As Told By Ginger?

So I've downloaded the entire As Told By Ginger series to my laptop and it has been there for quite a while now because I downloaded Hey Arnold, too, and watched that one first.

Anyway, I just started watching As Told By Ginger last night and I got the shock of my life when I saw the very first episode. Why? Because the characters I grew to love watching on Nickelodeon looked far too different. For those who don't know how they look like in the episodes that aired in Nickelodeon, well, here they are:

Now, imagine my horror when I saw the first appearance of Ginger Foutley and the gang in Nickelodeon. No, not the episode posted above. It's numbered as s00ep00 and they looked like these:

So apparently, the very first version of Ginger looked like this. She looks a lot like her mom.

Dodie Bishop doesn't look like she underwent too much change but the hair bothers me.

Blake Gripling looks nothing like the one from the series that aired after this episode.

Darren Patterson looked like he's a really pale gothic kid which is weird because he's supposed to just be a light African-American.

My biggest surprise came when I saw Miranda. Miranda Killgallen was white! In the series I watched, she's a really light African-American. Plus, her face here is long and thin while in the series, her head was more like an oblong. Courtney Gripling looks different, too, but I sorta imagined her to look like this when she grew up so it didn't come as a surprise.

Anyway, this articular episode looked like the artists of Aaah! Real Monsters and the older episodes of Rugrats worked to make this episode happen. I think I was just staring the whole time I was watching the episode because I had to watch it again to finally understand it.

I love As Told By Ginger because I think that this particular series touches on sensitive issues teens/kids go through that other cartoons didn't: Death, bullying, love heartbreaks and other issues. It's Hey Arnold for teeny boppers.