Melissa Joan Hart on the "Clarissa" Sequel That Never Was
by Breia Brissey
posted Mar 15th 2011


Fashion icon. Sister. Best friend. Daughter. Explainer of it all.

Nickelodeon's Clarissa was every one of those things. When the Melissa Joan Hart–fronted "Clarissa Explains It All" ended in 1994, the title character went off into sunset to become a journalist in New York City.





But that wasn't exactly the end of Clarissa -- Nickelodeon and CBS planned "Clarissa Now", a new show that would have seen Hart play the title character as she interned at a busy New York newspaper.

The pilot aired on Nickelodeon, but never made it to series. Thanks to the Internet, the show was uploaded to YouTube and made the rounds last week.






TV Squad caught up with Clarissa herself, Melissa Joan Hart, at the ABC Family Upfront where she reflected on what happened to "Clarissa Now".

"I thought it was a fun show, although I don't remember it very well," Hart said. "But it skewed a lot older because it was a different time. CBS was very much an older-demographic network back then.

They tried to age the show up a little bit, but the thing is, the 'Clarissa' audience was so young and hip. I just think it didn't work. It's not what people wanted to see."





For those still hankering for even more "Clarissa", TeenNick will air the original series starting in the fall as part of a new programming block called "The '90s Are All That".

http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/03/15/melissa-joan-hart-clarissa-now/

Did they ever air that, The 90s Are All That? I never saw or heard about it!

Did they ever air that, The 90s Are All That? I never saw or heard about it!

The 90s Are All That started July 26, 2011. It's on TeenNick beginning at 12am.

"Clarissa Explains It All" is no longer airing though.

http://splitsider.com/2013/04/even-clarissa-couldnt-explain-clarissa-now/

Growing up is hard for anyone. But for a children's show, growing up means death. A series may be for ages 2-5 or 7-12, but what happens when the core viewers move out of that range? Should the show age with its audience? Should it look for a younger one? What about the show’s stars? Can they still relate to their followers? Instruct them? Guide them?

The early-90s were an amazing time for children’s television behemoth Nickelodeon. After inking a massive marketing deal, the station opened up shop in Orlando, Florida to produce its own game shows and animated series, as well a new lineup of pre-teen programming for Snick, their Saturday night teen-centric block. The station was growing with the audience and managed to keep them for a few more years. But when that audience comes to depend on TV to teach, this growing relationship gets more complicated. Just ask Clarissa Darling.

The host of her own sitcom and pre-teen encyclopedia, Melissa Joan Hart, the star of Clarissa Explains It All, was one Nick's first teen celebrities, guiding thousands of kids through the pressures of adolescence with the snarky confidence that only a 10-14 year old could have. And for five seasons, Clarissa's tween following hung on her every word.

But as is the curse with any child star, Hart’s aging was out of control. Soon, she would be another adult worthy of a sliming or gaking or whatever methods of humiliation Nickelodeon reserved for its elders. Certainly her younger brother Ferguson couldn't take the reigns. Clarissa would have to grow old with her fans or die. Those were the only two options. Nothing else.

Well, at least, that was the thought process behind Clarissa Now, a continuation of Explains it All, in which our Austinian heroine, now in college, interns at the offices of a New York City newspaper under the tutelage of the hard-drinking curmudgeon columnist Hugh Hamilton (Robert Klein). What 12-to-15-year-old couldn’t relate to Clarissa getting yelled at by Robert Klein?

The show’s tone is decidedly darker. The sparse opening credits begins with black background and the word “Clarissa” fading in and out, a sharp juxtaposition to the pastel pinks and blues of Explains It All’s. Clarissa no longer explains it all, but rather is humiliated and mocked by her co-workers. The city, from overcrowded subways to her manically depressed and alcoholic employer, eats her alive.

Clarissa Explains It All was a show based around the Hart’s ability to relate to her audience. She wasn’t perfect. She got pimples. She fought with her friends, family, and self. Clarissa Now attempts to put those skills to the test, but instead of carrying over those same insecurities, Clarissa is oblivious to them, plastering an excited smile on her face and giving it the old college try. Did any fans of the original series really want to see the girl who explained it all be called a “naive freak of nature?”

Apparently not.

Clarissa Now never cut it on CBS, who paid for the pilot, but it did air on Nickelodeon, where the show failed to click with its original fanbase. It's not too surprising. After all, tastes change from tween to teen. People reject things they loved as they move through different phases of life, and Clarissa, like so many of us, was better off staying young.

If you ask me, there should've been a Clarissa Now

http://oldschoollane.blogspot.com/2016/04/clarissa-now-discussionreview.html

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Did they ever air that, The 90s Are All That? I never saw or heard about it!

It initially aired (http://www.oldschoollane.net/2013/05/old-school-lanes-not-nickelodeon.html) as part of Nickelodeon's "Big Help" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Help) telethon. Melissa Joan Hart and Mike O'Malley introduced the pilot. According to IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402104/), it first aired on October 1, 1995.

Telehell: EPISODE 46 - Clarissa Now (1995 Pilot) (https://telehell.libsyn.com/episode-46-clarissa-now-1995-pilot)

Before she dabbled in the world of Witchcraft & Religious movies, the girl who "Explains it all" tried to dabble (https://books.google.com/books?id=E49eAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA36&dq=Clarissa+Now+CBS+1995+pilot&article_id=3593,2780022&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiGt_i039KEAxWFjIkEHT_TA7UQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=Clarissa%20Now%20CBS%201995%20pilot&f=false) in Adulthood in this 1995 Pilot (https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=398579) that Crashed...and Just like Adulthood, it's full of painful awkwardness.