The Development of Clarissa's Character
Introduction
While the episodes of Clarissa Explains It All were presented in a
way that makes it difficult for viewers to tell when most of the seasons
begin and end, the seasons have certain characteristics that have brought
the series through different stages of development. I will mention
some of the characteristics here; in later messages I will discuss
various matters that have progressed through the episodes. I invite
other members of this list to bring up features they think have gone
through changes over the years.
Season 1: 13 episodes, 101-113
The first season defines Clarissa as a teenager who is young
not only in age but in her outlook on life, while having desires and
ambitions that reach into the future and demand today the privileges
generally held by adults. In the early episodes, Clarissa often acts
in ways that reflect her immaturity, and has a tendency towards
selfishness (often mitigated by events that lead her to show concern
for the other people in her life).
In episode 110,
Clarissa's behavior shows immaturity when she
decides to stuff the cake she is making with an excessive quantity
of marshmallows. If you watch the earlier episodes, you will see
many instances of immature behavior that are more obvious than this.
These instances become less frequent and less purely immature in
later episodes.
In episode 111,
Clarissa presents an immature view of maturity
when she thinks that dressing more formally, wearing glasses and
pretending to be superior to anyone with childish concerns will make
her appear mature. She still disregards her parents' desire not to
be badgered with demands to be allowed to get a job at the carnival
and gets into petty squabbles with her brother. (A more mature approach
would be to patiently discuss her parents' concerns and to reassure
them about her ability to take responsibility.)
You may not think of Clarissa as a selfish person, but she
definitely started out that way. In the
first episode (101), aside
from plotting to get rid of her brother, she wants Sam to help her
despite his own problems and treats his needs as secondary. She
ends up coming up with a plan to help Sam so that he will stay and
serve her needs. And in
episode 103, she makes Sam endanger himself
by climbing on the roof to help her with her television reception.
In general, over most of the episodes I have had the impression
that Sam helps Clarissa more than Clarissa helps Sam. I don't know
whether this is merely a result of the focus of the plot on Clarissa's
activities. A closer look might reveal more ways Clarissa helps Sam.
Season 2: 17 episodes, 114-130
The second season (which appears to use a completely new set that
attempts to maintain many aspects of the old one's appearance), contains
material that explores Clarissa's relationships with the other characters.
Beginning with Clarissa falling in love with a human for the first time
(episode 114),
the episodes go on to deal with Clarissa's relationship
with Ferguson (115),
with Sam (116),
with her mother (120) and with
Clifford Spleenhurfer, whom she formerly saw only as an
antagonist (125).
In episode 123, Clarissa is made to
reconsider her lifestyle, and in
doing so gains more of an appreciation for her own ways, and in
episode 130 she faces the prospect of
losing her best friend, Sam.
Season 3: 24 episodes, 131-154
The third season is a big one, and a lot of things happen in it.
In this season (for which some decorative changes were made to the set)
Clarissa grows into the person she is in the fourth season. It starts
with episode 131, in which Clarissa enters
the job market head-on. In
episode 140, Clarissa takes responsibility for
the entire household under
emergency conditions (I plan to write more on this in another message).
Episode 142 brings her deeper into her
relationship with Clifford
Spleenhurfer, while episode 147 finds her
going out with Sam. The
season ends with episode 154, in which
Clarissa thinks about how close
she is to leaving her home but decides that she still has a fairly long
way to go before she'd be ready to do so.
Season 4: 11 episodes, 155-165
Season four is a short season involving some serious and purposeful
events plus whatever special plots they wanted to include before the end
of the series. This season establishes Clarissa's career path (which I
discuss in another document) and sets the
environment for her
future. In its first episode (155),
she becomes the editor of her school's
newspaper. Next, in episode 156 she
deals with the serious problems of
the daughter of her mother's friend from New York.
Episode 161 is a
special episode exploring Ferguson's place in her life. In
episode 162,
as an advice columnist, she confronts other people's serious problems.
In episodes
158 and 163, she
interns for and joins the staff of a full-scale newspaper.
And in episode 164, she engages in some serious
activism, starting from her position on the school paper, and gets into
a serious situation.
Choose: onwards to a collection of ramblings,
or back to Clarissa Explains It All front page.
Written by Adam Lieberman <afl@ingress.com>
HTML conversion by B.King@ee.surrey.ac.uk
24th July 1995