Back in 2001 Nickelodeon created TEENick a 3-hour Sunday block that aired shows to reach preteens and teenagers. Most of the shows were live action shows but there was one nicktoon that was created specifically for TEENick and that show was As Told by Ginger. When it first aired I really didn’t pay that much attention to it but now that I’m older and I look back on it I really do appreciate this show quite a lot. The show follows the life of a preteen girl named Ginger and her friends trying to rise up from the position of school geeks to popular kids and along the way they solve many conflicts that come their way such as bullies, arguments, life problems, and relationships with others. Luckily for Ginger, Courtney the popular girl in school takes an interest and liking to Ginger so Ginger is always invited to her social gatherings. I really did like her character, she’s rich and popular but she’s not really all that mean or nasty. She’s a girl who’s interested in the outside world and wants to experience all of it because she feels that her rich life hinders her from really enjoying life. That’s pretty cool. Up to this point in cartoons the rich and popular character has been a jerk or a lousy person, someone for the main character to fight against so it’s refreshing to see character realize how her rich life is hindering her from really enjoying life. Ginger also has a younger brother named Carl who has his own little subplot in each episode where he and his friend Hoodsey are scheming something and a single mom who’s always there for her and gives her helpful advice. Finally, there was her friend Darren who was always there for her, soon developed feelings for her, and started to date her. In the series finale we see that in the future he and Ginger get married.
What really makes this show stand out from the other nicktoons past, present, and future is the unique character development in the show and continuity. Let’s face it, at the time most cartoons were never known for their character development but this show took a risk and made the show feel like an animated teen drama. The show starts off with the group in middle school and by the last season the group is starting high school, the show also makes references to past episodes to show that time isn’t standing still it’s always progressing forward which was different from a lot of cartoons at the time. Another interesting factor that the show had was the characters were always changing clothes. Again, cartoons usually have the characters wear the same clothes to save time and money. The characters in the show not only change clothes on a regular bases but they kept adding in new clothes as the show progress. Probably the best factor the show had was the deep themes. The themes that the showed touched on were all real-life themes that preteens and teenagers go through. In one episode Ginger’s two friends feel jealous of Ginger and Darren so they betray her (I’ve actually seen this happen once or twice in my life), in another episode the school thinks Ginger is depressed after writing a disturbing poem, and there’s an episode where Ginger goes through an emotional break-up with Darren while also having to deal with the stress of appendicitis surgery. There are even episodes that deal with death something almost all of the cartoons at the time avoided. There’s this one episode where Carl befriends an old lady at a retirement home and when he invites her over for dinner she dies at the table right in front of everyone and we see it. There’s no cut away from it nor does it happen off screen it happens right in front of us. There’s another episode where Carl’s teacher retires because of his pranks and after Carl convinces her to come back she immediately passes away. Man this show hits you hard, stuff you would have expected to see in a real-life teen drama show and not a cartoon are shown in this cartoon which in my opinion made the show good. The show took itself and its audience serious. They had a few funny jokes and lines here and there but for the most part it was pretty serious and mature and for a cartoon to take itself and its audience of teenagers at the time serious while still getting its point across without relying on comedy or pop culture was really impressive. The show showed us that a cartoon doesn’t have to be funny or nonsensical to get a point across, it just has to have good characters, story, and a sense of understanding the audience they’re trying to reach and as long as a show can do all of these things than it’ll be remembered and liked years later by its audience. As Told by Ginger may not have made me laugh as much as I would have liked but it was the first cartoon that took me seriously as a preteen and showed me the potential of what a cartoon could really do.