Popular

Popular was a WB network teen comedy\drama TV series created by Ryan Murphy and Gina Matthews that first premiered on September 29, 1999.

The cast of the show consisted of actors Leslie Bibb, Carly Pope, Lisa Darr, Scott Bryce, Tamara Mello, Christopher Gorham, Sara Rue, Bryce Johnson, Tammy Lynn Michaels, Ron Lester, Leslie Grossman and Diane Delano.

The show first aired on Wednesday nights, but later moved to Thursday nights where it remained until February of 2000 when it moved to Monday nights. It later moved to Friday evenings for the rest of its run. The ratings were moderately successful, ranking at #11.

On May 18, 2001, "Popular" was cancelled after 2 seasons and 43 episodes.

Plot
The show's premise was about high school students Brooke McQueen (Leslie Bibb) and Sam McPherson (Carly Pope) who are polar opposites; Brooke is a popular cheerleader and Sam is an unpopular journalist.

Their respective groups are forced to socialize when Brooke's father, Mike and Sam's mother Jane get engaged and the two girls have to share a house.

The plot of the first season revolves around the girls' school life, rival groups of friends, mutual animosity and plan to separate their parents. At the end of the season, Sam finds Brooke's real mother and encourages her to come back to town which breaks up the engagement and splits the new family apart.

By the second season, Brooke and Sam realize that their parents were happy together, and therefore team up to reunite them, a move which results in the girls slowly becoming close friends, and even referring to each other as "family," though tensions rise when they both get involved with the same boy.

Also, a reversal of fortunes takes place, with Brooke resigning from cheerleading to focus on school issues and Sam experiencing a surge of sudden popularity at school.

In the end of the second season finale (which turned out to be the unexpected series finale when the show was cancelled), Brooke is run over by a drunk and angry Nicole Julian (Tammy Lynn Michaels).

Cast

 * Leslie Bibb as Brooke McQueen
 * Carly Pope as Samantha "Sam" McPherson
 * Scott Bryce as Mike McQueen
 * Lisa Darr as Jane McPherson
 * Christopher Gorham as Harrison John
 * Tamara Mello as Lily Esposito
 * Sara Rue as Carmen Ferrera
 * Tammy Lynn Michaels as Nicole Julian
 * Bryce Johnson as Josh Ford
 * Leslie Grossman as Mary Cherry
 * Ron Lester as Michael "Sugar Daddy" Bernadino
 * Diane Delano as Miss Roberta "Bobbi" Glass