What I Like About You (TV series)


What I Like About You is an American television sitcom set mainly in New York City, following the lives of two sisters: responsible older sister Val and her vivacious teenaged sister Holly. The series ran on The WB from September 20, 2002, to March 24, 2006, with a total of 86 episodes produced. With the exception of a brief period early in the second season, What I Like About You was a headline on The WB's Friday Night Comedy Lineup.

Cast and characters

Throughout their time on the series, two main characters—Vince and Lauren—were never given last names. Jeff was also never given a last name, although in the artwork for the season 1 DVDs, he is listed as "Jeff Campbell".

Main characters

Recurring cast

Production

Theme song and opening sequences

The series takes its title from the song of the same name, which was originally released on a hit record by The Romantics in 1980; it was written by the group's members Wally Palmar, Mike Skill, Rich Cole, and Jimmy Marinos. A cover version of the song, performed by the Canadian all-female rock group Lillix, was used as the theme song for the show. Lillix's cover version was also heard on the soundtrack of the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday and the soundtrack of the film 13 Going on 30. The theme was remixed into a techno/dance style theme for the second season by Philip Steir.
The pilot episode had a short opening sequence and the cast members' names were only shown over the cold open. The title sequence used scenes of New York as a background, with an animation of the show's logo in which the letters "i" and "o" appeared first in a larger size than other characters, the word "what" slid in from the left side of the screen, the word "like" expanded and contracted, the "ab" and "ut" in "about" slid in from both sides of the screen to meet the "o", and the word "you" slid upward from the bottom of the screen, appearing to collide with the rest of the title before all the characters settled into place. This same animation was carried over to the season one opening titles.
The first season's opening sequence featured intercut scenes of two girls portraying younger versions of Holly and Val, with shots of Bynes and Garth sticking their tongues out at the camera, mixed with footage excerpted from the first four episodes; each of these elements were framed in rounded rectangles that moved from right to left across the screen. After every two to five such rectangles, the headshot of each cast member would appear with its name. Newer footage excerpts were inserted in the sequence for the episode "Valentine's Day" and again for the episode "The Fix-Up", which replaced nearly all of the excerpts from the first four episodes.
The opening title sequence used for the rest of the series featured the show's cast in front of digitally inserted scenes of New York at night. Different versions of the sequence were used for SD and HD broadcasts: the SD version seen in The WB, TeenNick and until October 6, 2010 in ABC Family airings, featured a letterbox-style version with the cast and creators' names in a black bar below the sequence; HD broadcasts on The WB and in ABC Family airings since October 6, 2010, featured the cast and creators' names within the sequence itself. The sequence was modified twice; the first time was in the episode "The Incredible Shrinking Group" when Stephen Dunham's video headshots were removed and the second modification was in "The Longest Night of the Year" when all traces of Michael McMillian were removed from the sequence and a yellow streak of light was added to the sequence as well.

Syndication

From April to September 2006, The WB aired a daily hour of reruns of the series during its Daytime WB afternoon programming block alongside 8 Simple Rules. When The CW launched in September 2006, reruns of the series moved to the new network's CW Daytime block, remaining until September 2008.
In 2008, the program moved over to ABC Family to air in various timeslots during the daytime, in a letterbox format. Secondary rights are also held by TeenNick which has aired the series since 2009 shortly before the network's rebrand from The N; that channel mainly aired episodes of the show in two-hour marathon form, until October 2010, when TeenNick began airing three one-hour blocks of the series in different timeslots. Canadian syndicated rights are held by YTV, broadcasting the series for the first time in High Definition when the network introduced an HD channel in 2011.

Home media

On May 1, 2007, Warner Home Video released the complete first season on DVD in region 1. The 3-disc set included a gag reel as the set's only bonus feature. Because of music licensing issues, Lillix's cover of the theme song was removed and replaced with a generic pop-rock song produced specifically for the set. Due to low DVD sales and high music licensing costs, no further seasons were given a general retail release.
On March 7, 2017 Warner Archive released the complete second season on DVD in region 1. The 3-disc set is a Manufacture-on-Demand release, available only from online sellers such as Amazon.com and their CreateSpace MOD program. Despite being a Manufacture-on-Demand release, the theme song is still replaced with the same song used for the season 1 DVD set, and although it was originally broadcast in widescreen high definition, the episodes are presented on the DVD in fullscreen format.
The complete third season was released on November 27, 2018. The complete fourth and final season was released on February 26, 2019.
DVD NameRelease DateEp #Additional Information
The Complete First SeasonMay 1, 200722Bonus features include a Gag Reel.
The Complete Second SeasonMarch 7, 201722None.
The Complete Third SeasonNovember 27, 201824None.
The Complete Fourth SeasonFebruary 26, 201918None.

Awards and nominations

GLAAD Media Award
Teen Choice Awards
Young Artist Awards