Strangers with Candy 

A forty-six-year-old ex-drug addict returns to high school as a freshman.

Creators:

Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Mitch Rouse

Stars:

Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert

Cast

Series cast summary:
Paul Dinello	...	Geoffrey Jellineck / ... 31 episodes, 1999-2000
Stephen Colbert	...	Chuck Noblet / ... 31 episodes, 1999-2000
Greg Hollimon	...	Principal Onyx Blackman 30 episodes, 1999-2000
Deborah Rush	...	Sara Blank 30 episodes, 1999-2000
Amy Sedaris	...	Jerri Blank 30 episodes, 1999-2000
Larc Spies	...	Derrick Blank 28 episodes, 1999-2000
Orlando Pabotoy	...	Orlando Pinatubo 22 episodes, 1999-2000
Maria Thayer	...	Tammi Littlenut 14 episodes, 1999-2000
Sarah Thyre	...	Coach Cherri Wolf / ... 14 episodes, 1999-2000

Storyline

Jerri Blank is a 46-year-old "boozer, user and a loser" who tries to put her life back together again. The reformed runaway and addict returns to high school as a freshman, where she tries to fit in and act hip with girls 1/3 her age. Unfortunately, she hasn't quite shed her immoral background or acquired any ethics, and her bizarre family and frustrated schoolmates have trouble interacting with her.

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Plot Keywords:

high school | female protagonist | three word title | alternative comedy | social satire | 

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Taglines:

Doing things right....the second time around.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

Comedy Central

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 April 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Незнакомцы с конфеткой

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Comedy Central, Paramount Home Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

22 min (30 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character of Jerri is based on motivational speaker Florrie Fisher, who travelled high schools in the 1970s talking about her fall from 1940s socialite to a heroin addicted prostitute in the 1960s. Many lines of dialogue in the show are taken verbatim from a recording of a speech she gave to a New York high school, which circulated for many years on the cult video market as "The Trip Back". In real-life, Fisher fell out of the public eye in the early 1970s, and for many years was believed to be missing and presumed dead. In the late 2000s, researchers turned up an interview with Mike Douglas in a 1973 issue of the Rotary Club publication "The Rotarian", in which Douglas recounted interviewing Fisher. According to Douglas, Fisher's disappearance was due to her being taken to a Miami hospital in the middle of her lecture tour, where she was diagnosed with liver cancer. The disease resulted in kidney failure, and she ultimately died of a heart attack on May 26, 1972 at the age of fifty-four.

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Goofs

Derrick Blank is frequently referred to as Jerri's stepbrother. He is actually her half-brother.

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Quotes

Jerri Blank: Dreams can happen
Sara Blank: It's nice that you think that, dear.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of every episode while the credits are rolling you see the cast in that episode dancing.

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Alternate Versions

In the the complete season three box set, episodes "Trail of Tears" and "Is My Daddy Crazy?" feature the original aired episodes, however in the complete Series Box Set they are director's cut episodes.

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Connections

Featured in The Hour: Episode #7.50 (2010)

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Soundtracks

Strangers With Candy Theme
Composed by Mark Levenson
Producer Bob Golden

User Reviews

Super Sit-Com!

This new show from Comedy Central is completely loopy! Give it a few minutes of your time and you too will succomb! Amy Sedaris is outrageously funny as Jerry Blank, a 47 year old reprehensible ex-convict trying to graduate Flashpoint High "right where she left off." Her catatonic senior citizen father and alcoholic and abusive step-mother are both superb!

Jerry always struggles to do the right thing. She rarely succeeds. Every episode Jerry has a new pet. A lobster (that is boiled accidentally). A turtle (who is shot out the living room sliding glass doors after a serious one-on-one with a golf club, and is later cremated and commingled with Jerry's mother's ashes). And a constrictor (nothing untoward it seems happens to this pet). Poor Jerry, as she struggles to gain weight to play Ma in Raisin in the Sun and spy on a nice classmate who the teachers feel is retarded!

At the end of each episode I feel gratified that Jerry never does the right thing, but that is ok. In fact the episodes end happily because Jerry gave someone an overdose of home brewed drugs or she snitched on her retarded friend who stood up for her. The list of Jerry's misdeeds is long, but as her teacher, Mr. Jellinek, advises her, "...stick with what you know!"