TV Flashback: Disney’s So Weird

Let’s get this out in the open: this installment of TV Flashback is about a show that followed—and stay with me here—a rock star mom who goes on tour with her kids on a bus that frequently runs into supernatural occurrences which her preteen daughter (who runs a website about paranormal stuff) investigates and solves it. …Yes, I know how it sounds.

So Weird was part of the “Zoog Disney” block on Disney Channel in 1998, right after it was rebranded as a basic cable network. Shows like The Famous Jett Jackson, The Jersey, and So Weird were part of the block, a strange little endeavor that emphasized new technology and encouraged internet use as it became more common in households. One particular show of this era cleverly capitalized on the technological explosion, and used it to create a brilliant, underrated show that was far ahead of its time.

Despite a disastrous-sounding “Partridge Family meets X-Files” premise, So Weird was extremely well-handled, working a lot more like a precurser to Supernatural than a rip-off of Are You Afraid of the Dark. Created by Tom J. Astle, with key executive producers including “The Fonz” himself, Henry Winkler, Jon Cooksey and Ali Marie Matheson (The Collector), and esteemed writers like Doris Egan (House, Smallville), So Weird wasn’t focused so much on the scares or lessons as it was following very strong, well-written characters as they interacted with the paranormal. Like Supernatural, it explored real myths and urban legends—from werewolves to aliens to evil spirits to merfolk to a Siren played by Jewel Staite—and seldom toned them down for kids.

Before the likes of Miley Cyrus or Hilary Duff in the “teen sitcom with a forced pop star lead” trend, the network attempted to reach that slippery tween demographic by trying out some high-concept, rather off-beat types of programming that might appeal to kids in that awkward stage of growing up. In So Weird, Cara DeLizia starred as Fiona “Fi” Phillips, an awkward, but energetic girl with a borderline-obsession with the paranormal—and was not the type of pop-album-spewing Disney star we’ve come to know now. Fi was a nerd through-and-through, badly handling social situations and often talking way too much way too quickly. But she was charming and smart, and appealed to viewers as an equal rather than someone they wished they were.

Fi used Wifi way more rampantly than anyone could have back then, but it’s forgivable because it was one of the first kids’ shows to capitalize on it. Fi didn’t have to be a detective; a 13-year old girl with a laptop could feasibly do the investigating needed to solve the mysteries. Jack (Patrick Levis) played Fi’s older brother, the Scully to her Mulder, though their loving-yet-antagonistic sibling relationship was a highlight of the show.

The early days tried to push a “teen trifecta” of Fi, Jack, and family friend Clu (Erik von Detten) and later his brother Carey (Eric Lively) investigating the paranormal activities. But the center of the show, in reality, was the Phillips family, headed by their aforementioned rockstar mom Molly, portrayed by veteran actress Mackenzie Phillips. The Phillips, while full of love and the “coolness” of being on a rock tour, were gradually revealed to be a profoundly broken family, thanks to the mysterious death of Jack and Fi’s father, Rick, years ago. The mystery of Rick’s death formed the central arc of the first two seasons, with hints carefully interspersed throughout that coalesced into revelations in key episodes. The mystery was fairly easy to figure out, but the show smartly focused less on forming a hidden Lost-like puzzle, and more on making the general concept important to the Phillips family. It let the simple story feel big, despite being contained only within the Phillips’ unit. That was a major strength of the show, actually; it had a deliberately slow pace, avoiding twists in favor of more in-depth explorations of a singular development. This doesn’t mean it felt slow, though; it had a refreshing sense of wonder thanks to the household internet’s newness then, showing how the world is at the fingertips of anyone with the a computer.

Its focus on technology admittedly makes it a little dated now, since people are confounded when Fi describes newfangled things like “instant messaging,” they’re wowed that she runs her own website, and there’s a hilarious reference to a certain a medieval fantasy game that “has an unbelievable 125,000 players!” But aside from causing a few chuckles, it doesn’t hinder the narrative of the show, which resonates more as an adult than it did as a kid. Another interesting thing to note is that it only occasionally had definite villains; much of the time, the characters faced forces of nature, or simply helped to solve a passerby’s supernatural plight. But it worked either way; season 1’s heartfelt “Lost,” which had no antagonist whatsoever, worked just as well as the following episode, “Will o’ the Wisp,” the titular character of which is the show’s only recurring villain (or anti-villain, perhaps), a memorable fan-favorite character.

The show’s relationship with Molly’s music was another strength, with its unique mix of classic rock, folk rock and acoustic. One of the more frustrating aspects of being a fan is that, despite music being such a huge part of the show, no soundtrack with full versions of Molly’s songs was ever released. Most of these songs are quite good, too; the lyrics were written from Molly’s point of view, like songs about her guilt over selling out, or feelings of inadequacy and emptiness after the death of her husband. The show’s opening theme song, “In the Darkness,” in fact, was apparently written about Molly’s past alcoholism. A full version of the song was performed in season 2’s “Encore,” (which devotes all its time to Molly’s concert with flashbacks, working as a sneaky clipshow) and is a good example of the kind of performances Mackenzie Phillips puts on.

Beginning with the classic first season episode ”Rebecca,” the show’s first true tearjerker, the show began a trend it eventually perfected: playing one of Molly’s apropos songs against an emotional climax. The lyrics for that one were a bit on the nose, but they certainly got better over time. ”Banshee,” one of the best episodes of the series during its creative stride mid-season 2, featured what’s arguably the best song in the entire series (spoilers within that link). The song is written both from Molly’s father’s perspective about life in Ireland, and simultaneously her own perspective of living with her father, an example of the ingenuity of the show’s writers to create music that so artfully reflected the characters.

Season one was a bit goofy at times, as the show tried to figure out exactly how to balance the kid-friendliness with the darker undertones. But even the lightest episodes were still uniquely moody and introspective for a Disney series. The pilot episode, for example, had Jack deliver some chilling lines to his sister regarding her ghost-chasing: “I hate that you keep doing this. People die, and that’s it. When you die, you’re history. You never come back. You’re gone forever,” to which, Fi replies, “I’ll never believe that.” The exchange set the stage for the rest of the series, which had a remarkable relationship with death; it didn’t run away from it like most kids’ shows do, it faced the concept head on and used it as a core motivator for the majority of the stories.

Season 2, however, was the pinnacle of greatness for the show. It heavily addressed the series arcs, and blended them with exceedingly dark, less-goofy standalone adventures. Episodes directly dealt with the characters’ insecurities, like “Fathom,” a creepy love story between Molly and a merman that displays her feelings of loneliness and how Jack’s loyalty to his family could be a weakness. Even then, the few lighter, season one-esque episode—like the Halloween episode (featuring Henry Winkler), or an episode where Fi turns into a dog, or faces off against a Scandinavian Troll—have a more mature sense of humor, ample comedic timing, or shockingly tie into the larger story arc. More importantly, Fi’s obsession with chasing after the truth behind her father’s death, and everything paranormal surrounding it, was continually portrayed as more and more harmful. The family splintered throughout the second season, as Molly feared for her and her children’s sanity. It was surprising stuff to see from a network that always taught kids to “believe” and “dream”—So Weird posed it instead as a cautionary tale, that believing can lead to good things, but there’s a line between following your dreams and obsessing over them.

This was no more exemplified than it is in the season 2 finale, “Twin,” which finally concluded the two-year story arc in bittersweet fashion. The episode was one of the show’s best half-hours, with a decent and heartfelt conclusion. Unfortunately, it wasn’t completely fulfilling as an ending for the story—mostly because it wasn’t intended to be. Which leads into the unfortunate part of this TV Flashback: DeLizia decided to leave after season 2, so Disney took the opportunity to enforce a lighter tone on the show to attract a younger audience. So, the end of “Twin” was hastily rewritten and re-filmed to craft a happy ending for Fi. It’s certainly admirable, but frustrating considering the haunting final song (spoilers) and some shots that remained were clearly from a more dramatic cliffhanger ending. Not only that, but season 3 was allegedly going to feature Fi journeying into Hell itself to rescue her father’s soul.

The primary showrunners left after this, so what resulted was a substantially lighter, more colorful—and as a result a more sub-par—show. Fi was given a decent send-off in the premiere—which featured lots of fun callbacks—and passed the torch to Annie Thelan, portrayed by Alexz Johnsen (Instant Star, Smallville). Johnsen was plenty competent as Annie, providing a different, more naive and wide-eyed charisma than DeLizia. But she was also kind of the attempted Disney poster child I mentioned before; after all, Annie was introduced as a budding musician with seemingly magical talent. She was less of an underdog than Fi, and while Annie was a likeable character, she didn’t immediately fit into the offbeat world as well as Fi did.

All other recurring character or story arcs from the first two seasons were completely dropped outside of the rest of the main cast, including intriguing arcs about aliens, Molly having premonitions, and even references to Jack’s girlfriend, Gabe. The serialized nature was mostly done away with—aside from one very weird story arc about Annie and a magical panther—and many of the concepts were dumbed down or less inspired (like an episode about the group getting stuck in photographs…directly followed by an episode where the group gets stuck in a painting.) Still, the acting and individual episode writing—which were written by many of season 2’s writers—were still fairly solid. The returning characters got some development, especially as Jack and Molly learned to get past Annie’s “Fi replacement” status themselves and love her as family. The show didn’t have the flair and maturity it earned in season 2, but it was still fun and quirky and had established characters, at least on par with other Disney Channel shows by that point.

But despite all that, the first 52 episodes work as a very solid series, and season 3 is a fun getaway. So Weird was as well-acted as anything else you might see on TV, with a ton of care put into it. There were some clunkers here and there, of course—the amount of times the bus broke down or Jack lost Fi in the woods is laughable, and they stay in way too many “small town bed and breakfasts” for being on a rock tour—but there’s a certain charm that gives these things a pass. It’s sad that it’s been mostly forgotten since its debut, and ought to get more respect in the grand scheme of kids’ TV. It’s a show that would be perfect for binge-watching, which is why it’s disappointing that it’s not legally available for streaming anywhere, or even on DVD (hey, anyone want to start a Kickstarter for that?) While we at KSiteTV can’t condone obtaining it any way but legally, if you do manage to get your hands on an old (probably VHS-quality) episode, it’s worth a watch. Enjoying a decade-old tween Disney Channel show might not be so strange, after all. Er, not strange…abnormal? Unearthly? Odd?

Eh, you know what I mean.