"What's my name?"
Taina was a Nickelodeon sitcom that aired between 2001 and 2002, and concerns a teenage girl who attends a performing arts school with her quirky friends, with dreams of becoming a superstar. Sound familiar? In fact, on This Very Wiki Taina is primarily remembered as "the show that Victorious ripped off years later." The series starred Christina Vidal as the titular character. The show ran for two seasons before being canceled by Nickelodeon due to behind the scenes business issues regarding Vidal. This was also the last sitcom that was filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida.
This is one of two Nickelodeon series to be distributed internationally by Nelvana, the other being The Fairly OddParents!.
Tropes in Taina include:
- Alpha Bitch: Maritza definitely acts like one with her love of fashion, and at one point, a trailer even said, "I loooooove raining on your parade."
- Attention Whore: Maritza can be a little desperate for attention.
- Brick Joke: Maritza says, "I looooooove raining on your parade." Taina later responds with "Maritza, you're so... muuuuuuuuuushy."
- The Cameo: Shakira, Luis Fonsi and Kelly Rowland all make guest appearances.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Taina in one episode fails her Spanish test. Her family is Puerto Rican, and regularly speak Spanish to one another.
- Constructive Criticism: This became a subject of an episode, in which a performance is given a review that interpreted as being somewhat mean, but when they point this trope out, the characters debate just what passes off for Constructive Criticism.
- Demoted to Extra: Taina's family are seen far less in the second season than in the first.
- Expository Theme Tune: Taina (whose name is sung quite harmonically) dreams of stardom.
- Fantasy Sequence: We get one once per episode. They often end with her posing in the same position (when we cut back to reality), which bares the question; was she actually singing and dancing around before she realized that it was just a daydream?
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: One episode revolved around Taina trying to join a girl group, on one condition: she ditches her friend, Renee. Taina ends up choosing her friend.
- It's All About Me: Maritza Hogg
- And Taina herself, quite often.
- Meaningful Name: Maritza's last name, Hogg, also applies to her excessive need to hog the spotlight.
- Also, Taina qualifies. Her name is derived from the indigenous Taíno tribe. This actually becomes important in one episode in which Taina makes a play about her ancestors and mentions them.
- Rich Language, Poor Language: White middle-class Dan and the arriviste Maritza are generally better-spoken than most other characters.
- Short-Runner: Despite the huge ratings, the show was cancelled after two seasons due to business issues behind the scenes. Nickelodeon execs were trying to ignore child labor laws with Vidal, which caused her to threaten a lawsuit towards them. To make matters worse, Vidal signed a record deal with a company outside of Nickelodeon (MCA records), which was a conflict of interest for the network. Both situations led to Nick not renewing the show for a 3rd season and just axing the series.
- Spicy Latina: Taina
