Felicity (TV series)

Felicity is an American drama television series created by J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves and produced by Touchstone Television and Imagine Television for The WB. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard were executive producers through Imagine Entertainment.

Felicity
Title screen used for the first season
Genre	College drama
Created by	J. J. Abrams Matt Reeves
Starring	Keri Russell Scott Speedman Amy Jo Johnson Tangi Miller Scott Foley Greg Grunberg Amanda Foreman Ian Gomez
Narrated by	Janeane Garofalo Keri Russell
Theme music composer	Judith Owen J. J. Abrams Andrew Jarecki
Opening theme	"Felicity Theme" (seasons 1–2) "New Version of You" (seasons 3–4)
Composers	W. G. Snuffy Walden Joseph Williams Danny Pelfrey Jon Huck John Zuker
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	84 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	J. J. Abrams Brian Grazer Tony Krantz Matt Reeves Jennifer Levin Ron Howard John Eisendrath Laurie McCarthy
Production locations	New York City Los Angeles University of Southern California
Cinematography	Robert Primes Michael Bonvillain Marshall Adams
Camera setup	Single-camera setup
Running time	42–45 minutes
Production companies	Touchstone Television Imagine Television
Distributor	Buena Vista Television
Release
Original network	The WB
Picture format	NTSC (480i)
Audio format	Stereophonic
Original release	September 29, 1998 – May 22, 2002

The series revolves around the fictional college experiences of the title character, Felicity Porter (portrayed by Keri Russell), as she attends the "University of New York" (based on New York University), which lies across the country from her home in Palo Alto, California. The show ran for four seasons from September 29, 1998, to May 22, 2002, with each season corresponding to the traditional American university divisions of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years.

In 2007, Felicity was one of Time magazine's "All-Time 100 Best TV Shows."[1] AOL TV named Felicity one of the "Best School Shows of All Time."[2] In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Felicity Porter one of the "100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years".[3]

Plot

Season		Episodes		Originally aired
				First aired	Last aired
	1	22		September 29, 1998	May 25, 1999
	2	23		September 26, 1999	May 24, 2000
	3	17		October 4, 2000	May 23, 2001
	4	22		October 10, 2001	May 22, 2002

The series opens at Felicity's high school graduation, where she asks Ben Covington, a classmate on whom she has a crush, to sign her yearbook. Moved by his comment that he wished they had gotten to know each other further, she changes her education plans completely, deciding to follow Ben to New York rather than attend Stanford University as a pre-med student. Felicity's overbearing parents, concerned about Felicity's seemingly rash decision, come to New York to try to persuade her to return home and "get back on track". Felicity has second thoughts about her decision, but soon realizes that she came not only to follow Ben, but to discover her true inner self.

While Felicity works to sort out her emotions, she continues the basic motions of student life and moves into her dorm. There, she meets the resident advisor Noel Crane. Eventually, the two develop a romantic relationship, and the love triangle among Felicity, Ben, and Noel forms the basic dramatic conflicts in the show throughout the series.

A number of other characters appear and play large roles in Felicity's life. Her roommate for the first two years is Meghan Rotundi, a goth Wiccan who occasionally casts spells on Felicity and others. Julie Emrick is one of Felicity's best friends, as is Elena Tyler, who often takes classes with Felicity. Felicity also has male friends, including Sean Blumberg, who is always trying to produce new off-kilter inventions, and Javier Clemente Quintata, who manages the Dean & DeLuca where Felicity works for most of her college career.

A recurring episode opener of the show is a stark camera shot of Felicity sitting in a dormitory room or apartment holding a tape recorder, recalling events in order to make a cassette tape to send to an old friend named Sally Reardon (voiced by Janeane Garofalo). This occasionally provides a method for Felicity to narrate an entire episode. At the end of episodes like this, Felicity is often shown to be listening to a tape that Sally has sent in reply.

Cast and characters

Characters are listed in title credit order and by appearance on the show.

Actor	Character	Seasons
		1	2	3	4
Keri Russell	Felicity Porter	Main
Scott Speedman	Ben Covington	Main
Amy Jo Johnson	Julie Emrick	Main			Special Guest
Tangi Miller	Elena Tyler	Main
Scott Foley	Noel Crane	Main
Greg Grunberg	Sean Blumberg	Recurring	Main
Amanda Foreman	Meghan Rotundi	Recurring	Main
Ian Gomez	Javier Clemente Quintata	Recurring			Main

Production

Setting

Felicity was filmed in part in New York City, and is set at the fictional University of New York (UNY), based on New York University (NYU). Like NYU, UNY is located in Greenwich Village near Washington Square Park, and the school is an important part of the show. Although like other universities, NYU normally welcomes being mentioned in film or on television as free product placement, the university refused permission for the show to use its name, stating that "[t]he negatives kind of outweighed the positives."[4]

Writer's age

In 1999, a publicly hyped young writer for the show, Riley Weston, was disclosed as a fraud for claiming to be much younger than she truly was. At the age of 32, she began marketing herself to television studios as a recent high school graduate, passing off her husband as her older brother. She was soon hired by the WB Network as a writer for Felicity.[5] Hailed as a child prodigy and "wunderkind",[6] she was featured on Entertainment Weekly's October 1998 list of the "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment", which described her as an up-and-coming 19-year-old. Shortly thereafter, she was offered a six-figure screenwriting deal with Disney.[7] Her real identity and age were exposed after a Felicity producer checked her social security number. Soon afterward, her contract with WB expired and was not renewed, and her deal with Disney fell through.

Time-slot and hairstyle changes

In the summer of 1999, after filming the first season,[8] Felicity star Russell—known for what The New York Times described as "[t]hat glorious head of voluminous golden backlit hair"[9]—sent the show's producers a photo wearing a short-haired wig. They panicked before learning that it was a joke but then suggested to the actress that a new hairstyle would be appropriate.[8] After being shifted from Tuesday nights at 9:00 pm Eastern to Sunday nights at 8:00 pm Eastern (WB's weakest night) for the 1999–2000 season, the ratings for Felicity declined immediately. This decline occurred before the hair-style change, but the later hair-style change became conflated by some of the public and by some of the popular press[9] and network executives with this earlier event and thus incorrectly blamed the earlier ratings drop partly on the later new hairstyle. After the negative reaction Russell rejected wearing extensions or a wig while her hair grew back. Although storytelling and time-slot changes had already created a ratings decline, a network executive said WB actors' future hair changes would "be given more thought at the network than it previously would have".[8] In 2010, TV Guide Network listed the hairstyle change at No. 19 on their list of "25 Biggest TV Blunders," with several commentators arguing that it was the reason that the ratings of the show dropped.[10] The haircut incident went on to become a popular culture reference within other television shows, both comedic and dramatic. Despite the controversy, Felicity survived for two more seasons.

Home media

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the DVDs over a period of four years. Because of high music licensing costs, many of the songs from the original broadcast episodes were replaced in the DVD releases, some of them with songs by artists from the independent label Rescue Records. Blaire Reinhard ("Over and Over" and "Can't Let Go"), Mike Schmidt ("Just Wave Goodbye"), and Beth Thornley ("Mr. Lovely") are some of the artists whose music was used for the DVDs but not the original broadcasts.

In a commentary track on the final episode of Disney/Buena Vista's original Freshman Year Collection DVD release ("Felicity Was Here"), co-creator Matt Reeves said the pilot and season finale contained the same music as when the show originally aired, but some other episodes contained changes. "One of the sad things about going into syndication is that certain rights that we were able to get in the first year we weren't able to get," Reeves said. "In the pilot and in this episode we have all the original music as it appeared on the series."

Some episodes did not have proper telecine encoding and when viewed on an HDTV some interlacing artifacts are visible. All four seasons were re-released on DVD by ABC Studios on April 7, 2009 in "slimmer" packaging.[11][12][13][14] These region 1 releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.

On February 9, 2012, it was announced that Lionsgate Home Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series and planned on re-releasing it. Seasons 1 and 2 were re-released on May 1, 2012 and do not contain any extras, subtitles, or other languages besides English.[15][16][17] Seasons 3 and 4 were re-released on May 7, 2013.[18]

Title	Release	Details	Special features
Felicity: Freshman Year Collection	November 5, 2002 (United States) November 4, 2003 (Australia & New Zealand)	22 episodes 6-disc set 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Subtitles: English, French (Australia), Dutch (Australia) Languages: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) (Australia)	Audio commentary on "Pilot" J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves (Co-creators and executive producers) Audio commentary on "Felicity Was Here" J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves (Co-creators and executive producers)
Felicity: Sophomore Year Collection	July 22, 2003 (United States)	23 episodes 6-disc set 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Subtitles: English Languages: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) Spanish	5 audio commentaries Never-before-seen Network Pilot episode Keri Russell's audition Felicity "Emmy Parody" spoof (Produced for the Emmy broadcast)[19]
Felicity: Junior Year Collection	September 21, 2004 (United States)	17 episodes 5-disc set 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Subtitles: English Languages: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) Spanish	Audio commentaries "Docuventary: A Look Back at Season 3 with Greg Grunberg" Mad TV Parody[20]
Felicity: Senior Year Collection	March 8, 2005 (United States)	22 episodes 6-disc set 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Subtitles: English Languages: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround) Spanish	Audio commentaries "The Lost Elena Scenes" – This exclusive, never-before-seen footage provides the long-awaited answer to Felicity fans' Biggest Question! "Fade Out" – Behind-the-scenes reflections with Keri Russell and the show's creators Creating characters – Q&A with J. J. Abrams, Keri Russell, Matt Reeves, and Jennifer Garner[21]

Reception

Ratings

The series debut garnered 7.1 million viewers.[22]

Season	Episodes	Original airing			Rank	Viewers (in millions)
		Season premiere	Season finale	TV season
1st	22	September 29, 1998	May 25, 1999	1998–1999	#124[23]	4.4[24]
2nd	23	September 26, 1999	May 24, 2000	1999–2000	#135	2.2
3rd	17	October 4, 2000	May 23, 2001	2000–2001	#123	2.8
4th	22	October 10, 2001	May 22, 2002	2001–2002	#129	3.2[25]

Accolades

Felicity was nominated for 38 awards during its run from 1998 to 2002 and won several, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Series for Robert Primes and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for Keri Russell.[26]

Year	Award	Category	Nominees(s)	Result	Ref.
1999	Artios Awards	Best Casting for TV, Dramatic Pilot	Marcia Shulman	Won
	Eddie Awards	Best Edited Series for Television	Stan Salfas, Warren Bowman	Nominated
	Golden Globes	Best Actress – Drama Series	Keri Russell	Won
		Best Series – Drama	Felicity	Nominated
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite TV Drama	Felicity	Won
		Favorite TV Drama Actress	Keri Russell	Nominated
	OFTA Television Awards	Best Actress in a Drama Series	Keri Russell	Nominated
		Best Actress in a New Drama Series	Keri Russell	Won
		Best Direction in a Drama Series	Felicity	Nominated
		Best Music in a Series	Felicity	Nominated
		Best New Drama Series	Felicity	Nominated
		Best New Theme Song in a Series	W. G. Snuffy Walden	Nominated
		Best New Titles Sequence in a Series	Felicity	Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Cinematography for a Series	Robert Primes	Won
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Actor	Scott Foley	Nominated
		Choice TV: Actress	Keri Russell	Nominated
		Choice TV: Breakout Performance	Scott Foley	Nominated
			Keri Russell	Won
			Scott Speedman	Nominated
		Choice TV: Drama Series	Felicity	Nominated
	Television Critics Association Awards	Outstanding New Program	Felicity	Nominated
2000	ALMA Awards	Special Achievement Award	Ian Gomez	Won
	American Society of Cinematographers Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Regular Series	Robert Primes	Nominated
	GLAAD Media Awards	Outstanding TV Drama Series	Felicity	Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Music Composition for a Series	Danny Pelfrey, W. G. Snuffy Walden	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Actor	Scott Foley	Nominated
			Scott Speedman	Nominated
		Choice TV: Actress	Keri Russell	Nominated
		Choice TV: Sidekick	Ian Gomez	Nominated
			Amy Jo Johnson	Nominated
		Choice TV Show: Drama	Felicity	Nominated
2001	GLAAD Media Awards	Outstanding TV Drama Series	Felicity	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Actress	Keri Russell	Nominated
		Choice TV Show: Drama	Felicity	Nominated
2002	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series	Tangi Miller	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Action/Drama	Felicity	Nominated
		Choice TV Actor: Drama	Scott Foley	Nominated
			Scott Speedman	Nominated
		Choice TV Actress: Drama	Keri Russell	Nominated

References

1. Poniewozik, James (September 6, 2007). "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved March 4, 2010.
2. "Best School Shows of All Time". AOL TV. Aol, Inc. August 26, 2008. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
3. Adam B. Vary (June 1, 2010). "The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years: Here's our full list!". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
4. Gates, Anita (September 2, 1998). "N.Y.U. Says, 'No, Thanks' To Star Role in a Sitcom". NYTimes.com. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
5. Bernard Weinraub (1998-10-17). "TV Writer, 32, Passed for 19; Bloom Is Off Her Contract". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
6. Elber, Lynn (October 15, 1998). "Teen Wunderkind TV Writer Unmasked". Associated Press. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
7. Jenny Hontz (1998-10-15). "Old enough to know better". Variety. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
8. Owen, Rob (January 21, 2000). "On the Tube: The ratings dropped with her golden locks – WB says grow it back". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
9. Gates, Anita (2000-01-21). "Entering the Lovelorn Zone: Felicity's Fifth Dimension". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
10. "Breaking News – TV Guide Network's "25 Biggest TV Blunders" Special Delivers 3.3 Million Viewers". The Futon Critic. March 2, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
11. "Felicity: The Complete First Season". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 14, 2009.
12. "Felicity: Season Two". Amazon.com. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
13. "Felicity: Season Three". Amazon.com. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
14. "Felicity: Season Four". Amazon.com. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
15. "'Felicity' – Lionsgate Picks Up Rights, Schedules Re-Issues for Felicity, Samantha Who? and Dirty Sexy Money". TV Shows on TV. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
16. "Felicity – Season 1". LionsGateShop.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
17. "Felicity – Season 2". LionsGateShop.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
18. "Felicity DVD news: Box Art for Felicity - Season 3 and Felicity - Season 4 - TVShowsOnDVD.com". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2013-02-18.
19. "Felicity: The Complete Second Season". Video.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
20. "Felicity: The Complete Third Season". Video.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
21. "Felicity: The Complete Fourth Season". Video.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
22. de Moraes, Lisa (September 11, 2008). "Why Did 'Fringe' Unravel? Blame It on the TV God". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
23. "Final ratings for the 1998–1999 TV season". OoCities.org. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
24. "Final ratings for the 1998–1999 TV season". GeoCities. Archived from the original on October 29, 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
25. "How did your favorite show rate?". USA Today. Nielsen Media Research. May 28, 2002. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
26. "Awards for 'Felicity'". IMDb. Amazon.com. Retrieved December 1, 2011.

External links

• Felicity at IMDb
• Felicity at TV.com