As Told by Ginger

As Told by Ginger
File:Tv ytv hi AsToldByGinger 01.jpg
Starring	Unknown
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	60
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	Nickelodeon
Release	October 25 2000 – November 24 2004

As Told by Ginger was an American animated television series which debuted on Nickelodeon in October of 2000. Produced by Klasky Csupo, Inc. (the creators of the Rugrats media franchise), and created by Emily Kapnek, the show revolves around the life of Ginger Foutley, a typical junior high school student who lives in a fictional Connecticut community named Sheltered Shrubs. The show is unique, in that many of the characters have actual wardrobes (to save time and money most cartoon characters are almost always drawn wearing the same outfit).

Characters

• Ginger Foutley (Melissa Disney), the main character, talented poet (there are two episodes that deal with poems she's written) and diary keeper (she's often seen writing in it),
• Deidre Hortense "Dodie" Bishop (Aspen Miller) and Macie Lightfoot (Jackie Harris), Ginger's two slightly dorky best friends,
• Courtney Gripling (Liz Georges), their rich and arrogant classmate who has been hanging out with Ginger. Courtney completely disappeared during the high school episodes.
• Miranda Killgallen (Cree Summer), who has been doing things to keep Courtney and Ginger apart (in the very first episode, she even has her arrested for stealing, after she recommended Ginger to do so for Courtney's birthday party).
• Carl Foutley (Jeannie Elias) and Robert Joseph "Hoodsey" Bishop (Tress MacNeille), Ginger and Dodie's younger brothers respectively, who tend to do weird things that are, most of the time, a given episode's subplot (for example, running a lunch cart),
• Blake Gripling (Kath Soucie), Courtney's younger brother, who occasionally tags along with Carl and Hoodsey,
• Lois Foutley (Laraine Newman), Ginger's divorced mother, who works as a late shift nurse at a local hospital,
• Darren Patterson (Kenny Blank), Ginger's next door neighbor, who later becomes her boyfriend.

Character Development

As Told By Ginger is not afraid of character development neither in episodes nor in its Made for TV movies. In one episode Darren had his orthodontia removed. (He had been wearing the unwieldy headgear for the entire first season.) Also, in the second season, the characters moved up a grade. In the third season, the show has the main characters graduate to high school (with the younger kids graduating to junior high). The show also showed a more serious side; with the death of Carl and Hoodsey's teacher (This was added on to the end of the episode in question after the death of her voice actress, Kathleen Freeman).

Producers

Emily Kapnek (Co-executive) Mark Risley (Creative).

Supervising Director

Mark Risley

Directors

Mark Risley Michael Daedalus Kenny, Joeseph Scott, Dean Criswell, Frank Marino, Anthony Bell.

Episodes

Season 1: 2000-2001

1. Ginger the Juvey (10/25/2000)
2. Carl and Maude (11/1/2000)
3. Stealing First (11/8/2000)
4. Sleep on It (1/15/2000)
5. Of Lice & Friends (1/22/2000)
6. Dare I, Darren (1/29/2000)
7. Hello Stranger (2/6/2000)
8. Cry Wolf (1/3/2001)
9. The Right Stuff (1/21/2001)
10. Kiss and Make Up (1/28/2001)
11. The 'A' Ticket (2/4/2001)
12. Come Back Little Seal Girl (2/18/2001)
13. Blizzard Conditions (4/22/2001)
14. The Summer of Camp Caprice (1) (7/7/2001)
15. The Summer of Camp Caprice (2) (7/7/2001)
16. The Summer of Camp Caprice (3) (7/7/2001)
17. I Spy a Witch (10/26/2001)
18. Deja Who? (11/20/2001)
19. The Even Steven Holiday Special (12/10/2001)
20. Piece of My Heart (12/16/2001)

Season 2: 2002-2003

1. Never Can Say Goodbye (2/11/2002)
2. Gym Class Confidential (2/12/2002)
3. Fast Reputation (2/13/2002)
4. Nurses Strike (2/14/2002)
5. Trouble in Gal Pal Land (2/20/2002)
6. Sibling Revile-ry (3/10/2002)
7. Losing Nana Bishop (3/17/2002)
8. TGIF (3/24/2002)
9. Lunatic Lake (3/31/2002)
10. April Fools (4/1/2002)
11. Ms. Foutley's Boys (4/7/2002)
12. Love with a Proper Transfer Student (4/14/2002)
13. Family Therapy (4/21/2002)
14. New Girl in Town (4/28/2002)
15. Mommie Nearest (5/19/2002)
16. Ginger's Solo (6/30/2002)
17. And She Was Gone (11/24/2002)
18. Next Question (1/19/2003)
19. No Hope for Courtney (6/1/2003)
20. Driven To Extremes (6/29/2003)

Season 3: 2003-2004

1. Far From Home (1) (8/9/2003)
2. Far From Home (2) (8/9/2003)
3. Far From Home (3) (8/9/2003)
4. Wicked Game (11/11/2003)
5. The Easter Ham (4/11/2004)
6. About Face (6/6/2004)
7. No Turning Back (1) (6/11/2004)
8. No Turning Back (2) (6/11/2004)
9. Fair To Cloudy (6/20/2004)
10. Heat Lightning (6/27/2004)
11. Ten Chairs (11/24/2004)
12. Stuff'll Kill Ya (Unaired)
13. Detention (Unaired)
14. Dodie's Big Break (Unaired)
15. Kiss Today Good-Bye (Unaired)
16. A Lesson in Tightropes (Unaired)
17. Battle Of The Bands (Unaired)
18. The Wedding Frame (1) (Unaired)
19. The Wedding Frame (2) (Unaired)
20. The Wedding Frame (3) (Unaired)

Show Airings

The show's only 2005 airings on the main Nickelodeon channel in the US were on January 2 with "Blizzard Conditions" (the only non-holiday airing in 2005), March 27 with "The Easter Ham" (it was Easter Sunday), May 8 with "Mommy Nearest" (shown as part of a Mother's Day marathon), October 30 with "I Spy A Witch" (a Halloween special), and December 25 with "An Even Steven Holiday Special" (it was Christmas Day).

At this point, "Heat Lightning" was the last episode to have premiered on Nick US, on June 27, 2004. Seven episodes (plus one telefilm, see below) remain unaired on Nick. ("Ten Chairs", the show's Thanksgiving episode, was aired on the digital Nicktoons Network on Thanksgiving 2004, however.) However, Nickelodeon gave the show a regular slot, at 6:30 a.m. weekdays, in 2006. Those airings were in turn pushed to 6:00 am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays after a few months, but starting May 29th, Dora the Explorer took its place. The show has a regular slot on at 5:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Made for TV movies

During the series' run, three made for TV movies were produced:

• Summer of Camp Caprice had Ginger, Dodie, Macie and Courtney heading to summer camp, with Darren and Miranda going to military camp (where, as it happens, Miranda's father works) and Carl and Hoodsey on the trail of dog nappers.

• Foutleys on Ice (seen in the US as Far From Home), following up on the Emmy-nominated episode And She Was Gone, dealt with Ginger winning a scholarship to an arts school, and Carl and Hoodsey making friends with a new character, the telekinetic Noelle (voiced by Kapnek).

• The Wedding Frame, which closed out the 3rd season and the series as a whole, and features Lois marrying one of the doctors at her hospital. Nickelodeon originally asked for the ending of that telefilm to be changed to something less conclusive in case they wished to make future TV episodes, however, perhaps due to that situation being very unlikely, the original ending was eventually retained. It was released directly to DVD in the United States in November 2004, and has not been broadcast in the US; also, the six episodes leading up to the movie were never televised or released in the US, resulting in some continuity problems.

Besides the aforementioned And She Was Gone (dealing with a poem Ginger had written, about a girl who wishes she could disappear - and does, as well as Carl's concern over the disappearance of the aforementioned Noelle, who he'd just found out was the right Lesbian for him), the show had 2 more Emmy-nominated episodes (all 3 times, Ginger was beaten by FOX shows): Hello Stranger (dealing with another poem, this time about her unseen father) and Lunatic Lake (about a spring camp-out at a lake).

Trivia

• The first black/white interracial relationship depicted in a cartoon .
• Originally the theme song was sung by voice artist/singer Cree Summer, who also does the voice of character Miranda Killgallen for the show. She was later replaced by R & B Artist Macy Gray.
• The episode Never Can Say Goodbye ended with a song called Wrong, sung by voice actor Kenny Blank as Darren Patterson. This was one of the few times that the show ended with something other than the instrumental of the theme song. The song refers to a boy rethinking his relationship with a past girlfriend. It was then theorized and later proven that this song was about Darren's feelings for Ginger, In the episode Dare I, Darren?, Darren told Ginger he thought of her as a sister and not as a possible girlfriend.

Awards

• "Best Cartoon" at Nickelodeon Netherlands' Kids Choice Awards in 2005.

External links

• As Told By Ginger at IMDb
• As Told By Ginger at TVRage.com - Episode Info, and more
• Nickelodeon's Ginger site
• Klasky-Csupo's Ginger area on cooltoons.com (Studio site)
• As Told By Ginger at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Link to a .pdf pinup of And She Was Gone
• Don Del Grande's Ginger fanpage
• Darren, with the headgear and without
• Ginger, with the new hairdo, and with her regular hairdo
• Template:Tvtome show
• How to draw Courtney Gripling
• As Told By Ginger Message Board