Clarissa Darling, please explain this to me

I’d like to stop right here and pose a horribly true fact many of us don’t want to hear: 1991 WAS 20 YEARS AGO!

That’s right; all of us 90’s kids are getting old. It’s not something I like to think about much.

I realized this yesterday when I was watching none other that Clarissa Explains it All and saw that the copyright date was 1992. I was 9 years old in 1992. Then I realized another thing: Shows like Clarissa were back in that time also; I don’t see many kids’ shows like that today.

As a result of having an unwished for amount of time off work, I spend more time than necessary watching TV, a lot of times landing on the Disney Channel. Yes, I’ll admit it, I watch the Disney Channel. I became addicted to Wizards of Waverly Place a while back due to its completely off-course views of witchcraft, and gradually found other shows I still wish I’d never encountered. Phineas and Ferb seems to keep the mind rolling with every episode and sometimes I think might have some sort of actual scientific fact in there. Plus it’s a suburban family with a freaking platypus as a pet. I see nothing wrong with that platypus being a secret agent. What I’d like to know is who lived in the suburbs with a platypus and the platypus can survive. Even more, who owns a platypus!

Back to my original question, looking at shows like this today, do they even compare to out childhood TV?

About 2 years ago I began compiling different theme songs on my iPod to play during work at my proofreading job. As we worked we were permitted to play music in order to keep the day from getting dull at times. Each day would often be granted to a different person, and so on my day, after the extreme complaints from a few coworkers finished, I would play music, interspersed with the nostalgic themes from out favorite shows. As my coworker Kristen pointed out, “I know I spent time outside with friends, but it seems like I watched a lot of TV as a kid” (This is quoted very loosely, being almost 2 years past).

With all the shows on TV in that time period however, it really felt this way. I remember watching Clarissa Darling when I was a kid, constantly watching one of my childhood crushes every episode. I believe as I grew up, even as awesome as Sabrina the Teenage Witch was, Melissa Joan Hart didn’t have the same style. There was something about watching as Clarissa explained life from her own P.O.V. (Point of View), watching as she made her own video games (usually about rid the world of Fergface), and Sam with his own personal welcome strum that still can’t be outmatched. Especially by Melissa and Joey-- HUH?

I'd like to pause for a brief addition about the great Clarissa Darling from Rosianna (@papertimelady):

Clarissa isn't the only great Nickelodeon show I've grown to relove. This week was the first week of TeenNick's "90's are All That" midnight block, showing oldschool Nick shows from from 90s. currently they have All That, Keenan & Kel, Clarissa and Doug. I never really got much into Keenan & Kel when I was a kid, except for maybe the occasional GoodBurger sketch on All That, something I see today and still question whether doctors had prescribed me the wrong medicines at the time.

All That however, brings a lot of memories back. For one many of my favorite cast members, according to imdb (which we can of course, trust about everything), were only part of for at most 14 episodes. It's hard to think that Lori Beth Denberg, the important advice guru, was only in 14 episodes? I still don't quite believe this, as this information comes from imdb, but it's quite a shocker still. Even more of a shocker that she seemed to fall of the face of the Earth after this show.

More shows are supposed to run as the time block gains viewers, as their promo keeps showing, which makes me want the other shows now. Are You Afraid of the Dark, for example, the scary kid's programming precursor to Goosebumps, had so many moments I think back to now that were influential in my mystery writing mind- even if I was too scared to watch the show until I got a bit older. The Adventures of Pete and Pete (a show I have already ordered because I don't want to wait) still makes me wonder where Michelle Trachtenberg would be had she not stood aside Big Pete, Little Pete, and Petunia.

One show that has apparently not made it to the lineup if The Secret World of Alex Mack, a show that for some reason is only on DVD in the first season. This was actually a great disappointment when I finished watching it again recently. I think by the end of the show she actually was caught, but really, how can you tell that without rewatching it. These companies just don't understand us kids of the 90s.

With all this, what if other networks brought back shows. What if Disney started playing Darkwing Duck or Talespin again. I think the world would be a better place. He's the terror that flaps in the night, and brings hope to television.

So for all of us 90s kids who still prefer The Midnight Society and Hey Dude, what are your favorite shows from the 90s?

How Harry Potter has shaped my life

When I woke up this morning, I had a mission— I was going to add a wand holder on the inside of my Hogwarts robes. As much as I still did not understand why, I had one minor problem with this plan, which was I did not own a wand.
I know, why? After all these years, how did I still not own some form of magic wand. So, as part of my mission, I sought out a wand. It did not have to be a terribly sophisticated one, especially as such an extravagant wand from Olivander’s or Alivan's would cost more than a little-paid library clerk who has recently been laid off from his second job can afford—probably more than I could afford with the second job.
Anyway, I went off on my journey for a new wand. Since the owl with my Hogwarts acceptance letter is still lost somewhere and 17 years late, I got into the car and drove around with my list for the day. Between many different shops seeking my prize, I procured other such commodities as Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans (safe jelly beans from Mr. Bulky’s in which I picked out all the flavors myself), felt in which to make the pocket from, and a Gremlin.

(The Gremlin was an added perk of the day, not related to anything I had planned. It’s just adorable)

It’s hard to imagine that only just 10 years ago I became entranced by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone after I asked my sister to come see the movie with me. Patsy had already seen the movie with her school, already a huge fan of the books. I on the other hand, knew nothing of it other than what I had been told.
Yes, you can all judge me now, as I have judged so many people. I got into the series after watching the movies. After seeing the first movie in the theater, I quickly snatched Patsy’s copy of the first book and became hooked.
It took a while to get into the books, finally jumping into the 5th book as Patsy finished it (I recall I probably sat with puppy dog eyes as I put Goblet down when I realized I had a while to wait before the next book was available).
I, like millions and millions of others in the world, had found a love of the book and movie series. Hogwarts was a far off place where anything was possible and we could go to escape the real-life muggle problems going on.
As it is now, my extreme Harry Potter love is greater than I’d ever imagine 10 years ago. For instance:
As years went on, wizard rock began to happen. I would say it formed, but it really didn’t seem that way. It felt like out of nowhere, wizard rock was abundant without knowing where it truly came from.
During a trip to MacBack’s bookstore in Cleveland Heights, my sister and I noticed a random CD featuring a lightning bolt and the words “Harry and the Potters” laid out in the display case. “Harry and the Potters”? Really? We were cracking up laughing the entire trip home.
Then the trip back to Cleveland Heights in which our group’s car got a flat tire in one of the richer areas of town. Nothing will beat the reaction of the person who’s driveway we pulled into when they saw us, all in full Hogwarts regalia, trying to change a flat tire.
(My friend Angie and I dressed up with other attendees of Remus Lupins concert, Summer 2007)

Wizard Rock is probably what kept my love alive for this series. Most people still look at my iPod playlist and ask me if I have any music that is NOT about Harry Potter. You know, because there is music like that. Even my sister, the one who got me into the series, told me I needed to stop with the Wizard rock because it was just too much. I didn’t care though. I was happy.
These types of events, gatherings of music, crafts, fun, all at the library, helped me decide what I wanted to do in life. After getting an English major, I went for my Masters in Library Science. I’d be a reference librarian. But even then, I felt there was more. Coming to these events, even helping organize one for the final book release, made me realize how much I enjoyed doing these kinds of large and small programs for Young Adults. It made the library an awesome place to go. It was a place to pick up a good book, and maybe a new friend.


After J.K. Rowling made her initial Pottermore announcement, I was ecstatic. As I posted on Facebook:

THERE'S GOING TO BE MORE HARRY POTTER!!!!! THERE'S GOING TO BE MORE HARRY POTTER!! Okay, so we don't know what exactly this is going to be yet- pottermore.com- but THERE'S...gasp....GOING...TO BE... MORE..gasp...HARRY...(can't breathe)... POTTER!!!!!!!

As a response to this, I had one childhood respond with:

wow happy for u but i would not go that crazy over harry potter now if randy orton or the rock showed up at my house yes i go that crazy

Well this is why I was so happy. Harry Potter has shaped my life so much that it even led me to my career studies.

Every song and album I downloaded, every concert I went to, I made friends. Now making friends isn’t the easiest thing for me to do. Even as an adult, I am extremely shy no matter where I am. And yet, while it could often be difficult at times to simply hang out and talk to some musicians or fans, the Internet has allowed Wizard Rock fans to keep in touch both in person and from across the world.
I’ve met so many wonderful people, including Alex Carpenter (The Remus Lupins), Matt Magiaccamo (The Whomping Willows), Nefret Salzberg, who I worked so fruitlessly with on wizardrock.org, my great friend from across the sea in Ireland, Amy Snow (Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons, WZRD: Your Wizard Rock Station), Jamie Walker (WZRD). Plus, most recently I came to start talking to the awesome Mike Lombardo, who I never would have even heard of had I never gotten late to an ALL CAPS show where I was playing.
These and so many, so many more people, I have met as a result of Harry Potter, and I hope the current immense number grows.
Next Friday the last movie in the series comes out. That Friday I will be at the theater, tie pulled up, robes assembled, wand and sonic screwdriver in their holsters (I ended up buying a pen wand until I can afford a really good one), and I will most certainly be crying my eyes out the entire time.
I’d like to thank all my friends, close are far away, all the rockers and makers of music, all the book publishers and makers of HP merchandise, and most of all, J.K. Rowling, who if not for her, I’d probably be sitting in a corner right now reading John Green—which would still be freaking awesome, but not as much as he is right now.