Legally Blonde: MTV's Search for Elle Woods 

I really appreciate that the moral of the story here is "if you throw a bunch of theater kids together, they will form an ersatz family unit. The elders of the cast *will* form an informal leadership structure of the cast advocate, cast den mother, and cast morale booster. And years later the cast will still get together and drag a bad production over a bottle of wine.

I h a t e d when they told Emma she couldn't just call the understudy in whenever, she had bronchitis and the understudies job is to jump in at a moment's notice

"a racial range of white to extra-white" you honestly killed me at that me Edit: Lol thanks for all the likes

I felt so bad that their hair was bleached and afterwards they were sent home. I would be soooo angry!!!

The legally blonde livestream was the best thing to come out of 2020 reunions

"Not be able to fill laura bell's shoes" while laura bell is throwing her shoe away was grest!

When you held your dog for your intro I thought you were going to say “I’m Elle woods and this is bruiser woods. We’re both Gemini vegetarians.”

This show was so horrible, but to watch it now is hillarious. Especially after the zoom reunion. I honestly think the show is a great exemples of what not to do!

There was a lovely moment when the producers sent the competitors A list to fill in with categories like worst singer, least talented dancer, most rubbish actress and Autumn reinvents the questions to « most improved dancer », « most hard-working actress »... That was sweet and very Elle Woods-esque.

NAWT ILLEGALLY BLONDE AT THE END LMAOOOO

Actually I really liked how they had to improvise a dropped line. Auditions don’t test for improv like that but having that skill is absolutely necessary for any theatre role.

The fact that they tried to make it a Reality show is really upsetting upsetting to me, the Character Elle woods is an incredibly good person and she supports other women, and trying to pit the girls against eachother is really sad, it feel like o entirely ruins the message of Legally Blonde

Natalie is a friend of mine. She's the daughter of Michael Lander who played Squiggy in the "Laverne and Shirley" series. She was also a regular in the TV series "The Middle" and she now has a one woman show called "Legally Brunette" where she tells the story of her time in "Finding Elle Woods". She has taken the show to both coasts. She's the sweetest person ever and still looks like a teenager. She's married to a wonderful guy and still performs.

I got confused at the judges saying that some of the girls didn't act like elle,or that one of them it's too young,honey,in the case you didn't know there's a thing called acting

Natalie also played Gretchen Weiners in The Rockwell Table and Stage production of The Unauthorized Mean Girls Parody in 2017! She Was So Good!!!

I love when youtube recommends me stuff like this-- this is the niche content I signed up for!! XD

Excellent, honest breakdown of a show that showed a lot of what appeared to be despicable, bullying behaviour through their editing when the girls state that wasn’t the case. Lena Hall - thank goodness she didn’t get that awful role as otherwise she may not have made the choices that led to her AMAZING performances in Hedwig.

Wait this was recommended and I thought it was a huge channel... how do y’all only have 300 subs?? This was so well scripted and edited. You just gained another sub, keep up the great work and remember me when you’re famous 😂

So cool to include Cassie’s credit from The Wizard Of Oz! I was a munchkin in that National tour in 2009. Those girls are stars

THAT END!!! LOL Illegaly Blonde is the best!

"We biked for 8 hours!" *cut to lena, still biking*

On Broadway they wear wigs and they pulled a top model makeover lmao this contradicts everything I know as a hairstylist 😂😢😅

Timestamps: 0:54 Part 1: Context on Musical Theatre-Reality TV/The Golden Goose 4:26 Part 2: The Search for Elle Woods 9:23 Part 3: The Philosophy of Elle Woods 13:25 Part 4: The Reality behind the Reality TV 20:38 Part 5: They Found their Way/Where are they Now?

Really well edited and well scripted videos, really surprised to see y'all only have 71 subs, got a new one with me. Only thing that the "where are they now" cards went too fast.

This show was honestly insane

Thank you! I just rewatched this show and was completely disgusted by how twisted it was! You really presented it well.

I remember Seth Rudedsky telling one story on his SiriusXM show about how they had edited the footage to make it look like one of the contestants (I forget which one) had an eating disorder with footage in the bathroom with the sounds of her throwing up. But the truth was, while yes she had been throwing up, it was because the food they were providing the contestants was really out of date and she had gotten food poisoning. So producers were both covering their asses for the unsafe work environment AND make her look bad. I’m not the least bit surprised they found countless ways to make all the contestants look bad for manufactured petty drama.

Lauren, I believe, also originated a role in a new musical called We are the Tigers. Highly recommend for anyone interested!

Great video! I love that you included the "where are they now" segment!

I only knew of this show because The Soup would show clips of it. But watching this recap, I am so proud of those young women who competed. When the video recapped how they flipped the survey into something positive, I fist-pumped for them and was so proud and happy. Also, good on the older women for looking out for the young ones, not letting any of them get mistreated. It really just takes one person to speak up.

I actually saw Cassie Silva on the national tour of Matilda, she's great!!!

I’ve actually seen Lauren Zakrin in both Rock of Ages in the closing cast Sherrie; and in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 when Josh Groban was apart of the cast. She is so talented live it’s unreal.

To be fair, if you star on broadway you would want to tell everyone 😅

"I have about 10 gigs worth of Legally Blonde content on my computer right now" Thanks for watching guys. What did you think of the search? Did ALW do it better? Like, subscribe, tell your uncle about it.

I absolutely _hate_ that I love trashy shit like this so much! I’m the _worst._ Hahaha. (Just to be clear, I’m referring to stuff like “The Search For Elle Woods” and _not_ wonderfully researched, entertaining pieces taking a look back at programs like it, such as what you two have done for us here!)

Oh my god I didn't recognize Cassie Silva until the thing said she was in Hairspray and I was like OH MY GOD SHE WAS IN THAT EPISODE OF CLEAN HOUSE!! They gave her a little dance studio because the family got rid of enough stuff. I haven't seen that show in like 10 years but I was like "Wait, that episode of Clean House had an aspiring actress named Cassie who was in the Hairspray movie..." I'm glad she's doing well! I'm pretty sure Lindsey Ridgeway was the second Morgan in Boy Meets World, too? Anyway, cool video! Yay.

im so shocked this video isnt more popular! i loved it, great work!

Legally blonde has been my favorite movie for a very long time, I remember watching this MTV show on youtube years ago, and only being able to watch the first episode because it was *such* a disgrace to everything Legally Blonde stood for, to me. You guys really put it into words wonderfully, the format of reality TV competition shows completely contradicts the message of the Elle Woods character. I think it's funny that it also goes against musical theater culture in general. I don't have any personal experience with it, but my understanding of musical theater culture is that it's generally one of family and support. I hadn't heard about the reunion video, but it is so great to see them be able to share their experiences like that and to hear that they got along well and embodied the /real/ "spirit of Elle Woods" behind the scenes and underneath the disgusting editing. I also wanna say that this video is really well structured and interesting to watch, the set up of the reality TV context at the time as well as the description of the movie and musical really did well to build a foundation that strengthened and supported your points beautifully! And the where are they now section was SO SWEET AND CUTE!! Will definitely be watching more :)

need to see more videos from you guys!!

wow, amazing video!! really nicely edited and informative

Subscribed! This was really well done and RU-vid needs more theatre content!!

Amazing video! Please do more on musical theatre, i recently got into it and i wanna know more about other shows

This is such a professional video with commentary and editing, i loved it!

Thank you.. great video.

This was so entertaining, kudos fellas

My new favorite RU-vid channel!!!! I’m so glad i found it

Great video, I hope you make more.

I hope this channel blows up, great video! :)

Nice video. I can tell you put a lot of effort into it. Remember me when you have thousands of subscribers. ;)

I didn't know there was a zoom reunion!!! Thanks for this video. It rocked!!!

Where has this video been all my life!

So glad I stumbled upon your channel! The reality TV series is fun. Would love to see you guys discuss the special effects competition show Face Off. I loved that one back in the day.

this video was sooo well-made and i actually thought you had over a thousand subscribers! new subscriber here 💛

Great video!!!! Very well put together video-essay-type-situation 😃 subbed!! Look forward to future vids!!

Omg that clip of Jessica from Scream Queens (on VH1) 😂 You should definitely cover that! It was a great show.

This is so brilliant! We really enjoyed it, love you guys 😊 Jade & James H x

OMG! I had no idea Cassie S. was Brenda in Hairspray!

What a WELL DONE video

Thanks RU-vid for recommending this. You know my brand! I AM SO HERE FOR ALL OF THIS!

I saw a Scream Queens clip in there...you going to do a Scream Queens episode 👀👀👀

Thank u for using some footage of the original musical that started it all : illegally blonde. Iconic

When you recognize Laura Bell Bundy as Shelby from Hart of Dixie!

the ending makes me want an interview with everyone involved in the all-star cast of Red Room Studio’s Legally Blonde OMIGOD

great content

Omg your sub count does not reflect your content. 10/10. RU-vid’s doing you dirty! (Then again I know how that feels lol) glad I found another small theatre channel!

I actually ended up seeing Bailey on Broadway, in the actual show she was great! The MTV show was awful for the contestants, but so many stars have come out of it

this is amazing

Great video

Wait why doesnt this have 3828293847 views?

This came up in my recommends and it was the video I didn't know I needed, even finishing with the best production of Legally Blonde ever, the Red Room cast showing the girls how it is done. I am ashamed I bought into the edit and hated Cassie S and Emma who I think were done the dirtiest. Hearing that they didn't feed them etc is alarming to say the least. I also loved the reveal in their reunion that Lena Hall was hoping their Broadway mentor would be Patti Lupone or something and she couldn't even make herself smile when she saw it was Hailie Duff! I was surprised you didn't mention that Bailey Hanks has been accused of being homophobic and doubled down on her views hiding behind religion publicly.

So cool to see that all went on to successful careers!

I really hope you guys do a video on VH1's Scream Queens

Lauren was also in We Are The Tigers as Riley!

Tea... the director was replaced by the gay guy because he knew and worked under the father of Emma, one of the contestants, so it would have been too obvious that she was a nepotism hire and favouritism would have likely occurred (more than it had already).

thank god someone is finally talking about this

Autumn should have won. Also the day I learned that Lena Hall = Celina my life changed.

Sooooo I know from someone involved with the actual reality show that the 10 contestants we followed for the main season were actually all called to be there and Bailey had been cast since before they started filming. The reason they were all so nice to one another was cuz none of them were threatened by one another cuz it was all just one big “let’s expose our talent” opportunity! Every single one of them knew they weren’t going to be cast as Elle, and honestly good for them!!!! It was 100% to make Bailey a bit of a recognizable figure and make ppl want to buy tickets to see her. Instead of just casting her like any normal Broadway show and maybe move to a smaller theater. But yea none of it was an actual contest which makes all these facts that much more infuriating!!!! These poor women!!!!

I remember watching this show as a kid! Hehe

It's wild how much this show has stuck with me.

23:24 Cassie is also in Tin Can Bro’s The Wayward Guide series!

The SHADE of the clip played during the credits

Does anyone have a link to that hair bleaching episode? I could never find it on RU-vid :(

What show was Haylie Duff even in? Also, Lena Hall? Omg!

10/10quality content

I've not heard the word 'pastiche' used like that before...

Does anybody know what the video used for 3:47-3:55 is?

Fuck yes 8th. Also I would love to see a Scream Queens breakdown though I know it’s less musical theatrey so get why it wouldn’t be something you’d be interested in.

OWEN WILSONS BROTHER!! i never made the connection before, he always looked familiar omg

I like your style of videos, but I think you should really invest in a better mic

Holy shit, Lena Hall got her start on this show. Craziness!

Autumn looked like the mom lol

Awww baby Lena Hall.

This is honestly so illuminating and utterly frustrating. So what did that potato Bernie say during the reunion? He's just as complicit as those shady producers. Actually more.

This was my SHIT the summer before eighth grade, and is one of the main reasons I got into musical theatre. I don’t even really like the musical Legally Blonde all that much! The movie is superior. But it still holds a special place in my heart, it was my first favorite musical (current/probably forever favorite musicals are The Last Five Years and Billy Elliott).

I thought like me and 9 other people in the world watched this show lmaoo

they did all of them dirty , and cassie s turn out to be in six the musical , mtv probably edited bailey hanks singing voice "allegedly" to make her singing sound bad while see can sing in real life , poor bailey got unessary hate for getting the lead role of elle woods

how interesting that the winner is one of the few who isn't performing any more

I love RuPaul drag race and I'm a professional drag queen myself so I watch the show a lot kinda knowing how produced it is. I've even worked with a couple of the contestants in shows when they come to my city. They have spilled a lot of behind the scenes info. I've learned that most of the fights are fake and the crew talk down to the queens. Drag race is super fun to watch but it's sad how manupulative the producers are.

I loved this show. It was so awful so it became so hilarious.

The search for an ENT and a Union rep.