available all on DVD, I have

no desire to buy this one on DVD. So I'll give

it a real strong three. I mean, it was a great

show. It was probably Nickelodeon's, as far as

live action shows, it's most popular. I'd have

to look at an entire list of all the Nickelodeon

shows, but if it's not the most popular of the

Nickelodeon shows from back in the early 90s,

late 80s, it's darn near the top. Yeah. So, you

know, it was a great show, and it's definitely

worth a watch. I just don't necessarily think

it's necessarily that you buy it on DVD. But

we both give it a much better rating than, well,

I give it a better rating than I've given Adventures

of Pete and Pete. I think you, would you give

Pete and Pete a three or a four? I think I gave

it a four. I don't remember. Mike's too generous.

Anyways, I think Optimus Prime has something

to say. Any last words? Yep, that's right. It

is time for any last words. Do you have any last

words, Mike? One of the best kids shows or one

of the best shows of the 90s that wasn't like

mainstream TV, that was like cable TV. Right.

Just really, really relatable. This is one of

those shows that has, it kind of has every aspect

for every, it's basically an every person show.

There's at least one character that anyone can

relate to. There's at least one situation in

whatever season you watch that maybe you could

relate to or you've been through it. So just

overall, I love this show. This show is awesome.

Yeah, I think as far as last words for me, I

think it was very good at the time and something

that hadn't been done a lot where you gave a

kids show geared towards teens, preteens that

had a female lead character, and that was it.

You don't really have the typical hunk guy type

thing stealing any of the spotlight. You don't

have the typical jock out there trying to steal

the spotlight. This is just your typical, average,

everyday teenage girl, and that's the focus.

And I give it credit for that, and I think it

opened the doors for a lot of things for Nickelodeon

in the future. I think Nickelodeon really needed

this show to be successful in order to do some

of the stuff it did later. So I think historically

it's kind of an important show as far as the

Nickelodeon channel goes. So I think it's a decent

show. It's a good show. I'm not going to say

anything bad about it. Go ahead. This just came

to me. I can't believe I didn't think about this

when we were talking about the Where Are They

Now thing. Melissa Joan Hart has done several

made -for -TV films. Oh, yeah, that's true. I'm

sorry. I completely blanked on it. A lot of Lifetime

stuff, hasn't it, Ben? Lifetime and Fox Family

stuff. There was one that just aired on Fox Family

this past weekend called Holiday in Handcuffs.

It's her starring with Mario Lopez, Slater. That's

right. And basically she's... It was really,

really cool. She has the best of intentions,

but she goes about it all the wrong way. And

that's one thing I've noticed about Melissa Joan

Hart over the years since Clarissa. She constantly

plays the same type of character. Yeah, she does.

And I'm not saying that in a bad way. I think

it's great. Even though every character she plays

is very different, they're also very similar.

You know, from Clarissa to Sabrina to Mel and

Melissa and Joey. Even though they're all different,

it's still that same down -to -earth type of

girl type of thing. Right. No, I agree with that.

You kind of get that same, even though it's a

different character, you get that same feel or

that same vibe from her a lot. Yeah. Anything

else as far as last words go? That's it. All

right. I would like to thank Mike for joining

me today on this episode of the telecast. It'll

be a few episodes before we hear from Mike again.

It'll actually be six episodes. We'll bid him

a nice little adieu and a little break, and we'll

hear back from him in a few episodes. And I'd

like to thank everyone else for joining us here

on the telecast. If you want to leave us feedback,

there are three main ways to do this, so pay

attention. First, you can visit the website,

www .geekcastradio .com, where you can comment

on all of our different podcasts, not just the

telecast. Second, and we're still looking for

our first person who will leave a review for

us on iTunes. So if you want to be the first

person to leave a review, go to iTunes. But you're

going to need to search for Telecast. So just

go to the iTunes store, click up into the search

thing, type in Telecast, and you should find

it under the podcast menu. You're not going to

find it necessarily right along all the other

Geekcast Radio shows as of right now. But go

to iTunes and leave us feedback. If you want

your comments to actually be heard on the show,

if you leave us a voicemail, we'll probably play

your comments. during the show. The voicemail

number, again, is 502 -526 -5821. And like we

said earlier, if you can tell us a show about

the whole ladder entrance, you know, 502 -526

-5821, please do that. And I think I said it

last episode, too, if you want to even leave

voicemails for future shows, you don't have to

wait until they air. You can leave us a voicemail

before it even airs, and then we'll get it in

for sure. If you want to keep up to date with

all things Geekcast related, best way to do that

is to become a fan of us on Facebook. Go to facebook

.com slash geekcastradionetwork. While you're

there, do me a favor and also become a fan of

behindthevoiceactors .com where you can go and

listen to Melissa Joan Hart's two clips from

Superman and Batman Beyond. Also, don't forget

about the theme song contest we have going on

for Season 1. You can get all the details about

the theme song contest at the telecast page at

geekcastradio .com, and you can listen to the

theme song contest clip at the end of every episode.

So don't stop listening, because in a few seconds

we will be playing that clip. Don't forget about

the listener choice, too. Right. And also pay

attention to Listener's Choice. And if you need

to go back and listen to the commercial, otherwise

go to the telecast page at geekcastradio .com.

There will be a Listener's Choice entry sometime

this week. So that does it for now. We hope we

succeeded in entertaining you, informing you,

and most importantly, unleashing the geek in

you on this episode of the telecast. And we hope

that you will tune in for our next episode when

a brand new co -host makes her Geekcast Radio

debut. And together we'll be asking the question,

are you afraid of the dark? For now, I am your

host, Optimus, solo with... TFG1 Mike. Saying

we are out like fat kids in dodgeball, but we

will see you again in 10 days for another episode

of... The Telecast. Discover this.