Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9410040043
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANH BUI ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Just who is the next descendant of this illustrious line of spunky, intelligent - even occasionally perky - network TV heroines?
Easy, says producer Mitchell Kriegman. She's Melissa Joan Hart as vivacious teen-ager Clarissa Darling, who's been hanging out on Nickelodeon since 1991.
Now, at all of 18 years old, Hart is grown up and ready to go network, biding to bring her character to a CBS mid-season replacement series this year.
Hart already has endeared herself to millions of kids as the title character in Kriegman's quirky ``Clarissa Explains It All,'' a show that bridges the gap between Saturday morning cartoon devotees and ``Beverly Hills 90210'' addicts.
Clarissa breaks the fourth wall to give her own view on boys, parents, school and little brothers. She also indulges in various fantasies, helped along by cartoon special effects.
No condom debates here. Instead, the topics are confined to things like ``How can I deejay my grandparents' anniversary party and still go to the Pearl Jam concert?''
More than one critic has called the show fresh, original and, much to Kriegman's satisfaction, enjoyable.
``While it had a ton of strategies that were different - shorter scenes, talking to the camera, flash-forwards and flashbacks, the satisfaction was that when people watched it they didn't say, `Hey, that's different!' Instead they said, `That's fun!' It engaged the audience,'' he said from his New York office at Thunder Pictures.
``Clarissa'' has spawned a slew of commercial products including albums, books, home videos and a board game. She's even got her own teen advice column and an Internet mailing list.
Along with an enviably funky wardrobe, a best friend named Sam who uses a ladder to make unannounced visits, a Little Brother From Hell, and two incredibly understanding if slightly goofy parents, she quickly became a mainstay for Nickelodeon's popular Saturday night lineup SNICK.
The show is seen by more than 5 million viewers a week, mostly kids 6 to 14 years old.
``She's a good person. She's a good role model,'' Hart said, explaining Clarissa's appeal. ``She's got a good heart and she tries hard and she doesn't try to be what she's not. She tries to be herself.''
`` `Clarissa' has emerged as a kind of `Leave It to Beaver' for a generation,'' Kriegman said. `` `Clarissa' was a chance for me to create the family that I always wanted and to have kids speak their point of view, something since `Leave It to Beaver' that hasn't been done.''
After 65 shows, the show has wrapped up production. The final episode airs Saturday, although the program will continue to be rerun on Nickelodeon.
The CBS pilot in the works is a natural transition for Clarissa - and for Hart, Kriegman said.
''[CBS] is attracted to her character,'' he said. ``I think they see her as someone that is in the line of Marlo Thomas, Mary Tyler Moore and Murphy Brown that has a kind of reality to her and a fresh and optimistic quality I think they were impressed with.''
The final episode actually has Clarissa masquerading as Murphy Brown in an extended fantasy sequence.
But will the show's offbeat originality survive into network prime time?
``That's been the issue in many ways is how to deal with that, and how much the network wants to do the original show that was designed to break a lot of rules about sitcoms and revise the form,'' Kriegman said. ``Do you create a show that continues those innovations or do you take it in a more traditional way? It may become a very different show.''
In fact, there is nothing definite about the script for the pilot, although the final episode provides an easy jump: a journalism internship in New York that could whisk Clarissa away from her suburban Chicago home.
``As long as Clarissa's herself, it'll be OK,'' Hart said. ``It will always have the same foundation.''
by CNB