Samantha (Sam) McPherson

The only child of Jane and Joseph (Joe) McPherson. Joe died in 1997. Sam was very close to her father and is determined to follow in his journalistic footsteps, which is why she is the editor of the school newspaper.

Sam is headstrong, has a firm sense of right and wrong. She knows she's supposed to be neutral (in journalistic terms), but is strongly biased against the popular set. She often crusades for unpopular causes, usually in association with her best friend Lily Esposito.

She dresses for comfort, not for style. Dresses and skirts are not her thing, though frankly she'd still look good in a potato sack. She has shoulder length wavy black hair, a beautiful face, a captivating smile and an endearing habit of putting her tongue in her cheek (literally not figuratively).

Sam has sex appeal in spades but is not confident about her looks, especially in relation to Brooke McQueen. She's hurt that Harrison John finds the slim blonde more attractive than her. This has manifested itself in a worry that her breasts are not big enough.

She attended Ocean Park Elementary with Josh Ford and developed a crush on him that lingered into high school. He chose to go out with Brooke, just one of the many things she holds against the cheerleader.

Sam doesn't seem to be a hit with the boys. Her attempt to hit on a teacher, Mr Grant, did not go well. He lost his job, or at least had to leave the school. Later she pretended to be dating Leo Ferrara in an attempt to upstage Brooke.

She finally began dating George Austin. He fit the desirable Jock image, thus proving anything Brooke could do she could do, and yet he was also an unconventional choice (he's black) so she went one better.

Ironically, her relationship with George proved to be just as shallow as the one between Josh and Brooke. A point proven by her switch to Harrison, an even more unconvincing relationship. It's certainly no surprise that she remains a virgin.

Subtext is a matter for interpretation and I'm leaving all that to Jos. But as Ryan Murphy and Carly Pope were all for having Sam come out as a lesbian in the cancelled season three, I think we can take this as the canon explanation for her lack of success with men.

Her antagonistic relationship with Brooke escalated when the families merged and she had to move into The Palace. It's bad enough to be her lab partner, but playing the stepsister is just too much for Sam, or at least it was at first. But she can't deny her mother's happiness with Mike McQueen, and a grudging respect grows between the girls, though this doesn't prevent plenty of argumentswhen they disagree.

Other facts. Sam is left handed and drives a brown VW Beetle convertible.