Clarissa's Revenge

Clarissa's Revenge is the series premiere of Clarissa Explains It All. This episode was first broadcast on March 23rd, 1991.

Summary
After Clarissa gets her first training bra, she tries to exact revenge on her brother for showing her bra at school, using a plan involving putting him into a straitjacket and having her friend Sam attach large helium balloons to him to carry him into the sky.

Meanwhile, Sam wants to get out of the school football team. Her plan fails when Sam is lifted in the sky while holding the balloons, and crashes into a nearby tree. They burst and he falls to the ground, injuring his arm - meaning that he cannot play football.

Characters Present

 * Melissa Joan Hart as Clarissa Darling
 * Elizabeth Hess as Janet Darling
 * Joe O'Connor as Marshall Darling
 * Jason Zimbler as Ferguson Darling
 * Sean O'Neal as Sam Anders

Trivia

 * In the pilot episode, Marshall says after Sam goes out the kitchen window "Why doesn't that boy ever use the door?" Sam during most of the show's run, used Clarissa's bedroom window to enter the house.
 * Each episode took approximately 2 days to rehearse and 3 days to film. Melissa Joan Hart enjoyed this process and would apply this same production schedule to filming her show Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996).
 * Creator Mitchell Kriegman has never revealed how he came up with Clarissa's name and he never intends to. Even Melissa Joan Hart doesn't know.
 * An early, unaired version of this Pilot was taped in September 1990. It was directed by Henry Irving, and was identical to the broadcast version, but with everyone, except for Clarissa and Ferguson, played by different actors. Janet was played by Nancy Youngblut, Marshall was played by Terry Layman, and Sam was played by Daren E. Higgins.