Styles change, photos of haircuts that you begged your mother for will be mocked in ten years time, and nothing lasts forever… that is, except for Lizzie McGuire. Somehow this show about a tween girl navigating the treacherous waters of middle school with her two best friends and sassy internal monologue (delivered via cartoon/medieval Bitmoji) has managed to remain seen as one of the most beloved programmes of all time.
There’s something remarkably different about Lizzie. Maybe it’s the fact that her parents have actual roles in her life other than being the typical Disney Channel “bumbling grounding machines." Perhaps it’s the fact that there is no grating laugh track to attempt to ignore when it sounds off every 10 seconds. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s a well written, engaging, and thoroughly entertaining show with a decent mix of heartfelt emotional moments and slapstick comedy. I might be biased.
But behind every good show is a team of producers, set dressers, writers, and editors who work tirelessly and silently to create the shows that we know and love. Casting dilemmas, infighting, and financial conflicts are just a few of the many divergences that can arise when producing a major television show. With everything that goes into making a show ready for the small screen, there’s guaranteed to be a few behind the scenes facts that evades even the most die hard fans notice.
So without further ado, here are fifteen mind-blowing things you never knew from the set of Lizzie McGuire.
15 Big Bad Mama Duff
14 A Lizzie By Any Other Actress
By the time Disney began casting for the show that would later be known as Lizzie McGuire, Hilary Duff was just about finished with Hollywood. She had gotten a few roles under her belt but she was facing near constant rejection. Hilary ended up being recasted for the few roles that she was offered. She was burnt out, but she agreed to do one last audition. However, Hilary wasn’t the only actress in talks for the role. Darcy’s Wild Life star Sara Paxton and Freaky Friday’s Lindsay Lohan we also being considered for the role that, after 5 auditions, would eventually go to Hilary.
But Hilary struggled with the part at first, which lead Disney to send her to an acting coach. Mama Duff freaked out, worrying that this was a sign that her daughter was about to lose another role. But the coach helped young Hilary find herself in the role and the rest is history.
13 What Were They Thinking?
While Lizzie’s illustrated internal dialogue is incredibly unique and entertaining, it is honestly a curious stylistic choice for a tween sitcom to make. Why would they provide their main character with this sarcastic cartoon alter ego without really making an effort to explain its presence? Does anyone else have a mental Bitmoji narrating their every thought? And why do all of the early promotional images contain photos of Lizzie looking like she’s daydreaming and staring off into the distance? Well, it turns out that the show was originally going to be named What’s Lizzie Thinking? And it was going to have a much heavier emphasis on Lizzie’s internal dialogue and her relationship with her mother. In fact, the illustrated elements of the sassy inner monologue weren’t even added until later in the show’s development as the thoughts originally existed as a simple voiceover.
12 One Awesome McGuire
One of Lizzie’s main traits is that she is an absolute disaster when it comes to walking and talking at the same time. Nearly every single episode features Lizzie falling over, smashing her face into her locker, or displaying her clumsiness in some way, shape, or form. And, though she is incredibly clumsy, Lizzie is also very athletic and excels at football, gymnastics, and several amazing stunts in the episode entitled Lizzie’s Eleven. And what makes those stunts even more amazing is that Hilary performed them all herself. Every slip, every fall, and every spontaneous cartwheel was performed by Hilary herself. I honestly don’t know whether I am more impressed by her gymnastic skills or her ability to believably knock herself over for several takes in a row.
11 Lizzie’s All Grown Up
While Disney is known to handle the occasional hard hitting topic (like eating disorders, divorce, and bullying,) their shows usually tend to avoid more serious topics in favour of focusing on the light side of adolescence. But Lizzie McGuire was one of the most successful tween shows of all time and there was no way that anyone was going to let that cash cow out of the field. The writers of the show actually intended to create a continuation series which would follow Lizzie, Gordo, and Miranda through the perils of high school for the ABC network (which is known for handling serious topics like teen substance use and pregnancy). But they were unable to create a contract which pleased all parties and the spin-off was discarded.
Even though I would love more Lizzie in my life, I’ve got to say that I don’t know how I would feel about watching Lizzie get wild at a house party…
10 Boys Cry Too
9 A Blast From The Past
8 Measurable Growth
7 Stone Cold Fox
6 Disorder For Days
Have you ever looked up the official episode lists for Lizzie McGuire? If you ever have/will, you will notice that they are completely out of order. It doesn’t matter as the show is mainly episodic, but looking at the series’ pilot and finale episodes can be quite confusing.
