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.
The series revolves around the fictional college experiences of the title character, Felicity Porter, as she attends the "University of New York", 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." AOL TV named Felicity one of the "Best School Shows of All Time." In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Felicity Porter one of the "100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years".

Plot

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. 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.

Production

Setting

Felicity was filmed in part in New York City, and is set at the fictional University of New York, based on New York University. 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 "he negatives kind of outweighed the positives."

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. Hailed as a child prodigy and "wunderkind", she was featured on Entertainment Weeklys 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. 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, Felicity star Russell—known for what The New York Times described as "hat glorious head of voluminous golden backlit hair"—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. After being shifted from Tuesday nights at 9:00 PM Eastern to Sunday nights at 8:00 PM Eastern 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 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". 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. 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

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, Mike Schmidt, and Beth Thornley 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, 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. 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. Seasons 3 and 4 were re-released on May 7, 2013.
TitleReleaseDetailsSpecial features
Felicity: Freshman Year Collection
  • November 5, 2002

  • 22 episodes
  • 6-disc set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English
  • Languages:
  • * English
  • Audio commentary on "Pilot"
  • * J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves
  • Audio commentary on "Felicity Was Here"
  • * J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves
    • Felicity: Sophomore Year Collection
  • July 22, 2003

    • 23 episodes
    • 6-disc set
    • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
    • Subtitles: English
    • Languages:
    • * English
    • * Spanish
  • 5 audio commentaries
  • Never-before-seen Network Pilot episode
  • Keri Russell's audition
  • Felicity "Emmy Parody" spoof
    • Felicity: Junior Year Collection
  • September 21, 2004
  • 17 episodes
  • 5-disc set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English
  • Languages:
  • * English
  • * Spanish
  • Audio commentaries
  • "Docuventary: A Look Back at Season 3 with Greg Grunberg"
  • Mad TV Parody
    • Felicity: Senior Year Collection
  • March 8, 2005

    • 22 episodes
    • 6-disc set
    • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
    • Subtitles: English
    • Languages:
    • * English
    • * 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

    • Reception

    Ratings

    The series debut garnered 7.1 million viewers.

    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.
    YearAwardCategoryNomineesResultRef.
    1999Artios AwardsBest Casting for TV, Dramatic PilotMarcia Shulman
    1999Eddie AwardsBest Edited Series for TelevisionStan Salfas, Warren Bowman
    1999Golden GlobesBest Actress – Drama SeriesKeri Russell
    1999Golden GlobesBest Series – DramaFelicity
    1999People's Choice AwardsFavorite TV DramaFelicity
    1999People's Choice AwardsFavorite TV Drama ActressKeri Russell
    1999OFTA Television AwardsBest Actress in a Drama SeriesKeri Russell
    1999OFTA Television AwardsBest Actress in a New Drama SeriesKeri Russell
    1999OFTA Television AwardsBest Direction in a Drama SeriesFelicity
    1999OFTA Television AwardsBest Music in a SeriesFelicity
    1999OFTA Television AwardsBest New Drama SeriesFelicity
    1999OFTA Television AwardsBest New Theme Song in a SeriesW. G. Snuffy Walden
    1999OFTA Television AwardsBest New Titles Sequence in a SeriesFelicity
    1999Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Cinematography for a SeriesRobert Primes
    1999Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: ActorScott Foley
    1999Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: ActressKeri Russell
    1999Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: Breakout PerformanceScott Foley
    1999Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: Breakout PerformanceKeri Russell
    1999Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: Breakout PerformanceScott Speedman
    1999Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: Drama SeriesFelicity
    1999Television Critics Association AwardsOutstanding New ProgramFelicity
    2000ALMA AwardsSpecial Achievement AwardIan Gomez
    2000American Society of Cinematographers AwardsOutstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Regular SeriesRobert Primes
    2000GLAAD Media AwardsOutstanding TV Drama SeriesFelicity
    2000Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Music Composition for a SeriesDanny Pelfrey, W. G. Snuffy Walden
    2000Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: ActorScott Foley
    2000Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: ActorScott Speedman
    2000Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: ActressKeri Russell
    2000Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: SidekickIan Gomez
    2000Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: SidekickAmy Jo Johnson
    2000Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV Show: DramaFelicity
    2001GLAAD Media AwardsOutstanding TV Drama SeriesFelicity
    2001Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: ActressKeri Russell
    2001Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV Show: DramaFelicity
    2002NAACP Image AwardsOutstanding Actress in a Drama SeriesTangi Miller
    2002Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV: Action/DramaFelicity
    2002Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV Actor: DramaScott Foley
    2002Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV Actor: DramaScott Speedman
    2002Teen Choice AwardsChoice TV Actress: DramaKeri Russell