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Popular

  • TV Series
  • 1999–20011999–2001
  • TV-14TV-14
  • 1h
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
6.5K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,727
818
Episode guide
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Leslie Bibb, Carly Pope, and Sara Rue in Popular (1999)
CT #1 Post
Play trailer1:07
1 Video
99+ Photos
  • Comedy
  • Drama
  • Romance

Two girls who despise each other, due to being on opposite sides of the "popularity fence", are forced together upon learning that their parents are getting married.Two girls who despise each other, due to being on opposite sides of the "popularity fence", are forced together upon learning that their parents are getting married.Two girls who despise each other, due to being on opposite sides of the "popularity fence", are forced together upon learning that their parents are getting married.

IMDb RATING
7.3/10
6.5K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,727
818
  • Creators
    • Gina Matthews
    • Ryan Murphy
  • Stars
    • Leslie Bibb
    • Carly Pope
    • Tamara Mello
Top credits
  • Creators
    • Gina Matthews
    • Ryan Murphy
  • Stars
    • Leslie Bibb
    • Carly Pope
    • Tamara Mello
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 94User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 wins & 9 nominations

    Episodes43

    Browse episodes
    TopTop-rated

    Videos1

    Popular: Second Season
    Trailer 1:07
    Popular: Second Season

    Photos118

    Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope in Popular (1999)
    Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope in Popular (1999)
    Leslie Bibb, Tamara Mello, Carly Pope, Tammy Lynn Michaels, Scott Bryce, Lisa Darr, Diane Delano, Christopher Gorham, Leslie Grossman, Bryce Johnson, Ron Lester, and Sara Rue in Popular (1999)
    Leslie Bibb, Tamara Mello, Carly Pope, Tammy Lynn Michaels, Christopher Gorham, Leslie Grossman, Bryce Johnson, Ron Lester, and Sara Rue in Popular (1999)
    Leslie Bibb, Tamara Mello, Carly Pope, Leslie Grossman, and Sara Rue at an event for Popular (1999)
    Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope in Popular (1999)
    Leslie Bibb, Tamara Mello, Carly Pope, Tammy Lynn Michaels, Christopher Gorham, Leslie Grossman, Bryce Johnson, Ron Lester, and Sara Rue in Popular (1999)
    Leslie Grossman in Popular (1999)
    Leslie Grossman in Popular (1999)
    Carly Pope and Leslie Grossman in Popular (1999)
    Carly Pope and Leslie Grossman in Popular (1999)
    Carly Pope in Popular (1999)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Leslie Bibb
    Leslie Bibb
    • Brooke McQueenas Brooke McQueen
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Carly Pope
    Carly Pope
    • Sam McPhersonas Sam McPherson
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Tamara Mello
    Tamara Mello
    • Lily Espositoas Lily Esposito
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Christopher Gorham
    Christopher Gorham
    • Harrison Johnas Harrison John
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Sara Rue
    Sara Rue
    • Carmen Ferraraas Carmen Ferrara
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Bryce Johnson
    Bryce Johnson
    • Josh Fordas Josh Ford
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Tammy Lynn Michaels
    Tammy Lynn Michaels
    • Nicole Julianas Nicole Julian
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Ron Lester
    Ron Lester
    • Michael 'Sugar Daddy' Bernardinoas Michael 'Sugar Daddy' Bernardino
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Leslie Grossman
    Leslie Grossman
    • Mary Cherryas Mary Cherry
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Lisa Darr
    Lisa Darr
    • Jane McPhersonas Jane McPherson
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Scott Bryce
    Scott Bryce
    • Mike McQueenas Mike McQueen
    43 episodes43 eps • 1999–2001
    Diane Delano
    Diane Delano
    • Bobbi Glassas Bobbi Glass…
    36 episodes36 eps • 1999–2001
    Adria Dawn
    Adria Dawn
    • April Tunaas April Tuna
    18 episodes18 eps • 1999–2001
    Hank Harris
    Hank Harris
    • Emory Dickas Emory Dick
    12 episodes12 eps • 1999–2001
    Anel Lopez Gorham
    Anel Lopez Gorham
    • Poppita Freshas Poppita Fresh
    12 episodes12 eps • 1999–2000
    Robert Gant
    Robert Gant
    • Principal Calvin Kruppsas Principal Calvin Krupps
    11 episodes11 eps • 2000–2001
    Anthony Montgomery
    Anthony Montgomery
    • George Austinas George Austin
    11 episodes11 eps • 2000–2001
    Diana Bellamy
    Diana Bellamy
    • Principal Cecilia Hallas Principal Cecilia Hall
    11 episodes11 eps • 1999–2000
    • Creators
      • Gina Matthews
      • Ryan Murphy
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    The two girls who are seen in their fictional Jacqueline Kennedy High School as the leaders of two main opposing cliques, the popular one and the not so popular one, clash heads when their single parents meet, fall in love and decide to get hitched. However, both the girls and their two cliques slowly grow together and become an unlikely group of friends with both typical and not so typical high school and young adult problems. Brooke McQueen is the captain of Glamazons, the school's cheerleading squad. She's considered smart, beautiful and perfect. Privately, she's been dealing with self-image and body image issues ever since her estranged mother left her and her father. She also tries to fight the popular image people have of her. She wants to be good and does good and often helps people instead of thinking only about herself but she also has a suppressed selfish side. Sam McPherson aims to have the opposite image of Brooke's. She's attracted to journalism and wants to be the voice of nonconformists. Despite this, she has several flaws like being too judgmental, underestimating people or ignoring the fact that she sometimes acts hypocritically, especially when it comes to love. Her anger partially stems from the trauma of losing her father to leukemia. Lily Esposito is the schools top environmentalist, animal and human rights activist and an all-around liberal On the other hand, she has a fear of sex and sexuality and this creates problems in her relationships with men. She's Sam's friend and so is Harrison John, the ultimate friend-zoned guyfriend, who's been friends with both Brooke and Sam for a long time and has a crush on Brooke ever since childhood but also feels certain attraction to Sam. These three friends make the ultimate love triangle. Carmen Ferrara is a slightly overweight girl, who tries to deal with her body issues by trying to accept and enjoy who she is. Despite being friends with Sam's group, her dream is to become one of the Glamazons and be friends with the popular girls as well and she goes for it. Josh Ford is the school's hot popular quarterback, who at first seems like a walking jock stereotype but actually has a lot of depth and is for the most part a nice guy. He dates Brooke at first and they become the school's ultimate power couple but he eventually decides to quit trying to be what other people want him to be and become his own man. Nicole Julian is the second in command of Glamazons but always wants more power and influence. She's assertive, smart, cynical, egotistical, Machiavellian, combative and attractive and she knows it. She sees herself as the Queen B of the school and wants everyone to know it and respect it. She does not play fair and wants to see all her real and perceived enemies destroyed. The only people she respects are Gwyneth Paltrow and for the most part Brooke. However, she sometimes shows her suppressed empathic side and in those moments she becomes a true friend. Michael 'Sugar Daddy' Bernardino is Josh's towering best friend. He's cheerful, fun, acts like a rapper, takes the simple approach to life but also suffers from morbid obesity. He doesn't let this bother him though and uses his size to his advantage when playing football with Josh for the school's team. Mary Cherry is Nicole's larger than life, super rich, both genuinely quirky and amusingly psychotic, best friend and a Glamazon, although Nicole usually treats her like her sidekick. Jane McPherson is Sam's loving mom. Mike McQueen is Brooke's loving dad. The two meet and fall in love which eventually leads to marriage. Brooke and Sam can't accept this and even do their best to try to break them up but the girls eventually see the upside of becoming stepsisters, which doesn't stop them from occasionally stabbing each other in the back. Bobbi Glass is the gang's conservative, androgynous, charismatic, ingenious, commanding, tyrannical female biology, science and chemistry teacher and a true frienemy who always comes up with creative ways to put her students down but she also has a somewhat of an empathic side to her. She has several twin brothers and sisters. April Tuna is the school's scary unhinged psychotic nerdy ginger with a potent sex drive, but boys avoid her nonetheless. She leads the actual unpopular kids from the fringes of high school society and has her eye on Harrison. Emory Dick is Harrison's self-confident geeky friend who doesn't even try to fit in and likes it that way. He's always ready to help his friends and often comes up with silly creative plans that sometime actually make things worse. Poppita Fresh is the African American Glamazon and fits in perfectly with Nicole and Mary Cherry. George Austin is a smart, nice, hot, and caring African American jock, who falls for Sam and she reciprocates. Freddy Gong is the school's uneasy Asian American student, who has a strange masochistic rapport with Nicole. Principal Cecilia Hall is the school's caring blind principal who always tries to be just and help the students as well as protect the school's interests. Vice-Principal Calvin Krupps arrives later to help the school deal with conflicts between students. He's a very smart man, who doesn't mind playing games or confronting students openly if he believes that some good will come of it. Principal Hall eventually disappears from the show and he becomes the schools acting principal and he and Ms. Glass become buds. Godfrey is Ms. Glass' very strange on and off boyfriend who eventually becomes a priest. Cherry Cherry is Mary Cherry's super rich super charismatic no-nonsense mother and businesswoman who talks tough and acts accordingly. Her dream is to marry the real life actor Erik Estrada and when she wants something, she means business. The show's plots, arcs and subplots range from creative quirky over the top parodies to enhanced reality situations and typical high school drama. Due to unforeseen cancellation, the show ends on a huge cliffhanger.
    • stepsister stepsister relationship
    • female protagonist
    • teen comedy
    • teen drama
    • timeframe 1990s
    • 26 more
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Genres
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Romance
    • Certificate
      • TV-14
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The producers didn't know the show was going to get cancelled. In fact, they claim that the WB executives told them to do cliffhangers, and they did, keeping in mind that they wouldn't be cancelled and had several storylines planned for a third season.
    • Goofs
      Throughout out the series, it's clear that the actors/actresses portraying teenagers are actually in their 20s+. This is done as to not interfere with the schooling of real teenagers and to give the general viewing audience who are teenagers themselves someone they can look up to.
    • Quotes

      Samantha 'Sam' McPherson: You know what, Brooke? Cancel my subscription, I'm over your issues.

    • Alternate versions
      Due to licensing costs, some of the songs originally featured on the soundtrack of several episodes have been replaced by less expensive tracks (or no tracks at all) on the DVD release.
    • Connections
      Featured in Visible: Out on Television: Breakthroughs (2020)
    • Soundtracks
      Supermodels
      Theme Song

      by Kendall Payne

    User reviews94

    Review
    Top review
    Orginal the first show to make us laugh and cry within five minutes.
    Popular is best described as a dramedy, for its 43 episodes it both had its bittersweet moments ones that made you cry to it's repulsive laugh out loud black comedy moments which made us die with laughter. Popular dealt with the issue we all face in high school the divide between the popular people and the unpopular people and for once it shows us that those people arent losers as they were in other stereotypical teen dramas. The cast were first class, the leads were good choices as they did seem like representable teenage girls. Plus the fact that Sara rue (perharps one of the best actresses on the show) represented fat people like me without any difficulty because shewas so honest with the role. I've read on here that people think this season made fun at delicate issues. That is not true it did indeed show that they were done in a new light. not with the same softpading done with other shows. Honest Brutal and touching. Popular dealt with issues truthfully the way we have to in the world and in the world it shows us not everything is peachy. Plus we finally got funny moments admist the sadness which took away the depressing parts of the show. So for all the cast the top acting skills which i plan to continue enjoying i enjoyed after last moments of brooke and co and sam and co as it was good to see something other than stereotypical rubbish when popular broke the boundraries of our modern society
    helpful•16
    1
    • Machine_of_god
    • Jul 10, 2002

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 29, 1999 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Лучшие
    • Filming locations
      • Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Murphy/Matthews Productions
      • Shephard / Robin Productions
      • Touchstone Television
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour
    • Color
      • Color

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