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Top 10 Reasons Lesbians Love “Popular”

Those of you who didn’t catch Popular during its two-season reign on the WB may have thought it was just another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teen drama. Fortunately, now that the show is on DVD, you have a chance to discover that it’s one of the funniest, most unconventional shows on television.

Introduced in the fall of 1999, Popular explores the fallout that ensues at a fictional American high school when the leaders of two opposing cliques become reluctant stepsisters.

The popular group is comprised of queen-bee Brooke (Leslie Bibb), head cheerleader Nicole (Tammy Lynn Michaels), and sassy beauty-queen-wannabe Mary Cherry (Leslie Grossman), plus Brooke’s boyfriend Josh (Bryce Johnson) and his friend Sugar Daddy (Ron Lester). The outcasts are Sam (Carly Pope), Carmen (Sara Rue), Lily (Tamara Mello), and Sam’s best friend Harrison (Christopher Gorham).

The unpopular group’s view of the Glamazons (as the cheerleading squad is called) is summed up by Sam’s comment that “They’re like some bad Mariah Carey power ballad come to life.” Nicole charitably describes Sam’s friends as one of the school’s many “unloved alternate groups.”

Check out the show’s splashy opening credits:

Over the course of the season, Sam and Brooke’s parents meet, fall in love, move in together, and eventually marry – forcing a collision between the two groups that brings out the worst in everyone.

This teen dramedy developed a cult following for its wickedly funny writing, excellent cast, and ability to simultaneously spoof pop culture and worship it. It won the 2000 Teen Choice Award as the best breakout show and was nominated for the TV Guide Award for Favorite Teen Show.

Series creator Ryan Murphy went on to create Nip/Tuck (F/X) and Glee (Fox).

Unfortunately, Season Two of Popular got a little off-track and a little too bizarre for all but its most ardent fans. But that doesn’t detract from the beauty of Season One, which is truly a season to be savored by viewers of all sexual orientations.

Since there is a glut of TV shows on DVD these days, however, and only so many hours in the day, here are the top ten reasons why you should check out Popular.

1. Brooke and Sam’s Friendship

The evolution of Brooke and Sam’s relationship as they get to know each other and begin to see past their misconceptions is one of the better enemies-become-friends storylines on television. Their friendship and its disconcerting effect on their other friendships is explored in subtle, nuanced ways that avoid black-and-white answers and is realistically messy.

More importantly, viewers exploited the perceived lesbian undertones in their relationship to launch many a Brook/Sam slash video or fanfiction story on the internet.

After the show was canceled, Murphy revealed that had the show been renewed for another season, he planned to have Sam come out as a lesbian.

The show’s legions of lesbian fans are still not over it.

2. Tammy Lynn Michaels/Nicole Julian

This is the series that introduced Tammy Lynn to the world (before she became famous for dating/marrying rock star Melissa Etheridge). If you’ve only heard of her as Mrs. Etheridge, this is your chance to see Michaels in action – and she delivers, in spades. Nicole Julian exemplifies the character you love to hate, as she veers between backstabbing bitch to, well, a little less bitchy.

Alone or with sidekick Mary Cherry (see reason No. 3), the hilarious barbs fly so fast and furious you’ll barely have time to catch your breath between fits of laughter.

Some of Nicole’s more memorable lines in the first season:

“Sugar D., stop staring at Mary Cherry like she’s a Hot Pocket!”

“You’ll play right into Sam’s cold, unmoisturized hands.”

“Sure, I’ll put Carm on the squad…when hell freezes over and/or Melissa Joan Hart gets nominated for an Oscar.”

“Brooke and Spam cannot be officially bonded as stepsisters as it would upset the natural order. As ringleaders of both the popular and the unloved alternate groups, a merging would muddy the lines, causing both teen girls to wonder: Who am I? Where do I fit in? In short, ‘We Are Family’ is a disco tune we ain’t gonna be singing at this school, kids. Got it?”

Even the funniest lines would be nothing without Micheals’s delivery, however, which is spot-on every time.

Nicole is also one of the few teen roles on TV played by an out lesbian, even if she wasn’t out at the time (Michaels came out in real life after the second season).

3. Mary Cherry

The character of neurotic Glamazon Mary Cherry truly has to be experienced; words can’t do her character – or Leslie Grossman’s excellent performance – justice. A sample of her lines in the first season:

“This is worse than Kathy Lee Gifford singing cabaret!”

“Now that I’m blonde again and glamorously hard as nails, I won’t be falling for your sob story, Sid Vicious.”

“For the first time, my sense of style has to override my Christian convictions. I would be betraying my oath as a Glamazon if I let you walk out of here looking like ten miles of bad road.”

[To a classmate known as Exquisite Woo] “Let’s get one thing straight, China girl, the only thing exquisite at this school is my ass.”

Here’s a scene with Mary Cherry causing trouble while she’s trapped in a locked rest room with the other girls:

The episodes in which Delta Burke (Designing Women) guest-stars as Mary Cherry’s domineering mother, Cherry Cherry, are comedy gold. She plays her role to the hilt, a grown-up version of Mary Cherry who most often turns her barbs on her own daughter (“Mary Cherry, the wedding’s off. Also, drop ten pounds.”)

4. The Wit. The Camp.

This show is created by a gay man, and it shows. Even the most casual comments by the show’s characters are exquisitely crafted for maximum wit, and with a keen understanding of the nuances of surviving high school as a teenage girl:

A female classmate: “I live in exile, one foot in the gutter and the other trampling all over my parents’ broken hearts.”

Carmen: “Oh, sweet mother of Hannibal Lecter, I can see it so clearly now.”

Harrison: “I’m like one of those cheap chocolate Easter bunnies: tasteless on the outside, hollow on the inside.”

Josh: “I was wondering what it means in the song when it says, ‘with verve.'”

Drama teacher: “It means somebody should be clapping at the end besides your parents.”

In addition, many of the episodes were directed by out lesbian Jamie Babbit, who went on to write and direct But I’m a Cheerleader and episodes of Nip/Tuck.

Here’s a hilarious scene of the Glamazons trying to take down a male cheerleader, played by a young Wentworth Miller (Prison Break):

5. Harrison’s Lesbian Mom

Alley Mills (best known as the mom from The Wonder Years) plays Harrison’s mom, Robin, a lesbian pharmacist who is outed in Episode 9 (“Wild, Wild Mess”). Harrison’s friends think it’s cool, but Harrison’s not ready to go public about his mom’s sexual orientation.

“It’s bad enough I hang out with three girls and I’m not dating any of them,” he tells his mom. “I don’t need the whole damn school thinking that I’m a queer too. You don’t mind people thinking you’re a freak? Fine! I do.” But Harrison eventually comes around and supports his mother, especially when Robin’s girlfriend dumps her in an episode later in the season (“Ch-Ch-Changes”).

When Robin is fired from her job for being a lesbian, Mary Cherry’s mother Cherry Cherry buys the pharmacy and hires her back – with a few zingers along the way, like this one: “Look at you. You ain’t got a buzz cut and you’re wearing a pesto sweater from Banana Republic. Sorry, I was looking for a lesbian! Have a nice day!”

6. Lisa Darr as Sam’s Mother

Ellen fans will immediately recognize Lisa Darr, the actress who plays Sam’s mother in Popular, as the actress who played Ellen’s love interest, Laurie, in the last season of her sitcom (she also played the lesbian partner of a detective on NYPD Blue). Darr does a good job in this role, too, even if she doesn’t engage in any lesbian activity.

7. The Rest of the Characters

From Sugar Daddy to the gender-ambiguous biology teacher Bobbi Glass (“After a nuclear apocalypse, I’ll be the only thing left standing other then cockroaches and Cher!”) to ultra-outcast April Tuna (whom Mary Cherry calls “the black hole of beauty”), there has rarely been a show which consistently produces supporting characters who are as odd and strangely interesting as those on Popular.

When April Tuna asks Harrison to a dance, for example, she puts it in her own unique, April Tuna way: “Hello, Harrison John. Though you are not the dream boy I have bondage fantasies about (that would be the hard-bodied Stone Cold) you would be an adequate setting for the fiery ruby that is April Tuna. Please pick me up Friday at eight o’clock with expensive hot-house corsage in hand.”

8. The Diversity

Although the cast is mostly white (except for Lily, who is Latina), Popular does a better job than most late ’90s shows of including diversity in its supporting characters and storylines. These include cheerleader Poppy Fresh (who runs for homecoming queen to represent girls of color), the black gay male drama teacher (who is later replaced by a black woman), an inspiring humanities teacher played by Sandra Oh (who plays a lesbian in Under the Tuscan Sun), exchange student Exquisite Woo (who tells Harrison, “Get one thing straight, whitest boy alive, you are not my type”), Harrison’s lesbian mom, and a transgender MTF shop teacher who is the focus of one of the later episodes when he undergoes a sex change operation.

9. The Stereotypes

The show excels at alternating between promoting stereotypes and skewering them. Beneath the surface of clique wars and high school stereotypes, there is Josh, the football player who wants to be in a musical (“Sorry, dad, gotta miss the recruitment dinner. Gotta sing, gotta dance”); Carmen, who wants to be a cheerleader despite her size (and eventually gets her wish); Nicole’s occasional moments of kindness; and Brooke and Sam’s slow realization they have more in common than they thought.

Not to mention the shop teacher who wants to be a woman and the lesbian pharmacist who wears Banana Republic.

10. The Controversy

Unlike most television shows that either avoid controversial topics or treat them with dramatic earnestness, Popular embraces controversial topics, but isn’t afraid to make fun of them either.

The teenage obsession with weight is a running theme on the series, for example, alternating between a serious look at eating disorders and how weight effects popularity, and throw-away lines like “Nicole Julian and Stone Cold are like fashion and anorexia. They go together, thank you.”

Other topics addressed include confusion about being transgender (“I don’t get it. Why would he want to dress like a woman? And why would he wear those shoes with that dress ’cause they don’t match”), the way women are presented in the media (“Eventually it dawns on you. You’ll never be a Seventeen girl. Because they don’t allow airbrushing in real life.”), and class issues, as illustrated in this conversation between Lily and her mother:

Lily: “Look, I know you want me to work, it’s just not gonna be here, okay?”

Mrs. Esposito: “I don’t want you to work, Lily, I need you to work.”

Lily: “Why? Are we broke? How did that happen?”

Mrs. Esposito: “Do you want me to give you a list? Lily, if you want to save the world, start with us.”

The show wisely avoids the preachiness that has bogged down many other teen shows, preferring to go for the humor instead. If you learn a lesson or two along the way (and you do, more than once), that’s great, but entertainment comes first.

Even gays and lesbians are spoofed, but the writers’ underlying affection for us always rings through.

“Let me just say, on the record, that I love the gays,” Mary Cherry tells a gay man. He responds “Thanks, Mary Cherry, we love you too.” That about sums it up.

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