As Told By Ginger

As Told By Ginger is an animated series which debuted on the Nickelodeon TV channel 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 principal characters in the show are:

• Ginger Foutley (Melissa Disney), the main character, talented poem writer (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 best friends,
• Courtney Gripling (Liz Georges), their wealthy classmate who has been hanging out with Ginger,
• 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).

Other characters include:

• 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.

Unlike most other cartoon shows, Ginger is not afraid of lasting character development. One prime example is that in one episode, Darren had his orthodontia removed (he had been wearing the unwieldy headgear for the entire first season). Also, the characters moved up a grade in the show's 2nd season, and in the 3rd, the show had its main characters graduate to high school (with the younger kids graduating to junior high). (The show's commitment to continuity is a bit inconsistent, however: in one episode, Ginger had her hair done radically, but by the next episode, it had reverted back to the norm.) Besides that, Ginger fans also point to its realism and its occasional serious side (for example, one episode has Ginger being sent to detention after making a stand against a much-unliked substitute teacher, and another sees 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).

The show's only 2005 airings on the main Nickelodeon channel in the US were on January 2 with "Blizzard Conditions", March 27 with "The Easter Ham" (it was Easter Sunday), and May 8 with "Mommy Nearest" (shown as part of a Mother's Day marathon). 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 unshown on Nick. ("Ten Chairs", the show's Thanksgiving ep, was aired on the digital Nicktoons channel on Thanksgiving 2004, however.)

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 dognappers; Foutleys on Ice, 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); and 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 wish to make future TV episodes (unlikely as it is), however, the original ending was eventually retained (it was released directly to DVD in the States in November 2004, and has not been broadcast in the US).

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 girl 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).

External links

• Nickelodeon's Ginger site (http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/display_show.jhtml?show_id=ast)
• Klasky-Csupo's Ginger area on cooltoons.com (http://www.cooltoons.com/ginger) (Studio site)
• As Told By Ginger (http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Other_Studios/K/Klasky_Csupo/As_Told_By_Ginger/index.html) at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Link to a .pdf pinup of And She Was Gone (http://www.cooltoons.com/newsletter/2002/newsletter056/pinups.html)
• Don Del Grande's Ginger fanpage (http://www.shelteredshrubs.com/)
• Darren, with the headgear (http://www.hey-arnold.com/Ginger/atbg_pic/Darren.jpg) and without (http://www.hey-arnold.com/Ginger/atbg_pic/DarrenS2.jpg)
• Ginger, with the new hairdo (http://www.hey-arnold.com/Ginger/GingerDarrenKiss.htm), and with her regular hairdo (http://www.hey-arnold.com/Ginger/atbg_pic/Ginger.jpg)
• Ginger's TvTome site (http://www.tvtome.com/AsToldByGinger/)