50 Fun Facts About Sweet Valley High

Which real-life twin sisters played Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield in the 1990s Sweet Valley High television series?

Brittany and Cynthia Daniel were both 18 when they were cast in 1994, after an earlier version with another pair of twins was never filmed. Brittany played the schemer and Cynthia the sensible one.

Sweet Valley, the fictional hometown of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, is a suburb near which real Californian city?

Los Angeles is the nearest big city, yet Francine Pascal had never been to Southern California when the first books appeared. She was a New Yorker inventing the place from afar.

In the first Sweet Valley High book, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield compete for the attention of which basketball star?

Todd Wilkins chooses Elizabeth, and their on-off romance runs through the whole series. In a sequel set ten years on, he ends up marrying Jessica instead.

Which computer tycoon's daughter is both best friend and arch-rival to Jessica Wakefield at Sweet Valley High?

Lila Fowler is the poor little rich girl of the books, and her new-money family feuds with the old-money Patmans over whether the town should modernise.

Francine Pascal created Sweet Valley High, but who wrote most of the 181 books from her detailed plot outlines?

A team of ghostwriters turned out up to five books a month, each working from Pascal's plot outline and a character bible she kept on the twins and their town.

In The Evil Twin, which murderous lookalike plans to kill Elizabeth Wakefield and take her place in Sweet Valley?

Margo strikes at a New Year's Eve party, where Jessica intervenes just in time and the impostor dies instead. The villain still came back in Return of the Evil Twin.

The original Sweet Valley High books describe the figures of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield as which dress size?

Size six was the twins' figure from the very first book. The 2008 reissues trimmed it to a four, and swapped their Fiat for a Jeep Wrangler.

Which disaster hits Sweet Valley near the end of the original book series, killing Olivia Davidson and wrecking homes?

An earthquake closes the junior-year books with real casualties. Its damage to El Carro High sends that school's students to Sweet Valley in the Senior Year spin-off.

Which future Supernatural star had one of his first TV roles as a guest in the third season of Sweet Valley High?

Jensen Ackles played a boy called Brad in only his second television job. He joined the soap Days of Our Lives soon afterwards.

Which classmate, later reinvented as Alexandra at college, is Elizabeth Wakefield's best friend at Sweet Valley High?

Enid Rollins met Elizabeth in a creative-writing class. With a wild past behind her, she is by then a quiet model student, and joins a sorority only to keep her friend company.

Penny Ayala edits which Sweet Valley High student newspaper, where Elizabeth Wakefield is a regular writer?

The Oracle is where Elizabeth hones her writing, and one later plot turns on a boy copying her work and almost costing her the job there.

Which older brother of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield comes out as gay in the sequel Sweet Valley Confidential?

Steven is away at college for most of the high-school books, where his big storyline is losing his girlfriend Tricia Martin to a fatal illness.

In Dangerous Love, Elizabeth Wakefield's parents forbid her to ride on which vehicle, which later puts her in a coma?

A motorcycle had already killed her cousin, hence the ban. She rides anyway, and in the next book wakes from the crash behaving like her flirtatious twin.

Which Sweet Valley High class clown, long smitten with Jessica Wakefield, lands in an all-women's dorm at college?

Winston Egbert owes the mix-up to a clerical error, and it is in that dorm that he meets Denise Waters, the great love of his life.

During the Wakefield twins' internship in London, Elizabeth's English friend Luke is revealed to be which creature?

A werewolf was a sharp turn for a high-school romance series. The three London books of 1994 play as horror, and Elizabeth is left devastated when Luke dies.

Alice Wakefield, mother of Jessica and Elizabeth, works in which profession at one of Sweet Valley's major firms?

Interior designer Alice was a flower child at college, engaged to the wealthy Hank Patman until she met her future husband and called the wedding off.

Jessica Wakefield is co-captain of which Sweet Valley High team, a post she must share with rival Heather Mallone?

Cheerleading is Jessica's kingdom, so when Heather Mallone muscles in she quits and sets up a rival squad, with Elizabeth of all people on it.

In Sweet Valley Twins, Jessica Wakefield joins which exclusive group of her middle school's most popular girls?

The Unicorn Club proved such a draw that it earned a spin-off series of its own, following its members a school year further on.

Elizabeth Wakefield, the elder Sweet Valley twin by four minutes, hopes to become what when she grows up?

A journalist is what she becomes. In Sweet Valley Confidential the grown-up Elizabeth lives in New York, writing for a magazine that reviews Off-Broadway theatre.

In A Night to Remember, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield dream up which theme for the Sweet Valley High prom?

A jungle prom turns dark when Jessica spikes her twin's punch to win the crown. The drive home ends in a crash that kills Jessica's own boyfriend.

In The New Jessica, Jessica Wakefield tires of being mistaken for her twin and dyes her blonde hair which colour?

Black hair comes with a new name, Jessa Fields, and a bid to become a model. She dyes it back once the agency decides it would rather hire Elizabeth.

In Say Goodbye, Elizabeth Wakefield's steady boyfriend moves away from Sweet Valley with his family to which state?

Vermont keeps him out of the story for about 35 books, long enough for Elizabeth to fall for a soccer star before he comes back.

Which Sweet Valley High student, deaf since birth, is offered a year of treatment in Switzerland in Head Over Heels?

Regina Morrow regains her hearing, but in On the Edge she falls in with a new crowd and dies after trying cocaine at a party.

Bruce Patman, the rich and handsome snob of Sweet Valley High, drives a car with the plate 1BRUCE1 from which maker?

Porsche suits a boy who races cars and plays tennis. The books treat him as Jessica's mirror image: the twins only look alike, while those two think alike.

What is the profession of Ned Wakefield, father of Jessica and Elizabeth, who heads a prominent Sweet Valley firm?

A lawyer in general practice, he feeds the plots too: Jessica takes a job at his firm in Racing Hearts, and gossip about one of his colleagues runs through the very first book.

Which soccer star dates Elizabeth Wakefield at Sweet Valley High while her first love is living out of state?

Jeffrey French arrives in Taking Sides with two other girls already competing for him, and he simply vanishes from the series after the break-up.

Which childhood best friend of Elizabeth Wakefield moves back to Sweet Valley in Bitter Rivals as a boy-crazy gossip?

Amy Sutton wrote for the same school paper as Elizabeth when they were children, but the girl who comes back falls out with her old friend's circle and sides with Jessica.

Which Sweet Valley High super edition of 1985 became the first young-adult title on the New York Times bestseller list?

Perfect Summer sends the twins and their friends on a cycling trip along the coast. By January 1986, 18 of the top 20 titles on B. Dalton's teen chart were from the series.

Which book opened the Sweet Valley High series in 1983, ahead of Secrets and Playing with Fire?

Double Love has both twins falling for the same boy. The publisher bought the whole series on the strength of a six-page proposal.

After a prom-night crash kills her sister's boyfriend, Elizabeth Wakefield is arrested on which criminal charge?

Manslaughter is the charge in The Arrest, where guilt over spiking her twin's drink gives Jessica nightmares. Elizabeth is acquitted in the next book, The Verdict.

Tricia Martin, first serious girlfriend of the Wakefield twins' brother in Sweet Valley High, dies of which illness?

Leukemia had already killed Tricia's mother. After the death, her troubled sister Betsy moves in with the Wakefields for a while, to Jessica's dismay.

In Power Play, which girl rejected by a sorority slims down and beats Jessica Wakefield to a coveted school crown?

Robin Wilson finds that only Elizabeth, who had nominated her, was truly on her side. Jessica's demand to be handed the crown turns the whole school against her.

Which Sweet Valley High quarterback is blinded in an accident in That Fatal Night and dumped by his girlfriend?

Ken Matthews finds comfort with the team's statistician, Terri Adams. In the adult sequels he is a famous professional player with a baby on the way.

In Too Good to Be True, house guest Suzanne Devlin falsely accuses which Sweet Valley High English teacher of assault?

Mr. Collins is cleared when a classmate tricks Suzanne into confessing on videotape. He also advises the school paper and is one of Elizabeth's favourite teachers.

Mr. Cooper, the somewhat stuffy principal of Sweet Valley High, is known to his students by which nickname?

Chrome Dome is a dig at his bald head. His staff room also holds Bob Russo, the chemistry teacher billed as the sternest in the school.

Dana Larson sings lead vocals for which Sweet Valley High student rock band, with Max Dellon on guitar?

The Droids get a shot at the big time as early as book three, and a later story has a painfully shy classmate enter a contest to write them a song.

Which Sweet Valley High sorority, home to Jessica Wakefield and her clique, do pledges fight to join in Jealous Lies?

Pi Beta Alpha is exclusive enough to set best friends against each other in that book. Its counterpart for the school's boys is the fraternity Phi Epsilon.

In The New Elizabeth, Elizabeth Wakefield sets out to shake off her stodgy image by taking up which sport?

Surfing comes round again later in the series, when Jessica bets her best friend that she can win a local contest.

In Who's to Blame?, Ned Wakefield moves out of the family home in Sweet Valley while running for which office?

Mayor is as far as his ambitions go. He quits the race in The Parent Plot, once Elizabeth uncovers corrupt businessmen behind his campaign, and moves back home.

In Once Upon a Time, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield become au pairs for a royal family in which country?

France supplies a fairy-tale ending of sorts: Prince Laurent proposes to Elizabeth, who turns him down and goes home to her old boyfriend.

Which production company made the Sweet Valley High TV series before its library passed to Disney in 2001?

Saban Entertainment picked the books up after another company's planned two-hour special was never filmed, and turned them into a half-hour comedy-drama.

After three seasons in syndication, the Sweet Valley High TV series moved to which network for its fourth and final run?

UPN used the show to launch its new block of teen programming in September 1997, yet the final episode aired only a month later.

Jason David Frank, a four-episode guest on the Sweet Valley High TV show, was best known as a hero of which franchise?

Power Rangers and the high-school show shared a production company, and a second Ranger actress, Catherine Sutherland, guest-starred in Sweet Valley too.

Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High idea took shape when she heard an editor wanted a teenage version of which TV soap?

Dallas gave her the model of a glossy serial, and the twins did the rest. She called Jessica and Elizabeth her Jekyll and Hyde.

Before Sweet Valley High, Francine Pascal co-wrote the book for which Broadway musical with her husband and her brother?

George M! told the life of the song-and-dance man George M. Cohan and had a successful Broadway run in 1968 and 1969.

Francine Pascal followed Sweet Valley High with which series about the abandoned daughter of a CIA terrorism expert?

Fearless ran to more than 40 titles from 1999. Its heroine, Gaia Moore, is seventeen when the story opens and is incapable of feeling fear.

In 2022, the Sweet Valley Twins stories of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield began returning to shops in which new format?

Graphic novels gave the middle-school stories a second life nearly forty years after the twins first appeared, starting with a volume called Best Friends.

Which Oscar-winning screenwriter signed on in 2009 to script and produce a film of the Sweet Valley High books?

Diablo Cody had won her Oscar the year before for Juno, the first of her screenplays to be filmed.

Which paperback publisher bought Sweet Valley High on Francine Pascal's short proposal and issued the first titles?

Bantam had the covers painted by hand, and staff recall the excitement when each new painting was delivered to the office.

Which network bought the Sweet Valley High TV rights in 1988 and cast twins for a two-hour pilot it never filmed?

NBC drew nearly 3,000 entrants to its auditions and named its sixteen-year-old leads in 1989, but the show only reached screens five years later, made by another company.