A planned reboot of the popular 90s Nickelodeon show Clarissa Explains It All has been cancelled. The teen comedy ran for five seasons from 1991 to 1994 and was an incredibly popular hit for the kid-focused channel. The series launched star Melissa Joan Hart's career, leading to her next smash series, Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
The fourth-wall-breaking sitcom focused on Clarissa Darling (Hart) as she dealt with the perils of life as a 14-year-old girl. Known for its unique presentation, Clarissa Explains It All would have the titular character seated on the edge of her bed and speak directly to the camera, explaining her thoughts about whatever issue she was facing in that particular episode. Joan Hart was joined by Jason Zimbler, who played Clarissa's annoyingly precocious younger brother Ferguson, and Sean O'Neal, who played her charmingly hopeful best friend Sam Anders (known for his second-story window entrances).
While a reboot of the series had been in the works, People now reports the project has been cancelled by Nickelodeon. In 2018, it was announced that Nickelodeon was planning to revisit the comedy with Hart set to return, this time as a 45-year-old mother. But during a recent Sabrina the Teenage Witch panel at 90s Con, Hart revealed that the reboot was cancelled before it even got off the ground. Here's What she had to say:
"Nickelodeon got a new president, and they kind of squashed the whole thing...It took like a year to do the contracts, which was the hardest part, and then it just kind of fizzled out."
The cancelled reboot would have added to a recent trend in Hollywood with many movie and television classics getting the modernized reboot or legacy sequel treatment. The Full House reboot, Fuller House, premiered to much fanfare on Netflix and became one of the most-watched shows on the streaming service. In 2021, ABC revived the classic 80s coming-of-age comedy The Wonder Years with a race-swapped reboot of the same name - a well-received show that garnered a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Even Hart's teenage witch character Sabrina has returned to the small screen in Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Although the supernatural horror series is not directly affiliated with the 90s Nickelodeon show, both Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick reprise their original roles in guest appearances with a darker, more sinister character twist.
Although currently off the table, a reboot of Clarissa Explains It All would most likely have been a welcomed one for modern audiences. Many millennials who grew up watching Clarissa and relating to her trials would now be raising kids of their own who would soon be stumbling into the same trappings of early teenage life. Clarissa resonated with kids then and can still resonate with kids now, perhaps even more so with an adjustment of the character's fourth wall framing device. With social media such an integral part of today's technological landscape, Clarissa could speak directly to the audience by streaming her thoughts through an in-universe social media platform. Although the framing device would be different, the intention and effect would be the same.
Source: People