Overview
The main characters in the show are Clarissa Darling, her family (consisting of her father Marshall, her mother Janet and her little brother Ferguson) and her best friend Sam living in a small suburban town in Ohio. 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 caiman named Elvis whom she kept in a kiddie-sandbox in the left corner of her room. He lasted only the first few episodes of the first season.
The show 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, Unfabulous, iCarly, and Victorious. Its popularity among both boys and girls also helped to debunk a myth that a children's series with a female lead would turn off boys from it, whereas only children's series with a male lead would attract both boys and girls.
The show was filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida. The final two seasons headlined the popular SNICK (Saturday Night-Nickelodeon) lineup, which was a lead-in to shows like All That, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Despite its seemingly innocent reputation, it pushed a few boundaries at the time for "kids television", even making subtle references to sex and teen partying, though in a lighthearted, contemporary fashion. In one episode, Clarissa accidentally shoplifts lingerie. It was one of the few Nickelodeon shows to actually say and spell out the words "hell" (last time was the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Carnival Knowledge") and "sex" on screen. The pilot of the series revolved around Clarissa's attempt to kill her brother Ferguson; although in the end it was a harmless attempt using helium balloons, it highlighted the issue of sibling rivalry.
Clarissa dealt with normal adolescent issues such as first crushes, getting a driver's license, sibling rivalry, grades at school, insecurities, and drinking, confronting the issues as an independent freethinking teenager. However, these topics were dealt with far less dramatically than they were on other similar shows at the time (such as Full House and Blossom). One such issue was bullying, which was addressed in the episode "Bully" and ended up creating one of the longest lasting story arcs on the show. In the episode, Clarissa finds out Ferguson is being picked on by school jock Clifford Spleenhurfer. Clarissa defends Ferguson, angrily confronting Clifford verbally. This produced unforeseen results to everyone involved, Clarissa most of all. She became the first person to stand up to Clifford and, as a result, he fell in love with her. She was shocked to discover this, and even more shocked to discover she liked him as well. They began dating soon after, and they stayed together for quite a while. The issue of whether a girl would stand up and fight a boy was also a hot topic at the time.
Unique to the show was its representation of each episode's theme by showing Clarissa tackling the episode's issue through a fictional video game.
The show's theme song was sung by singer/comedian/actress/writer Rachel Sweet. It consisted entirely of a melody sung on the syllable "Na," punctuated with the occasional "Way cool!" or "All right! All right!", and underscored by rhythmic instrumentation, ending with a resounding "Just do it!"
A pilot for a follow-up series, Clarissa Now, was shot for CBS in 1995, but was not picked up as one. However, the pilot was shown on a few occasions on Nickelodeon after the original series had ended production. It would have revolved around Clarissa's internship at a New York City newspaper. Comedian Robert Klein costarred as its editor, Hugh Hamilton. Supporting roles were played by Marian Seldes and Lisa Gay 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 her next big television show, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, her character actually did become a journalist.
Read more about this topic: Clarissa Explains It All