Felicity (TV series)

Did You Know?

• All four seasons were re-released on DVD by ABC Studios on April 7, 2009, in slimmer packaging.
• Lionsgate Home Entertainment acquired the rights to the series and re-released seasons 1 and 2 on May 1, 2012, without extras or subtitles.

Plot

The series begins at Felicity's high school graduation, where she asks Ben Covington, a classmate she has a crush on, to sign her yearbook. Moved by his comment that he wished they had gotten to know each other further, she decides to follow Ben to New York instead of attending Stanford University as a pre-med student. Her overbearing parents come to New York to persuade her to return home, but Felicity realizes she came not only to follow Ben but to discover her true self. She moves into her dorm and meets resident advisor Noel Crane, and a love triangle among Felicity, Ben, and Noel forms the central dramatic conflict. Her roommate for the first two years is Meghan Rotundi, a goth Wiccan who occasionally casts spells. Other friends include Julie Emrick, Elena Tyler, Sean Blumberg, and Javier Clemente Quintata. A recurring episode opener shows Felicity holding a tape recorder, recalling events to send to an old friend named Sally Reardon, voiced by Janeane Garofalo. At the end of such episodes, Felicity is often shown listening to a reply tape from Sally.

Production

Felicity was filmed in part in New York City and is set at the fictional University of New York, based on New York University. NYU refused permission for the show to use its name, stating that the negatives outweighed the positives. In 1999, writer Riley Weston was disclosed as a fraud for claiming to be much younger than she truly was; at age 32, she marketed herself as a recent high school graduate and was hired by the WB. She was featured on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment" as an up-and-coming 19-year-old and later offered a six-figure screenwriting deal with Disney. After the first season, star Keri Russell sent producers a photo wearing a short-haired wig as a joke, but they suggested a new hairstyle. The show was shifted from Tuesday nights at 9:00 pm Eastern to Sunday nights at 8:00 pm Eastern for the 1999–2000 season, and ratings declined immediately. The hairstyle change became conflated with this earlier ratings drop, and some commentators later blamed it. In 2010, TV Guide Network listed the hairstyle change at No. 19 on its list of "25 Biggest TV Blunders".

Reception

The first season holds a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 32 critic reviews, with the critics' consensus praising its insight into adulthood and the college experience. On Metacritic, the first season has a weighted average score of 87/100, indicating universal acclaim. James Collins of Time magazine wrote that the show is "lightly cinematic" and emotionally plausible. Tom Shales of The Washington Post described it as skillfully written and acted. Dave Walker of The Arizona Republic noted that Russell is usually the reason the show rises above being a targeted product. In a negative review, Jonathan Storm of The Philadelphia Inquirer called Felicity phony, presenting a fantasy world. The series debut garnered 7.1 million viewers. Felicity was nominated for 38 awards and won several, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Series for Robert Primes and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for Keri Russell.