Popular - not your average television show

I love the television show Popular. One of the networks used to play episodes during the day on school holidays, but they haven’t for ages. It was on pay tv for a while – mum used to tape it for me and post the videos so that She-ra and I could get our fix (much like what she did with Dead Like Me and still does with This Old House. But I digress.)

The show itself revolves around a bunch of kids at a high school. But these kids – well, they’re not your 90210 type kids.

As always happens in these shows, you have the popular kids, and the not-so-popular kids. The popular kids have their unofficial leader in Brook McQueen (Leslie Bibb), and her hangers on: (my second favourite character) Nicole Julian aka Satan (Tammy Lynn Michaels), Poppy Fresh (Anel Lopez Gorham) and my favourite character Mary Cherry (Leslie Grossman).

The not-so-popular kids include of Sam McPherson (Carly Pope), Carmen Ferrara (Sara Rue) and Harrison John (Christopher Gorham).

Sam and Brooke are bitter enemies who discover, to their horror that their parents are dating. Eventually, they move in together and the two girls are forced to attempt to put their differences between them. With spectacularly explosive results.

You always get some crossover between the two groups of kids as they go through their lives. Also, as with all shows aimed at teenagers, some messages are written into the stories, but the stories themselves can be so twisted, that it isn’t so obvious at first glance.

To add to the brilliance that is Mary Cherry, her mother’s name is Cherry Cherry and that marvellous creature is played by the fabulous Delta Burke.

The show went for only two seasons and they never tied up the loose ends. But no matter. I adore the show, but have to make do with my tapes of it – it’s available on Region 1 DVD but not yet available on Region 4. So I either have to wait, or get a multi region DVD player so I can enjoy the entire run.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, 4 clips demonstrating the complete insanity that is Mary Cherry.

#1 - Mary Cherry: A callow, greedy, retarded person



#2 - Mary Cherry: Cruel, internal, silent laughter



#3 - Mary Cherry: Imminent celebrity explosion



#4 - Mary Cherry: It's time to rumble



If you’ve not recognised the names, you’ll probably recognise some of the faces. Christopher Gorham (Harrison, or “Joe” as Mary Cherry likes to call him) is now in Ugly Betty; Tammy Lynn Michaels is Melissa Etheridge’s wife; Sara Rue played a young Rosanne on Roseanne and was recently in Less Than Perfect.