Top 10 BEST Lizzie McGuire Episodes
#10: “The Rise and Fall of the Kate Empire”
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No one can blame Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo for enjoying it just a little when their bully gets knocked down a peg. In this episode, Kate dislocates her shoulder, and Claire takes over as head cheerleader and school queen bee. But Lizzie, being so Lizzie, can’t help but feel bad for Kate, even before Claire proves herself to be an even worse bully than she was. Lizzie and her friends work with Kate to steal back the throne. With this episode, we get a double hitter. We get to see Lizzie, while her friends’ arch nemesis gets a taste of her own medicine, and we also get a pretty cool hero and villain team up.
#9: “Lizzie in the Middle”
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Lizzie gets her shot on the big screen when Frankie Muniz comes to town to shoot his newest movie. In this one, Lizzie and her friends get to experience some of the perks that come with being friends with a big celebrity. But they also get to see that the life of fame is not all it’s cracked up to be. Nevertheless, Lizzie has a cinematic adventure with Frankie Muniz and co-stars in his movie. We never get to see that movie except for a quick scene, but perhaps it’s a little preview of “Agent Cody Banks,” which Frankie Muniz and Hilary Duff later starred in together.
#8: “Clue-Less”
In this off-beat episode, we get to see our favorite tween characters playing characters of their own in a murder mystery party. But the mystery of the whodunit is only part of the story. While all of Lizzie’s friends and family search for clues to solve the murder, some of their own secrets are revealed. We get to learn new backstory into several side characters, including Larry Tudgeman and Veruca Albano, who get their own story in this episode. And Lizzie and Gordo have a cute romantic moment of their own, foreshadowing the future that we all knew were coming for them.
#7: “I’ve Got Rhythmic”
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Lizzie spends a lot of time throughout the series feeling unspecial, like she’s not really good at anything. But in this episode, Lizzie finds something that she has a special talent for: rhythmic gymnastics. Naturally, Lizzie’s arch nemesis, Kate, tries to ruin Lizzie’s big meet. Thankfully, Lizzie’s got good friends like Gordo and Miranda to save the day. It’s great to see Lizzie excel at something she’s really good at, even if she ends up not sticking with it. And it’s always a fun ride watching Lizzie and her friends beat Kate at her own game.
#6: “First Kiss”
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All in the course of just one episode, Lizzie finds her first love, gets her first kiss, and experiences her first heartbreak. Lizzie’s paperboy, Ronnie, shows an interest in her, and asks her to be his girlfriend. This episode expertly expresses both the good and bad of young love. Lizzie is so happy she cannot stop talking about Ronnie, and her friends get super annoyed with her. But Ronnie dumps her for another girl at his school. As Ronnie puts it, “she’s right there and everything”. The experience was heartbreaking, but consider yourself lucky Lizzie, you dodged a serious bullet with this guy. Ronnie shouldn’t be expecting any more tips from the McGuires.
#5: “Just Friends”
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Lizzie has always had a huge crush on Ethan Craft. So when he finally becomes available, Lizzie does everything she can to make herself appealing to him. She even goes so far as to have Gordo do recon on Ethan to find out what she can use to make herself into his perfect woman. Of course, Ethan likes Lizzie just how she is, but he only sees her as a friend. Though Lizzie suffers yet another heartbreak, she learns an important lesson about being true to herself.
#4: “Inner Beauty”
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Speaking of being true to yourself, in this episode, Miranda deals with a distorted body image. Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo are preparing to shoot a music video, and after some innocent comments from Gordo about her eating habits, Miranda gets it in her head that she’s fat. The show is usually focussed around the titular character, so it was great to get a Miranda episode, even under these circumstances. The episode sends a powerful message to its young viewers about the dangers of crash diets. And there's a cool dance number in the end.
#3: “Lizzie’s Eleven”
This show has several episodes that pay homage to famous movies, and this one is definitely one of the best. After feeling neglected in previous years, Lizzie and her friends work out an elaborate plan to get 11 of Lizzie's pictures into the yearbook. But naturally, Kate has her own plan to thwart them. And all of this goes down at the school on Monte Carlo Night. Much like “Ocean’s Eleven”, as the episode goes on more and more details of the plan are revealed. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, another twist is thrown in. And it’s always awesome seeing everyone team up against Kate.
#2: “She Said, He Said, She Said”
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This one is another play on a classic flick, this time it’s “The Breakfast Club”. Actually, this episode took on two old favorites. By using the Breakfast Club-esque motif, It put a cool twist on the classic food fight episode that is a hallmark of many family friendly shows. Lizzie, Kate, and Larry are blamed for the huge food fight and sentenced to detention cleaning up the cafeteria. The three all have different perspectives on what happened, and they all learn new things about each other, just like in the film that inspired the episode.
Before we unveil our top pick, her are a few honorable mentions:
“The Longest Yard”
“Gordo and the Girl”
“Rumors”
#1: “Aaron Carter’s Coming to Town” [aka “Here Comes Aaron Carter”]
In the height of his teeny bopper popularity, Aaron Carter, yes, THE Aaron Carter, visited Lizzie’s town during the Christmas season to shoot his latest music video. So, of course, Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo, and Matt sneak onto the music video’s set with the hopes of meeting Aaron Carter and dancing with him in his video. After a wild adventure of chase and escape scenes, the whole gang finally make it on stage, and their Christmas wish comes true. Matt gets to impersonate Aaron Carter, Lizzie and Miranda get to dance with him, and Gordo gets some behind the scenes shots. Oh, and Lizzie gets an extra special Christmas kiss under the mistletoe.
