Nickelodeon
Only three new series premiered this week across the span of just two decades. One series only saw half of its produced episodes seeing broadcast, while the other two lasted for five seasons with wildly different episode counts — 65 to 587! Let’s take a look and see if you remember any of this week’s new series.
1951
- No new shows premiered this week in 1951.
1961
- No new shows premiered this week in 1961.
1971
- No new shows premiered this week in 1971.
1981
- No new shows premiered this week in 1981.
1991
March 23 – Clarissa Explains It All
- Cast: Melissa Joan Hart, Jason Zimbler, Elizabeth Hess, Joe O’Connor, Sean O’Neal
- Guest Cast: Shannon Woodward, Paul Kreppel, Michelle Trachtenberg, James Van Der Beek, Wayne Brady
- Synopsis: 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.
- Network: Nickelodeon
- Broadcast History: Five seasons, 65 episodes, last broadcast on October 1, 1994
- Trivia: While the show was on the air, the seasons were not well-defined. It was only after the show ended that the episodes were grouped into five ‘seasons’ consisting of 13 episodes each. The 2015 novel Things I Can’t Explain by series creator Mitchell Kriegman served as a sequel to the series with Clarissa in her late 20s. The series was Nickelodeon’s first with a female lead, and its popularity with girls and boys alike, led to more female-fronted series on the network. It was Nickelodeon’s second sitcom after Hey Dude, and one of seven new programs that premiered on the network in 1991. Kriegman had a rule that the color purple was not to be used on the show, although it was occasionally sneaked in. The show was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1994 for Outstanding Children’s Program. Melissa Joan Hart auditioned for the role of Six on Blossom at around the same time, but Clarissa was the role she preferred. One of the staff writers was Suzanne Collins who would go on to write The Hunger Games book series. The ladder Sam uses to climb into Clarissa bedroom window was only about three rungs high so Sean O’Neal would get on his knees and pretend to climb the ladder. A pilot for a follow-up series titled Clarissa was produced for CBS in 1995 which had Clarissa interning at a New York City newspaper. The cast included Robert Klein, Marian Seldes and Lisa Gay Hamilton. A revival of the series was rumored in 2018 but none of the cast has ever confirmed such a project.
2001
March 26 – Texas Justice
- Cast: Larry Joe Doherty, William Bowers, Randy Schell
- Synopsis: A syndicated American arbitration-based reality court show.
- Network: First-run Syndication
- Broadcast History: Five seasons, 587 episodes, last broadcast on November 14, 2005
- Trivia: The program was recorded at the studios of Fox station KRIV (Channel 26) in Houston, Texas.
March 27 – What About Joan?
- Cast: Joan Cusack, Kyle Chandler, Donna Murphy, Kellie Shanygne Williams, Wallace Langham, Jessica Hecht
- Guest Cast: Jeff Garlin, Ann Cusack, Rose McGowan, Howard Platt, Stefanie Powers, Gary Cole, Tim Kazurinsky, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Kadeem Hardison
- Synopsis: Joan Cusack starred as Joan Gallagher, a Chicago schoolteacher and the comedy of her day-to-day life.
- Network: ABC
- Broadcast History: Two seasons, 21 episodes (10 unaired), last broadcast on October 9, 2001
- Trivia: The series was taped in front of a live studio audience in Chicago, a condition for Joan Cusack to star in the series so she didn’t have to leave her family. Cusack was pregnant during the pilot filming and was disguised with baggy clothing. Kyle Chandler had lived in Chicago during production of his series Early Edition, but moved to Los Angeles after the series was cancelled in 2000. After he was cast for What About Joan?, he rented an apartment in Chicago and commuted back and forth to L.A. ABC ruined the show’s continuity by airing episodes out of order, and holding four Season 1 episodes in case new programming was needed for an impending writers strike, which never happened. The network then halted production two weeks into the second season, leaving an additional six episodes unaired. Cusack was told the show was cancelled on her 39th birthday. Her brother John was scheduled to appear in a Season 2 episode but production stopped before it could be filmed. While broadcast in 4:3 aspect ration, it was actually shot at 16:9 for posterity, however TV crews were not used to the format so cameras and other flubs can be seen in the widescreen versions that aired in foreign markets.
2011
- No new shows premiered this week in 2010.
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