Clarissa often featured a little more maturity in its storylines than most Nick shows... It was sort of Nickelodeon's beta-testing of sitcoms for kids, but it was funny and entertaining enough for that not to matter.
As Clarissa, a '90s girl with a mall-derived fashion sense, Melissa Joan Hart does a fine job of tempering her cynicism with insouciance. She makes this silly but hip show into a sort of post-Pee-wee sitcom.
Not surprisingly, this series shows its age in the predictable areas of wardrobe and special effects, but it's not so dated that it would be an impossible sell for today's tweens.
The show has held up surprisingly well with the passing of time and the weird Sam/Clarissa platonic bedroom friendship and nerdy brother Ferg-breath are just as captivating as they were when we were 8 years old.
Clarissa Explains It All left a nation of young women safe in the knowledge that things would work out just fine, as long as they stayed true to themselves.
