Original title
Clarissa Explains It All
Released
3/23/1991
Origin country
US
Genre
Comedy, Family, Kids
Production companies
Nickelodeon Productions, Thunder Pictures
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
5
Number of episodes
65
Clarissa Darling is a teen girl dealing with typical pre-adolescent concerns such as school, boys, pimples, wearing her first training bra and an annoying little brother Ferguson.
When younger brother Ferguson displays her training bra in show and tell, Clarissa hatches a plan to send Ferg-face into outer space via helium balloons and a straight jacket.
In an attempt to get around her mother's mandate that there be no TV in the Darling home for a whole week, Clarissa connects her computer terminal to the cable converter and nearly blows up the house.
Clarissa decides that news is cool, and that she'd rather be Jane Pauley than anyone else in the world. Her first story is her mother's midlife crisis, which is triggered by a college pal showing up in town as a successful modern dancer.
Clarissa is faced with the terror of a visit from her Canadian Aunt Mafalda, who's capable of hugging the life's blood out of helpless young relatives. Clarissa enlists Ferguson's help in trying to scare Aunt Mafalda out of the house.
Using her deductive powers, Clarissa determines that her parents are having a baby. She orchestrates a series of demonstrations to try to dissuade them, only to discover they're actually adding a new room on to the house.
Clarissa is determined not to wear the same old blue cardigan and knee socks for her school picture and devises a scheme to outfit herself in the coolest clothes around.
Although she's too young for a driver's license, Clarissa is consumed by the desire to aquire a 1976 Gremlin she finds in the want-ads.
When a greedy bully forces Ferguson to hand over his big sister's walkman, Clarissa decides to stand up and fight. It's not her fists but her spirit that KO's the bully, and he winds up falling for Clarissa.
An I.Q. test result has Ferguson believing that he is really a genius. His dreams of creating a model society come crashing down when he goes head-to-head with Clarissa on a game show called "Brain Drain".
Clarissa pitches in to help celebrate her parents' anniversary. Unfortunately a couple of things get in the way of the party-- her parents stop talking to each other, and Clarissa's cake nearly explodes.
When Clarissa is asked to play the part of a column in a pageant celebrating ancient Greece, she hatches a plan to get sick. The pageant turns out to be really cool, but it's too late-- Clarissa's plan has taken effect and she's grounded.
Clarissa is mortified by the prospect of her dad speaking at her school's career night. To no avail, he tries to get hip quick. His speech winds up making her proud even if he does hug his T-square during it.
In an effort to break free from the shackles of "kiddie" jobs like babysitting, Clarissa asks for permission to apply for a job at the Baxter Beach Carnival. Her parents say no, but Clarissa perseveres only to wind up running the day care center.
Clarissa gets a major crush on local weatherman Flip Fontana. But she's in for a big disappointment when she finally meets him.
In order to win a brand new car, Clarissa enters herself and Ferguson in a contest for siblings that have extraordinary relationships. When the editor for the magazine comes to interview the close siblings, it becomes a struggle for them to pretend to be friends.
While staying with the Darlings for a weekend, Sam seems to be spending all of his time with Mr. and Mrs. Darling, making Clarissa jealous. Both Ferguson and Clarissa plan how to get rid of Sam.
There's chaos in store when Ferguson runs for school President and turns the Darling household into his campaign headquarters.
After failing a magazine quiz on 'How Well Do You Know Your Daughter?', Janet attempts to get to know Clarissa better. But Clarissa gets fed up when her mom plans to take her to a concert and even dresses like her.
Clarissa's school guidance counselor, Ms. Cheesebrow, makes Clarissa try more 'normal' activities, such as Home Ec and Cheerleading. But Clarissa soon learns that one person's normal is another's abnormal.
After helping Sam to land a new girlfriend, Elise Quackenbush, Clarissa feels left out when Sam cancels his plans with her to spend more time with Elise.
After a commercial producer spots Marshall in line at the grocery store, she chooses him as 'the perfect face.' However, Marshall starts taking his new role as a male model a bit too seriously.
Clarissa finds a topic for her school project- TV. She has to watch for 24 hours in order to make observations for her report. However, a plot created by Ferguson makes her think she's lost her mind from watching so much television.
Clarissa gets chosen as the understudy for the lead in the school play. She is extremely happy about this 'easy job' until the lead comes down with sore throat on opening night. Ferguson tries to 'help' Clarissa learn her lines in time, but secretly has her memorizing the lines to several other different plays.
Ferguson's new friend, J. Elliot Fundsworth III is the founder of the Junior Yacht Club and Ferguson will do anything to join. However, trouble ensues when Ferguson realized that J. Elliot is really only interested in Clarissa.
Clarissa becomes worried about her parents' marriage when a debate starts between the two of them. Marshall wants to follow his dream of building a brand new mall, while Janet is more concerned about saving the trees on the same piece of property.
Clarissa's plans for a slumber party are ruined when her parents go away and ask overbearing Aunt Mafalda to stay with the kids.
Janet's old high school boyfriend Joey Russo, a famous writer, comes back to town and Janet invites him over to have dinner with the family. However, things don't go well when tension builds between Marshall and Joey and Joey proves to not be too helpful when he offers Clarissa advice on a paper she's writing.
After Sam's mom Debbie arrives in town, she announces that she's going to take Sam back to Seattle with her. Clarissa and Sam remember all the great times they've had before they have to say goodbye.
Clarissa is chosen to represent her school at a poetry banquet after her computer helps her write a strange but well-loved poem.
Clarissa and Ferguson are left home for the night and try to scare each other with a huge war of spooky pranks. However, they both end up being scared out of their wits when someone tries to come inside the house.
Clarissa learns a thing or two about money and responsibility when she lands several part-time jobs and tries to keep up with all of them.
After having an argument with Clarissa, Ferguson tries to get her back by giving her the Silent Treatment. Clarissa has to figure out how to get him to talk and break his silence. Meanwhile, Janet gets paranoid over being a juror at mobster Fishface Eddie's trial.
After Janet asks the family to participate in Volunteer Day at the Chidren's museum, Clarissa tries to figure out a way to escape her duty of helping out.
Clarissa tries to ruin Ferguson's new romance with Fiona by giving him lots of bad advice. But her plan backfires when numerous girls from school start to go crazy for him.
As Marshall's birthday arrives, he loses interest in everything and decides to sell the house and move the entire family to Mango Island. Everyone goes along with the idea until Marshall has a couple interested in buying come look at the house and they realize just how serious he is.
Marshall bets his neighbour that a Darling can make the varsity football team. But Ferguson realizes that the only way he's going to make it is by marketing himself as the Smallest Student Football Player. Clarissa runs Ferguson ragged during special 'training' for football try-outs.
After Clarissa accidentally walks out of a clothing shop while wearing a piece of lingerie that she didn't pay for, she has nightmares about being a hunted criminal. When Clarissa doesn't want to tell Sam what's bothering her, it causes tension in their friendship.
The Darling's are in for a surprise when Marshall's parents come to visit and have completely changed. Clarissa also must figure out how to be the DJ at her grandparent's anniversary party and go to a Pearl Jam concert with Sam in the same night.
After Sam sets up himself and Clarissa up on a double blind date, Clarissa starts to contemplate all the ways that the date could go bad and what her blind date Milton might be like. Meanwhile, Ferguson takes an interest in law and starts filing suits for his parents without their knowledge.
When Marshall and Janet come down with the flu, it's up to Clarissa and Ferguson to take care of the household chores. But trouble ensues when Ferguson buys nothing but chocolate from the grocery store and a big snowstorm leaves them snowed in the house without any water or real food.
Olivia believes that she has psychic powers, but Clarissa doesn't believe it. After Olivia takes an ESP test and unknowningly committs herself and Clarissa to receiving psychic-related items in the mail, they have to figure out how to pay for the merchandise.
Clarissa starts to have commitment fears in her relationship with Clifford. Meanwhile, Ferguson tries to get into the Guinness Book Of Records by making the world's largest rubber band ball.
The annual family vacation to Lake Winnemucca is usually filled with doom and disaster. This year the family decides to give the Grand Canyon a try as a change of pace. Trouble ensues when all plans for the upcoming vacation start to go wrong.
After leaving her bike out in the front yard, Clarissa finds that it's been stolen. She soon finds out that while it may not have been a car, it was her only mode of transportation.
Ferguson convinces Clarissa's boyfriend Clifford to star in his cable access show called 'Boy Thoughts'. But once the show is a hit, Clifford doesn't have time for Clarissa.
Clarissa has a problem when Eve, the meek and mousy new girl in school, starts copying her style and taking over her life. Clarissa is annoyed but flattered until Eve steals her idea for a newspaper article. Then it becomes war.
After one bad date too many, Sam realizes that the perfect girl for him is Clarissa. They agree to go out on a date, but it turns into a disaster and they both decide they're better off as friends.
Sam's mom Debbie is back in town for the roller derby playoffs. But there's trouble in store when Clarissa invites Debbie to stay at her house. Debbie's a little too messy for the Darlings and the Darlings are just a little too neat for Debbie.
Clarissa gets stage fright when her music teacher picks her to play a flute solo at the school music recital. Suddenly she finds herself not being able to play her flute like usual and has to figure out how to get back in 'the zone.'
When Clarissa has to compete against winner Cindy Sparkle in the talent show, she turns to the journal of her great great aunt once removed hoping for some helpful show stopping hints.
After vowing to never babysit Elsie Soaperstein again, Clarissa lets herself get guilted into sitting for her on the Soaperstein's anniversay. Elsie's a big time troble maker with only one weakness- Ferguson.
Both Clarissa and Ferguson have issues when Janet starts teaching at their high school. Ferguson gets frustrated when she doesn't give him the grade he wants on an art project and Clarissa doesn't like having her mom be everywhere she goes.
When Olvia's brother wants to sell his motorcycle, Clarissa stores it in the garage and plans to later buy it. Her parents have always told her she couldn't get a car but they never mentioned a motorcycle...
Clarissa has a history assignment: take something old, tired, and worn out, and reinvent it. So Clarissa tries to reinvent her mom.
Clarissa learns a few lessons about responsibility when she becomes the editor in chief for her school newspaper.
Clarissa has her work cut out for her, when Piper, the daughter of one of her mom's old school friends comes to stay and is far from friendly.
Clarissa and Sam go to a party dressed as cool, hip, outrageous characters. Clarissa dons a wig, a tatoo, and a nose ring and decides to call herself Jade. At the party, she falls for a cute guy named Paulie. But Clarissa isn't sure if he's interested in her or the ficticious Jade. Meanwhile, Ferguson finds a stray cat who he names William F. Buckley and tries to hinder his parents from looking for the real owner.
Clarissa and Sam sign up for the school intern program to help them get aquainted with the real world. Clarissa ends up as Mr. Ander's intern and Sam is Mr. Darling's intern. However, trouble ensues when they both get annoyed with each other's fathers.
Marshall joins an architectual firm after receiving some very generous offers from the corporation. But the money doesn't seem to make up for how the entire family feels about the firm. Meanwhile, Clarissa tries to write an essay to win a scholarship for college.
After Clarissa is given a class assignment to invent and market an environmentally safe product, she teams up with her mom to market Bouncy Balls- yummy health treats that bounce when they're dropped on the floor. The business doesn't work out so well when Clarissa feels left out of marketing process. Meanwhile, both Ferguson and Marshall have their tonsils removed.
Clarissa is given her own advice column in the school paper. She soon finds out that giving people good advice isn't as easy as she thought.
Ferguson orders a pair of new mind control glasses and decides to try them out on the family. However, Clarissa decides to fight back too as she has the same mind control glasses.
Clarissa discovers that real science can be really weird. After interviewing a woman who supposedly spotted a UFO, Clarissa decides to get to the bottom of the UFO phenomena herself.
When Clarissa decides to protest against animal testing at Woolcott Industries, she and Sam end up getting arrested! But afterward they can't decide whose parents they should call from the police station.
It's a sad day as Clarissa complete her last assignment for the Dispatch - an article dedicated to the future.. where will everyone be in 20 years?
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