Last Year's Model is the twenty third episode of Lizzie McGuire's first season
Synopsis[]
Lizzie is selected as a model to participate in a fashion show presented by Teen Attitude magazine at a local mall. Her modeling stint earns her fame in the school but she is annoyed when everyone starts treating her differently because of her new status. Meanwhile, Matt and Lanny buy a hammock from a shop but when it turns defective, the shopkeeper refuses to take it back and give them a refund. Matt and Lanny then decide to teach him a lesson.
Plot[]
Lizzie auditions to be in a fashion show presented by "Teen Attitude" magazine at a local mall and she gets accepted. At the show Lizzie looks great on the stage. Afterward, popular girl Jessica asks Lizzie to come to a party at her country club. Lizzie gets Miranda and Gordo invited also. At the party, all three are enjoying the fun, including the hot tub. But already Lizzie's friends are acting different. When Jessica asks her about coming to another party, Miranda starts answering for Lizzie like a press agent and she and Gordo start negotiating future appearances for her like a supermodel!
At school things are very different, also. Kids stare at her in the hall like she's a celebrity. Kate is now fawning all over Lizzie, wanting to be her friend. Ethan is so starstruck that he can't even mumble a coherent sentence around her. Gordo and Miranda are as bad as anybody. Lizzie muses, "Gordo and Miranda aren't my friends anymore. They're my people!"
Overwhelmed by the attention, Lizzie hides out in Mr. Dig's classroom. When she explains her dilemma to him, he suggests that if she wants them to stop acting like her lackeys, she ought to treat them like such. So, Lizzie puts "Operation Superstar Brat" into motion. She blows her nose on the book report Gordo wrote for her. She makes Miranda pick out all the green jellybeans in her candy dish. She makes both of them bark like dogs, then walks out on them. But she comes right back and tells Miranda and Gordo that she just wanted to show them what it was like to have a friend treat them so differently, and she wants their relationship to go back to normal. Lizzie is ready to give up being a model, but she still has a contract with the magazine. Miranda suggests that she'd "stink" as a model, and Lizzie does just that at the next show, looking like a nightmare and even picking a fight with Miranda in the front row! Lizzie is fired on the spot and things go back to normal for the three friends.
Meanwhile, Matt gets a $50 gift certificate from Gammy McGuire. He and Lanny put their money together and buy a hammock, but it rips apart when they try to use it for the first time. Sam McGuire takes them back to the store to return the hammock, but a very rude store clerk won't let them do it. While Sam goes off looking for the manager, Matt and Lanny show that they know how to take care of business with this discourteous clerk.
Trivia[]
- The clapboard on the blooper reel at the end of the show is dated March 27, 2001.
- Though his full name is never used, Mr. Dig's character is identified in the credits as Mr. Digby Sellers. This name is taken from a character in the movie "The Big Lebowski" called Arthur Digby Sellers. This is at least the second reference in Lizzie to Lebowski, the other one coming in "Lizzie Strikes Out."
- Mr. McGuire says that Matt's birthday was 7 months earlier.
- This is the first time that Lizzie dresses like a homeless person in tattered white clothing, white sneakers and eats a chicken leg while Gordo switches the music in the sound system.
- Mr. Dig says that his family is originally from Tobago which is part of the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
- Guest-star Masiela Lusha (who portrays Model #1) is best known for her role as "Carmen Lopez" during the first five seasons of "George Lopez." Hilary Duff (Lizzie) has appeared on "George Lopez" twice, playing two different roles.
- In the blooper reel, Robert Carradine's line "I love being an adult because everything you get [in the mail] stinks," is interrupted by a sneeze. Apparently, the line was cut out of the final version of the episode.
- This episode premiered on Hilary Duff's 14th birthday.
Music[]
- "Shopping" by The Pet Shop Boys
- "Everybody Wants Ya" by S Club 7