Jack & Jill (TV series)
The WB's fall-1999 New York romance with a name gimmick: she was Jack, Jacqueline Barrett, played by Amanda Peet, and he was Jill, David Jillefsky, played by Ivan Sergei. Two seasons, a pregnancy cliffhanger nobody ever resolved, and a supporting cast (Sarah Paulson, Jaime Pressly, Justin Kirk, Simon Rex) that went on to much bigger things.
Jack & Jill was created and produced by Randi Mayem Singer for The WB and premiered on September 26, 1999, the same fall the network launched Popular and Roswell. The setup: Jacqueline "Jack" Barrett leaves her unfaithful fiancé at the altar and moves to New York City, where her friend Audrey works as a dancer. In Audrey's building she meets David "Jill" Jillefsky, who is about to move in with his girlfriend Elisa, and the two fall into the hot-and-cold romance that ran the show. Amanda Peet played Jack (she replaced Amelia Heinle after the pilot) and Ivan Sergei played Jill; around them were Sarah Paulson as Elisa, Jaime Pressly as Audrey, Justin Kirk as Barto and Simon Rex as Mikey. The theme, "Truth About Romeo," was written by Jeff Cohen under the name Pancho's Lament, and for the second season it was re-recorded by David Crosby and Beth Hart.
The first season ran 19 episodes into March 2000 to average ratings, so The WB held the second back as a 13-episode midseason run that started in January 2001. The finale built toward the couple's wedding: Jacqueline discovered she was pregnant, but before she could tell David he decided the relationship was moving too fast and called the wedding off. Fans rallied for a third season and didn't get one, so the show ended in April 2001 on that cliffhanger, 32 episodes in all.
It survives mostly as a cast photo of people who became far more famous elsewhere. Peet and Paulson reunited on NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip in 2006, and the show itself sits in the memory of anyone who spent 1999 watching The WB, half-remembered next to the network's bigger teen hits.
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