Amy Heckerling

As mentioned in an earlier post, a TV version of Clueless (one of my favourite films of the ’90s) was part of ABC’s TGIF lineup in the 1996-7 season. Amy Heckerling, who wrote and directed the movie, created the series; she had originally conceived it as a TV show idea, so it wasn’t tough to transfer the premise to series form: a beautiful, smart but superficial rich girl striving in her own clueless way to become a better person. Alicia Silverstone didn’t do the series and I can’t blame her (yes, her movie career fizzled out after being doused with Batman & Robin, but she was a movie star at that time). Dan Hedaya also declined to reprise his role as Cher’s father, and was replaced by Michael Lerner. Paul Rudd and Brittany Murphy didn’t return as Josh and Tai; the parts were recast, but they both made guest appearances in the first season as other characters. But many other cast members from the movie played the same parts in the series: Stacey Dash, Elisa Donovan, Donald Faison, Twink Caplan, Julie Brown and, in the show’s biggest “get,” Wallace Shawn as Mr. Hall.

Clueless is one of my favourite movies, and I can get very boring and strident explaining why it is the best Jane Austen adaptation ever (even the Zombies thing hasn’t surpassed it), and I even liked the first season of the TV adaptation, but this is going too far. Alicia Silverstone and Amy Heckerling have apparently been spotted discussing a script for a Clueless sequel. Okay, it’s just a tabloid rumour at this point, but I need to post something so I’m going to treat it as if it’s happening.