Get me out of here!
Mortified is a TV show that premiered in 2006 and finished in 2007, with two seasons. In total it has 26 episodes. It follows the life of Taylor Fry, an 11-to-12 year old girl attending Sunburn Elementary, featuring her best friend Hector, her sister Layla, her two mega-embarrassing parents as well as her peers.
Mortified contains examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Layla with her many, many boyfriends. The majority of the girls at Sunburn with Leon.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Sort of the whole plot.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Layla, to the nth degree.
- Changeling Fantasy: Taylor frequently convinces herself variations on this. It's not true, though.Taylor: I've always felt like I didn't belong with them, like I belonged with someone else.
- The Chosen One: After listening to a lecture on Buddhism, Taylor becomes convinced that she is the chosen one.
- Commonality Connection: In a season 2 episode, Taylor finds out that Leon is just as embarrassed of his parents as she is of hers and the two bond over this.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the last scene of the finale, Taylor sings the show's theme song during her school's talent show. It's fitting that she changed the lyrics, from being constantly embarrassed by her parents and doubtful about who she was, to acknowledging that the flaws of her mum and dad are endearing, and that she can just be herself.
- Dramatic Drop: Taylor drops the bowl she is carrying when she looks out the kitchen window and sees her father pumping iron in the backyard in "Parent Teacher Night".
- Embarrassing Statue: In "Mother in the Nude", Taylor is struck dumb when she arrives home from school with her friends to find her mother creating a nude sculpture of herself. To make matters worse, her class will attend the public unveiling at Sculpture by the Beach. However, the sculpture turns out to be an abstract that is not identifiable as human, let alone as Glenda, while Taylor's effort to upstage the reveal turns into a case of Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!.
- Foil: Brittany and Taylor. To a lesser extent, Taylor and Layla.
- Good Parents: Don and Glenda Fry. Even though Taylor generally regards them as Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, she realises in "Taylor's Song" (the final episode) that while her family might not perfect, they are perfect for her.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Although Taylor doesn't possess any magic powers, she does wish her parents' talents for embarrassing her will disappear.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Taylor is prone to this and at various times fantasizes that she Speaks Fluent Animal, believes she is The Chosen One, hopes to be abducted by aliens and attempts to become the first child astronaut.
- Imagine Spot: Taylor frequently imagines that she Speaks Fluent Animal.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: In "Mother in the Nude", the footage of Taylor almost drowning in a mermaid costume and Don stripping down to his underwear to save her goes viral and achieves worldwide news coverage.
- Jerkass: Leon, definitely. The only reason the girls like him is because All Girls Want Bad Boys. Layla also fits this.
- Mistaken for Cheating: In "Divorce Camp", Taylor fears that her parents are getting a divorce. At school camp, Taylor convinces herself that there is something going on between her mother and her teacher, Mr Frankel. She sabotages every activity in an effort to keep them apart.
- Neat Freak: Brittany's parents Michael and Loretta Flune. In "Girl Power", they vacuum their front lawn in preparation for the sale of their house.
- Pants-Pulling Prank: In "Taylor Turns Bad", Layla convinces the grounded Taylor to sneak out, then secretly pulls Taylor's jeans off leaving her in a skirt top, her underwear and even bigger trouble with her parents.
- Precocious Crush: In "The Talk", Taylor develops a crush on a teenaged martial arts instructor and signs up for classes just to see him. She is not pleased when he starts dating her big sister.
- Public Exposure: In "Mother in the Nude", Taylor is struck dumb when she arrives home from school with her friends to find her mother creating a nude sculpture of herself. To make matters worse, her class will attend the public unveiling at Sculpture by the Beach but Taylor's effort to upstage the reveal makes a bigger splash than she intended.
- Rich Bitch : Brittany starts as this.
- Scared of What's Behind You: Taylor attempts to scare off some bullies with her (non-existant) martial arts skills. After going through some What the Fu Are You Doing? moves, the bullies suddenly back off and leave. Taylor is convinced of her martial arts prowess, unaware that the bullies had left because of two cops walking up the beach behind her.
- Seashell Bra: The mermaid costume Taylor wears (and almost drowns in) in "Mother in the Nude" incorporates a seashell bra.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: One of the ongoing subplots the clashes between the Frys (slobs) and the Flunes (snobs). In one episode, the Flunes hope to buy out the Frys so they can demolish the Frys' house (which they consider an eyesore) and turn the Frys' block into their extended garden.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Taylor has frequent Imagine Spots where she imagines she can talk to animals and they speak back to her in fluent English.
- The Talk: Taylor spends an entire episode fleeing from her parents who she thinks are trying to give her The Talk. Finally cornered, she discovers that they actually want to talk to her about doing her share of the household chores now that she is older. Relieved, she immediately agrees and starts doing the dishes with her mother. However, her mother then takes advantage of having a captive audience to actually give her The Talk.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Averted. Taylor and her peers are often seen in their school uniforms even outside of school hours. Taylor often repeats outfits in different episodes, which is Truth in Television. Brittany, however, does not. This further reinforces the Slobs Versus Snobs gap between them.
- Verbed Title: Describes how the central character usually feels.
- What the Fu Are You Doing?: Taylor attempts to scare off some bullies with made up martial arts moves. When the bullies leave because of two cops walking the beach behind her, Taylor become convinced she is martial arts prodigy.
