Lizzie McGuire

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This article is about the TV series. For the title character, see Lizzie McGuire (character).
Lizzie McGuire
File:Lizziemcguireintro.jpg
Lizzie McGuire title card
Created byTerri Minsky
StarringHilary Duff
Lalaine
Adam Lamberg
Jake Thomas
Hallie Todd
Robert Carradine
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes65 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersStan Rogow
Susan Estelle Jansen
Running time22 minutes (approx.)
Original release
NetworkDisney Channel
ReleaseJanuary 12, 2001 –
February 14, 2004

Lizzie McGuire is a popular Disney Channel Original Series that aired on the Disney Channel from 2001 to 2004. Its target demographic was preteens and adolescents. The TV show was created by Terri Minsky. The show's creatively offbeat, mixed media format stood out from the rest of the Disney Channel's programming of the time - and in essence, became the channel's flagship, and definitive show of the early 2000s. The show's producer Stan Rogow says the visual look of the show was partly inspired by Run Lola Run. The show finished production in early summer 2002 which is over a year and a half until the last episode aired February 2004.

Characters

Main Characters

  • Miranda Isabella Sanchez, played by Lalaine: Miranda is Lizzie's other best friend who rounds out the main triumvirate. She's also the rebel of the three. But in the end, Lizzie's always there to have her back. She does not appear in the last six episodes of the show, or in the Lizzie McGuire Movie, and writers cited various reasons to cover for her absence.
  • David Zephyr "Gordo" Gordon, played by Adam Lamberg: Gordo is Lizzie's best friend since she was one day old. Usually, he offers sarcasm and good advice. He is very intelligent and always gets good grades. He is also revealed to be of the Jewish faith as shown in one episode where he has a Bar Mitzvah. In the episode "The Untitled Stan Jenson Project", it was revealed that Lizzie had a crush on him in the fourth grade.
  • Matthew "Matt" McGuire, played by Jake Thomas: Matt is Lizzie's younger brother. As a stock character, he often is destroying something, and has a best friend named Lanny, who doesn't talk (on screen). Matt is clever and wily, and has a bad reputation for getting into trouble.
  • Jo McGuire, played by Hallie Todd: As a mother to Lizzie, she is always trying to make Lizzie's life better but the results come out as trying to make Lizzie's life worse (to her) and far more embarrassing.

Secondary Characters

  • Kate Sanders/Saunders (Ashlie Brillault) is the most popular girl in Lizzie's school. Once one of Lizzie's best friends, Kate became Lizzie's enemy after she became popular because she got a bra after summer camp was over. Kate likes trying to make Lizzie's life impossible to live, but Lizzie always manages to really outsmart Kate and always comes out on top. References in episodes are inconsistent about her last name.[citation needed]
  • Ethan Craft (Clayton Snyder) is the boy who Lizzie, Miranda, and the rest of the girls at school have a huge crush on. He's not so bright but he's kind and friendly to everyone. In Season 1, he was portrayed as more of The Bad Boy. For example, he used to force Gordo do things against his will. At the beginning of the series, Danny Kessler was the "crush boy" instead, but he was not heard from again after the first few episodes.
  • Lawrence "Larry" Tudgeman (Kyle Downes) A school dork who is basically treated like an outcast by everyone except by Lizzie and her friends (with exceptions). He has also been known to wear the same shirt since the second grade.
  • Claire Miller (Davida Williams) Kate's new best friend who is also not very kind to Lizzie. She can sometimes even be unkind to her friends including Kate as shown in the episode "The Rise & Fall of The Kate Empire."
  • Lanny Onasis (Christian Copelin) Matt's best friend who has never spoken on screen, but yet he communicates with Matt without any difficulties.
  • Melina Bianco (Carly Schroeder) Matt's friend who loves getting Lanny and Matt into trouble and eventually becomes his girlfriend. She is first introduced as Matt's enemy, but they both begin to have feelings for each other.

Minor Characters

  • Eduardo and Daniela Sanchez (played by Armando Molina and Dyana Ortelli)
Miranda's parents.
  • Howard and Roberta Gordon (played by Michael Mantell and Alison Martin)
Gordo's parents, who are both psychiatrists.
Parker is another girl who is crushed on by Gordo. She is a vegetarian as shown in the episode "Obsession."
Lizzie and Miranda's first heart-throb. He appeared on the first few episodes and then was never seen again. He was mentioned in the episode "My Fair Larry."
A nerdy girl who is very rough. She appears once in Season 1 and then appears more often when we see Lizzie in the 8th grade.
Kate's cousin. She is exactly as mean as Kate in every way.
Gym teacher at Hillridge Junior High.
Principal of Hillridge Junior High.
A teacher at Hillridge Junior High who has taught Lizzie's class.
  • Two Big Guys
Sam's best friends. Two big fat guys that own a pet chimp named Frado. Lizzie also saves one of their lives in "Rated Aargh!".

Animated Lizzie

Animated Lizzie is an animated character in the show. She represents the title character's inner thoughts, addressing the audience directly in the manner of a Greek chorus. The show wasn't the first series to use animation to reflect a live-action character's innermost thoughts, however; Student Bodies, a syndicated program about the struggles of a cartoonist for a school newspaper, often used the artist's surrealistic caricatures of himself and his friends to visually illustrate his interior monologues. Animated Lizzie is also voiced by series star Hilary Duff.

Spin-offs

A movie based on the show, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, was released on May 2, 2003. It was second at the box office in its opening week behind X2: X-Men United.

The show was cancelled after 65 episodes, which was reportedly a Disney policy for all of its series, although that has changed now, benefitting shows such as That's So Raven, Kim Possible, and The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody. Also, Duff's representatives have said she wasn't getting paid enough for a proposed spin-off taking Lizzie into High School on ABC.

There have also reportedly been proposed plans to launch a cartoon series based on Lizzie's animated alter ego, but no such thing appears to be under development at the present time. There were also proposed plans to launch a spin-off based on Miranda's sister, known either as Stevie Sanchez or What's Stevie Thinking, but despite persistent rumors it was never scheduled to air; sources differ on whether a pilot or other episodes were ever made.

It was announced in late May, 2006 that WGN Superstation will carry Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens in syndication which began on September 18, 2006. As a result, Disney Channel has stopped airing both shows except for their holiday episodes. The sites on Disney Channel.com devoted to the shows are still accessible but not linked on the site's main menu.

Trivia

  • Even though the show lasted three seasons, Lizzie and her friends remain in the eighth grade during seasons two and three.
  • Cast members Adam Lamberg, Robert Carradine appeared in the movie Max Keeble's Big Move
  • Adam Lamberg (Gordo) is four years older than both Hillary Duff (Lizzie) and Lalaine (Miranda).
  • Sara Paxton was considered for the role of Lizzie before Hilary Duff auditioned. She later made a guest appearance in "Lizzie for President". Lindsay Lohan, as well, was considered for the role, and both she and Sara Paxton were both proudly[citation needed] presented to Disney as their top choices.
  • Lalaine, the actress who played Miranda, stopped appearing on the show towards the end of the series. Miranda, however, was still mentioned in the show storylines as being on vacation in Mexico or "out sick" even though she never was on the screen. The actress does manage to appear in the final episode which aired in February 2004, but that episode actually filmed earlier than the ones in which she does not appear.
  • In the episode "When Moms Attack", the teams are Tagi and Pagong. These are the same team names as the tribes in Survivor: Borneo.
  • There is a montage in every episode.
  • The house used in the pilot "Pool Party" is a real house whereas through out the rest of the series, a studio set is used.
  • Hilary Duff's sister Haylie Duff appears in the episodes 'Clue-less', 'Xtreme Xmas' and 'Party Over Here' as Kate's cousin, Amy.
  • Hilary Duff (Lizzie) and Davida Williams (Claire) played roles in Raise Your Voice, this time as friends, not enemies. Kyle Downes (Larry) also had a small part in the movie in the beginning.
  • The exterior shots of Hillridge Junior High is the same school used for H.G. Wells Junior High, the school used in Phil of the Future.
  • Jake Thomas (Matt) also stars in Cory in the House as Jason Stickler.
  • Aaron Carter appeared on an episode singing to Lizzie McGuire, right around the same time Carter and Hillary Duff were dating in real life.

Merchandising

The character of Lizzie continues to be merchandised by Disney (see Lizzie McGuire books), especially through a large set of books, which include novelizations of the episodes, original Nancy Drew-style mystery stories in the Lizzie McGuire Mysteries series, and "Cine-manga" pictorial adaptations (published by TOKYOPOP) with still shots from the show presented in manga style. A Lizzie McGuire doll was even released in 2002 by Dakin Toys. The 10" doll featured many of Lizzie's outfits for the doll. A plush doll of the Cartoon Lizzie was also made by Dakin in 2002. Fortune magazine estimated in 2003 that "Lizzie McGuire" merchandise had earned the Walt Disney Co. nearly $100 million. Radio Disney continually promotes Lizzie McGuire and regularly (although not as often as when the show was still running) gives away the show's CD in giveaways.

File:LizzieMcGuire BoxSetV1 Fina.jpg
The Volume One DVD set of Lizzie McGuire. The only full-length DVD release to date, in the U.S.

Several home video and DVD versions of the show have been released in various countries. In the United States, some thematic episode collections were first released, and later a DVD box set consisting of 22 episodes from the first season (mostly, but not entirely, corresponding to the first 22 episodes in production order). This is designated as "Volume 1", but no current plans are known for the release of volumes 2 and 3 of the series, and poor sales of the first box set may prevent further releases. As of (April 2006), a box set of 12 DVDs with all the 65 episodes of the show is available in Spain, and box sets (grouped into three 22-episode "seasons") are available in Australia and the UK.

Lizzie-themed toys were included in a 2004 McDonald's Happy Meal series, which included CD-ROM discs containing Lizzie-related games and graphics and audio versions of "Lizzie" (not voiced by Duff) reading stories based on episode plots of her show.

There is also a Lizzie McGuire bedroom set offered by some furniture stores as one of several Disney-themed children's bedrooms, and a What Would Lizzie Do? board game where players must judge Lizzie's likely response to various situations. Three Lizzie McGuire video games have been released for the Game Boy Advance: Lizzie McGuire: On the Go (2003), Lizzie McGuire 2: Lizzie Diaries (2004), and Lizzie McGuire 3: Homecoming Havoc (2005).

References to this show elsewhere

  • In another episode of the Simpsons Marge and Homer were seen leaving The Lizzie McGuire Movie, scared.
  • In Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog's song "I Keed", there's a reference to Fred Durst checking out the cast of Lizzie McGuire. ("And yet you're too old for Fred Durst to desire, He's checking out the cast of 'Lizzie McGuire' ")

See also

Online games


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