Popular (TV series)
| Popular | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by |
Ryan Murphy Gina Matthews |
| Starring |
Leslie Bibb Carly Pope Tamara Mello Christopher Gorham Sara Rue Bryce Johnson Tammy Lynn Michaels Ron Lester Leslie Grossman Lisa Darr Scott Bryce Diane Delano |
| Opening theme | "Supermodels" by Kendall Payne |
| Ending theme | "High School Highway" by Sydney Forest |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 43 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Ryan Murphy Productions Roundtable Ink The Shephard/Robin Company Touchstone Television |
| Distributor | Disney-ABC Domestic Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | The WB |
| Original release | September 29, 1999 – May 18, 2001 |
Popular is an American teenage comedy-drama on The WB Television Network in the United States, created by Ryan Murphy and Gina Matthews, starring Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope as two teenage girls who reside on opposite ends of the popularity spectrum at their high school, but who are forced to get along when their single parents meet on a cruise ship and get married. The show was produced by Touchstone Television and ran for two seasons on The WB from 1999 to 2001.
Brooke McQueen (Leslie Bibb) and Sam McPherson (Carly Pope), students at Jacqueline Kennedy High School, are polar opposites. Brooke is a popular cheerleader and Sam is an unpopular journalist. Their respective groups are forced to socialize when Brooke's father and Sam's mother get engaged and the two girls have to share a house.
The plot of the first season revolves around the girls' school life, rival groups of friends, mutual animosity and plan to separate their parents. At the end of the season, Sam finds Brooke's real mother and encourages her to come back to town, which breaks up the engagement and splits the new family apart.
By the second season, Brooke and Sam realize that their parents were happy together, and therefore team up to reunite them, a move which results in the girls slowly becoming close friends, and even referring to each other as "family," though tensions rise when they both get involved with the same boy. Also, a reversal of fortunes takes place, with Brooke resigning from cheerleading to focus on school issues and Sam experiencing a surge of sudden popularity at school. In the end of the second-season finale — which turned out to be the unexpected series finale when the show was cancelled — Brooke is run over by a drunk and angry Nicole Julian (Tammy Lynn Michaels).
Despite fitting into a rather common category, as a teen-centered mix of drama and comedy, Popular differentiated itself from its peers in its quirky, non sequitur humor and overall satirical approach to characters and story lines, a feature that would grow as the series progressed. Such elements included Mary Cherry's long-lost sister from the ghetto, B. Ho (and even their mother's name, Cherry Cherry); an occasion where both groups switched hair colors; Bobbi Glass's lost finger being replaced with a metal one complete with extendable pointer and knife attachments; and Josh's work as a window salesman. The show also utilized a variety of pop culture references and nonsensical jokes (for instance, April Tuna's reference to "getting some frottage" in the hall closet).
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