Lizzie McGuire: Season 01 (2001)

Hilary Duff became an overnight star and teen idol in one fell swoop when the freewheeling sitcom Lizzie McGuire made its Disney Channel debut in January of 2001. Not dissimilar to the old Nickelodeon series Clarissa Explains It All, Lizzie McGuire dealt in a slyly satirical (and slightly surrealistic) fashion with the trials and tribulations of 13- and 14-year-old junior-high kids. Lizzie attended Hillridge Middle School with her best friends, the sardonic Miranda Sanchez (Lalaine) and the doggedly nonconformist David "Gordo" Gordon (Adam Lamberg). At home, Lizzie had a fairly good relationship with her loving and tolerant parents, Sam and Jo (Robert Carradine, Hallie Todd), even though they persisted in regarding her as their little "sweet potato" instead of a girl on the verge of womanhood. Less copacetic was the relationship between Lizzie and her bratty kid brother, Matt (Jake Thomas), who never tired of hatching schemes to annoy his sister, confound his parents, fatten his allowance, or increase his creature comforts. Other regular and semi-regular characters included Lizzie's snooty classroom rival, Kate Sanders (Ashlie Brillault), who had once been our heroine's closest pal until such matters as boyfriends, peer pressure, and the school cheerleading squad separated them; Lizzie's heartthrob Ethan Craft (Clayton Snyder), whose dazzling handsomeness was offset by his less-than-dazzling intellect; requisite school nerd Larry Tudgeman (Kyle J. Downes), who for a variety of reasons (mostly academic) drove Gordo crazy; and Matt's buddy and partner-in-crime, Lanny (Christian Copelin). Among the most memorable aspects of Lizzie McGuire were the series' fleeting but hilarious pop-cultural references (usually appearing in Lizzie's vivid imagination), its adroit usage of contemporary music to complement the action or mood of the moment, and especially the cartoon sequences, wherein Lizzie would confide in or solicit advice from her animated alter ego, "Toon Lizzie" (this was, after all, a Disney production). Clearly anticipating a major hit, Disney Channel commissioned 31 episodes for Lizzie McGuire's first season instead of the usual 22 or 24. This surplus of material came in handy when Disney's sister over-the-air network ABC began rerunning Lizzie McGuire as part of its Saturday-morning lineup. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi