“Popular” premiered 23 years ago today, September 29, 1999
23 years ago today, September 29, 1999, Popular premiered. It is an American teenage comedy-drama television series that aired on The WB, 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 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 September 29, 1999, to May 18, 2001.
The series was a surprise hit with most critics, and over 20 years later critics still are giving it positive reviews.
In a review for Amazon.com, Bret Fetzer wrote,
"The key to Popular is how it merges melodramatic soap-opera stories with wrenchingly blunt and honest portrayals of the cruelties of adolescence. While some viewers may find it galling to listen to a gorgeous young actress who's been on magazine covers moan about how she can't be as perfect as a model, the series tackles everything from anorexia to peer manipulation to teen sex with directness and an eye for moral and emotional complexity. An episode about a Sadie Hawkins dance becomes a satirical farce about body image (female and male); a slumber party turns into brutal humiliation; a teacher decides to get a sex-change operation, prompting anxiety throughout the school. Almost every character gets a moment of heartfelt grandstanding, yet the actors pull them off with commitment and guts ([Sara] Rue routinely turns speeches that could have been cheesy schlock into genuine pathos). Sure, some fantasy sequences are silly, but the show skillfully creates characters and situations that defy easy definition...Popular cunningly subverts expectations; it's a smart show for both."
In 2012, Entertainment Weekly listed Popular at #21 in their list of the "26 Best Cult TV Shows Ever", calling it "the proto-Glee" and saying it "celebrated the value of outcasts and portrayed overplayed topics—Homecoming Court, sex, and secrets—through an absurdist lens."
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | October 1, 2022 1:45 PM
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Leslie Bibb is married to Sam Rockwell
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 29, 2022 9:43 PM
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I was a freshman in college, desperately wanted to watch this. The straight roommate I had been assigned in the dorm and had just moved in with said we could try watching it, and then at the first commercial break said "I'm done with this. You?" I wasn't out, and I didn't want issues with him, so I agreed and never did watch the show.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 29, 2022 9:47 PM
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True story: In my late teens/early 20s I wanted to be an actor for about two seconds. Popular was the one audition I nailed and I ended up making it all the way to producers, before they went with another actor.
I never watched the show, and don't know any of the characters, but I would have been whatever character was the main jock. I remember I was the QB or some similar cliche.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 29, 2022 9:48 PM
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r3 if it's any consolation, it jumped the shark rather quickly.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 29, 2022 9:50 PM
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R5 Thanks, so did my relationship with my roommate in the dorm!
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 29, 2022 9:51 PM
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Season 1 was great and felt new, fresh and fun in 1999. It was a bit ahead of its time, having a trans teacher, tackling a lot of topics still taboo etc.
Season 2 went all over the place.
Ryan Murphy has always done this, since his very first series (this one).
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 29, 2022 9:56 PM
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In its prime (i.e., the first season and some of the 2nd), this show was brilliantly subversive. Mary Cherry was iconic.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 29, 2022 9:57 PM
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Anyone who remembers this show remembers Mary Cherry more than anyone or anything else.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 29, 2022 10:00 PM
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My sophomore year we would tape each episode and our group of friends would watch it two or three times throughout the week (stoned of course). The homecoming episode with Delta Burke as Mary Cherrys mom and the episode where they got stuck in the bathroom hilarious and watched repeatedly.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 29, 2022 10:01 PM
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Starring Melissa Etheridge's future partner (and future ex-) Tammy Lynn Michaels!
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 29, 2022 10:09 PM
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I loved it and I was hardly their target audience. Mary Cherry was my absolute favorite character. When Delta played her mother i howled thru the whole show . "She aint pretty but shes loyal"!
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 29, 2022 10:18 PM
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Ryan Murphy wrote a spin-off for Delta and Mary Cherry called St. Sass and I believe they even filmed a pilot. It’s a shame it’s never surfaced since it would be fun to see.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 29, 2022 10:24 PM
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Let us not forget April Tuna!
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 30, 2022 11:47 AM
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This is classic Ryan Murphy: Starts strong, completely goes off the rails.
I loved the Cherrys, though.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 30, 2022 1:11 PM
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Did Mary Cherry have a Crosby baby, R11?
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 30, 2022 1:12 PM
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Love those Cherry gals! My favorite line (if memory serves, addressed to Mary): "Sorry...you're just not Teen Tarts material."
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 30, 2022 5:00 PM
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Leslie Grossman made the show. She must get along well with Murphy because they have worked together since. I'm surprised Carly didn't have a bigger career. I never hear about her anymore.She has an interesting look. Pretty but unique.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | September 30, 2022 8:52 PM
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Ryan only continues hiring people who he favors, and he usually only favors people who kiss his ass.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | September 30, 2022 9:04 PM
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Carly Pope's role in Popular reminds me of the lead actresses in MTV's Faking It- both were meant to be social outcasts, but they were absolutely gorgeous and in real life they'd have been at the top of the pecking order in any high school.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 30, 2022 9:42 PM
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R22 not necessarily. The personality matters. A really pretty girl who is too sweet very much can become an outcast and bullied by the mean popular girls.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 30, 2022 9:48 PM
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I remember when the series was canceled, and Tammy Lynn set up an account on MightyBigTV (which would later be TWOP) with the screen name "BitchSlapTheWB." She then proceeded to slam the fuck out of The WB and was promptly banned by that cunt Tara/WingChun.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | October 1, 2022 12:52 AM
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Television Without Pity, a popular tv-centric discussion forum.
This show will always be remembered for absolutely tanking in the second season. The first season was hilarious, the second was one of the biggest WTF ever.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | October 1, 2022 1:33 AM
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I remember TLM participating in the TWOP "Popular" forum as (clearly) herself *before* the show was cancelled -- I know because I dared to ask her a question and was immediately temporarily banned.
I appealed the ban because the question was completely innocuous and I had no clue why it was ban-worthy, and was then reinstated with a message from a mod (not Wing Chun... I think it was Gustav?) that basically said "sorry, TLM was being inundated with questions so we were banning left and right."
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | October 1, 2022 1:22 PM
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R24, didn't the recapper end up realising it really was her, and reached out for an interview? I'm sure I remember reading an interview with her and the very apologetic recapper.
That site loved to ban people left and right, whether they were "inundated with questions" or not.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | October 1, 2022 1:44 PM
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"Sugar D, look at my new lips. I'm one sexy poutin' laydee!"
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | October 1, 2022 1:45 PM
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