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DYN: General observations

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• Seen in Clarissa's room in ``Revenge'' (#101):
  • Bumper sticker saying ``Ask a Teenager: They Know Everything!''
  • Sign saying ``Keep Out! Science Projects''
  • More, more, more! :-)
• In one scene in ``Revenge'' (#101), Ferguson is watching Ren & Stimpy (specifically, the barf scene in ``Big House Blues''); Clarissa is watching the very same scene in ``No T.V.'' (#103) when Ferguson comes in and starts the ``Remote Control Wars''.
• It has been said that the names of the characters and the actors to play them were chosen independently; but it still seems strange to me that ``Clarissa'' should be so similar to ``Melissa'' and ``Sam'' to ``Sean''. Also, what about ``Marshall'' and ``Mitchell'' [Kriegman]?
• In ``School Picture'' (#102), after Clarissa tries on Jody's bother's Elvis-style jacket, she says, ``Jody, Jody, Jody...'' Could this possibly be a nod to Cary Grant? (His catch phrase was ``Judy, Judy, Judy'' -- although he never actually said this on-screen!)
• In ``School Picture'' (#102), Clarissa and Janet go goo-goo over Joey Russo's picture in the yearbook (especially his eyes) and Marshall mentions Joey's ``perfect jawline''. But when we finally see him in ``Janet's Boyfriend'' (#127), he really isn't anything special (IMHO).
• In ``School Picture'' (#102), as Clarissa is going through her ``parallel universe'' spiel in the bathroom, Jody keeps looking at the camera with a puzzled look on her face. It looks like she's wondering who Clarissa's talking to. But she looks at the camera a couple of times in the episode -- in Clarissa's room when she first introduces Jody and later (I can't remember where, exactly) -- indicating that she does know about the ``interface'' between Clarissa and us.
• Although Janet and Marshall almost always refer to Ferguson by his full first name, Marshall calls him ``Ferg'' in ``Urge to Drive'' (#104) after Clarissa freaks out at the kitchen table.
• In ``Urge to Drive'' (#104), when Clarissa is talking to Marshall about wanting a Gremlin, she says, ``But it's important to buy American, right?'' Marshall replies, ``Absolutely!'' In ``Road Trip'' (#143) Clarissa's behind the wheel of the family car: a Volvo.
  [Thanks to Noel Alfonso!]
• In ``CNN'' (#105), when Janet gives Clarissa money to order a pizza, she actually hands Ferguson the money and lets him make the phone call -- this just seconds after she witnessed how Ferguson weaseled $15 out of Marshall for the ``Swahili tape''!
• In ``New Addition'' (#108) Clarissa says, ``Ohio is Sam's dog,'' but we never see this dog or hear about him ever again.
• According to Clarissa in ``New Addition'' (#108), Revenge of the Nerds is her and Sam's favorite cult movie of all time.
• Just before the final splash-fight scene is paused at the end of ``Brain Drain'' (#109), Melissa's goggles slip off her face.
• In ``Cool Dad'' (#112), in the scene where Sam is talking about his dad's reaction to the movie Teenage Mutant Cheerleaders V, you can see the words ``Baby Prison'' written on the side of Clarissa's trunk at the foot of her bed; this is also quite noticeable in the next episode, ``Sick Days'' (#113).
• In ``Crush'' (#114) Clarissa tells Sam, ``I guess I just really like algebra,'' to which Sam replies, ``That's new.'' In real life, Melissa really does like algebra. [See Some info about Melissa.]
• Adam Lieberman asked Rick Fernandes:

  Was Clarissa deliberately made less weird or more normal after the earlier episodes?

  Rick Fernandes responded:

  Mitchell told me to tell you the reason she became more normal was the fact that he was in NY when the 2nd season was shot.

• Clarissa's bedroom window got larger later in the series, as Sam (Sean) got larger. [See also Sam's Entrances Through Clarissa's Window.]

  On the subject of the changes to the set, Rick Fernandes said:

  The set changed for two reasons. First, we got a bigger budget (YIPPEE). Second, after shooting the first season the directors and producers felt for better shots and camera angles the set had to change slightly. For example, in Clarissa's room we redesigned the window so Sam could more easily get in and out of her room.

• Notice how in the ``Famous Sibling Relationships'' sequence in ``She Drives Me Crazy'' (#115), Clarissa and Ferguson play two brothers (Cain and Abel), a brother and sister (Hansel and Gretel), and two (step-)sisters (Cinderella and her step-sister)? Interesting symmetry.
• The ``L''-against-the-forehead ``loser'' thing Jill does in ``She Drives Me Crazy'' (#115) was also in at least one episode of Roundhouse; I'm not sure who did it first.
• Pondered in the bathroom one morning: Could the name ``Cheesebrow'' [the guidance counselor in ``Misguidance Counselor'' (#123)] have come from the maker of Q-Tips, Chesebrough-Ponds USA??
• Adam Lieberman: [on the mystery surrounding Thomas Tupper Junior/Senior High]

  First, Clarissa seemed to be in junior high too long. Then when Clarissa changed schools, if in fact she ever did change, Ferguson seemed to be in the same school right away. There was no notice, and the school is still ``Thomas Tupper'', just no longer ``Junior High''. And finally... In ``The Zone'' (#148) Clarissa is shown borrowing an instrument from school two years earlier. We know that two years earlier she was at Thomas Tupper Junior High, but the initals on the instruments say ``T.T.H.S.'', indicating that she really was in the same school all along but in the later episodes it is rendered as a high school instead of a junior high.

  Gerald E. Peck responded with:

  This may be stretching it a bit, but I know that at some schools the junior high and the high school are housed in the same building with an interconnection between the two. Perhaps the instruments were just kept at the high school and circulated throughout the school district.

• The date of the ``live'' news report in ``Total TV'' (#126), April 18, 1775, is exactly 201 years prior to Melissa Joan Hart's birthday. [See Some info about Melissa Joan Hart.]
• Noticed in the credits to ``Sam's Swan Song'' (#130): ``Children's education provided by On Location Education, Orlando Florida.''
• Elizabeth Hess sounds really sick in a couple of scenes in ``Punch the Clocks'' (#131).
• Clarissa's prison number in ``Life of Crime'' (#137): 91167358. Other info... Height: 5'1'', Weight: 100 lbs., Crime: Theft.

  Adam Lieberman:

  The 1992 book Young Stars gives Melissa's height and weight as 5'1" and 90 lbs.

• Gerald E. Peck:

  In ``The Zone'' (#148), when Clarissa checks with Marshall about getting some incense, I noticed a painting just outside the door. Either my imagination was playing tricks on me or that picture looked like a depiction of Clarissa's room with Clarissa sitting on her bed.

• Some people see close ties bewteen Clarissa Explains It All and The Patty Duke Show, while others think CEIA has more obvious parallels with The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. In ``Don't I Know You'' (#150), The Patty Duke Show seems to win out, with references by Clarissa to ``a Patty Duke moment'' and ``identical cousins.''
• In ``Babysitting'' (#151), Michelle Trachtenberg (Elsie Soaperstein) is missing the same tooth as Melissa.
• Clarissa got her teeth ``fixed'' between the tapings of ``A New Mom'' (#154) in June 1993, and ``Editor-In-Chief'' (#155) in September 1993.
• In ``Dear Clarissa'' (#162), Clarissa uses the pen-name ``Alice B. Talking''. She says, ``you know, as in Alice B. Toklas, literary sidekick?'' Who is Alice B. Toklas? According to a review of the movie I Love You, Alice B. Toklas I found in Video Hound's Golden Video Retriever 1996, she was ``the lifemate of Lost Generation author Gertrude Stein.''
• One of the biggest mysteries in CEIA is when or if Clarissa started driving during the series. In ``UFO'' (#163), when Kate says, ``I love to drive,'' Clarissa responds, ``Me too.''
• In the ``Murphy Darling'' segment in ``The Final Episode'' (#165), when Clarissa dials the phone to call President Chelsea, she pushes the buttons 19 times! Also, the way the scene is written, the fact that Chelsea was the President is clearly supposed to be a surprise, but they spoiled the joke by already showing her in Clarissa's vision of Marshall 20 years in the future.

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