Joan of Arcadia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joan of Arcadia
Genre	Fantasy Family drama
Created by	Barbara Hall
Starring	Joe Mantegna Mary Steenburgen Amber Tamblyn Jason Ritter Michael Welch Chris Marquette Becky Wahlstrom
Opening theme	"One of Us" by Joan Osborne
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	45
Production
Executive producer(s)	Barbara Hall (2003-2004) Jim Hayman (2003-2004) Peter Schindler (2003-2004) Stephen Nathan (2004-2005)
Running time	45 minutes
Production company(s)	Barbara Hall Productions CBS Productions Sony Pictures Television
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 26, 2003 (2003-09-26) – April 22, 2005 (2005-04-22)

Joan of Arcadia is an American fantasy family drama television series telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi (Amber Tamblyn), who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The series originally aired on Fridays on CBS for two seasons, from September 26, 2003, to April 22, 2005.

The show was praised by critics and won the Humanitas Prize and the People's Choice Award. It was also nominated for an Emmy Award in its first season for Outstanding Drama Series. The title alludes to Joan of Arc and the show takes place in a fictionalized version of the town Arcadia, Maryland.

Premise

Joan Girardi is a 16-year-old teenager living in the town of Arcadia in Maryland. She is the middle child of her family which includes elder brother Kevin, a former jock who has been left a paraplegic after a car accident, and younger brother Luke, a brainy nerd. Joan's father Will is the town's police chief. In the pilot episode, God appears to Joan and reminds her that she promised to do anything he wanted if he would let Kevin survive the car crash. He appears to Joan in the form of various people including small children, teenage boys, elderly ladies, transients, or passersby. Joan is asked by God to perform tasks that often appear to be trivial or inconsequential—such as enrolling in an AP Chemistry class or building a boat—but always end up positively improving a larger situation.

These plot lines are interwoven with more realistic matters, such as the relationships between the Girardi family. Various storylines that spanned multiple episodes dealt with the consequences of Kevin's accident, Will's job as a police officer, mother Helen's career as an art teacher, and Luke's aspirations to be a scientist.

Characterization of God

God is portrayed with a very human personality, and does not appear to favor any one particular religion, saying there are "different ways to share the same truth." He quotes Bob Dylan, Emily Dickinson and the Beatles rather than any scripture or verses. The series examines God from a more metaphysical standpoint instead of a religious perspective.

God is also depicted as having a sharp sense of humor. In the episode "Touch Move", He tells Joan that He has to send her "down there". When Joan is worried He means Hell, He laughs and clarifies He meant the school basement. In another instance, He appears in the form of a woman exercising and says, "Why do people always try and discern my deeper meanings? This is the kind of thinking that starts wars."

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Joe Mantegna as Will Girardi, the father of Joan, Kevin, and Luke. He moved his family from their home in Chicago when he was offered the job of Chief of Police in Arcadia, Maryland. After he busts wide open the internal corruption of the town of Arcadia's infrastructure, the Arcadia Police Department is disbanded and he becomes the Chief of Detectives of the Hogan County Sheriff's Department, which assumed the law enforcement responsibilities for the town. After the departure of Lt. Preston, Will serves as the acting head of the HCSD Arcadia Station. Mantegna had a development deal with CBS and liked the script, so he agreed to be part of the show. He was also involved in the casting of the other characters.
• Mary Steenburgen as Helen Girardi, Will's wife and mother of Kevin, Joan, Luke. An artist, Helen dropped out of art school. She works as the secretary at Arcadia High School and becomes the art teacher in "State of Grace". She was raised in the Catholic faith but was never confirmed; after moving to Arcadia, she has considered going back to the Church.
• Amber Tamblyn as Joan Girardi, the middle child of the Girardi family who talks to God. He often gives her assignments or tasks that eventually have a (usually) positive outcome, but she is frequently exasperated by the randomness of the directives and God's refusal to answer any direct questions. She has an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Adam Rove; the two break up in "Trial and Error". As seen in "Drive, He Said", Joan's middle name is Agnes, and her date of birth is November 24, 1987. She works part-time as a retail associate at a local bookstore.
• Jason Ritter as Kevin Girardi, the eldest child in the Girardi family. A year and a half before the events of the pilot, he became a paraplegic in a car accident. A jock, he was supposed to attend the University of Arizona on a baseball scholarship prior to the accident. He initially works for the local newspaper as a fact checker; later, he pursues a career in journalism and becomes a local news anchor.
• Michael Welch as Luke Girardi, the youngest Girardi child. Luke is a science nerd and straight-A student. He has a brief romantic relationship with Glynis Figliola and later begins a relationship with Grace Polk.
• Chris Marquette as Adam Rove (Recurring Season 1; Regular Season 2), Joan's best friend and later boyfriend. Adam is the only child of Elizabeth (deceased) and Carl Rove. Adam is socially awkward and introverted but is also a talented artist and one of Helen's art students.
• Becky Wahlstrom as Grace Polk (Recurring Season 1; Regular Season 2), Adam and Joan's best friend and Luke's eventual girlfriend. The only child of Sarah and Rabbi Polanski, Grace is outspoken against all authority, with a particular distaste for school vice principal Gavin Price. She is highly intelligent despite her rebellious reputation. After years of putting it off, Grace finally has her bat mitzvah in "The Book of Questions".

Recurring cast

• David Burke as Father Ken Mallory, Helen's friend and pastor of a nearby church.
• Haylie Duff as Stevie Marx
• Patrick Fabian as Gavin Price, the vice principal of Arcadia High School who is unpopular among students.
• John Getz as District Attorney Gabe Fellowes, a corrupt public servant who is arrested during an investigation of corruption into the Arcadia city government.
• April Grace as Detective Toni Williams, as Will Girardi's partner on the Arcadia Police Department and later the Hogan County Sheriff's Department in season 1.
• Sprague Grayden as Judith Montgomery, Joan's friend from the summer psychiatric camp.
• Elaine Hendrix as Ms. Lischak, chemistry and physics teacher.
• Aaron Himelstein as Friedman, Luke's best friend.
• Wentworth Miller as Ryan Hunter, a young, charming dot com millionaire who also talks to God, but with his own sinister agenda.
• Derek Morgan as Hogan County Undersheriff Roy Roebuck. He previously served as head of the Arcadia Police Department Internal Affairs Division before being forced to transfer to the Arcadia Fire Department as the arson investigator. After the dissolution of the Arcadia city government, Roy became the Commanding Officer of the Hogan County Sheriff's Department Arcadia Station. He resigns after learning that two of his officers were corrupt and had murdered a witness.
• Erik Palladino as Lt. Michael Daghlian, the senior detective of the Arcadia PD under Chief Will Girardi. He is fired after removing evidence from an official report.
• Sydney Tamiia Poitier as Rebecca Askew, a reporter at the newspaper where Kevin works who becomes involved with him.
• Annie Potts as Lt. Lucy Preston, the former head of the Hogan County Sheriff's Department's Internal Affairs Division. She replaced Undersheriff Roy Roebuck as Commanding Officer of the Hogan County Sheriff's Department. She and Will quickly got close, both professionally and personally, but Will soon became uncomfortable with her methods of policing – and her apparent complicity in the death of Judith Montgomery's murderer. In "Romancing the Joan", Preston transfers to Washington, D.C. for a job with the United States Department of Justice.
• Kevin Rahm as Dana Tuchman, guidance counselor at Arcadia High School.
• Paul Sand as Rabbi Polanski, Grace's father.
• Mark Totty as Detective Carlisle, Will Girardi's junk food-addicted partner on the Hogan County Sheriff's Department.
• Mageina Tovah as Glynis Figliola, Luke's friend and one-time girlfriend.
• Constance Zimmer as Sister Lilly Watters, a former nun who helps advise Helen Girardi and dates Kevin.

Guest cast

• Michael Badalucco as Father Payne
• Hilary Duff as Dylan Samuels
• Alexis Dziena as Bonnie
• Louise Fletcher as Eva Garrison
• Cloris Leachman as Aunt Olive
• Shelley Long as Miss Candy
• Lauren Mayhew as Elle
• Armin Shimerman as Ronald Harbison
• Tyler James Williams as hallway boy

Incarnations of God

The many incarnations included:

Theme song

The opening credits roll with the song "One of Us" written by Eric Bazilian and performed by Joan Osborne. It was a hit single for Osborne in the United States from her 1995 album Relish:

What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home (repeated)

Osborne re-recorded the song specifically for the show. To fit the lyrics of the song, Joan first meets God as a teenage boy riding to school on the bus with her (although they don't actually speak to each other at the time).

Production

Development

The idea for Joan of Arcadia took shape during Barbara Hall’s time as a producer on Chicago Hope in the mid-1990s and evolved while she was an executive producer on CBS drama Judging Amy. Hall said "the concept meshed her fascination with Joan of Arc...her longtime interest in physics and metaphysics, and her desire to use drama and comedy to explore the existence of God in a 'scary, not benign universe.'" Hall added, "I started thinking, what would it look like if God tried to contact a teenager today? I made the decision that God would have to come to a teenage girl visually. Joan of Arc heard voices, but kids today aren’t going to hear voices because you’d have to get the iPods off their heads.”

When Hall pitched the series to CBS, she and executives agreed they were not looking to make another Touched by an Angel. Among the differences between the former show and Joan is that the character of Joan is not religious and "the show’s tone is grittier.”

CBS greenlit the show in 2002 "when public discourse about spirituality seemed more gentle: post-9/11 prayer services rather than heated debates over 'The Passion of the Christ.'" The acquisition was made as part of an effort by the network, which was known for its adult-skewing shows, to appeal to younger viewers. Hall developed the series with Hart Hanson and Jim Hayman, her Judging Amy production associates.

As a guideline for the series’ writing staff, Hall wrote a list of "Ten Commandments of Joan of Arcadia", which enumerated what God can and cannot do in the show. These guidelines included points like, "God can never identify one religion as being right," "The job of every human being is to fulfill his or her true nature," "God's purpose for talking to Joan, and to everyone, is to get her (us) to recognize the interconnectedness of all things," and "the exact nature of God is a mystery, and the mystery can never be solved."

Filming

Though Arcadia itself is set in Maryland, the series was mostly filmed at various Los Angeles locations. Establishing shots of Arcadia's skyline and other outdoor scenes were filmed in the city of Wilmington, Delaware. Scenes at the fictional Arcadia High School were filmed at El Segundo High School in California.

Episodes

Season 1 (2003–04)

Season 2 (2004–05)

Cancellation

While Joan of Arcadia was one of the highest-rated new shows of the 2003–2004 television season, its ratings declined in the second season and it was cancelled by CBS on May 18, 2005. Fan campaigns were created in response in an effort to have the show reinstated. A promotional campaign by CBS sent street teams into cities to do good deeds, such as buying a cold person a cup of coffee. Only two episodes from the second season, "No Future" and "The Rise and Fall of Joan Girardi", were repeated by CBS, with remaining reruns pulled from the schedule. The cancellation meant the show ended on a cliffhanger, with the Ryan character potentially facing off against Joan. Ghost Whisperer took over the show's Friday time slot in September 2005.

After the show's cancellation, props such as pieces of Adam's artwork and Joan's signature messenger bag and costume pieces belonging to cast members were sold on eBay.

Awards and nominations

Home media

CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) released both seasons on DVD in Region 1 in 2005 and 2006.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released all seasons in Region 2.

On June 6, 2017, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) released Joan of Arcadia: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.

Season	DVD Cover	Discs	Release Date	Ep#	Additional Information
1		6	May 10, 2005	23	Deleted Scenes, Audio commentaries by the Filmmakers and Cast Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes: The Creation of Joan of Arcadia and Joan of Arcadia – A Look at Season One God Gallery
2		6	November 28, 2006	22	Audio Commentaries on selected episodes A Look at Season 2 featurette The Making of Queen of the Zombies A Tour of Joan's High School Common Thread Table Read
Complete Series		12	June 6, 2017	45

Note: each disc in the season, except the last, contains 4 episodes.

See also

In Spanish: Joan de Arcadia para niños

• Eli Stone
• Touched by an Angel
• Promised Land
• Highway to Heaven
• Wonderfalls
• Kevin (Probably) Saves the World
• God Friended Me