Taina (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Taina is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sitcom that aired on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

 and was one of the last live-action comedy shows taped at Nickelodeon Studios
Nickelodeon Studios
Nickelodeon Studios was a television taping studio as well as an original attraction at Universal Studios Florida.-History:...

 but later moved to the Nickelodeon On Sunset
Nickelodeon On Sunset
Nickelodeon On Sunset, formerly known as the Earl Carroll Theatre, is a stage facility located at 6230 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California which has housed the West Coast production of live-action original series produced for the Nickelodeon cable channel since 1997, starting with the...

 in Hollywood, for its second season. The show aired from January 14, 2001 to May 11, 2002.

Premise

Taina Morales is a young Latina woman who aspires to be a singer and actress. She, along with her best friend, Renee Jones, attend the Manhattan High School Of The Performing Arts. Once there, they reunite with Lamar, who neither has seen since elementary school. Taina and Renee's arch-nemesis Maritza Hogg (who knew Taina and Renee before high school) attends the same school they do, and is also an aspiring singer/actress. Every episode features Taina daydreaming her super stardom, with occasional performances of a new song.

Production

Production on the show began sometime around the summer of 2000. The show premiered on January 14, 2001 on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

's TEENick
TEENick
TEENick was a teen-oriented television programming block that aired on Nickelodeon. The block launched on 2001 and lasted until February 2, 2009. TEENick aired on Sunday nights from 6-9 p.m. ET/PT and, beginning in 2004, began to also air on Saturday nights from 8-10 p.m. ET/PT...

, where ratings grew and lasted for two seasons. Taina was scheduled to air every Sunday at 6pm. The show was even put on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

's SNICK
SNICK
SNICK was a two-hour programming block on the American cable television network Nickelodeon, geared toward general audiences, that ran from August 15, 1992 until August 28, 2004. It was aired on Saturdays starting at 8 p.m and ending at 10 p.m. ET. In 2004, SNICK was revamped as the Saturday night...

 lineup on Saturday nights from January to May 2002, where ratings more than doubled in its second season . Despite its popularity, the show was canceled that June. Nickelodeon canceled it because they thought it only appealed to girls (Nickelodeon's target audience at the time was boys). CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 reran the show for a few months in 2003.

Series overview

The following is an episode list for the television series, Taina
Taina (TV series)
Taina is an American sitcom that aired on Nickelodeon and was one of the last live-action comedy shows taped at Nickelodeon Studios but later moved to the Nickelodeon On Sunset in Hollywood, for its second season. The show aired from January 14, 2001 to May 11, 2002.-Premise:Taina Morales is a...

. The show debuted on January 14, 2001, and ended on May 11, 2002.
Season Episodes Originally aired
1 13 January 14, 2001 - April 22, 2001
2 13 January 19, 2002 - May 11, 2002

Season 1 (2001)

Season # Episode # Title Airdate

Season 2 (2002)

Season # Episode # Title Airdate

Main cast

  • Christina Vidal
    Christina Vidal
    Christina Abbi Vidal is a former American film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Life with Mikey, Brink! , Freaky Friday ,...

     as Taina Maria Morales
  • Khaliah Adams as Renee Aretha Jones
  • Chris Knowings as Lamar Carlos Johnson
  • David Oliver Cohen as Daniel Nathaniel McDaniel
  • LaTangela Newsome
    LaTangela
    Missy Newsome , better known by her stage name LaTangela, is an American actress, singer and disc jockey. She is best known for her role on the Nickelodeon television series Taina as Maritza Hogg, Taina's troublemaking arch nemesis....

     as Maritza Hogg

Recurring cast

  • Lisa Velez as Gloria Morales
  • Cristina Saralegui as The Principal
  • Josh Cruze as Eduardo Morales
  • Manolo Villaverde as Gregorio "Abuelo" Sanchez
  • Brandon Iglesias as Santito Morales (Season 1)
  • Jacob Urrutia as Santito Morales (Season 2)
  • Selenis Leyva as Titi Rosa
  • Joseph Bertot as Hector Colon
  • Ruben Rabasa as Papito

Characters

  • Taina Morales: The show's protagonist
    Protagonist
    A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

    , a young Latina woman with hopes of being a professional singer and actress. She attended a performing arts
    Performing arts
    The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

     school with her best friend Renee, rival Maritza, and friends Daniel and Lamar. She and her friends often got themselves into wacky situations in an attempt to become stars. Though Taina was occasionally put in scrape, she always let her honesty and truth get herself out of it.
  • Renee Jones: Taina's best friend. She's an aspiring rapper and comedienne. A wacky girl, she attended the performing arts school to become a comedian
    Comedian
    A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

    . She often helped to ground Taina when her imagination ran away with her. Renee also tended to chase after boys frequently; unfortunately, her soul mates were never the right ones for her.
  • Maritza Hogg: Taina and Renee's rival. She also aspired to be an actress and singer, but tended to be more ruthless than Taina. She loved to upstage others in her quest to become a star. However, she was not pure evil, and sometimes collaborated with Taina and her friends to make money or defeat other rivals. She prided herself on being an "evil diva
    Diva
    A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....

    ".
  • Lamar Johnson: Taina's friend, an aspiring journalist and writer
    Writer
    A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

    . Not only did he serve as an editor of the performing art school's newspaper
    Newspaper
    A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

    , he also had a crush on Taina and waited for the day she would finally come around. His best friend was Daniel, and the two often collaborated to make a quick buck. He served as a support for Taina and the others, offering level-headed advice.
  • Daniel Nathaniel McDaniel: Taina's other male friend, a musician
    Musician
    A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

    , who also shared the same school locker with Taina. His loves included writing songs, playing the guitar, and chasing after girls. Daniel prided himself on being quite the ladies' man, but often ended up snubbed. It was hinted that he had true feelings for Renee. He loved The Beatles, and usually accompanied Taina's songs on his guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    .

Soundtrack

On February 19, 2002 during its second season, Nickelodeon released the Taina soundtrack, featuring songs by Christina Vidal and LaTangela. Other songs on the soundtrack were sung by 3LW
3LW
3LW was an American hip hop soul and R&B girl group that enjoyed a number of modest hits during the early 2000s. Its founding members were Naturi Naughton, Adrienne Bailon, and Kiely Williams. Jessica Benson later replaced Naughton after she left the group in 2002...

 and Dream, who both guest starred on the show. The album, released by both Jive records
Jive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...

 and Nick records, includes songs such as "I Thought That We Were Friends" and the show's theme song, "Gonna Be a Star".

Cancellation

In June 2002, Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

 announced that Taina was cancelled after two seasons, despite big ratings. The main reason being was that they thought it appealed more to females than males. According to Josh Cruze, the show was also getting more expensive to produce. According to Vidal in a later interview, scripts for a third season of the series were already written before the show was cancelled.

DVD

There was a DVD release of the show titled after the pilot, "Be Careful What You Wish For"', in the UK, which features the first four aired episodes. The DVD is region 2 and has yet to be released in the U.S. but is available at Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

, however not playable on American and Canadian DVD players.

Awards and Nominations

  • ALMA Awards
2002 - Outstanding Children's Television Programming (Won)
2002 - Outstanding Actress in a Television Series - Christina Vidal (Nominated)
2002 - Outstanding Script for a Television Drama or Comedy - Fracaswell Hyman & Maria Perez-Brown for episode "Quinceanero"(Nominated)
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