SEASON 2 EPISODES

There are 20 episodes currently scheduled for the second season, although some of them may not appear in the USA until the third season.
There are also four episodes that were made for the first season, but were not shown in the USA until the second season; these are included on the Season 1 Episodes page.  (In Australia, for example, these four episodes aired along with the other Season 1 episodes.)

Season 2 began on Monday, February 11, 2002, with four episodes shown Monday through Thursday of that week.  After that, new episodes aired in the Sunday night slot beginning March 3 through May 19 (except "April's Fools" aired on Monday, April 1, and repeats aired May 5 and May 12).

Beginning with "Family Therapy", Nickelodeon rated the show TV-Y7 (may not be suitable for children younger than seven years old) rather than TV-Y (suitable for all children).  (Note that all airings of the show at that point were rated TV-Y7, including episodes previously rated TV-Y.  Did you know that The Wild Thornberrys was originally rated Y7 as well, presumably because of the attacking animals and potentially scary scenes?)
Then again, Nickelodeon switched it back to "TV-Y" about a month later; now, it seems to be rated TV-Y or TV-Y7 on an episode by episode basis.

Episode numbers refer to the production order, which is also the order they air outside of the USA.  (In the USA, the order in which the episodes first aired is listed if different from the production order - after that, Nickelodeon tends to repeat  the episodes in no particular sequence.).

Episode 21 - Never Can Say Goodbye
First aired 24th in the USA

Written by Emily Kapnek
Directed by Mark Risley
Closing theme "Wrong" music by Jared Faber, lyrics by Emily Kapnek, performed by Kenny Blank
Storyboards by: Tron Mai, Max Martinez, Darin McGowan
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Miranda, after laughing) Stop it!

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Darren, Courtney, Miranda, Mipsy, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Brandon, Lois, Darren's mother, Mr. Licorice, Dr. Fondfeelings

Additional Voices:

• Dr. Weinstein (the dentist) - Larry Drake
• Lexi Lanoue (the first girl Darren talks to) - Grey Delisle
• Girls in the cafeteria - Kath Soucie, Tress MacNeille
• Linda (the first woman talking to Dr. Fondfeelings) - Ja'net DuBois
• Sherry (the second woman talking to Dr. Fondfeelings) - Jeannie Elias
• Pet store manager - Dee Bradley Baker

When Darren gets his braces removed, suddenly he's the hottest boy on campus and doesn't have time for Ginger, especially when his new girlfriend - Miranda - tries to keep them apart; Carl and Hoodsey search for Brandon's pet monkey

• According to what Carl said, the dognapper from "Summer of Camp Caprice" got caught (which might also explain how Principal Milty got The Duchess back in "The Nurses' Strike").
• I guess Ginger's shaved legs in "Summer of Camp Caprice" weren't a mistake after all; there's no hair on them when Ginger and Courtney are in the girls' bathroom (when Courtney asks Ginger to smell her breath).
• Is the Lucky statue's short leg getting shorter?
• Where was Miranda's music teacher at her clarinet practice?
• What's with the new hairstyles?  Miranda changes hers right after she started seeing Darren, and Courtney changes hers when they're in the mall near the end.  (Then again, Miranda is back to her old hairstyle as she's walking with Courtney just before Ginger and Darren meet up near the end.)
• When Carl is "adjusting" the picture of Brandon holding a lollipop, look in the upper left corner of the screen; that is a photo of  President Richard Nixon bowling.  (This reminds me of a gag in an episode of The Simpsons where the family gets a tour of Washington, DC: there's a plaque next to the White House bowling lanes that claims Nixon bowled back-to-back 300 games there.)
• "Never Can Say Goodbye" was a song by the Jackson 5 in the early 1970s; I'm a little surprised they didn't have somebody sing it rather than an original song over the closing credits, although it's possible they just couldn't get the rights to it (either that, or somebody considered submitting "Wrong" for an Emmy award, although they didn't sing the entire song in the episode).

Lyrics to "Wrong"

I know I said back then
Never wanted to see you again
But I was wrong
Baby, I was wrong
Nine times out of ten
It seems to happen
That I'm wrong
Baby, I'm wrong
Each day that passes
I can't, although I try
Each day, it hits me
I can't live with goodbye
I know I said back then...
(the song ends here)

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Episode 22 - Gym Class Confidential
First aired 21st in the USA

Written by Eryk Casemiro
Directed by Dean Criswell
Storyboards by: Robert Goodin, Gabi Payn, Alan Zegler
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Joann) "It's perfectly natural to be embarrassed of your naked self"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Brandon, Terrence, Lois, Joann (Darren was credited but was not in the episode)

Additional Voices:

• Girls (in the locker room, discussing the movie) - Jeannie Elias, Kath Soucie
• Ms. Powell (the girls' PE teacher) - Mindy Sterling
• Film narrator (credited as "Narrator / Doctor") - Ralph Votrian
• Mr. Ward (the boys' PE teacher) - Victor Wilson

Macie is terrified about having to watch an upcoming health film; Hoodsey is afraid to shower with the other boys in his PE class

• Brandon's monkey has a name - Mr. Licorice - and now it's Brandon's monkey rather than his brothers'.
• Courtney appears to have showered in gym class, but in "Of Lice And Friends", the only reason Courtney, or anybody, showered was because of a lice scare.
• Blake is in Carl and Hoodsey's PE class - and didn't he get rid of his baby blanket "once and for all" in "Kiss And Make-up"?  (By the way, "PE", or "physical education", is the more modern name for "gym class".)
• Macie says "How many times do you think I can repeat eighth grade" - although there are references to Season 1 events in Season 2, it isn't clear if they're in seventh grade or eighth.
• Macie plays the clarinet, as does Miranda (but Miranda mentioned this in "Ginger the Juvey") - and the band is playing the show's theme song.
• "In my day", prison ball was played with one ball.  (There were two teams, usually on each side of a basketball court; one player threw the ball, usually at someone on the other team, and if somebody was hit and then the ball hit the ground, that player was out, but if it was caught in the air, the thrower was out.  Players who were out went into the "prison" behind the other team's side of the court, and you could throw the ball to your prisoners, who could then try to get someone on the other team out, and if that happened, the prisoner was back in the game.)

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Episode 23 - Fast Reputation

Written by Barbara Schwartz and Sheila M. Anthony
Directed by Joseph Scott
Storyboards by: Rudi Berden, Jeffrey Hua, Frank Jen
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Mipsy) "Looks like bad girls finish first"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Mipsy, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Terrence, Lois, Mrs. Gordon, Principal Milty, Will (although all he did was burp)

Additional Voices:

• Jake - Lukas Haas
• Chef Bob - Robert Costanzo
• Girls in the girls' bathroom - Jeannie Elias, Jackie Harris
• Ms. Conners (the cooking teacher) - Kath Soucie
• Vice Principal Perucci (man at the auditorium door), food inspector - Patrick Pinney
• Sean (boy Jake was talking to in the dentist's office), boy jumping into hot tub - Sam Saletta
• Dental hygenist - Tress MacNeille

Ginger, Dodie, and Macie crash a high school party (after Ginger gets tired of being called a "nice" girl), where Ginger talks to a "cool" boy, but her reputation soon gets out of hand; Carl and Hoodsey start a lunch cart featuring good food with bad names

• Carl is in fifth grade now (in "The Right Stuff", he's in fourth grade), although he has the same teacher and pretty much the same classmates as before.
• "Rubber, glue, back to you" - for those of you who haven't heard the long version, it's usually "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you".
• Lonnie, Heather, and Traci have adjoining lockers.
• Looks like Mipsy is becoming one of the "regulars"; her last name is included in the credits now.
• Macie mentions "Kool Moe Gee" - not to be confused with Kool Moe Dee, I assume.
• Lexi Lanoue, the girl hosting the party, is the girl who first talks to Darren after his orthodontia are removed in "Never Can Say Goodbye", but since it's a high school party (and, at the time Lexi talked to Darren, she was in a car with her friends), it's safe to assume Lexi is in high school, so how does she know Darren?  (Well, Will was at the party, so it's possible that she's seen the two of them together, at Macie's party in "The Right Stuff" for example, or she may have noticed a resmblance (she just callec him "Patterson", so maybe she didn't know Darren's first name).)
• Doesn't Chef Bob know any good spaghetti sauce recipes?  Ginger, Dodie, and Macie all have spaghetti without sauce at the end of the episode.

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Episode 24 - The Nurses' Strike
First aired 22nd in the USA

Written by Sheila M. Anthony
Directed by Michael Dædalus Kenny
Storyboards by: Karen Ciraulo, Sean Pendergrass, Monica Tomova
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Carl) "Adhesive" (followed by Hoodsey spitting out his gum)

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Carl, Hoodsey, Lois, Ms. Zorski, Principal Milty

Additional Voices: (none)

When the hospital nurses go on strike, Ginger doesn't want anyone to know Lois has become a housecleaner to raise some money, only for Ginger to help out in order to raise money for a trip to New York, and discover she's closer to her mother than she thought; Carl and Hoodsey try to train Principal Milty's dog

• No, I did not spell "nurse's" wrong in the title.  When you have a plural noun that ends in an S, the possessive has the apostrophe after the last letter.  (Quick English lesson: technically, this does not apply to names - something that belongs to Mr. Jones should be "Mr. Jones's," not "Mr. Jones'.")
• This is the first episode where only regular characters have lines (if you don't count those kids who are scared of Miranda when she finds one of the flyers).
• Speaking of which...one of those kids' mothers is supposed to be modeled after As Told By Ginger creator Emily Kapnek.
• The Foutley phone number is hard to read on the flyer, but it's almost certainly 555-2517.  (555 numbers can be "real" numbers now, as long as the first two digits after 555 aren't 19, which is why a lot of phone numbers in modern movies are 555-19-something.)
• More evidence that "season 2 takes place after season 1": there are references to the "vampire cleaning service" and Principal Milty's dog The Duchess, both from "Summer of Camp Caprice".
• Speaking of The Duchess, Principal Milty's girlfriend dumped her outside of the city limits in "Summer of Camp Caprice", and if the dog needs training, how did she get back home?
• Please, let's not have any long discussions on "was that one of the World Trade Center towers behind the Statue of Liberty in the poster?"; it didn't appear as if it was meant to be an accurate depiction of the New York skyline (that looked like the Chrysler Building in the near background, but in reality the building is over two miles from the Statue of Liberty).  (At least the got the Statue right; the 1984 film Supergirl was notorious for having its posters featuring a Statue of Liberty with the torch in her left hand.)
• When the episode premiered, it was not possible to climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty, as the inside was closed after the World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001; although the pedestal was reopened in 2004, the inside of the statue itself is still closed.

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Episode 25 - Trouble In Gal Pal Land

Written by Sheila M. Anthony
Directed by Ron Noble
Storyboards by: Tron Mai, Max Martinez, Eric Molinsky, Raymond Smyth
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Winston) "I've never been so happy!" (Carl) "Now that's just swell, Winston"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Darren, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Lois, Claire, Mrs. Gordon, Winston

Additional Voices:

• Waiter - John Kassir
• Euphrasia Weinstein - Kath Soucie

Ginger, Dodie, and Macie become a foursome when Miranda becomes one of Ginger's best friends after getting into an argument with Courtney; Hoodsey poses as a homeless boy Claire Gripling "plucked from the street" so she can be elected president of her country club's charity committee - and Carl can buy a lie detector

• Again, Carl says he is in fifth grade.
• Speaking of again, it looks like Darren is permanently without his orthodontia now, although he's still wearing it in the show's opening.
• Why is Claire driving and Winston riding in the back?  Isn't driving the Rolls-Royce his job?  From the way Claire ran a stop sign and brakes with both feet, it would seem that way.
• It looks like Miranda has a rotary phone in her bedroom, but it could be one of those retro-style phones where the buttons are located where the holes in the dial would be.
• "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" - did Dodie Bishop say that?
• Ginger, Dodie, and Macie are all eating ice cream sundaes - let's hope somebody remembered to make Macie's with non-dairy ice cream.

• If they don't wear friendship bracelets because of Macie's medic alert bracelet (something that describes medical conditions, usually allergies - Macie's might include "lactose intolerant" - so if the wearer is unconscious, whoever is helping him/her knows what the problem could be), why doesn't Macie wear a medic alert necklace instead?  (She probably already has one, as there are a number of episodes where you can see she's not wearing a bracelet.)

• Carl's check was for $399.99, but he asked for "tax and delivery included".
• Who bought the lie detector, anyway?  Something tells me this isn't the last we've seen of it...
  "Something" was mistaken; that was the last we saw of it
• Speaking of which, Carl obviously isn't aware that a lie detector doesn't just light up with a red light or something when someone lies; it constantly analyzes your skin and muscle responses - you have to be trained in order to be able to use one properly.
• Euphrasia Weinstein (Claire Gripling's competition) is, presumably, the wife of Dr. Weinstein from "Never Can Say Goodbye" (how else could she get Hoodsey's X-ray from his office?).
• Maybe Miranda's mother is alive and well after all; when Macie made a comment to Miranda about "your mom and dad", she didn't react as if the statement was out of the ordinary.
• Picky department: a 38-foot-wide (11.6m) basketball 3-point circle cannot fit inside a 30-foot-wide (9.1m) volleyball court.  True, most junior high schools can't fit a full 74-by-50 foot (22.5 x 15.2m) high school basketball court in their gymnasiums, but in that case the 3-point circle either wouldn't be there or would be drawn from one sideline to the other.  (Note to other countries: in the USA, schools and universities (and the WNBA women's league) use a 3-point circle that's shorter than the 6.25m (20 feet 6 inches) international standard - it's supposed to touch the top of the free-throw circle.  It's possible that the Asian animators thought "this must be a mistake" and drew in what they thought was right - it wouldn't be the first show to have that happen.)

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Episode 26 - Sibling Revile-ry

Written by Erin Ehrlich
Directed by Anthony Bell
Storyboards by: Robert Goodin, Daren McGowin, Gabi Payn
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Mrs. Gordon) "Everyone knows you're just a gullible sidekick" (Hoodsey) "Am not!"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Lois, Mrs. Gordon, Principal Milty (Courtney and Miranda were both credited but did not appear)

Additional Voices:

• George Magrority - Quintin Flynn
• Tad (boy in student council) - Grey Delisle
• Meryl (girl in student council), blonde (girl in bathroom) - Anndi McAfee
• 9th grade girl (the one wanting the quarterback as a big brother) - Kath Soucie
• Marine biologist, Janitor - Michael McGaharn

Ginger is elected to the student council on a platform of replacing detention with a "big brother/sister" program, but has second thoughts when students start getting into trouble intentionally in hopes of getting a "cool" partner; after Carl causes the elementary school septic system to explode, he talks Mrs. Gordon into trying it, but has more than second thoughts when Ginger assigns a no-nonsense big brother who thinks the solution is to get rid of the doghouse

• One of the credits said that the girl who wanted to be given the high school's quarterback as a big brother was in ninth grade; either the high school has started using Ginger's program the way the elementary school has, or the junior high school goes from grades 7 through 9 (quite a few of them do).  (However, Macie's comment in "Gym Class Confidential" about "how many times do you think I can repeat eighth grade" makes it sound like it's the highest grade in the school.)
• Technically, the Lucky Junior High flag is attached to the flagpole backwards; you can read the letters as it flies to the left, but a flag should always be attached to a pole so that its front flies away from the pole to the right.
• Carl has teddy bear wallpaper in his room.

• The whale's food supply of plankton had been damaged by a "red tide" - in short, there was a "growth spurt" of toxic algae, and occasionally the algae releases red pigments into the water, making it look red.  Click Here for more information, courtesy of the Scientific American web site.

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Episode 27 - Losing Nana Bishop

Written by Eryk Casemiro
Directed by Dean Criswell
Storyboards by: Rudi Berden, Frank Jen, Alan Zegler
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Joann) "Robert Joseph, do you have a key for Carl Foutley?"  (Hoodsey) "Uh-uh"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Carl, Hoodsey, Lois, Jonas, Joann, Dave

Additional Voices:

• Minister - Tom Dixon

When Dave's mother dies, Joann wants Hoodsey to say something at the funeral, but Hoodsey doesn't know what to say, mainly because he never got along with her as well as Dodie did; the death leads Ginger to want to learn more about her own grandmother, and get closer to her father in the process; Carl and Hoodsey manage to lock themselves in shackles and an iron face mask, respectively, and lose the key

• Notice that Dave Bishop sounds less like Gomez on The Addams Family and more like Homer on The Simpsons?  That's because Dan Castellaneta (who is, in fact, the voice of Homer Simpson - and Grampa, Krusty, and Kent Brockman, but that's another story for another web site) takes over from John Astin (who was Gomez on the old The Addams Family TV series) as Dave's voice beginning with this episode.

• Speaking of credits, Joann is credited as "Joanne".  (She's credited with the "e" at the end in most of her second season appearances, although not in "Gym Class Confidential".)  Mark Risley tells me that Eryk Casemiro had a habit of spelling it "Joanne", much to the dismay of Emily Kapnek.

• The first time you see Carl's shackles (before he puts them around his ankles), he's able to open them without the key.

• I assume Macie is carrying her clarinet home - but as someone who remembers all too well what it was like to play clarinet in the school band, I never saw one that was long and flat (Miranda's case in "Ginger The Juvey" was more like it).

• That's funny - my family's home movies go back to the 1960s, and they're all in color, yet Lois's only back to 1980 or so (and the ones with Ginger are from around 1990) and they're in black and white.  (By the way, if you're wondering why they are on film rather than video, video cameras did exist in 1990, but they were rather expensive, and not nearly as small as they are today.)

• There's a dog in some of the home movies with young Ginger and Carl; could that be Monster?

• Speaking of the home movies, one has what appears to be Ginger's second birthday (the cake has two candles), but baby Carl is in it, which would make Ginger less than two years older than Carl, yet she's three grades ahead of him.  Of course, there are any number of explanations, one of which was "Carl ate one of the candles".

• ...just as there are probably a number of explanations as to why home movies with Ginger and Carl in them are in a box labeled "JONAS FOUTLEY 1979-81"; for example, maybe they were originally in a box marked "GINGER & CARL HOME MOVIES" but that box broke.

• Macie says that nobody sleeps in pigtails - but Dodie does, at the end of "Sleep On It" and during "Summer Of Camp Caprice".  (And are they "pigtails" if they stick out to the side like that?  I always thought pigtails always pointed straight down.)

• Jonas says that his "real father" was a disappointment; it sounds as if his father left him, just as he left Ginger and Carl.

• "Nana Bishop" has a first name, if you listen carefully when she's lowered into the ground: Ernestine.  That's also when Joann mentions Dave's middle name (Charles).  (It sounds like Joann calls Dave "Charles Bishop"; you have to listen very carefully to hear say "David Charles Bishop".)

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Episode 28 - TGIF

Teleplay by Rafi Simon and Sheila M. Anthony, based on an idea by Barbara Schwartz
Directed by Joseph Scott
Storyboards by: Karen Ciraulo, Jeffrey Hua, Sean Pendergrass, Monica Tomova
Additional Storyboards: (none credited)
Closing tag: (Reporter #1) "Eh, they say it's a stage four stachybotrys" (pronounced "stocky-boo-tris") (Reporter #2) "No kidding"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Darren, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Brandon, Lois, Joann, Claire, Prescott, Winston, Mrs. Gordon, Principal Milty, Buzz

Additional Voices:

• Medic (who takes Ginger's journal from her) - John Kassir

• Librarian - Susan Krebs

• Sensationalistic reporter - Candi Milo

• (Lucky Elementary) Principal Huliski, reporter #1 - Brian Cummings

• Mrs. Lawrence (Ginger's teacher), reporter #2 - Roberta Farkas

• Maid - Cree Summer

• Delivery man (who delivers Ginger's journal) - John Mariano

On Friday the 13th, the Foutley house is overcome by "F-13 mold", causing Lois and Carl to move in with the Bishops temporarily - and Ginger, who can't understand why Lois and Carl are soaking up the attention, moving in with Courtney

• "Why is the back of Lois's car on fire?"  Because that's where the engine is on the "old" Volkswagen Beetles.  (This is also why there's smoke coming out of the back of the car in the show's opening.)

• In the early scenes, the limo the Griplings are in is white instead of the usual black one (which appears later, when Courtney and Miranda arrive at Ginger's house).

• When the Gripling limo hit a pothole, it tossed Ginger and Carl out of their seats, but not only were the Griplings not tossed around, but Courtney didn't spill the cappuccino she was pouring.

• Another thing to add to "the Macie file": she's afraid of heights.  (No wonder she fainted on her way up to the top of the Statue of Liberty in "The Nurses' Strike".)

• Mr. Gripling's first name is Prescott - but in "Kiss And Make-up", Claire says it's "a Gripling tradition" that the boys have first names beginning with B (so they can pass the baby blanket from generation to generation).

• Speaking of names, Dodie's full name is said for the first time: Deirdre Hortense Bishop.

• Ginger writes with both hands in this episode; she writes her paper with her right hand in the beginning, but near the end, she writes in her journal with her left hand.

• More fun with dates: Mrs. Lawrence's desk has a large calendar for April on it, and presumably it's the "current" month as it has Friday the 13th; there was a Friday the 13th in April in 2001.

• Here's one for you (okay, us) Carl fans out there: one of the reporters says "it could be a Stage 4 Stachybotrys"; in fact, stachybotrys has its own website - www.stachybotrys.net.

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Episode 29 - Lunatic Lake
Nominated for a 2002 Emmy Award (Outstanding Animated Program (Less Than One Hour))

Written by Eryk Casemiro
Directed by Michael Dædalus Kenny
Storyboards by: Tron Mai, Max Martinez, Eric Molinsky
Additional Storyboards: Bob Fuentes
Closing tag: (Joann) "Your father says lots of things that never come true"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Miranda, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Lois, Joann, Dave, Ms. Zorski, Archie Chang

Additional Voices:

• Crazy Floyd - Charlie Dell

• News announcer - Jackie Harris

During a school break, the Bishops take Ginger, Carl, and Macie on their annual trip to Loon Lake, where an escaped mental patient is reportedly on the loose, and Ginger wonders why Dodie is always sticking up for her mother's behavior; Carl and Hoodsey plan to scare Blake, who's there on a survival outing

• Ms. Zorski tells the class, "See you in 11 days"; presumably, in addition to a full week off, the school gets either the Friday before or the Monday after off as well.

• Hoodsey is using what is presumably an 8mm film camera, as opposed to a video camera, although you can't really take out and put in reels of film like that.  (It could be some strange video format.)

• Was I the only one expecting something to pop out of the bucket of clams Carl gave Joann?

• For someone who is lactose intolerant, Macie certainly claims to like cheese a lot.  (Then again, it's "canned cheese", which I assume is that stuff you spray out of a nozzle, so there's no guarantee that anything resembling a dairy product got anywhere near it.)

• This show could start its own urban legend - "right after Hoodsey drops his camera in front of the skunk, in the next scene, you can see the ghosts of the original voiceover actresses who were killed in a terrible, and heavily covered-up, microphone accident"; in fact, you can see right through Ginger, Dodie, Macie, and Joann, for some strange reason (my guess: they tried to make part of the scene transparent so you could see through the flashlight beams).

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Episode 30 - Ms. Foutley's Boys
First aired 31st in the USA

Episode 31 - April's Fools
First aired 30th in the USA

Story by Emily Kapnek and Vera Duffy
Teleplay by Vera Duffy
Directed by Anthony Bell
Storyboards by: Rudi Berden, Frank Jen, Dave Williams, Alan Zegler
Additional Storyboards: Bob Fuentes, Raymond Smyth
Closing tag: (Hoodsey) "Can't...reach...toilet plunger!"

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Darren, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Lois, Joann, Dwayne

Additional Voices:

• Dustin - Pamela Segall-Adlon

• Mrs. Lawrence (Ginger's (social studies?) teacher) - Roberta Farkas

Ginger plays an April Fool's Day prank on Dodie by forging a love letter to her from a boy, only for Dodie to admit she really likes him - and the boy to admit that he likes Macie; Carl makes Blake think he's sold Blake's tonsils (as seen in "Dare I, Darren?")

• The yearbook doesn't have the names of the students near their photos; also, the photos don't seem to be in any order (otherwise, why isn't Chet Zipper located near the end?).

• The only clue as to what subject Mrs. Lawrence teaches: she writes "Renaissance History" on the blackboard, so I assume she's Ginger's social studies teacher.  (Since the girls were reading A Midsummer Night's Dream at the beginning, it's possible that she's Ginger's English teacher, but I think that's what Ms. Zorski does.)  Note that, in "Ginger's Solo", she has an American History class, so it's possible that this particular social studies class is European history (as that's where "the Renaissance" took place).

Episode 32 - Love With A Proper Transfer Student

Episode 33 - Family Therapy

Story by Sheila M. Anthony and Paul Greenberg
Teleplay by Paul Greenberg
Directed by Joseph Scott
Storyboards by: Tron Mai, Max Martinez, Eric Molinsky, Sean Pendegrass
Additional Storyboards: Bob Fuentes, Raymond Smith
Closing tag: (Bobby) "Three - two - one - blast off!"  (personally, I would have went with Bobbie's "I'm hugging the bear - I haven't a care")

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Lois, Chet, Mipsy

Additional Voices:

• Bobby Lightfoot, Ph.D.  (Macie's father) - Michael McKean

• Bobbie Lightfoot, Ph.D.  (Macie's mother) - Mary Gross

• Receptionist - Jeannie Elias

• Sobbing patient - Nancy Lunari

• Expert on naked mole rats - Paul Greenberg (he not only writes the episode, he acts in it too)

When Macie's parents forger Macie's 13th birthday, they try to make up for it - and, presumably, quite a few other birthdays they've missed - by treating Macie more like an 6-year-old; Carl hides in fear of naked mole rats when one crawls up his leg

• When Chet read the birthdays, the first two he read were for two students who were turning 12 - does Lucky Junior High School have sixth-graders now?  (It didn't in "Hello Stranger", when seventh-grader Ginger got a "graduation card" from her father that was months late.)

• More evidence that Ginger and company are in seventh grade; Macie turns 13, and Ginger, Dodie, and Courtney are still 12, in April.

• Ginger tells Lois that Macie's birthday is on Sunday, but according to Bobby's PDA, April 22 is a Monday.  (The obvious explanation: the episode was written in 2001, when April 22 was a Sunday, and the scene with the PDA was probably animated in 2002, when April 22 was a Monday.)  It's possible that Mipsy's party was a day early (so it could be all day), but then why would Macie think that her parents had forgotten her birthday if it was actually the next day?

• Whoever wrote the addresses on Mipsy's invitations puts those little horizontal lines through their 7s.  (Courtney was in charge of the guest list, but do you honestly expect Courtney to write addresses on envelopes herself?)

• Why would Courtney and Miranda even bother to show up at Macie's birthday party, much less one at a petting zoo?

Episode 34 - New Girl In Town

Written by Sheila M. Anthony
Directed by Michael Dædalus Kenny
Storyboards by: Robert Goodin, Darin McGowan
Additional Storyboards: Bob Fuentes, Erik Moxcey, Raymond Smith, Kahee Yum
Closing tag: (electronic mall Muzak - it kinda sorta says "Carl and Hoodsey")

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Darren, Courtney, Miranda, Mipsy, Carl, Hoodsey, Brandon, Mr. Licorice, Will, Principal Milty

Additional Voices:

• Laetitia Bowers - Cara Delizia

• Laetitia's father, Ginger's math teacher - Stuart Pankin

• Brandon's father - Dee Bradley Baker

• Brandon's mother - Sally Struthers

• Mitchell (boy who taps Macie on shoulder) - Jeannie Elias

• Carl's art teacher - Christina Pickles

Ginger tries to make a new girl more popular, which is not easy when you have to start with a mortician's daughter; Carl and Hoodsey are the only guests at Brandon's birthday party

• Was I imagining things, or didn't Laetitia Bowers look like Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family (the TV version of which starred John Astin, the first season voice of Dodie's father)?  Carrying around a skull didn't exactly dispel the similarities.

• Brandon acts that way without sugar?

• You would think that Mipsy would know that all of her mother's cousins are her own cousins as well.

• Looks like an animation reunion: Stuart Pankin and Sally Struthers played Earl (the father) and Charlene (the daughter) on Dinosaurs (if you don't remember it, it's because it ended in 1994; it co-starred Sam McMurray, who voices Courtney's father in "TGIF")

• You know you've been watching TV for too long when you see the name Christina Pickles in the credits and the first thing you think of is her role on St. Elsewhere (that show didn't hurt Denzel Washington's career any) before realizing that most of your readers might know her better as Ross and Monica's mother on Friends.

Episode 35 - Ginger's Solo
First aired 36th in the USA

Story by Emily Kapnek and Erin Ehrlich
Teleplay by Erin Ehrlich
Directed by Ron Noble
Storyboards by: Rudi Berden, Robert Goodin, Frank Jen, Alan Zegler
Additional Storyboards: Won Ki Cho, Bob Fuentes, Raymond Smyth
Closing tag: (Ginger) It's a long story (Miranda) I'm already bored

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Miranda, Sasha, Carl, Hoodsey, Lois, Blake, Brandon, Terrence, Mrs. Gordon, Sasha

Additional Voices:

• Clover (Sasha's girlfriend) - Tress MacNeille

• Katie (band member with glasses) - Heather Ryan

• Mr. Blauer (band teacher) - Danny Mann

• Disgruntled Girl (who calls Carl lame) - Grey Delisle

• Ex-Extra Grande Triangle Player - David Goldstein

• Song Leader (who starts the chant on the bus)  - Mindy Sterling

Ginger joins the school band when she hears they're going to a competition at the school that Sasha attends; Carl and Hoodsey try to raise money by making psychic predictions

• At first, I thought this episode took take place soon after school started, since it wouldn't make much sense for Ginger suddenly to be interested in Sasha again, and she didn't look particularly interested in other episodes.  However, I've been told that (a) Macie is in the band in "Mommie Nearest", as Ginger says Macie had band practice, and (b) the sweatshirt Ginger is wearing is the one she got on her New York trip in "The Nurses' Strike".

• The band is referred to as the "Lucky Goat Middle Marching Band" - why not the "Lucky Goat Junior High Marching Band"?  (The medals at the end say "Lucky Jr. High", so the school hasn't changed its name.)

• "Why let a lack of talent and ability stand in your way?"  You don't think it's because pretty much every band makes you audition (unlike, perhaps, the ethnic cooking club)?

• I guess we'll never know Sasha's last name...

• ...but we have some vague idea where he lives - 2 1/2 hours' drive, which would be 125 miles (200 km) or so, from Sheltered Shrubs; assuming Sheltered Shrubs' ZIP code puts it near Stamford, Heathered Hills could be anywhere from northern New Jersey to southern Massachusetts, or in upstate New York.  (Note that they never say where Camp Caprice is.)
  (In reality, there are two schools named Heather Hills, but they're both elementary schools: one in Indianapolis, and one in the Washington, DC suburbs.  There is also a Heather Hill Elementary School south of Chicago; it's likely that this is named after somebody named Heather Hill.)

• A triangle is supposed to make the same noise wherever you strike it, but Ginger manages to get different sounds out of hers.

• Carl got an A-plus and a smiley face on his history test

• Did that scene with Ginger sunbathing on the pier as Sasha swam across, with the shadow of a plane going across the water, look familiar?  If I remember correctly, a very similar scene appeared in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume.

• Even though Sasha and Ginger aren't a couple any more, I'm a little surprised that Sasha's sister Melanie wasn't in the crowd at the contest (presumably Sasha would have told her that Ginger was in one of the bands).

• Pardon me for being picky when it comes to band matters (no, I didn't play the triangle when I was in school...okay, it was the clarinet, but I was a much better "math geek" than a "band geek"; it also doesn't hurt that I live in the area of two of the top drum and bugle corps in the country, the Concord Blue Devils and the Santa Clara Vanguard), but if it's not a marching band competition (and nowhere does it say that it is), why is it held on a football field and everyone has to wear uniforms?  (By the way, there's no such thing as an "extra-grande triangle" (if there was, it would probably be named for the note it makes when you hit it, like "B-flat triangle"), although a part of me can't help but think that I've heard that name somewhere before...)
  Actually, most non-"concert band" competitions take place on football fields - in fact, quite a few organizations' rules require football field markings.

• How did Lucky win, considering (a) they only had 18 instruments, at least four of which were percussion, and (b) how poor a clarinet player Miranda is?  Then again, you don't hear any particularly noticeable klunkers - perhaps Miranda knows when to keep silent?  On top of that, how did the medals get the school's name on them so fast?
  Then again...most band organizations have different levels of competition based on either the size of the band or the number of students in the school; it's possible Heathered Hills was hosting a competition for "smaller" junior high school bands.

• Hmmm...young boy, dark hair, goes to a school where the logo is two Hs slightly offset...could it be that Sasha is really Batman?  Hey, you never seem them together.  (For those of you who think I've finally completely lost it, the Batman Beyond series is about a high school student who, something like 20 years from now, takes the aging Bruce Wayne's place as Batman; the high school he attends is named Hamilton Hill High School (named for the mayor of Gotham City in Batman: the Animated Series, I think), and its logo, like Heathered Hills, is two Hs next to each other but slightly apart vertically.  Actually, the Hamilton Hill logo has the Hs separated horizontally as well, while the Heathered Hills logo does not.)

Episode 36 - Mommie Nearest
First aired 35th in the USA

Written by Sheila M. Anthony
Directed by Anthony Bell
Storyboards by: John Eddings,Jeffrey Hua, Monica Tomova
Additional Storyboards: Jerilyn Dever, Raymond Smith
Closing tag: (Dr. Dave) Right...yes, uh, that'd be fine, too

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Terrence, Lois, Claire, Dr. Dave

Additional Voices:

• Dr. Juan, running doctor (on TV) - Jesse Corti

• "Ultra-Plastic Surgery" announcer - Candi Milo

When Claire has to stay in the hospital after her face lift gets infected, Courtney stays with Ginger, and starts bonding with Lois, making Ginger jealous; Carl wants plastic surgery on his chin, so Dr. Dave suggests a "fake chin" as a "test drive"

• If you're wondering about the title: it comes from Mommie Nearest, Christine Crawford's book about her mother Joan, where she didn't exactly spend the entire time saying nice things about her...

• You would think Claire would have enough money to pay for the best plastic surgery possible, or at least go to a hospital that had a private room available.

• Hoodsey says he can tell the difference between 1% and 2% fat milk - who can't?  (I certainly can.  Telling 2% from whole milk is another story.  Besides, that's why they invented things like Ovaltine.)

• There's a real (rather than a drawn) picture of a skull in the nurses' lounge.

• It's a ghost book!  Actually, in the scene where Ginger, Dodie, and Macie are putting covers on their books, when Ginger starts talking and Dodie lifts her book, the pattern on the cover doesn't move with the book - it's as if the cover pattern is being projected onto the book.

Episode 37 - No Hope For Courtney
First aired 39th in the USA

Story by Emily Kapnek and Laura McCreary
Teleplay by Laura McCreary
Directed by Dean Criswell
Storyboards by: Tron Mai, Eric Molinsky, Sean Pendergrass
Additional Storyboards: Gabi Payn, Raymond Smyth
Closing tag: (Mrs. Gordon) No one likes a kiss-up, Carl

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Mipsy, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Lois, Mrs. Gordon, Principal Milty, Mr. Hepper

Additional Voices:

• Hope Rogers - Jane Wiedlin (credited as "Jane Weidlin")

• Jean-Pierre - Laraine Newman

When Ginger sees Courtney snub another student, she turns her into "the next Courtney", who decides that she - and her newfound friends - are too good for the old Courtney; Carl and Hoodsey try keep Mrs. Gordon from retiring

• Hope is voiced by Jane Wiedlin, guitar player for "The Go-Gos" (although, to be fair, she does have a few albums on her own).
• Hope is called "Faith" and "Charity" at various times; "faith, hope, and charity" is a somewhat common phrase, probably originating from the names of three early Christian martyrs (there seem to be two different "stories", in much the same way that there are a number of versions of the "true" story of the Disney movie Mulan; in one, the three women are sisters, while in the other, they are usually friends).
• I doubt that there is any rule concerning how long a class has to go without a teacher before it becomes "permanent recess", although even "in my day", whenever a teacher was late, somebody usually said something about 15 (or 20) minutes.
• Ginger says she didn't "hook up" with Dodie and Macie until (at least) second grade, but in "Come Back Little Seal Girl", they say that they have been trying to win the talent show since kindergarten.
• Neither Noelle nor Brandon are in band class.
• Mrs. Gordon's last line (literally), "No one likes a kiss-up, Carl", is also the last line in "Dare I, Darren?".
• "In Memory of Kathleen Freeman" - Kathleen Freeman (the voice of Mrs. Gordon) died not too long after recording this episode.  The original plan was for Mrs. Gordon to come back to Carl's class (notice how she winks at him after his song; also, in most countries, this episode airs before "And She Was Gone", where Mrs. Gordon is still alive), but when Freeman died, they decided not to try to replace her with another actress.
• No, there was nothing wrong with the TV signal during the closing credits; they didn't play any closing music.
• Why do I have the feeling that, despite Hope's newfound popularity, this is the last we'll see, or at least hear, of her?
  She is in Courtney's "inner circle" in "About Face", and Dodie calls her by name, but she has no lines

Lyrics - Carl's song to Mrs. Gordon
You're the butter on my biscuit
The hair on my mole
I was lost before I met you
But Gordo, now I'm whole
You're the tartare on my steak
The ketchup on my eggs
School just won't be the same
Without that white hair and those spindly legs
So take a tip from Foutley, Gordo
Hear my plea
And march that old butt
Back to Lucky Elementary
By the way, that's "tartare" ("steak tartare" is a fancy term for "raw beef with herbs"), not "tartar" (as in "tartar sauce")

Episode 38 - Next Question

Written by Eryk Casemiro
Directed by Jopseph Scott
Storyboards by: Max Martinez, Darin McGowan, Gabi Payn, Rafael Zentil
Additional Storyboards: Jerilyn Dever, Sean Pendegrass, Raymond Smith
Closing tag: (Hoodsey) In a minute, I'm gonna spew stomach bile, you hear?

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Carl, Hoodsey, Blake, Chet, Brandon, Lois, Mr. Licorice, Archie Chang

Additional Voices:

• Mr. Gardner - Eric Loomis

• Dr. Randall (master of ceremonies at the Pawtucket Pete ceremony), Naturevision narrator - S. Scott Bullock

• Quiz bowl opponent (I think it's the one who answers the states question) - Grey Delisle (the one who answeres the questions about relative humidity and Mercury is uncredited)

• Cleetis Boregard - Billy West

• Pawtucket Pete - Dee Bradley Baker

• "Pizza Dog" clerk - Hope Levy

• Closing credits singer - Shannen Conley

Ginger has a serious crush on her Quiz Team coach; Carl and Hoodsey try to free the local groundhog so they can sell scarves with its likeness on it

• You mean there isn't anybody smarter in the school than Ginger, Macie, or Chet?
• There was another boy and girl at Chet's table during the practice section with bells in front of them, and Mr. Gardner handed out uniforms to them as well, without saying anything about there being only three students on the team.
• Nobody cares that one team's coach is reading (and probably wrote) the questions?
• In the actual competition, there aren't any lights that indicate which team buzzed in, and all the buzzers sound the same - if players from both teams buzzed in at the same time, who would know which team buzzed in first?
• Pawtucket Pete is obviously based on Puxatawny Phil, the resident groundhog of Puxatawny, Pennsylvania, probably made most famous in the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.  (For those of you outside of the USA who may be unfamiliar with this: some European traditions say that if it's sunny on February 2, another winter storm is coming, but if it's not, winter is over for the year; Germans added a hedgehog to this tradition, and when German settlers came to North America in the 1800s, they didn't find many hedgehogs, but plenty of groundhogs.)
• Did I say (and I did, in earlier versions of this page)...
  • ... "we know who the mayor is"?  Actually, he probably isn't the mayor of Sheltered Shrubs, as Pawtucket Pete's "home" is right near where Mr. Gardner lives, and it's in someplace called Marshy Hills, according to what Chet said in the scene right after Macie's rollerblading accident.  Besides, it appears as if he's now the former mayor.
  • ..."why didn't anybody hear 'Mark Twain' and 'nom de plume' and immediately buzz in with 'Samuel Clemens'"?  Nobody buzzed in on any questions before they were finished, which might mean that this was a rule of some sort.  (In most competitions of this sort, you can buzz in before a question is completed, but they stop asking the question when you buzz in.)  Notice that, in the practice round, he finishes reading a question even after Macie rings in.  Then again...
  • ..."why did Furnace Brook get a 'free question' after Ginger asked Mr. Gardner out"?  If you look closely, he's in the middle of asking a question when Ginger buzzes in; maybe you can buzz in during a question, in which case Lucky's "answer" was incorrect and Furnace Brook gets to try to answer it (the way they got to answer the "first three states in alphabetical order" one when Chet missed it and for the record, the first time I heard that question, I said the same thing Chet did).
• Macie says that Mr. Conley chews his food at least 25 times.  If you think you've seen that before somewhere, you may have; there are signs saying this in the cafeteria on Hey Arnold!.  ("In my day," it was 32 times.)
• No, I don't know who that old man was with the walker at the ceremony, either, but if the master of ceremonies looks familiar, that's Dr. Randall from "Blizzard Conditions", and it looks like he got his dog Muffin back (Muffin was one of the dognapped dogs in "Summer of Camp Caprice").
• That's twice that Shannon Conley has sung a Seal Girl song; she sings the Seal Girl theme in "Come Back Little Seal Girl".
• Note that "Cleetis Boregard" is how the name is spelled in the credits; usually it's "Cletis (or Cletus) Beauregard (or Beauregarde)".
• I thought the girls couldn't wear makeup?  In the bathroom, right after the practice session, Dodie and Macie are both putting on lipstick, and Dodie asks Ginger why isn't glossing.  (Then again, I suppose it's possible to gloss your lips without using "lip gloss".)
• Did Macie's parents finally get the message about spending more time with Macie?  Someone who looks a lot like Macie's mother is in the fifth row behind Lois.
• When Brandon changes the channel after watching NatureVision, we can see Dr. Fondfeelings's show, and one of the cartoons Carl was watching from "Ms. Foutley's Boys".

Lyrics - "Teen Seal" Song
(the lyrics are from the closing credits, except where noted)
Take my flipper, let's swim away
Toward a brand new dawning day
Brandon says "towards" when he sings it
To a place where you and I can live as teen seals
Past the ice floes, and farther still
Just beyond Old Smelt Fish Hill
To the only place where you and I are free
And if they only knew
What a teen seal wants to do
Every time the tide takes the seal girl out to sea
The closing credits version ends here - this part was sung by Carl to Mr. Licorice
Let that buoy show us the way
To a harbor beyond today
To the place where you and I can live as teen seals
Past the ice floes, and farther still
Just beyond Old Smelt Fish Hill
To the place where you and I can live as teen seals

Episode 39 - Driven To Extremes
First aired 40th in the USA

Story by Nate Eddinger and Erin Ehrlich
Teleplay by Erin Ehrlich
Directed by Michael Dædalus Kenny
Storyboards by: Rudi Berden, Robert Goodin, Frank Jen
Additional Storyboards: (none)
Closing tag: (Chet) Fire...fire...emergency!

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Chet, Carl, Hoodsey, Brandon, Mr. Licorice

Additional Voices:

• Mrs. Grimley - Billy West

• Steven Applebaum (boy with red hair) - Robbie Rist

• Talent show MC - Dee Bradley Baker

A tough new substitute teacher drives Ms. Zorski's class to take matters into their own hands, but when they decide to go a little too far, Ginger backs out; Carl offers to teach Mr. Licorice a talent for a pet show - how to ride a motorcycle

• Either Darren is sick as well, or Ms. Zorski's class is one of the few that Ginger and Darren do not have together (like, for example, Mr. Cilia's).

• When Mrs. Grimley first re-arranges the desks, Ginger is sharing a desk with Stuart Higsby.  (This could be why she calls Mr. Licorice "Stuart Higsby's Monkey"; besides, he was Stuart's monkey for a long time.)

• Brandon's "piccolo" is a flute; a piccolo is smaller and has a higher pitch.

• The Gripling motto is "Love, Honor, Affluence".

• While it's common for women to voice boys, this is one of very few times where a man (Billy West) voices a woman (Mrs. Grimley).  (If you think you've heard that voice before: Billy West has done quite a few voices, including Doug and Roger on the Nickelodeon version of Doug, Stimpy (and, in the "Games Animation" episodes, Ren) on The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rancid Rabbit on CatDog, and Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth, and Zapp Brannigan on Futurama.)

• Here's someone from the "Whatever happened to..." department: Robbie Rist (the voice of Steven Applebaum) was "Cousin Oliver" in the last season of The Brady Bunch (when somebody decided to add a young kid because even Bobby and Cindy were no longer "cute").

Episode 40 - And She Was Gone
First aired 37th in the USA
Nominated for a 2003 Emmy Award (Outstanding Animated Program (Less Than One Hour))

Written by Emily Kapnek
Directed by Mark Risley
Storyboards by: Jeffrey Hua, Tron Mai, Max Martinez, Darin McGowan, Eric Molinsky, Monica Tomova, Alan Zegler
Additional Storyboards: Michael Dædalus Kenny, Todd Risley, Raymond Smith
Closing tag: Emily Kapnek reads "And She Was Gone" over the credits, followed by a crow call

Cast: Ginger, Dodie, Macie, Courtney, Miranda, Carl, Hoodsey, Brandon, Noelle, Lois, Ms. Zorski, Mrs. Gordon

Additional Voices:

• Dr. Leventhal (the psychiatrist) - Beth Howland

• Louie (the magic shop owner) - Eddie Barth

• Librarian - Hope Levy

• Girl in elementary school playground ("Did you hear about Kerrie?") - uncredited

Ginger's poem for a writing competition, about a girl who wishes she could disappear - and does - makes people think the story is about Ginger herself; Carl discovers that a girl in his class is too crazy not to be without - after he (apparently) makes her disappear with vanishing powder first

• What does a murder mystery by author Susan McBride have to do with this show?  Well, it's called And Then She Was Gone, which was the original title of this episode until somebody discovered McBride's book and had the episode title changed.  Note that, while Ginger's version of the poem ends with "and then she was gone", the version over the closing credits is just "and she was gone".
• Chet Zipper was credited, but did not have any lines.  This time, I have some idea why; in an early version of the script, Chet had a question about what happened next to the boy in the story Ms. Zorski read.
• How did Ms. Zorski know that Ginger would take an application?  You don't think that Ginger asking about the competition rules had anything to do with it, do you?
• This time, Mrs. Gordon calls Hoodsey "Hoodsey", as opposed to "Robert".
• Mrs. Gordon says "ladies and gentlemen...Hoodsey"; Blake says something similar ("gentlemen...Woodsey") in "Never Can Say Goodbye".
• Carl only gets $1 a week?  (He paid "four months' allowance" for the powder, which was on sale for $21.95.)  Then again, he's not exactly from a rich family.
• Noelle was held back a year in kindergarten, so presumably she's a year older than Carl - what is it with Carl and older women (first Maude, now Noelle)?
• I don't think Charles Darwin ever said that about penguins...
• It looks like the printing press is printing out thick books containing just Ginger's poem, but the scene is in black and white, which I think means that it's all part of the "imaginary world" the girl who disappears is in.
• Nothing new about a show's creator doing a voice on the show; others include Craig Bartlett (Hey Arnold!), Peter Hannan (CatDog), Joe Murray (Rocko's Modern Life), and Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim; he's credited as "mr. scolex").  (King of the Hill goes one better; its creator, Mike Judge, is the voice of the main character, Hank.)  For that matter, Walt Disney was the original voice of Mickey Mouse.

"And She Was Gone" - note this is the version Ginger reads during the show
(it is also the version in the Cooltoons.com pin-up - click here to download it, although you will need Adobe Acrobat to see it)

She chose to walk alone, though others wondered why
Refused to look before her, kept eyes cast upwards towards the sky
She didn't have companions; no need for earthly things
Only wanted freedom from what she felt were puppet strings
She longed to be a bird, that she might fly away
She pitied every blade of grass, for planted they would stay
She longed to be a flame that brightly danced alone
Felt jealous of the steam that made the air its only home
Some say she wished too hard; some say she wished too long
But we awoke one autumn day to find that she was gone
The trees, they say, stood witness; the sky refused to tell
But someone who had seen it said the story played out well
She spread her arms out wide, breathed in the break of dawn
She just let go of all she held...and then she was gone
The version in the closing credits is slightly different: remove "kept" from the second line, add "She" to the beginning of the fourth line, change "was" to "had" in the tenth line, and remove "then" from the last line