Template:BetweenaRockandaBraPlace Between a Rock and a Bra Place is the twelfth episode of the first season of Lizzie McGuire.
Plot
Lizzie and Miranda note that when a girl gets her first bra, her personality somehow seems to change. They decide they are ready for their first, and hatch a plan to get Lizzie's mom to take them to the mall where they will shop for "school supplies." Lizzie is a terrible liar, though, and blurts out the real reason for the trip. Jo is overjoyed to help the girls out, but she embarrasses them as they are shopping.
Lizzie is very harsh with her mother, telling her that she and Miranda are old enough to do their own shopping and to leave them alone. The girls face further embarrassment when they run into Kate, Claire, and their English teacher Mr. Coppersmith. They also find that they don't know what to look for. They find Mrs. McGuire and Lizzie apologizes for hurting her feelings. Lizzie and Miranda ask for her help and Jo says yes. .
Also, Matt is entering the Jet Li sidekick contest. He gets his dad and Gordo with his camcorder to help him make a martial arts movie as his contest entry, but it doesn't go well. Sam McGuire calls up a mysterious man named David, a kung fu expert, to help instruct them. After David finishes with them, he disappears quickly. Gordo asks, "Who was that guy?" Sam answers, "I've known him all my life. He's like a brother to me." Matt's entry wins the contest.
Trivia
- At one point Mr. McGuire says "I've known him all my life, he's like a brother to me.", when referring to guest star David Carradine. In real life, the late David Carradine is half-brother to series star Robert Carradine (Mr. McGuire).
- When they show Kate and Claire in the beginning, in the background we can hear that little cheer from the episode "Rumors" when Lizzie confesses to Kate about having spread the rumor and not Miranda.
- Adam Lamberg (Gordo) only shares two scenes with Hilary Duff (Lizzie) and Lalaine (Miranda) in this episode. The first is in Lizzie's house when Lizzie blurts out to Jo that she wants a bra and the second is the three-way phone conversation near the end of the episode.
- Close to the end of the episode, Sam picks up the cordless phone, which is lying atop a hardcover book. The title of the book is MYST: The Book Of Ti'ana. It is the second book in a series of three science fiction stories which go along with the very popular PC game MYST. The three books were co-written by Rand Miller, who is co-creator of the game, and CEO of Cyan, Inc., the design company of MYST. These books are not very well-known outside the MYST enthusiast community, so someone in the Lizzie McGuire staff must be a big fan of the game and/or stories!
- The clip of Kate and Claire being "worshipped" by the other students is also seen in the episode "Gordo's Video."
- This episode title comes from the expression "caught between a rock and a hard place" which refers to two mythical beasts in Greek mythology. Scylla was a monstrous multi-headed spider who would eat hapless sailors passing near her cave. However, in order to steer clear of this catastrophe one would have to sail near Charybdis who was supposedly able to swallow a large portion of the ocean (including ships) and spit it back out (without the ships, of course). The same expression was also a popular phrase used during the 1920's in America. The rock in this Lizzie episode refers to the stone Matt tries to grab from David Carradine in his movie, and the bra part obviously refers to Lizzie's first shopping trip for one.
- While Gordo is filming Matt's video he is wearing a baseball hat. He is obviously copying the movie director Steven Spielberg, who also wears a baseball hat while filming. Gordo also makes a reference to Spielberg and his hat in the episodes "Gordo's Video."
- Jennie Woods, the non-speaking character who's a terror at dodge ball, is the name of a former classmate of Nina Bargiel, who co-wrote the script. The real Jennie embarrassed Nina once in the sixth grade by unhooking her bra in front of a large group of students. "I always told her I'd get back at her, and I did in front of millions of people," Bargiel said. Also, Nina and her brother Jeremy (who is her writing partner) had an English teacher named Mr. Coppersmith, whose name they also use here.
- Sam McGuire recalls that he won an essay contest in 1976. According to what he says in "Gordo's Bar Mitzvah," he would have been 15 years old then.
- The light blue leather jacket Lizzie wears is the same one she wore in "I Do, I Don't" and that Miranda wore in "Obsession."
- Lizzie has had her favorite stuffed animal Mr. Snuggles since she was two years old. There are several quick still-photo shots of Lizzie and Mr. Snuggles from "When Moms Attack" that are used here.
- There is no blooper reel at the end of this episode. It's replaced by the "credits" for Matt and Gordo's kung-fu movie. This is only the second time to date that an episode did not include a blooper reel. The first time was in "Pool Party.”
- Adam Lamberg named this as his favorite Lizzie episode in an interview in the Long Island, New York newspaper, “Newsday.” Jake Thomas also stated that it was his favorite episode on his website because of the Kungfu.
- Kate and Claire do their high-five/hair-flip combination for the first time.
Goofs
- Even though Gordo seems to know about Kung Fu, he does not know who David Carradine is. This is especially surprising considering that he is an aspiring film director and Carradine has been a pop culture icon for over thirty years.
- At one point there is an error in the closed captioning when Sam is identified as Simon.
- At the end of the episode when we see Gordo's final video we see a black square behind the fence to reflect light for the show.
- Nitpick: How exactly were they able to film Gordo and Sam filming during the credits of the movie that they made?
- While Lizzie is telling Jo about how she and Miranda aren't children anymore in the dressing room, there is a shot of Jo and behind her is the cashier. This makes it seem like the 'dressing rooms' are dressing cubicles, which would be very unlikely in a bra store or any kind of clothing store for that matter, because Lizzie states, "I could've been changing!" when Jo opens the curtain of her dressing cubicle without asking if she was "decent."
- Gordo says that he's in all of Lizzie and Miranda's classes "except for gym," but in a later episode in the season, "Scarlett Larry" (which also takes place in the seventh grade), Gordo is shown in a "co-ed gym" class with the girls.
- In the scene where Jo is in the food court, she is shown in several alternating shots to be holding a drink at mouth level, then holding it while it's on the table.
- Matt supposedly wins the Jet Li sidekick contest, which is a very big deal, but it's never mentioned again for the rest of the series.
- When Gordo comes over to the McGuire's house he is wearing a long sleeve dark blue pull-over shirt under a pastel white short sleeve shirt. When he returns with his camera the white shirt is no longer white, it has no pastel design and it now has long sleeves. Yet in one of the final scenes where Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo are speaking on the phone he is again wearing the short sleeve shirt over the blue shirt.
- As Lizzie and Miranda are standing at their lockers discussing how to get to the mall, both close their doors. Seconds later Lizzie's locker door can be seen open, but in the following shot it is again closed.
- When Gordo and Matt are filming the pebble scene for Matt's audition tape, the camera tripod falls down which makes them stop filming (obviously). But seconds later, when they go to get Sam, we see the camera is standing up.
- Matt says that Jet Li is looking for a sidekick for his "newish" movie instead of "newest."
- Many female viewers pointed out that in reality, Lizzie and Miranda would certainly have already gotten their first bras.
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