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Popular
Format	Comedy-drama
Created by	Ryan Murphy Gina Matthews
Starring	Leslie Bibb Carly Pope Tamara Mello Christopher Gorham Sara Rue Bryce Johnson Tammy Lynn Michaels Ron Lester Leslie Grossman Lisa Darr Scott Bryce Diane Delano
Opening theme	Kendall Payne, "Supermodels"
Ending theme	Sydney Forest, "High School Highway"
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	43
Production
Running time	60 minutes with commercials/ 45 minutes without commercials
Broadcast
Original channel	The WB
Original run	September 29, 1999 – May 18, 2001
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Popular is a teenage comedy-drama on The WB, created by Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck) and Gina Matthews (What Women Want, Jake 2.0, 13 Going on 30), starring Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope as two teenage girls that reside on polar opposite sides of the popularity spectrum at their high school, but are forced to co-exist when their single parents randomly meet and get married.

The show ran for two seasons on The WB from 1999 to 2001. Though the show was a big hit with The WB's teenage audience during its first year, the ratings could not sustain the network moving it to Friday nights, despite some outcry from loyal fans. Fans were also outraged over the rumor that Ryan Murphy had been promised a third season, which is why he left the final episode of the series on a cliffhanger, never to be resolved.

Sam McPherson and Brooke McQueen, high school students at Jacqueline Kennedy High School, are opposites. Brooke is a popular cheerleader, and Sam is an unpopular journalist. Their respective gangs are forced to socialize when Brooke's father and Sam's mother get engaged.

The plot of the first season revolves around the girls' plan to separate their parents. At the end of the season, Sam finds Brooke's real mother and encourages her to come back to town. This breaks up the engagement. By the second season, Sam and Brooke realize that their parents were happy together, and therefore team up to reunite them.

In the second season, a reversal of fortunes of sorts took place with Brooke resigning from cheerleading to focus on school issues as a member of the student council and Sam experiencing a surge of sudden popularity at school. Josh and Lily begin dating regularly, and Carmen replaces Nicole as the leader of the Glamazons. Harrison finds himself torn between Sam and Brooke. In the end of the second season finale — which turned out to be the series finale — Brooke is run over by an angry Nicole Julian.

After the timeslot to Popular changed from Thursday nights to Friday nights on The WB, the series began having low ratings and was cancelled. Family Channel decided to bring the series on syndication December 1, 2005 and had its last airing on August 31, 2007.

Some of the show's main cast. From left to right, bottom row: Lily, Carmen, Sugar Daddy, Mary Cherry top row: Nicole, Brooke, Josh, Sam, George

Brooke McQueen: Brooke is the popular girl at Kennedy High. She is beautiful, is a straight A student, and also a cheerleader. Though she seems perfect, Brooke's life is filled with pressure. Brooke's mother left when she was younger and this often results in moments of low self-esteem on her part. Brooke also suffers from an eating disorder, bulimia. She used to date Josh Ford; they slept together once, but she broke up with him right after.

Sam McPherson: Smart and pretty, Sam is strong willed and stubborn. She is one of the unpopular girls at Kennedy High. Sam and Brooke are enemies, but in the second season they begin to get along. Sam was on the school paper (although as the series progressed, her involvement in the paper wasn't mentioned) and often wrote stories that exposed hypocrisy and unfairness at Kennedy High. She dated football player, George Austin, but they unfortunately broke up after he walked in on Sam and Harrison kissing. Sam's father died when she was a teenager.

Harrison John: Harrison is the typical unpopular guy. He's had a crush on Brooke since they were kids, and ends up developing a crush on his good friend Sam McPherson. He suffered from leukemia, but survived after a bone marrow transplant from Nicole Julian. He is known as Joe to Mary Cherry.

Mary Cherry: The idiotic, bubbly cheerleader in the popular group. Mary Cherry comes from a very rich family, and as a result tends to be spoiled and rude to those who aren't popular. She does what she wants in order to get her way, even if it hurts others. She has a crush on Harrison whom she calls 'Joe'. Mary Cherry has a long history of mother issues; her mother is often insulting her and degrading her even though she claims to love her. Mary Cherry also has a twin sister and is from Texas.

Josh Ford: The quarterback of the football team. He dated Brooke McQueen for a while, but they broke up. He was the lead in the school play and is best friends with Sugar Daddy. He is married to Lily Esposito.

Michael 'Sugar Daddy' Bernardino: The wannabe gangster of the popular group. He is best friends with Josh and is on the football team. He has problems with his weight. He is dating Exquisite Woo.

Nicole Julian: Satan's child. She causes problems everywhere she goes. She has an on-again off-again friendship with Brooke McQueen. She gets her cruelty from a childhood of being bullied. Nicole's reputation at school is that of a complete bitch, and she maintains this by insulting others.

Lily Esposito: An activist in every sense of the word. She was confused about her sexuality, but eventually figured out she was straight. Lily is married to Josh Ford, but it doesn't last. Lily is most likely of Latino descent. She is a vegetarian and believes in animal rights.

Carmen Ferrara: Carmen is a pretty but unpopular girl. She was rejected from the cheerleading squad due to her weight, but later became head cheerleader. She suffered a pregnancy scare and had an abusive, alcoholic mother.

George Austin: George was a new student at Kennedy High. At first, Sam didn't like him because he was a football player and thought he was like the rest of the jocks. But she later finds out he is a nice guy and they begin dating for a few months. Their romance unfortunately ends when George walks in on Harrison kissing Sam. He was going to go to prom with Nicole Julian to get back at Sam, but couldn't go because he was "sick" from food poisoning.

Popita 'Poppy' Fresh: A member of the popular group during the first season. She was the nicest, and cheeriest of the cheerleaders, but still maintained the same stigma of with her stereotypical popular friends.

Main article: List of Popular episodes

There are total of 43 episodes, the 43rd episode ending in a cliffhanger.

Despite fitting into a rather common category, as a teen-centered mix of drama and comedy, Popular differentiated itself from its peers in its quirky, non sequitur humor and overall satirical approach to characters and story lines, a feature that would grow as the series progressed. Such elements included Mary Cherry's long-lost sister from the ghetto, B. Ho (and even their mother's name, Cherry Cherry); an occasion where both groups switched hair colours; Bobbi Glass's lost finger being replaced with a metal one complete with extendable pointer and knife attachments; and Josh's work as a window salesman. The show also utilized a variety of pop culture references and nonsensical jokes (for instance, April Tuna's reference to "getting some frottage" in the hall closet).

The complete series of Popular has been released on DVD in region 1 for the very first time by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In a late second season episode, Linda Park plays a racist storekeeper, and Anthony Montgomery appears in his regular role as Sam McPherson's boyfriend, George Austin. The two also have scenes with each other. Just a few months after this episode, the two would later appear in Star Trek: Enterprise together, with Park playing Starfleet communications officer Hoshi Sato, and Montgomery playing helmsman Travis Mayweather, respectively.

• Several times during the first season, there were many bloopers when Brooke and Sam had their "fights". Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope would always burst out laughing since they were real-life best friends. They both said it was really hard for them to "hate" each other.^{[citation needed]}

• Tammy Lynn Michaels, who played the bitchy, and one can assume intolerant, cheerleader Nicole Julian, is in real life the wife of musician Melissa Etheridge. The couple have infant twins, a boy and girl. She is also openly a lesbian.

• Kip Pardue was originally cast as Josh Ford in the pilot presentation to the WB, but after the show was added to the WB's line-up he was replaced by Bryce Johnson, to the relief of Ryan Murphy and Leslie Bibb, as mentioned on the Season 1 DVD commentaries.

• In the second season Leslie Grossman didn't appear in several episodes, due to a change in her contract, which allowed her time off due to the increased workload she had compared to the other actors on the show and her commitment to her other tv series What I Like About You.

• Leslie Bibb and Bryce Johnson both mention that while there was a constant stream of directors on the show, Ryan Murphy was always on set whenever Mary Cherry was in a scene in order to get Leslie Grossman to play the part exactly as he envisioned it.

• Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy High School is also the name of the "real" Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School.

• Anel Lopez Gorham, who played Poppita (Poppy) Fresh, is in real life Christopher Gorham (Harrison John)'s wife.

• "Bobbi" Glass was said to be a lesbian in a few episodes but in many she has talked about her love life with men or possible love life with them.

• After being promised a third season, Ryan Murphy wrote "Promblems" with a cliffhanger stating that it would have been solved in Season 3, but The WB axed the series without a proper conclusion.

• The third season was in outline form when the show came to an end. If it had returned, Ryan Murphy said that in the premier everything would have gone back to normal except Brooke was now a brunette, instead of blonde. The first half of the season would focus upon family matters interrupting school as well as Brooke wanting to be less popular. Around the middle of the season an old-folks home would have bought the high school and all the kids would have gotten their GED's. The show then would have fast-forwards 5-years to show the kids living together in Melrose Place - which Merry Cherry has purchased.

• Josh Ford's father was portrayed by an uncredited actor in the second episode of the first season and was played by Geoffrey Pierson

• When there are Glamazon tryouts in the second season: Exquisite Woo, Poppita Fresh, and Adam Rotchild-Ryan are all listed as having won spots on the cheerleading squad. You see none of these characters in the second season.

• Teen Choice Awards 2000; Choice Breakout Show
• GLAAD Media Awards 2000; Outstanding TV Individual Episode, for episode Wild Wild Mess
• Genesis Awards 2000; New Series, for episode Under Siege
• SHINE Awards 2000; Comedy Episode, for episode Booty Camp
• Genesis Awards 2001; Comedy Series, for episode Joe Loves Mary Cherry.