Felicity

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Felicity
Image:Felicitylogo.jpg
Felicity intertitle
Format Drama
Created by J.J. Abrams
Matt Reeves
Starring Keri Russell
Scott Speedman
Tangi Miller
Scott Foley
Amanda Foreman
Greg Grunberg
Amy Jo Johnson
Opening theme "Felicity Theme"
by Judith Owen
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 84
Production
Executive producer(s) Brian Grazer
Ron Howard
Tony Krantz
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time approx. 45 min.
Broadcast
Original channel The WB
Original run September 29, 1998May 22, 2002
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Felicity is a Golden Globe-winning American primetime television drama produced by Touchstone Television and Imagine Television for The WB network. The series revolved around the fictional college experiences of the title character, Felicity Porter (played by Keri Russell), as she attended the "University of New York", based on New York University, across the country from her home of Palo Alto, California. The show ran for four seasons from 1998 to 2002, with each season corresponding to the traditional freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years students attend at universities. The series was created by J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves. Notable guest directors included Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.

A recurring episode opener of the show was a stark camera shot of Felicity sitting in a dorm room or apartment holding a tape recorder, recalling events in order to make a cassette tape to send to an old friend named Sally Reardon (voiced by Janeane Garofalo). This occasionally provided a method for Felicity to narrate an entire episode. At the end of episodes like this, Felicity would often be shown listening to a tape Sally sent in reply.

Contents

The story of the series begins at Felicity's high school graduation where she asks Ben Covington (played by Scott Speedman), a classmate whom she has a crush on, to sign her yearbook. Moved by his comment that he wished he had gotten to know her, she changes her education plans completely, deciding to follow Ben to New York rather than attend Stanford University for pre-med. Felicity's overbearing parents, concerned about Felicity's seemingly rash decision, come to New York to try to convince her to return home and 'get back on track.' Felicity has second thoughts about her decision, but soon realizes that she came, not only to follow Ben, but to find herself.

While Felicity works to sort out her emotions, she continues the basic motions of student life and moves into her dorm. There, she meets the resident advisor Noel Crane (Scott Foley). Eventually, romance ensues, and the relationships between Felicity, Ben, and Noel form the basic dramatic conflicts in the show throughout the series.

A number of other characters appear and play large roles in Felicity's life. Her roommate for the first two years is Meghan Rotundi (Amanda Foreman), a goth Wiccan who occasionally casts spells on Felicity and others. Julie Emrick (Amy Jo Johnson) is one of Felicity's best friends, as is Elena Tyler (Tangi Miller), who often takes classes with Felicity. Felicity also has male friends, including Sean Blumberg (Greg Grunberg), who is always trying to produce new off-kilter inventions, and Javier Quintata (Ian Gomez), who manages the coffee house Dean & DeLuca where Felicity works for most of her college career.

Felicity maintained an ensemble cast, keeping most of its characters for its entire four season run. Numerous secondary characters, including friends and love interests for these characters, appeared intermittently to complement storylines that generally revolved around this core group.

The regular cast: (back row, left to right) Foreman, Grunberg, Johnson, Speedman; (front) Foley, Russell, Miller.
The regular cast:
(back row, left to right) Foreman, Grunberg, Johnson, Speedman;
(front) Foley, Russell, Miller.

Character Actor/Actress Duration
Felicity Porter Keri Russell all episodes
Ben Covington Scott Speedman all episodes
Noel Crane Scott Foley all episodes
Elena Tyler Tangi Miller episodes 2-84
Julie Emrick Amy Jo Johnson episodes 1-48
Meghan Rotundi Amanda Foreman seasons 2-4
Sean Blumberg Greg Grunberg seasons 2-4
Javier Clemente Quintata Ian Gomez season 4

Javier Clemente Quintata Ian Gomez seasons 1-3
Richard Coad Rob Benedict all episodes
Julie Emrick Amy Jo Johnson season 4
Meghan Rotundi Amanda Foreman season 1
Sean Blumberg Greg Grunberg season 1
Ruby Amy Smart season 2-3
Molly Sarah-Jane Potts season 3
Lauren Lisa Edelstein season 4
Zoe Webb Sarah Jane Morris (actress) season 4
David Sherman Henri Lubatti season 2
Andrew Covington John Ritter seasons 3-4
Trevor O'Donnell Christopher Gorham season 4
Tracy Donald Faison seasons 2-4
Dr. Toni Pavone Amy Aquino seasons 2-4
Greg Stenson Chris William Martin season 2
Hannah Bibb Jennifer Garner seasons 1 & 4
Natalie Crane Ali Landry season 3
Jane Scott Tyra Banks season 3
Lynn McKennan Dash Mihok season 1
Maggie Sherwood Teri Polo season 2
Professor Bill Hodges Jim Ortlieb season 4
Professor Annie Sherman Sally Kirkland season 2
Brian Burke/ "Burky" Michael Peña season 2
Carol Anderson Jane Kaczmarek seasons 1-2
Zach Devon Gummersall season 1
Blair Shan Omar Huey season 1
Edward Porter Erich Anderson seasons 1-4
Eli Simon Rex seasons 1-2
Barbara Porter Eve Gordon seasons 1-4

In 1999, a publicly hyped young writer for the show, Riley Weston, was disclosed as a fraud for claiming to be much younger than she truly was. At the age of 32, she began marketing herself to television studios as a recent high school graduate. (She claimed that her husband was her older brother.) She was soon hired by the WB Network as a writer for Felicity. Hailed as a child prodigy and "wunderkind," she was featured on Entertainment Weekly's October 1998 "it list" of the "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment," which described her as an up-and-coming 19-year-old. Shortly thereafter, she was offered a half-million dollar screenwriting deal with Disney. Her real identity and age were exposed after a Felicity producer checked her social security number. Soon after, her contract with WB expired and was not renewed, and her deal with Disney fell through.

The show's ratings declined in the 1999-2000 season. The popular press blamed this partly on a new hairstyle by the show's star[1]. Known for long and curly locks, Russell went along with the producers' idea that she snip her hair short early on in the second year after her character had a rough breakup with Ben. The ratings drop also coincided with the show's move to Sunday night, so it is unclear exactly how much effect the hairstyle change actually had.

  • Scott Foley, who originally auditioned for Noel, was cast as Ben. However, when producers found Scott Speedman, they asked Foley to switch back to the role of Noel.
  • During one episode, Felicity is attempting to complete a crossword puzzle and asks Ben what "Twelve letters, really bad TV show" could refer to. This is commonly believed to be a reference to lead-in WB show Dawson's Creek [2].
  • Noel discusses a website with Felicity during the show called www.noelcrane.com This is in fact an actual site that pertains to the show.
  • According to Amy Jo Johnson, Julie's departure from the show in 2000 was a result of the actress' need to grieve for her mother whom she had lost two years earlier. She explained that she had been unable to do so properly, due to the show's heavy workload. However, producers have said that the WB network wanted her to leave the show because her story lines were too 'depressing.'
  • During the final episodes of the series, Felicity travels back in time thanks to a spell her Wiccan friend and roommate Meghan cast, in which she refaces several people and situations from past seasons. This story arc paved the way for cast members such as Amy Jo Johnson and recurring guests Amy Aquino and Jennifer Garner to return to the show for a few episodes before the end of the series. It also was a way to include the character of Elena in the storylines, despite the fact that her character was killed in a car accident in present-time.
  • During the time traveling episodes in the final season, Tangi Miller's character of Elena was said to have been killed in the present day. When Felicity finally returns from the past, Elena is mysteriously resurrected and present at Noel's wedding, seemingly creating an error in the show's continuity. Producers have since explained the error as a problem in editing, as a scene in which Felicity left Elena a note on her last night in the past, telling Elena not to go to Columbia in order to avoid her fatal car accident was cut from the final episode due to length. These scenes have been restored on the fourth season DVD set to relieve confusion for fans.
  • In commentary for the fourth season DVD, creator J.J. Abrams says the idea for Alias, which starred Scott Foley's then wife and Felicity guest star Jennifer Garner was derived from a half-joking story plot for an episode of Felicity. Abrams said that by the fourth season, it became difficult for the writers to think up new storylines for Felicity. Abrams said that he half-jokingly suggested an idea where Felicity was a secret agent, while still trying to balance her affections for Ben and Noel, and her school life.
  • Interestingly enough, Jennifer Garner is also not the only major player from Felicity to have later moved on to Alias. Greg Grunberg also became a regular cast member of that series after Felicity ended its run.
  • One Mad TV parody with Keri Russell appears on the Felicity DVDs, but there was also another one featuring Nicole Sullivan as Felicity and called "Intensity."
  • Ed Redlich, the producer and writer of some episodes, also appeared in one episode as a character.

The DVDs were released over a period of four years by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Because of high music licensing costs, many of the songs from the original broadcast episodes were replaced with songs by artists from the independent label Rescue Records. Among them were Blaire Woods Reinhard ("Over and Over" and "Can't Let Go"), Mike Schmidt ("Just Wave Goodbye"), and Beth Thornley ("Mr. Lovely"). On a technical level, some episodes did not have proper telecine encoding, so viewers using HDTVs could sometimes see interlacing artifacts (though this problem can be mitigated in a few ways). The yearly sets are listed below with their American release dates.


Felicity: Freshman Year Collection (The Complete First Season)
Set Details Special Features
  • 22 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English
  • Languages:
    • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • Audio Commentary on "Pilot"
    • J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves (Co-Creators, and Executive Producers)







Release Dates
Flag of the United States United States Flag of Australia Australia
November 5, 2002 November 4, 2003
Felicity: Sophomore Year Collection (The Complete Second Season)
Set Details Special Features
  • 23 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English
  • Languages:
    • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
    • Spanish
  • 5 Audio Commentaries:
    • Cast and Fimmakers
  • Never-Before-Seen Network Pilot Episode
  • Keri Russell's Audition
  • Felicity "Emmy Parody" Spoof (Produced for the Emmy Broadcast)





Release Dates
Flag of the United States United States Flag of Australia Australia
July 22, 2003 Withdrawn
Felicity: Junior Year Collection (The Complete Third Season)
Set Details Special Features
  • 17 Episodes
  • 5-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English
  • Languages:
    • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
    • Spanish
  • Audio Commentaries:
    • Cast and Crew
  • "Docuventary: A Look Back at Season 3 With Greg Grunberg"
  • Mad TV Parody






Release Dates
Flag of the United States United States Flag of Australia Australia
September 21, 2004 Withdrawn
Felicity: Senior Year Collection (The Complete Fourth Season
Set Details Special Features
  • 22 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English
  • Languages:
    • English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
    • Spanish
  • Audio Commentaries:
    • Cast and Crew
  • "The Lost Elena Scenes" - This Exclusive, Never-Before-Seen Footage provides the long-awaited answer to Felicity fans' Biggest Question!
  • "Fade Out" - Behind-the-scenes Reflections with Keri Russell and the show's creators
  • Creating Characters - Q&A with J.J. Abrams, Keri Russell, Matt Reeves & Jennifer Garner


Release Dates
Flag of the United States United States Flag of Australia Australia
March 8, 2005 Withdrawn

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