So Little Time

Chloe and Riley Carlson are twin sisters living in Malibu, California. Their fashion designer parents Macy and Jake are separated, living with their mom and their flamboyant, wise-cracking nanny Manuelo, while their dad is living in a trailer park a few miles away. Riley has the romantic affection of Larry Slotnick, the Carlson's wacky next-door neighbor. ==Cast and characters==

Main cast • Mary-Kate Olsen as Riley Carlson • Ashley Olsen as Chloe Carlson • Eric Lutes as Jake Carlson • Clare Carey as Macy Carlson • Jesse Head as Spartacus Lawrence "Larry" Slotnick • Natashia Williams as Tedi • Taylor Negron as Manuelo Del Valle Recurring cast • Amy Davidson as Cammie Morton • Wendy Worthington as Ellen Westmore • Ben Easter as Lennon Kincaid • Todd Susman as Ed • Robert Hegyes as Vice Principal Connor Notable guest stars • Tim Bagley as Mr. Diamond ("The Flat Fire") • Drake Bell as Himself ("Waiting for Gibson") • Rini Bell as Tanya ("Larrypalooza") • Billy Aaron Brown as Rob ("The Wheelchair") • Francis Capra as Tony ("There's Something About Riley") • Sue Casey as Dolores Strathmore ("The Volunteer") • Bill Erwin as George ("The Volunteer") • Art Evans as Clayton Simms ("You've Got Mail") • Cheryl Hines as Barbara Morrison ("The Job") • Kathryn Joosten as Louise Van Horn ("The Volunteer") • Stephen Lee as Ted Morrison ("The Job", "The Flat Fire") • Jodi Long as Neptune's Net owner ("Manuelo in the Middle (Part 2)") • Trina McGee-Davis as Waitress ("The New Guy") • David Reivers as TV commercial director ("The Wheelchair") • Adam Wylie as Todd ("Riley's New Guy") ==Production==

Filming Filming began the week of February 19, 2001. Production offices for the show were located on the Universal Studios Lot in Universal City, California. In a May 2001, New York Times article, head of children's programming at FOX Family Channel, Joel Andryc said, "...[the Olsens are] on more than any other show on the entire network, daytime or prime time." He went on to say, "and consistently, wherever we put their shows, they do very good numbers. We're positioning our network as sort of a steppingstone between Nickelodeon and MTV. This new series [So Little Time] is going to be a major initiative for us. We're kind of where Comedy Central was a couple of years ago, when suddenly 'South Park' came onto their network and everybody wanted Comedy Central. So, like The Sopranos for HBO or Rugrats for Nickelodeon -- that's what I'm hoping this show will be." Conclusion In 2002, it was reported the show would end after Mary-Kate and Ashley bowed out, in favor of a feature film contract. It was alluded that ABC Family wanted to keep the series after the change over from FOX Family Channel, but "not at any price." ==Broadcasting==

On 6 August 2001, Fox Kids Europe announced they had acquired worldwide television distribution rights to the series, including the United States. In Canada, Family Channel aired reruns of the series weekdays at 6:00pm until June 28, 2007, when they were replaced by Zoey 101. In the United Kingdom, the show aired on BBC One 18 September 2001 and on the ''Children's Channel'' CBBC. Some episodes had a shorter running time than others because of the removal of the "behind the scenes" featurettes. Later in the series, the show starts with the crew wandering around the set with the camera following them. They talk about today's events, such as the birthday of an actor on the set. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen usually appear in this segment. In Italy, the series aired on Italia 1 under the name Due gemelle e un maggiordomo (Two Twins and a butler) from August until September 2002. A short "behind the scenes" featurette was sometimes included at the end of an episode as well. Although retained on the Warner Home Video VHS and DVD releases, these were always edited out of the U.K. terrestrial transmissions. The series briefly reran on Nickelodeon in 2015 after the network acquired the rights to Olsen twins' Dualstar video library. ==Episodes==

From 2002 to 2003, Warner Bros. and DualStar released 4 separate volumes of the show on DVD and VHS. Each volume contained 6 episodes each for a total of 24 episodes. In 2005, those 4 volumes were packaged together as one box set containing a fifth DVD with the only two episodes that had not yet been released to DVD ("Outbreak" and "Look Who's Talking"). This box set was titled So Little Time: 5 DVD Gift Set. The episodes on the gift set are not presented in air date or production order, because it is simply a repackaging of the individual DVD releases and each release had its own theme. Although the gift set and individual releases for volumes 1–4 have since gone out of print, volumes 1–4 were re-released in 2017 as two 2-disc "double feature" sets, the first containing volumes 1 and 2 and the second containing volumes 3 and 4. The bonus disc containing "Outbreak" and "Look Who's Talking" has not been re-released and those two episodes remain only available as part of the 5 DVD Gift Set package. • ''So Little Time, Volume 1: School's Cool'' (August 13, 2002) • So Little Time, Volume 2: Boy Crazy (August 13, 2002) • So Little Time, Volume 3: About A Family (August 13, 2002) • ''So Little Time, Volume 4: Hangin' Out'' (June 3, 2003) • So Little Time: 5 DVD Gift Set (September 6, 2005) ==Books==

Several episodes of So Little Time were novelized and published in book form by HarperCollins Entertainment. The series also featured new original stories based on the show, which were written by the same authors. As of the spring of 2008, 17 So Little Time books have been released, following the lives of Chloe and Riley. • How to Train a Boy • Instant Boyfriend • Too Good To Be True • Just Between Us • Tell Me About It • Secret Crush • Girl Talk • The Love Factor • Dating Game • ''A Girl's Guide to Guys'' • Boy Crazy • Best Friends Forever • Love is in the Air • Spring Breakup • Get Real • Surf Holiday • The Makeover Experiment ==Soundtrack==

A soundtrack album featuring the show's theme song as well as other music featured in the series was released by Trauma Records and Dualstar Records in June 2001, and was made available on iTunes, Amazon MP3 and Spotify on June 5, 2010, by Kirtland Records. • Arkarna - "So Little Time" • Noogie - "Mr. Fabulous" • Jason Feddy - "The Beautiful Few" • Joey Kingpin - "Rock It" • Vienna - "Where I Wanna Be" • Ritalin - "Stuck Like Glue" • George Tenen III and James Pennington - "You Make Me Love You More" • Lovepie - "Thoughts of You" • The Getaway People - "Superstar" • Chad Hollister - "Leavin' Home" • Crashpalace - "Brickwall" • The Weekend - "Punk Rock Show" ==References==