Editing Clarissa Explains It All (section)

==Premise==
The main characters in the show are Clarissa Darling, her family (consisting of her father Marshall, her mother Janet, and her younger brother Ferguson) and her best friend Sam, all living in a small, unnamed suburban town somewhere in Ohio. Clarissa had a pet baby [[alligator]], Elvis, which she kept in a kiddie-sandbox and appeared sporadically in early episodes.

''Clarissa'' was credited with becoming the first Nickelodeon series to feature a female lead, which led the network to create other shows such as ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]'', ''[[The Amanda Show]]'' and ''[[The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo]]''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Peitzman |first=Louis |date=December 10, 2014 |title=How "Clarissa Explains It All" Helped Change Television |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/how-the-clarissa-explains-it-all-creator-helped-change-kids |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=[[BuzzFeed]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2014-12-03 |title=27 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Clarissa Explains It All |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/60340/27-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-clarissa-explains-it-all |access-date=2022-05-27 |website=[[Mental Floss]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Its popularity among both boys and girls also helped to debunk a myth that a children's series with a female lead would not appeal to boys.<ref>{{cite news|title= Clarissa's Grown Up And Gone // Nickelodeon Sends Off Its Star After 3 Years|last= Holbert | first= Ginny|date=September 29, 1994|work=Chicago Sun-Times|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4249830.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105174641/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4249830.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 5, 2012|access-date=2011-03-10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Weinstein |first=Steve |date=February 15, 1993 |title=Against All the Odds, 'Blossom' Is Blooming |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-15-ca-119-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511011900/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-15-ca-119-story.html |archive-date=May 11, 2019}}</ref>

Clarissa dealt with normal adolescent issues such as first [[puppy love|crushes]], getting a [[driver's license]] and preparing for [[college]] and working. These topics were dealt with far less dramatically than they were on other similar shows at the time (such as ''[[Full House]]'' and ''[[Blossom (American TV series)|Blossom]]'').<ref name=":0" /> For instance, in one episode Clarissa accidentally [[shoplift]]s a piece of [[lingerie]] but is neither caught by store security nor punished by her parents; she spends most of the episode trying to figure out how to remedy the situation on her own. Although terms like "[[hell]]" and "[[sex drive]]" were occasionally uttered during the show's run, most dialogue was kept family-friendly. One [[running gag]] involved her friend Sam often entering the scene by a ladder (accompanied by a characteristic chord of guitar music) through her bedroom window. A repeating theme during the series was the [[sibling rivalry]] between Clarissa and Ferguson,<ref name=":2" /> showing their repeated attempts to harm or even (as in the series premiere) to "kill" each other.

Unique to the show was Clarissa's tendency to tackle the episode's central theme through the creation of a fictional [[video game]]. The show also integrated some of Hart's real-life likes, such as the band [[They Might Be Giants]].<ref name=":2" />