The show focuses mainly on the life of junior-high-school student Ginger Foutley. She, along with her friends Darren Patterson, Dodie Bishop and Macie Lightfoot, all try to rise from the position of school geeks as they solve many conflicts that come their way. Luckily for Ginger, the most popular girl in school, Courtney Gripling, has taken a liking to her and often includes her in her social plans. She is intrigued by her (what Courtney calls them) 'gingerisms'. However, Miranda Killgallen, Courtney's right hand woman, makes sure that she is not bumped down from her position thanks to Ginger. At home, Ginger records her lively adventures in her diary. Her little brother Carl, is often scheming with Hoodsey Bishop in his own side plots; and her mother, Lois, is always there for advice, which Ginger is always open to listen to. The series takes place in the fictional town of Sheltered Shrubs, located in Connecticut.
It was among the few animated series in
Nickelodeon that was ahead of its time, featuring (relatively) realistic situations and teenage issues which soon set a mark for the future titles to come in the TeenNick time slot. The most notable among the show pointed out that it didn't follow the
Limited Wardrobe trope compared to the other Nick titles.
It is also one of the only shows, not just on Nickelodeon, but perhaps in all of children's entertainment, to portray interracial romance in a serious (and positive) light.
Provides examples of
- All Girls Like Ponies
- All Girls Want Bad Boys
- Back To School
- The Brainless Beauty - Courtney Gripling
- But Not Too Black - Darren and Miranda.
- Canon Sue - The titular Ginger has few, if any, faults and seems to be good at just about everything.
- To be fair she is naive (at first).
- Character Development
- Cross Dressing Voices - Tress Mac Neille as Hoodsey, Kath Soucie as Blake among others.
- Deadpan Snarker - Miranda. Macie, at times.
- Downer Ending - "No Hope For Courtney": Carl's teacher, Ms. Gordon, dies. Made sadder by the fact that she was originally going to get out of retirement, but the voice actor for her passed away during production.
- Even The Girls Want Her - Ginger
- Evil Laugh - Miranda does this when she discovers Ginger's mom is working as a cleaning lady, effectively scaring a nearby family away.
- Et Tu Brute - As Ginger finds out that Dodie and Macie are trying to break up her relationship with Darren.
- Lampshaded when Ginger sees her friends defecting to the other side in Battle of the Bands.
Et tu, Dodie?
- Foe Yay - Blake always seemed a little too obsessed with winning Carl's friendship...
- Miranda's rivalry with Ginger is rife with this.
- Girl Next Door - Switched as the lead is female and Darren is the boy-next-door
- Heterosexual Life Partners - Carl and Hoodsey
- Keep Circulating The Tapes- Only the finale has been released on DVD.
- Killed Off For Real - Mrs. Gordon
- Les Yay - Okay, probably unintentional, but still...
- The Libby - Miranda, even though Courtney fits the stereotype more.
- Limited Wardrobe - Averted, notable because most cartoons don't. The main characters had about 5-6 outfits they rotated through. Even minor characters had at least 2 outfits.
- Lisa Needs Braces - Darren's headgear, which looks more like a torture device.
- Love Epiphany
- Manipulative Bitch - Miranda
- Naive Every Girl
- Noodle Incident:
Ms. Zorski: What you did to that Remedial Math class, that was wrong, Carl.
- This is actually a bit much for Carl. While his and Hoodsey's schemes may be objectionable, but they're hardly evil.
- Official Couple
- Pet The Dog - Miranda, just once in "Ginger's Solo"
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor- Miranda was originally going to be a white chick but was changed to African American due to the casting of Cree Summer as her VA.
- Relationship Upgrade: Ginger and Darren.
- Rich Bitch - Courtney, who's more of a Brainless Beauty so her bitchiness is not really mean spirited.
- Shrinking Violet - Macie fits to a certain degree, although it borders on The Daria and even Little Miss Snarker
- Sick Episode - When Ginger gets appendicitis.
- The Talk
- Those Two Guys - Carl and Hoodsey
- Trauma Swing
- Wangst
- Warped Aesop - The whole "Ginger's mother not letting her shave her legs" thing is the most egregious example, but there are others...
- This troper thought Ginger's solution and the Aesop (if it was one) quite clever.
- Where The Hell Is Springfield: Averted.
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes - In Macie's case, learning about female reproduction.
