WB Week: Felicity - Where Are They Now? - Featured

Felicity was the perfect partner show for Dawson's Creek back in the WB days, both packed with the angst of love, friendship, and everything else so wonderful about teen and college dramas!

Felicity has a very interesting cast as some have gone on to good film careers, and others have become big TV stars, so dig in and leave your comments with your favs now and then.

Keri Russell - Felicity Porter

Keri Russell thankfully recovered from the chia-hair debackle of '99, though it did supposedly cause a big ratings dip in Felicity at the time. But now, with her hair back in full glory, though straightened these days, Russell has returned to acting with a TV movie, then The Upside of Anger in 2005. Later she joined in on Mission: Impossible III, popped up on Scrubs for a few episodes in 2007, and then starred in Waitress. She's continued her film work with August Rush and Bedtime Stories. Russell is set to give voice to Wonder Woman in a 2009 "DVD animated feature."

Scott Speedman - Ben Covington

After Felicity, Scott Speedman seemed like he might disappear, but he's done well with a film career since landing a role in 2003 film Dark Blue, then Underworld, and the sequel. Also in there he took part in The 24th Day, XXX: State of the Union, and in 2008 he appeared with Liv Tyler in The Strangers, followed by Adoration. He also has further film plans for 2009.

Scott Foley - Noel Crane

Aw, Noel. The most well-meaning adorable RA of all WB time! Foley also appeared on Scrubs like Felicity co-star Russell (could this have anything to do with our later mentioned Scrubs star??). He's also made a guest appearance on House, appeared in Scream 3, and is currently on The Unit.

Greg Grunberg - Sean Blumberg

Though none of us would've guessed it at the time, Greg Grunberg has become one of the biggest breakout stars of Felicity! Like numerous Felicity stars, he appeared on Alias, though he lasted the longest from 2001-2006. He then took a role in Grand Union, a sitcom that clearly didn't take off, then he popped up as a pilot on Lost, had a guest role on House, and finally made it to his biggest hit of all, Heroes where he stars as Matt Parkman!

Ian Gomez - Javier Clemente Quintata

Ian Gomez, the adorable Javier, went on to appear in multiple films including My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and a bunch of TV shows including appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Drew Carey Show, Lost, and Heroes. I have to say, though, Javier will forever be my favorite character for him!

Amy Jo Johnson - Julie Emrick

While Amy Jo Johnson was plenty busy as the Pink Power Ranger before her Felicity days, she's been in a few indie movies since Felicity, has released some albums for her singing career, and appeared on What About Brian. She has gotten back into TV since as she's now starring in Flashpoint along with Veronica Mars' Enrico Colantoni.

Donald Faison - Tracy

Much like Greg Grunberg, Donald Faison was a small role on Felicity who we didn't expect to be the big stars coming out of this show, but as all Scrubs fans know well, Faison has made quite a name for himself as half of the man-love Scrubs duo, Turk. He's also been in films including Remember The Titans and Uptown Girls.

I miss you, Felicity

People sometimes (ok, always) laugh at me when I tell them that Felicity is one of my favorite shows ever. However, I maintain that Felicity brought us one of the most honest and heartfelt portrayals of college and young adult life that has ever been on TV (seriously, what show can you think of that didn't mess up its portrayal of college).

Felicity - from the incomparable JJ Abrams (Alias, Lost) - was among the finest shows to ever come out of the WB (when it was still the WB), and probably deserved a better network so that it had better exposure.

Keri Russell was pitch perfect in her role as Felicity, and the show in general had a bunch of quirky characters (beyond Ben and Noel) that really added to its success (vintage Greg Grunberg - better known as Matt Parkman on Heroes - comes to mind).

I recognize that the show had its flaws - in later seasons it became a little too fixated on the Ben vs. Noel conundrum, which got old even for the show's biggest fans (me), and I kind of wish that the last few episodes were never made (if you recall, the show was granted 4 or so extra episodes at the last minute, and after the show had what I thought was the perfect ending, JJ went and did some crazy stuff) - but as a whole, this show was an under appreciated little gem (even after Felicity cut her hair). It is worth checking out on Sidereel or on DVD if you have never seen it...

One of the Best Shows of All Time

Felicity engaged audiences by showing how vulnerable college student Felicity handled life, love and family throughout her college years. The Freshman Year Collection is essential for Felicity fans. The awkwardness between her and Ben, the first sparks between her and Noel and making friends that would last a lifetime. All the tragedies and wonderful events that befell our favorite undergrad are included in this series. Felicity struggled with her destiny - choosing a major that she loved, rather than one her parents' had chosen for her. The first season examined relationships with her roommate Megan, her loves (Ben and Noel), her family and her new friends. Watching these episodes again are a comfort and make me long for my college years.

Review

Like a George Cukor of the small screen, writer-producer-director J.J. Abrams has a gift for working with actresses. He helped Keri Russell and the female costars surrounding her in Felicity to blossom as they've portrayed guileless, effusive, yet intelligent young college students.

Our old pal Felicity sure had some fun this past summer, but as the season premiere shows us, it wasn't with her boyfriend Ben (Scott Speedman) -- it was with her former guy toy, Noel, played by Scott Foley (married in real life to ''Alias'' star Jennifer Garner). How this series (now guided by cocreator-producer Matt Reeves as Abrams attends to ''Alias'') has managed to maintain the Ben-vs.-Noel rivalry without going brain-dead is a small miracle. And now that ''Felicity'' is a senior, the show's pace is really revving up.

Erich Anderson reenters the series as Felicity's intriguingly moody, believably stubborn dad, dropping by to tell the poor kid she's wasted the past three years pursuing her dream of being an artist, and that he's pulling the financial plug on her. See Felicity apply for a loan! See the heretofore mopey, aimless Ben finally find a purpose in life! See the most underrated odd couple on TV, Greg Grunberg's long-suffering Sean and Amanda Foreman's sadist-with-a-heart-of-tin, Meghan, bicker endlessly!

Now I know what it must have been like to be a slave to ''90210'' or ''Dawson's Creek'' (are there still ''Creekers?''): I find myself thinking, Oh, if only these ''Felicity'' kids could all go on to grad school together. They are the ensemble you never want to see break up.

Introduction

Felicity was an American primetime television drama produced by Touchstone Television and Imagine Television for The WB network. The series revolved around the fictional college experiences of the title character, Felicity Porter (played by Keri Russell), as she attended the "University of New York", based on New York University, across the country from her home of Palo Alto, California. The show ran for four seasons from 1998 to 2002, with each season corresponding to the traditional freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years students attend at universities. The series was created by J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves. Notable guest directors included Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.

A recurring episode opener of the show was a stark camera shot of Felicity sitting in a dorm room or apartment holding a tape recorder, recalling events in order to make a cassette tape to send to an old friend named Sally Reardon (voiced by Janeane Garofalo). This occasionally provided a method for Felicity to narrate an entire episode. At the end of episodes like this, Felicity would often be shown listening to a tape Sally sent in reply.

Felicity Trivia

The creator of the Felicity TV show, "J.J. Abrams" has stated that he once had the idea to have Felicity become a federal agent during a summer vacation from school. That never happened but the idea did result in another Abrams' TV series titled, "Alias"! Some of the scenes in the first episode of Alias were actually shot on Felicity's set!

The college that Felicity went to in order to be near Ben was called the University of New York. The college was fictional but loosely modeled after the real life New York University.

The first was about Felicity Porter's freshman year. The second season of Felicity was about her sophomore year, the third her junior year, and the fourth was about her senior year!

When Felicity moved to the college dormitory, she found herself attracted to the dorm's resident advisor (Noel Crane) and they became romantically involved. Many of the show's most powerful scenes were when Felicity, Ben, and Noel would all came into contact!

Scott Speedman was not the first actor to get the role as Ben Covington. Scott Foley was given that role first. During casting, however, the producers couldn't find anyone they liked for the role of Noel Crane. Someone decided that Scott Foley would be perfect for that role so they cast him as Noel and gave Speedman the Ben Covington role.

It's often hilarious when there's a blooper that no one in editing catches! In episode #58,

"Blackout", Sean reset a digital clock once the power came back on to 11:45. In the very next shot, we sawthe clock saying that it was 10:11!

In an episode near the end of season two, Megan told Elena that she had gone out with a guy named "Chad Savage". Chad Savage is the name of one of Felicity's producers.

Keri Russell won a Golden Globe Award in 1999 for "Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama"! That's pretty impressive when you take into account that she beat out fellow nominees "Julianna Margulies (ER TV Show)", "Kim Delaney (NYPD Blue)", "Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel)", and "Gillian Anderson (The X-Files)"!

Robert Primes won an Emmy, also in 1999, for "Outstanding Cinematography for a Series" on episode #14, "Todd Mulcahy - Part 2"!

The Felicity TV show's ratings dropped significantly in the second season when the series was moved to Sunday nights. Of course, the WB executives that decided to move the series' time slot weren't going to take the blame so they said that the writers were at fault because they had Felicity Porter cut her hair! The producers even told all other cast members to not change their appearance in any way! Oh well ... the head honchos are never wrong are they?

One of the Felicity TV show's writers, "Riley Weston", was at the center of an unusual

controversy! She had claimed to be only nineteen-years-old and the WB Network publicized her amazing writing skills for one so young! She was even featured in the October 1998 issue of Entertainment Weekly as one of the "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment". Then Disney Studios offered her a $500,000 contract to come to work for them as a screenwriter! Unfortunately, when one of the Felicity producers ran a check on her, they discovered that she was really 32-years-old! To say the least, both the WB and Disney dropped her like a hot potato!