''Unfabulous'' is an American

teen sitcom A teen situation comedy, or teen sitcom, is a subgenre of comedic television program targeted towards young people. In general, these type of programs focus primarily on characters between 11 and 19 years of age and routinely feature characters inv ...

that aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

. The series is about an "unfabulous" middle schooler named Addie Singer, played by

Emma Roberts Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991 Additional on October 9, 2016) is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television projects of the horror and thriller genres, she has received various accolades, including a Young Arti ...

. The show, which premiered on September 12, 2004, was one of the most-watched programs in the U.S. among children between the ages of 10 and 16. It was created by Sue Rose, who previously created two animated series ''

Pepper Ann ''Pepper Ann'' is an American animated television series created by Sue Rose and aired on Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC. It debuted on September 13, 1997, and ended on November 18, 2000. ''Pepper Ann'' was the first Disney animated tele ...

'' (for Disney) and ''

Angela Anaconda ''Angela Anaconda'' is an animated children's television series created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose. The show ran for three seasons, from 1999 to 2001, for a total of 65 episodes. Premise The show focuses on the adventures of an eight-year- ...

'', and co-created the character

Fido Dido Fido Dido ( or ) is a cartoon character created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose. History Rose first doodled the character in 1985 on a napkin in a restaurant. Ferrone came up with the character’s name on her way to work the next day. The two lat ...

with Joanna Ferrone. The series ended on December 16, 2007, with the final episode titled "The Best Trip Ever". Most of the episodes are narrated by Addie, and are told in flashbacks. The show's theme song is performed by

Jill Sobule Jill Sobule (born January 16, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single "I Kissed a Girl", and "Supermodel" from the soundtrack of the 1995 film '' Clueless''. Her folk-inflected compositions alternate between ironic ...

, who also wrote the songs performed throughout the show.

Overview

''Unfabulous''s main character is a teenage girl named Addie Singer (

), who writes songs about her life in middle school. Her best friends are Geena Fabiano ( Malese Jow), who is interested in fashion and designs her own clothes, and the environmentally committed school basketball player Zack Carter-Schwartz (Jordan Calloway). They all attend Rocky Road Middle School in an unspecified East Coast city. However, in episode 34 "The Birthday" when Addie receives a letter from when she was 7 years old the address is listed as "Pinecrest, PA". Addie's older brother Ben (Tadhg Kelly) works at ''Juice!'', a smoothie bar where Addie and her friends often hang out after school. Throughout the first season, Addie obsesses about her crush on Jake BehariThe character's last name is spelled both ''Behari'' and ''Bahari'' by Nickelodeon. (

Raja Fenske Raja Jean Fenske (born September 25, 1988) is an American actor who is best known for his role as Jake Behari in Nickelodeon's ''Unfabulous'' alongside Emma Roberts and Malese Jow. He is sometimes credited as RJ Fenske. Biography Fenske was b ...

), who already has a girlfriend. For the majority of the second season, however, Addie is dating Randy Klein ( Evan Palmer). They break up towards the end of the season and Addie realizes that she still likes Jake. The made-for-TV movie '' Unfabulous: The Perfect Moment'' focused on Addie and Jake getting together although Jake will be gone for the rest of the summer in Canada. In the third season, Addie and Jake finally begin dating and Geena and Zack begin to have feelings for each other.

Episodes

Cast

Main

as the 13-year-old main character Addie Singer. * Malese Jow as Geena Fabiano, Addie's best friend who is interested in fashion and designs her own clothes, which are usually provocative and therefore she receives daily lectures from the school principal. * Jordan Calloway as Zack Carter-Schwartz, Addie's other best friend who is on the basketball team and an environmental advocate that wears sandals * Tadhg Kelly as Ben Singer, Addie's older brother *

Molly Hagan Molly Joan Hagan is an American actress. She co-starred in films ''Code of Silence'' (1985), '' Some Kind of Wonderful'' (1987), ''The Dentist'' (1996), ''Election'' (1999), and '' Sully'' (2016), and is also known for her roles in television on ...

as Mrs. Sue Singer, Addie's mother *

Markus Flanagan Markus Flanagan (born August 20, 1964) is an American actor. Career In 1990, he starred in the short-lived ABC police drama ''Sunset Beat'' alongside George Clooney, Michael Deluise and Erik King. He was a series regular on NBC's ''Nurses'' fo ...

as Mr. Jeff Singer, Addie's father *

Emma Degerstedt Emma Kristina Degerstedt (born April 13, 1992) is an American television actress and singer. Degerstedt is of Swedish descent. Career Her television roles include Maris in the Nickelodeon series ''Unfabulous''. She has also appeared on stage i ...

as Maris Bingham,Added to the main cast at the beginning of the second season. a mean girl. *

Chelsea Tavares Chelsea Royce Tavares is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Cranberry on the Nickelodeon series ''Unfabulous'', Autumn Williams on the Nickelodeon series ''Just Jordan'', Patience Roberts in The CW series '' All Ame ...

as Cranberry St. Claire, Maris' best friend.

Recurring

Dustin Ingram Dustin Kyle Ingram (born January 25, 1990) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his role as Bert in the 2016 remake of ''Cabin Fever'', as Duane Ogilvy in Nickelodeon's ''Unfabulous'', and as Agent Petey in HBO's ''Watchmen''. ...

as Duane Oglivy * Mary Lou as Mary Ferry *

as Jake Behari * Bianca Collins as Patti Perez. Another mean girl who joins Maris & Cranberry and ex-girlfriend of Jake who tries to make Addie jealous & humiliate her. * Sarah Hester as Jen Stevenson-Ben's girlfriend and co-worker at ''Juice!'' * Harry Perry III as Manager Mike * Stephen Ford as Chad * Mildred Dumas as Principal Brandywine * Evan Palmer as Randy Klein * Sean Whalen as Coach Pearson * Brandon Smith as Mario (season 1) * Miracle Vincent as Ellie * Shawn McGill as Freddy *

Carter Jenkins Carter Mark Jenkins (born September 4, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Aliens in the Attic'' (2009), ''Valentine's Day'' (2010), and '' Struck by Lightning'' (2012). On television, Jenkins was part of the ...

as Eli Pataki (season 1) * Shanica Knowles as Vanessa * Lourdes Pantin as Becca

Other appearances

The show's main character, Addie Singer, also appears in a cross-over episode of ''

Drake & Josh ''Drake & Josh'' is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series follows two teenage stepbrothers Drake Parker ( Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols ( Josh Peck) as they live together despite opposite personalities. The ...

'' called "Honor Council", in which she helps Megan play a prank on Josh for a video Megan makes for her website. The episode aired in November 2004, a few months after both series had debuted.

Broadcast

The series aired on

and premiered in the United States on September 12, 2004. The final episode aired on December 16, 2007. After the series ended, reruns aired on

TeenNick TeenNick is an American pay-TV channel that is operated by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Aimed primarily at teens and tweens, its programming includes a variety of live-action series inherited from sister channel Ni ...

until 2015. ''Unfabulous'' has also previously aired on Nickelodeon Canada and

Nickelodeon Teen Nickelodeon Teen (formerly Nickelodeon 4Teen) is a French pay television channel owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. It is the French equivalent of TeenNick, though with its French branding meeting domestic language policies, along with "Nick" so ...

in France. As of 2021, the show is not available on

Paramount+ Paramount+ is an American subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Media Networks (formerly Viacom Media ...

or other streaming services.

Home media

TEENick Picks, Volume 1 released on April 18, 2006 – features "The Little Sister" (Season 1, Episode 11)

Awards and nominations

Merchandise

Along with the start of the second season in September 2005, Nickelodeon also began selling different types of ''Unfabulous''-related merchandise, beginning with the album '' Unfabulous and More'' (see

Soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

below). In November 2005, the album was followed by two books tying into the show, ''Keepin' It Real'' () and ''Split Ends'' (), both written by

Robin Wasserman Robin Wasserman (born May 31, 1978) is an American novelist and essayist. Wasserman grew up outside of Philadelphia and graduated from Harvard University and UCLA. Before she was an author she was an associate editor at a children's book publis ...

, and the first items in a line of clothes based on Addie's wardrobe on the show. Four more books were released in February 2006, ''Starstruck'' (), ''Jinxed!'' (), ''Meltdown'' and ''Just Deal''. The last book released in 2007 was based on the two-part episode, ''The Perfect Moment'', by Samantha Margies. The books are narrated by Addie herself in her own words depicting each storyline. Before the launch of the third season, a video game based on the show was released for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

by THQ on September 25, 2006. All episodes from the first and the second season (including ''The Perfect Moment'') were available for download in the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

in the U.S. since fall 2006, but are now not available anymore. They have since been put back for download as of 2012.

Soundtrack

On September 27, 2005, shortly after the premiere of the show's second season,

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

and

Nick Records Nickelodeon Records (formerly only known as Nick Records from 2001 to 2010) is the record label for the children's television channel Nickelodeon, which is owned by Paramount Global. The label featured new and emerging young musical artists, "trip ...

released the album ''Unfabulous and More'', which serves as both the show's

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

and as Emma Roberts' debut album. The album includes several original songs (among them "Dummy" and "I Wanna Be", both of which were also released as

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

s, "I Have Arrived", and "This Is Me", which was co-written by Roberts), as well as some of Addie's songs from the first season (however in newly recorded versions), including "Punch Rocker" and "New Shoes" (both from the episode "The Party"), "94 Weeks (Metal Mouth Freak)" (from "The Bar Mitzvah") and "Mexican Wrestler" (which had previously appeared on Jill Sobule's 2000 album '' Pink Pearl'' and in the ''Unfabulous'' episode "The 66th Day"). The album peaked at #46 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'''s

Heatseekers Albums Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Former Nickelodeon original series 2000s American single-camera sitcoms 2000s American teen sitcoms 2004 American television series debuts 2007 American television series endings 2000s Nickelodeon original programming English-language television shows Television series created by Sue Rose Middle school television series YTV (Canadian TV channel) original programming Television shows adapted into video games Television shows set in Pennsylvania Television series about teenagers