Date of airing: January 26, 2001 (Disney Channel)
I still have difficulties with the show’s late 1980s/early 1990s look and feel, but I’m starting to understand why that is and why the producers decided to take on the production of the show this way. LIZZIE McGUIRE being a single-camera show, it must have already been a little more expensive than the usual Disney Channel fare, considering they were rather inexperienced putting original television shows on while also competing against more successful Nickelodeon. The budget may have been naturally higher already because of exterior locations, although the camping trip itself looked cheap enough that it was probably shot on a ranch the studio owned, put up a tent, and voila, you have a setting for half of the episode without being interrupted by tourists and actual campers.
Still, it costs money to get cast and crew to an exterior location, and judging by future Disney Channel shows, it’s what producers weren’t quite ready to do. There was this Texas three-parter on GIRL MEETS WORLD, even though the third part was set in New York, dealing with the ramifications of what happened in Texas, but those episodes sent the cast and crew to an exterior location, and it looked so unique and surreal for that show and the network as a whole, it’s almost a welcomed surprise to watch another Disney Channel show that takes the game away from the soundstage and onto a set visited by the birds and the bees. And that must have something to do with the cost of producing in an open setting, which Disney is apparently unable to finance these days, especially when it comes to shows on their basic cable network.
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| Everybody is on a phone today. |
Anyway, this episode was slightly better than the previous two, thanks to the fact that a little more story was being put into this half hour of television. When Mr. Pettus mentioned that the camping trip needed another chaperone, consider me not surprised at all when Lizzie’s mother showed up (in hindsight, maybe it was a little too obvious), but it did turn into a nice story of how Lizzie needed to cope with her mother being close by, having to deal with a parent making a fool of their kid during a school trip, and simply dealing with the fact that everyone at school now knows that you have a mother, all while said kid is trying their absolute best to rise in the ranks of middle school society. Sure, Kate is still a bitch and all she is good for is to bring a repetitive conflict to Lizzie, which Kate then loses (because the good girl always wins, which makes Kate either Bulk or Skull from MIGHTY MORPHIN’ POWER RANGERS), but there was an ounce of a good story here, simply because Lizzie wasn’t just dealing with her own faults as a teenager, but this time had to act against her mother who was in the way of Lizzie’s perfect middle school life.
Besides that, stories always look a little better when the parent is on a similar wavelength as their kid, allowing the writers to bring them side-by-side for an adventure, kind of like the GILMORE GIRLS, but in Disney Channel style. I just would have wished for Lizzie to team up more with her mother to TP the boys’ tent though – it’s almost like Lizzie was still a stranger to her mother, even though her mother had the same idea when it comes to taking revenge on the boys than Lizzie would have had. That also includes Kate, who could have realized that being ridiculous every once in a while does good things for the soul. Also, if Kate had been more involved here, the writers could have begun writing a story that brings Kate and Lizzie together as friends again, sort of how Lizzie was being reminiscent of at the end of the episode (wait, they were friends once?). It’s a story I see coming sooner or later, but it’s one whose seed could have been planted here.
In the meantime, I couldn’t connect with Matt and his father being unable to make themselves something to eat, because really, isn’t it that much easier to just order food or buy something pre-cooked that you can throw into the oven? Apparently, it’s not that easy for these two boys to think about doing that. The guys also didn’t know what an oven was, adding more comedic elements to their story, while also making me dizzy since I was rolling so many eyes. Still, I chuckled slightly looking at Matt and his father putting orange beef into the microwave and hoping that something baked and delicious is going to come out of it after five minutes. Thank you, Disney Channel, for delivering all the tropes about men not being able to cook and not knowing what an oven is.
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| The science teacher gets pranked! |
But yeah, the style of the show is still a little silly. The camera movements, the animation show sound effects, the doorbell sound when Kate’s ponytails were being pulled… The show is targeted at a very young audience, but that also means the show is unable to stand the test of time, let alone create something for the mature audience that needed to be watching, just so they can watch over the kids watching the Disney Channel. Three episodes in and I’m still asking myself how LIZZIE McGUIRE must have been this huge show to make a star out of Hilary Duff, and I still hope the look of the show is going to change in upcoming episodes, becoming less annoying by cutting out the rapid camera zooms and sound effects. If that happens I will be – and let me use a phrase from this episode’s treasure box of tropes – a happy camper.
