Date of airing: March 23, 2001 (Disney Channel)
This episode probably depicted Aaron Carter when he was at the peak of his career, which I wouldn’t know about because I wasn’t following teenage pop music when I was 13 years old, and I was also not a girl (although I have heard of Nick Carter’s little brother making it in the music department). A superstar, loved by all the 13-year-old girls in town, getting a guest-starring spot on one of the hottest Disney Channel shows (no one knew it was the hottest TV show, since it hasn’t aired yet when this episode was produced), and giving Hilary Duff, the then-current teen star in the making, a kiss on what could have been the cheek if it weren’t for the cheeky camera angle of that one fateful kiss. I don’t know who was the luckier one in this episode, receiving that kiss – Aaron or Hilary, because one or the other was having nice dreams after this episode finished production.
History does tell us though that not both
of them were happy kids, and the romantic relationship they went into after production of this episode finished went through a lot of trouble. Carter had a lot of bad tabloid media coverage to fight, and at one point, it led to his alleged suicide in November of 2022. Sometimes, you just don't know what is going on with a person while watching them happy-go-lucky dancing around and singing. Sometimes, teenagers just don't know how much they are hurting when going through a mood phase that is now considered as a mental health issue. And sometimes, I wonder what had to happen for one member of the romantic couple to go one way in life, and the other member in a complete different direction. Where did things go wrong for Aaron, and how did Hilary manage to keep her sanity and life intact?
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| This ain't the real Abbey Road. |
It was a solid piece of television. I would almost consider this one to be placed in my Christmas TV episodes list, due to the Christmas video narrative that the kids found themselves in, but it’s not like this was a full-on Christmas episode, thanks to its March airing and Gordo even mentioning that it was currently Springtime. It made me think though that LIZZIE McGUIRE is set in California, because temperature-wise, the show didn’t have anything to offer but fake snow during the production of Aaron’s music video, which by the way was a boring way to execute a music video. But I guess when you’re a 13-year-old male sex symbol for 13-year-old girls, all you need is a warehouse and a couple of well-dressed young girls with their bellybuttons out to dance to your music like this is Amy Berg’s Hollywood documentary AN OPEN SECRET in the making.
And yes, I went that far because chances are some of the Disney Channel kid stars came to live horrible lives thanks to the pressure coming out of the Hollywood executives, offices, and the evil attitudes of some producers and directors. It’s been five years since Harvey Weinstein blew up Hollywood and indirectly created the #MeToo movement, and all I’m waiting for is for the alleged pedophile ring of Tinseltown to blow up as well and send some evil bastards to prison before another kid with a dream to become a star attempts suicide.
In a way, this episode is in its personal little pop culture bubble, and not just because it depicts Aaron Carter in a world he does not live in any longer. Back then he seemed happy, he had the whole of the world in front of him, ready to take it and become a star. And yet, 22 years later, he is dead. As a teen myself, I remember him having come out huge, and being a constant boy to be talked about in the German teen magazine Bravo (which I never bought, but my cousins were reading it, so I had a few glances now and then), but the fact that the kid never got out of the shadow of his big brother who at least managed to recreate his teen boy band career through a comeback (and may have been a reason for Aaron's mental health issues – his brother's career he could never reciprocate), it makes this episode its own little piece of pop culture in a solidified time bubble, to be watched every time you need to be reminded what 2001 looked like in pop culture for 13-year-old teenagers. In this case: What life for Hilary Duff and Aaron Carter looked like before they went into their whirlwind romance, always covered by the tabloid press, which later added a third character in the form of Lindsay Lohan, and much later even a backstory to a suicide...
Lizzie and friends’ plans to crash Aaron’s music video were pretty good. Again, I was annoyed by all the quick camera cuts, sound effects, and the visuals that made this episode turn into kid-friendly material (like when the kids were chasing the security guard around the fake Christmas tree – that was low-budget 90s kids’ movies stuff and I don’t like that style one bit), but there was something about this impossible mission turning possible, thanks to Lizzie’s resilience, always trying to get back into the warehouse after she and her friends have been kicked out. The premise was especially noteworthy when you compare Lizzie’s adventures with those of her parents. Lizzie managed to get back into the studio premises every time she fell down, but her parents were immediately busted, and the kids/parents roles were reversed, as Lizzie became destined to pick up her parents out of warehouse music video jail (which by itself is a great kids comedy premise and possibly the funniest moment of the entire episode).
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| Life was still fun when you were a carefree teenager. |
By the way, was Aaron calling Justin Timberlake at the beginning of the music video? Because if that’s the case, the scene is even more noteworthy of how one teen pop star made it in the 2000s, and the other was silenced after his time as a teen pop sensation. It made me wonder if Timberlake was just freaking lucky that he came into the Hollywood business at the right time and then continued with music at the right time as well, while Aaron probably tried to do everything at once and immediately failed, turning himself into a Jeopardy clue about 2000s pop culture, just because he wanted to be famous from the beginning. If the roles had been reversed, would Aaron have been Jimmy Fallon’s best friend, married to Jessica Biel? That’s something to think about for the alternate universe reality in TV shows like FRINGE or Marvel’s WHAT IF...?
