Popular

The series was created by Ryan Murphy and Gina Matthews and produced by Touchstone Television, running for two seasons on The WB from September 1999 to May 2001.

Ryan Murphy named the character Brooke McQueen after his real-life niece, Brooke Murphy.

The character Nicole Julian was named after Nicole Moore, the best friend of Ryan Murphy's niece Brooke Murphy.

The show was unexpectedly cancelled after its second season, meaning the season 2 finale, in which Brooke is run over by a drunk Nicole, ended up serving as the unplanned series finale.

The show's opening theme was excerpted from 'Supermodels' by indie singer-songwriter Kendall Payne, from her 1999 album Jordan's Sister, while the ending theme was 'High School Highway' by Sydney Forest.

For the DVD release by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, several songs used in the original broadcast episodes had to be replaced with stock music due to licensing fees, similar to what happened with other shows like Dawson's Creek and Daria.

When creator Ryan Murphy met with a WB executive in 1998, the executive mocked his voice and mannerisms as 'gay' and demanded script changes, such as removing a fur coat from a character because it was considered 'code for gay,' and criticizing the character Mary Cherry for being 'too gay.'

In 2014, Entertainment Weekly ranked Popular at #21 on its list of the '26 Best Cult TV Shows Ever,' calling it 'the proto-Glee.'

In February 2000, the casts of Popular and Freaks and Geeks competed against each other in a special celebrity edition of Family Feud hosted by Louie Anderson.

In 2012, several of the main cast members reunited and raised $30,000 for the AIDS Walk in Los Angeles.