The BEST episodes of Popular
Every episode of Popular ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Popular!
Who's hot? Who's not? The popular ones, the unpopular ones, the geeks. Kennedy High is the set for a big war: the popular against the unpopular. On the popular side: Brooke McQueen, a Barbie doll prototype, the head cheerleader with Nicole, her best friend and the Devil in person. Her boyfriend, Josh Ford, star of the football team; Mary Cherry, the psycotic multi-millionaire Texan girl and Sugar Daddy. On the unpopular side: Sam McPherson, the girl who is always looking for justice; Harrison, the not-so-hot boy; Carmen Ferrara, the fat girl with the warm heart and Lily, the confused girl with the boyish look. Brooke and Sam, enemies by nature, have to deal with their parents' marriage and school problems. A drama? A comedy? A dramedy? You tell!
#1 - All About Adam
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/17/2000
Tall, dark, handsome and possibly the first male cheerleader? Could Kennedy High get even more twisted? Newcomer Adam joins the Kennedy High scene, where he befriends Brooke to express his secret desire to become a male cheerleader. Nicole, Poppy, and Mary Cherry are not at all interested in Adam joining the squad - until Adam exposes heavy dirt on the three girls. Meanwhile, Brooke's loyalty to Carmen is put on backburner when Carmen submits a photo of Sam for the new "Power Girl" commercial.
#2 - Windstruck
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/14/1999
In the play rehearsal, Sam has to sit in Josh's lap, and he has an erection. Sam tells Carmen about it and she accidentally sends emails to the whole school about it. Rumors spread through the entire school, and the big secret comes out: Brooke and Josh are still virgins! Meanwhile, Lily has to face her new job at a fast food chicken shack. Josh seeks for advice in Sam, and a drunk Brooke asks Harrison for help.
#3 - Wild Wild Mess
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/2/1999
The "Guest Principal" election turns the school upside down. The popular girls want Gwyneth Paltrow for it, and so they kidnap her personal shopper and torture him. The unpopular gang want George Stephanopoulos, so they look for Harrison's mom, who had an affair with him a long time ago. Sam and Brooke join forces when Brooke might be pregnant. Harrison's mom turns out to be a lesbian, and the girls think it's cool while Harrison wants her in the closet. Sam tells Josh about Brooke's situation, so he can support her, whether she wants it or not. At the end, Brooke is not pregnant and Harrison and his mom agree that he needs more time to deal with her situation.
#4 - Slumber Party Massacre
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/21/1999
Carmen throws a slumber party for her sweet 16. The popular girls get it, just so Nicole can hit on Carmen's hot older brother, and Brooke can finally do it with Josh. Harrison tries to stop it, but he messes everything up and they end up together. Nicole realizes that Leo is more interested in Sam, and punishes Carmen by hypnotizing her into a chicken. Sam walks in her mother and Brooke's father doing it. Carmen humiliates herself in front of everybody, but ends up ditching the popular girls and hanging out just with her real friends.
#5 - Hope in a Jar
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/27/2000
Kennedy High goes crazy with the Sadie Hawkins Dance. Everybody gets obsessed with their looks and they run against the clock to get in shape. Josh gets in SD's sweating system to lose a few pounds and get Brooke back. Sam asks Harrison to the dance, but he chooses Brooke when she asks him, and so Sam goes with Josh for retaliation. Harrison works out too much and has a muscle breakdown and can't move. The cheerleading squad starves to lose weight and agree to make April Tuna less weird. Lily takes Emory Dick. Sam wears an inflatable bra. Carmen goes by herself and asks Josh at the dance, but he is dehydrated. And the final lesson is given by Principal Hall, who has only found true love after she lost her sight.
#6 - The Trial of Emory Dick
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/20/2000
Emory Dick flunks on Biology and decides to sue the school. Once again, we see Brooke versus Sam. Sam and Lily defending Emory and Brooke is defending the school. The accusations: the popular kids get good grades for their looks, while the unpopular ones are by themselves. Sugar Daddy won't be able to be in the wrestling team because he's too fat. Carmen gets in the middle of the Brooke-Sam fight and she decides to drop out of the cheerleading team. Emory drops the charges and the case ends with no winner.
#7 - Queen B.
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1999
It's homecoming time. Being the homecoming queen means being the most popular girl in school. The war is set. Nicole is out, because she cheated on the bio test, but she's still the Homecoming Court Chairman. She makes plans so only the cheerleaders and Carmen compete. Mary Cherry and Poppy are pressured to support Brooke. Mary Cherry's mom, the beauty pageant winner Cherry Cherry leads her daughter's campaign. A hideous picture of Brooke in the morning is hanging all over the school. Brooke says Sam did it, because she was the only one that could have that picture. But Sam didn't do it, Mary Cherry did. Brooke still gets elected the Homecoming Queen, proving her popularity.
#8 - Caged!
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/3/2000
As if getting locked in the girls bathroom wasn't bad enough. But what if your deepest secret was threatened to be exposed? When the boys realise that the girls have gone a little chaotic, they decide to lock the girls in the Novak to teach them a lesson. Hours later, Nicole has an interesting plan. After stealing secrets from an assignment in class, she posts the secrets in the Novak for each girl to respond. When the secrets come full circle, everyone's life is destined to change.
#9 - Ex, Lies and Videotape
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/13/2000
The producer of Entertainment Today lands at Kennedy High and asks Sam and Brooke if they want to produce a segment. They both agree on doing a story about Josh. He agrees in hope to get closer to Brooke. April becomes obsessed with Carmen as a cheerleader and starts to worship her as a Goddess, and she even buys Carmen's panties from Nicole. The cheerleader squad wants Carmen to dump her unpopular friends, and she accidentally drives over April in the DMV parking lot. Back to Josh's story, his father walks out in the middle of his play, and they have a discussion. Josh's mom takes his side, risking her marriage. At the end, both Brooke and Sam agree on erasing the story so things don't get worse for Josh.
#10 - Tonight's the Night
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/1999
A new hot song shakes things up in Kennedy High. Carmen and Sugar Daddy meet on the Internet, but they both lie about their looks, so they both get disappointed. Harrison and Lily try to have sex, because they think it should be with someone you really know, a close friend. But it never happens. Brooke and Sam bet about boyfriends: Brooke has to prove her love for Josh, and Sam has to get a boyfriend in a week. Sam convinces Carmen's hot brother Leo to pretend to be her boyfriend, and Brooke and Josh finally have sex.
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#11 - Ch-Ch-Changes
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/20/2000
Everyone must face changes in life, and some are destined to cause havoc. Beloved shop teacher Mr. Don, makes the shocking announcement that he is becoming a woman, leaving the class very confused. Despite a possible social downfall, Harrison along with Sam, Carmen, and Lily support the transformed Ms. Debbie. Meanwhile, Cherry Cherry becomes the new home economics teacher and teaches her class a positive lesson which teaches the popular kids to accept Ms. Debbie as well.
#12 - You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape… You Don't Spit into the Wind… You Don't Pull the Mask Off the Ol' Lone Ranger… and You Don't Mess Around with Big Bertha Muffin
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/11/2001
Sam and Brooke have a quick but intense argument over what each one has done to/with Harrison. Sam does not forgive Brooke for having slept with him, and Brooke puts Sam against the wall saying Sam turned him down so there were no strings attached. They both realize none of them is really wrong, and if there's anyone wrong there it's Harrison. At school, they give him the cold shoulder and George does the same to Sam. Sam and Brooke plan to stood up Harrison at a restaurant, but Brooke shows up and is caught by Sam talking to Harrison, which leads into a huge food fight. At home, Jane is trying to fix things between the two of them when her water breaks. Josh's mom announces she is moving away, and Josh has to either come with her or go live with his dad - which he does in order not to leave Lily. She suggests they get married, and although his mom tried to warn him that he was too young, he goes ahead and gets married to Lily right before prom.
#13 - Booty Camp
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/10/2000
Everyone has a right to their own opinions, but some opinions shouldn't be spoken out loud. And that is what the kids of Kennedy High are learning. After Brooke and Nicole's fallout, the two are no longer on speaking turns. But their rivalry gets more heated when Nicole bullies Freddy Gong. Lily wears a sexy outfit that creates uncomfortable reactions from the boys. But most importantly, Ms. Glass's brother is recruiting new members for his "Booty Camp". Who will get a surprise invite?
#14 - Lord of the Files
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/24/2000
There is an attractive fellow wandering the halls of Kennedy High, but how could he share the same last name with that weird Lunch Lady? The women of Kennedy are in a full-on war to win the affections of Calvin Krupps, the school's new vice-principal. This leads to all of the girls signing up for Calvin's new tai-chi class, but a few girls go a little to far to impress him. Harrison's newfound passion for music leads him to write a song that parallels Josh and Carmen's roller-coaster relationship. It is further complicated as Brooke finds herself still attracted to Josh...
#15 - We Are Family
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/4/2000
Jane and Mike's wedding is approaching. Sam and Brooke are making plans on how to stop them. Brooke and Sam's plan fails. Mike and Jane say that they want to adopt the girls. Brooke tells Jane that she'd love to be her daughter, leaving Sam by herself. Erik Estrada buys Mary Cherry's acceptance with his original CHiPs jacket, a piece of his table at Hollywood Squares and an interview for E!. Brooke tells Sam that she misses a mom, since her real mother abandoned her. Sam tells Harrison that she's afraid of losing her mother to Brooke. Sam asks Nicole to help her ruin the wedding, but Nic tells Jane and Brooke Sammy's plans.
#16 - Joe Loves Mary Cherry
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/20/2000
Nicole is desperate to save her popularity, which is falling since she was banned from the Glamazons. She tells Brooke that she should dump Josh and start dating George. Harrison is feeling a little bit jealous about Sam and George flirting, and so he and Nicole team up to make a study on attraction for chemistry class. Brooke and Josh break up. Sam feels like she lost again to Brooke when she sees she and George together. But George tells Sam he is really into her and they kiss. Josh and Lily find themselves attracted to each other when he helps her to send a gay chimp back to his lover in Uganda. Harrison learns more about Mary Cherry and starts to have feelings for her (could it be love?). Jane tells Mike she's pregnant.
#17 - Hard on the Outside, Soft in the Middle
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/27/2000
Is it true that blondes have more fun? That is the question Sam, Lily and Carmen begin to ponder. After the three girls experience several fallouts due to their hair color, the unpopular girls make a bet with the popular ladies that blondes do have an advantage. This creates huge shock waves through Kennedy with the blondes becoming brunettes and the brunettes becoming blondes. The only downfall: the losers get Mohawks. Meanwhile, Sugar Daddy and Josh compete for the affections of an attractive foreign exchange student.
#18 - Mo' Menace, Mo' Problems
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/30/1999
Josh decides to get in the play. Brooke feels guilty about shutting Carmen out of the cheerleading squad. She and Nicole are treated like monsters by the entire school. Sam gets invited to their party, and Harrison, who has a crush on Brooke, tells her that she sold herself. Brooke meets Carmen and they share feelings. Brooke tells her that she was the best dancer, but only too fat to get in the squad. Sam decides that her friends are important too, and so they go to the party, uninvited. Brooke and Sam are having a huge argument when their parents arrive, with the news: they're getting married.
#19 - Are You There God? It's Me, Ann-Margret
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/2000
Josh and Lily get cast for a play at the school where they have to appear nude in front of each other and everyone, which makes them uncomfortable. Brooke is at hospital again for treatment for her anorexia. Harrison is frightened when he walks into a room in the hospital and finds a ghost who seems to know a lot about him. Meanwhile, Carmen runs into Nicole in a meeting for teenagers with alcoholic parents, but Nicole totally ignores her.
#20 - Fag
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/9/2001
Lily, in an effort to defend a fellow student who has been suffering jokes about his sexual orientation, starts the G.L.A.S.S. (Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Supportive Students), which causes a lot of repercussion around the school, and not such great support from people as she expected. But prejudice is not only about sexual choices, as Sam and George have to deal with the comments on their interracial relationship; Sugar D. doesn't get a job for being fat and Jamie (Brooke's date) reveals that he has suffered prejudice because of his religion. Things get hot when Lily is hospitalized after being attacked when she was leaving a g/l community center (which she took Miss Glass to get information about her sexuality). The gang realizes that hate will never lead to anything, and join the group one by one. Bryan comes out of the closet in a gesture of support after the group is cancelled.
#21 - The Brain Game
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/27/2001
Desperately seeking to be popular again, Mary Cherry fails in an audition to a teen talent show. But that didn't stop her, and she decides to put a team of students together to be in "The Big Head Challenge". Everybody is studying for the SATs and they all think it would be a nice way to test their knowledge at this competition. Cherry Cherry, who has become a student at KH (trying to beat her 50 points score in her SAT), also tries to get in, but loses the very last spot to Josh, who surprisingly know a lot more about chicken than we thought. Meanwhile, Carmen decides to take salsa lessons, and has her heart broken by the instructor, whom she had a crush for. But after he realizes how bad he made Carmen feel, he goes to KH to ask her out. At the competition, the gang is first relieved to be against the John Ashcroft Private School for Special Needs Children, but then surprised when they see that Cherry Cherry has bought the entire team.
#22 - I Know What You Did Last Spring Break!
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/4/2001
Ms. Glass wants all the students to write down where did they go for Spring Break and how many they slept with, so, in her own words, she can judge them. Most of the gang say they went to Cancun, and Harrison writes that he went to Yemen as his nose starts to bleed. Ms. Glass deduces he has been infected with the Rift Valley fever that is contaminating everyone in Yemen. Just as Sam was trying to talk to him by his locker, they are both isolated from the rest of the people and the school is shut down in quarantine. During Chemistry, Mary Cherry receives a call in her cell phone from someone who knows what she really did for Spring Break - a low- budget soft porn scary movie - and she has to run for her life as she is chased to be killed. Meanwhile, Lily tells April what they really did for SB. They intended to go to Cancun, but they all stayed in LA and had SB in different ways. Nicole is elected to attract the killer, but only virgins get chased by the killers.
#23 - Misery Loathes Company
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/17/2000
Harrison is checked in a hospital for treatment for his leukemia. His roommate is a religious fanatic, which makes him quite uncomfortable. Harrison doesn't want anybody's help and yells at Brooke. Brooke is faced with the ghost of her anorexia and fears coming back to the clinic she once was. Sugar Daddy feels miserable for his looks and checks into a clinic for food disorders (which happens to be the same hospital where Harrison is.). Mike hears somebody throwing up in the bathroom. First he thinks it might be Jane, but he realizes it's Brooke and puts her in the clinic. Sugar feels very depressed and has a fight with Brooke. Later she advises him to talk to one of the girls at the clinic, and she plays cupid slipping a love letter under her door. But the clinician gets the letter instead. Sugar feels guilty and tells Ashley that he didn't write the letter, without knowing that she never got the letter in the first place. Harrison's roommate has a seizure.
#24 - What Makes Sammy Run
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/11/2000
Sam is missing. She ran off to San Francisco to find Brooke's mother, who denies having a daughter. The girls are worried that Sam might have been kidnapped and be in danger, so they try to go on with Jane's bridal shower acting like nothing happened. The boys try to go in Caesar Crouton's Breast 'n Thighs Chicken Buffet / Strip Club, but they're underage and not even fake ID's can get them in. Mary Cherry wants to get back at her mother for denying her existence on TV. She discovers that Wanda Rickets has been living secretly in the girls bathroom since she ran away from her house, making tons of money as a teen trash, so Mary Cherry and Nicole decide to join her as strippers, and Mike is arrested for all the minors in the strip club. Just as Jane is about to have a collapse from Mike's arrest and Sam's kidnapping, Sam shows up.
#25 - Promblems
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/18/2001
Sam and Brooke help deliver Jane's baby (in one of tv's fastest labors) and realize that they can't fight over Harrison, so they both agree on going with him to the prom (ménage?). Nicole is thirsty for revenge and gets George into asking her to the prom, since he is hurt by what Sam's doing. Josh and Lily are trying to handle their marriage, and decide they should get a place of their own, since Lily's mother disapproval has become unbearable. So they move to the now available Ms. Glass's basement. But they have too much pressure on their hands, since Ms. Glass is using them for house chores and they are totally broke, to the point of Lily having to sell organic soap at the school and Josh getting a job as a window salesman. And they're still trying to consume their wedding. Mary Cherry is touched by the sisterhood of Brooke and Sam, and decides she wants a sister too. She asks Nicole to be her sister, but she turns down the offer.