I just caught the Disney Channel's Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana, having never seen a full episode of The Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, or Hannah Montana. Friday's premiere was a 90-minute "crossover event" with all of the characters interacting! It was like the shows were braided together. Or fishtailed! But no, because fishtails only require two pieces of hair and there were three elements of this important television event. Below, an appropriately Tiger Beat-sponsored sample. Justin "blue-ing himself" in the hot tub: a latent Arrested Development reference? Ha, as if.
Honestly, it was kind of fun and endlessly enlightening, on a professional level, to zone out to this tripe for 90 minutes as I lazily trolled the Internet for weird pictures of food. I finally got to hear "Pwned" used in a sentence. I began to understand the appeal of Selena Gomez. I took in about 17 long-ass promos for what will surely be the greatest 3-D movie about gerbils, G-Force, during which Tracy Morgan impersonated the most sedated mad scientist in history. The viewing experience reminded me of when I used to eagerly sit through the full lineup of ABC's "TGIF" in the early '90s — I didn't (couldn't!) realize at the time how mediocre the canned-laughter comedy was, because it truly did seem fun. Like our moms and aunts with their soap operas, these were "our stories"; I loved the routine of it all. Who would host the cool-girl sleepover at her house that Friday so that we could belt out the Six Flags-set opening credits to Step By Step in not-exactly unison? (Usually me: I knew how to make smoothies!) So I don't begrudge die-hard fans of Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana. I get it. I mean, the adult in me wants to say what Hannah apparently says every 10 seconds…"Come on!" [Exaggerated eye roll! Seriously, does she need to make an "I'm so zany" face after every utterance?] But at the same time, I can see a younger version of myself TOTALLY LOVING THIS.
So listen up, kids and parents. I see you on Twitter, flipping out about how you missed the show. You didn't! Wizards on Deck airs again tonight at 7 ET and Sunday at 5, and a lot more times after that. You don't have to miss out on a Paris Hilton knockoff named London Tipton, or the visual feast of Billy Ray Cyurs splayed out on a cruise ship bed looking like three miles of bad road. (I know he was supposed to be seasick, but the guy looked and sounded wasted the entire time and I just wanted him to grab a lukewarm cheeseburger, wave it around, and complete the transition to David Hasselhoff already.)
Are you on board, or are you on bored? If you can tolerate that sentence, I believe it is the former. Ahoy.
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I watched it too – and it was good. Some of these kids are actually sort of talented. Selena Gomez and David Henrie stand out. Not great, but good.
There’s only one legitimate place I’ve found to watch it, the rest seem like scams :-/ You can see it over here though: http://jjpeg.com/watch28015.html
It takes a minute to load but after that it’s good to go
Annie, you amaze me and remind me of the joy of Friday night line ups! (Although mine were in the 70’s starting with All in the Family – but the same idea without the smoothies!) So sure – let’s salute this TV fun and let the children enjoy. ) My daughter is just a tad past HM but I see her remote control drift over to the Disney Channel when she thinks no one is looking! Go Annie!
I am ashamed to say that I have watched a full episode of each of those shows and I am even more ashamed to say that I’m quite tempted to watch this now.
Not regular fare, but I’ve caught Hannah Montana on occasion and I think it’s cute for kids. Don’t know about the other shows, but this type of stuff is what Disney is for and its generally appropriate fare.
i’ll be honest i have watched suite life on deck/suite life of zack and cody
)
occasionally but that is the ONLY show i can tolerate (along with that’s so raven that show was a gem
I’m 26 and I watch Disney regularly (yes, I am aware of how lame I am and am OK with it) so I of course tuned in for this event. I found myself distracted, disturbingly, by a shirtless David Henrie and then decided I should seek therapy. However, upon further research I discovered that he’s 20. Innapprpriate crush? Probably. But at least it’s legal.
As a mother of kids 4,7 and 9 we had all the DVR’s set for Friday night. I actually enjoyed it. I love Selena Gomez on Wizards. I think Disney does a great job entertaining kids with these shows and characters.
“What were Tobias’ last words?”
“I just blue myself.”
Oh how I wish Disney Channel would reference Arrested Development.
I often fly from LAX to SFO on Virgin America (free live tv), and I always watch one of these shows because they are comforting – totally goofy fun. Perfect 45 minute plane ride viewing. I will definitely track down this specific crossover insanity for viewing.
Thanks for the TGIF memories, Annie. Ditto!
Who’s Billy Ray Cyurs?
My cousin’s daughter had a mini meltdown at dinner last night because we weren’t going to get home in time to see it…it was like her puppy died..if she weren’t afraid of puppies…but still, very sad moment for her.
I’ve watched them all–I have a young teenaged daughter–and even though she left for a sleepover partway through this show last night, I kept watching until it was over. I actually don’t mind watching these shows (the first time, that is; my daughter seems to think that she should watch them until she’s got the dialogue memorized.) Anyway, I think that many of the Disney Channel/Nick shows are pretty good, and definitely no worse than any of the TGIF shows. The same goes for most of the kid actors. I did ban That’s So Raven and Cory in the House from our TV, because we couldn’t handle Raven’s screeching (although Annaliese van der Pol’s Chelsea was hilarious) and everything on CitH is massively stupid.
Ah, Annie, you’re always awesome.
I’ve had several flashbacks so far this weekend around this topic… a) My little cousin was so excited for this all week, and then like 30 minutes before it premiered she voluntarily left the house to watch her brother’s football practice. That so wouldn’t have been me. I remember being pissed and nearly getting spanked when my mama decided we’d go grocery shopping and she KNEW I wanted to watch some “Goosebumps” premiere, haha.
b) The crossover event also made me think of TGIF days – remember when Sabrina, Boy Meets World, You Wish and Teen Angel all went back in time ’cause of Salem the cat?
I’m sure there’ll be more, seeing as the TV’s still on Disney Channel right now… kids…
My kids made me watch this. Selena Gomez is a good little actress. Cute kiddie fare overall.
I’ve watched more Disney Channel than I care to admit (young children in the house). Last nights show was actually pretty entertaining. Selena Gomez is a marvel. Her timing is so good.
At least Disney isn’t playing to the dumbest denominator of kids these days. They definitely seem to get that parents are forced to watch too.
I too was forced to watch this tripe (three tweeners). The shows we watched in the 80s weren’t mean-spirited, were funny and, for the most part, the kids could act.
My daughters hijacked my DVR to record this.
I watched this last night with my 7-year-old, and enjoyed the heck out of it. We seem to watch Disney constantly**, and these are my son’s three favorite shows at the moment.
**OK, I’m exaggerating, we do occasionally play outside, do homework and read books too!
Maybe I’ll check this out…I watched an episode of iCarly on Nick the other day, so who knows what’s next? lol.
i’m not a miley cyrus fan, but i do enjoy wizards of waverly place on occasion and yes i am a selena gomez fan and i’m in my early 20’s! i agree, david and selena did stand out, also jake and brenda were good, too. i do miss the shows from my childhood though, wishbone, kratt’s creatures, the magic school bus, the ones where kids actually learned stuff. at least there’s still arthur! although the voices on arthur have gotten weird now so i don’t watch the new episodes anymore just the episodes from the 1990’s!
yay for youtube!
You don’t have to apologize for or feel uncomfortable about enjoying mindless and silly entertainment every now and then. The pressures of life are hard enough. Annie, with all the drama that comes with supporting a family, working a 9 to 5, and taking care of daily life chores, never allow others to come into your home and tell you that you can’t relax and enjoy a program just for the entertainment aspect of it. My motto is if I want to spend a couple of hours with the family watching Dancing With the Stars or Wipeout each week, or if I had a blast seeing Transformers Revenge of The Fallen in IMAX, or if I played my Michael Jackson cds all day while I potatoed out on the couch, at least I actually enjoyed some me time away from the stresses of life and that’s all that matters. You’ve got one life to live and sometimes living it just means having some silly moments.
I’m 19, and I hadn’t watched the Disney Channel since Lizze Mcguire. But, my friend has a huge crush on Selena, Miley, and Demi. He convinced me to watch the Princess Protection Program a few weeks ago. And I actually got into it. I didn’t know anything about Selena and Demi before that.
And last night, he convinced me to watch this. I surprisingly enjoyed it as well. I was really impressed with Selena Gomez and her brother, David Henrie. She has really good comedic timing. She was nailing those lines. And she doesn’t over-do it, like Miley Cyrus. Wow, she’s bad. Like you mentioned, so exaggerated. And her timing is off. It doesn’t work.
But, whatever. The point is that I agree. I got sucked into watching it too. And I was pleasantly surprised.
P.S. I LOVED that Step by Step opening.
I watched it with my daughter too. I have to say that I prefer Miley, she is really funny. Even if it’s exaggerated, you have to laugh at her funny faces ! I like her friend too, Lily or Lola or whatever….
Anyway, my problem with Alex Russo is that she acts like a brat and almost always get away with it. Ugh, I can’t stand her character. At least in Miley’s case, something horrible always happen when she acts like a tool and she has to apologize or stuff like that, but at the end Alex Russo alwyas wins. I’m always disgusted at how it turns out for her and what my daughter learns from her…
Billy R is just an attention sucking b-class actor with nothing to do but DEMAND he’s on the show…Notice how NONE of the other adult actors did much more than cameo. Disgusting.
What is with EW? Constant hating on Miley Cyrus is getting annoying. You keep trying to shove Gomez down our throats. Remember she was supposed to be better than Cyrus last year,the year before lol. But, the public told you otherwise…people adults and children love Miley Cyrus. You are in the minority according to the millions of records and Miley’s Hannah records being broken just two weeks ago for the He Could Be the One episode. Gosh, Disney execs contact you to sell out Miley in hopes of gaining fans for Gomez (who btw flipped the bird at tmz). Miley felt sorry for Gomez who did not have a date on v day so she invited her to go with her a Justin and Demi, wow so mean of you Miley, not. Try as you may to knock her down Annie and EW it won’t work cuz, yes most of us have our own minds.
Annie, your biased reporting of Gomez is stupid and won’t work. EW has called Miley a mean girl and put down her acting. The disney exec who contacted you is an embarrassment to professionals. Your biased Miley bashing reporting does not work on the majority of us who know you are trying to manipulate who we like. Gomez flips the bird to TMZ, Miley never ever did that. Miley sets records all of the time in music and movies and tv, why is that? The public likes her despite the press like EW tearing her down to hype a lamer.
Don’t hate on Annie. Annie, we get it you do what you are told. Keep promoting lil Selena Gomez. I wish the best for you and her and hope your publicity makes her a star.
Oh, one more thing and sorry to be against it but David Henrie is not good looking, his bod is cool but he has what you call a butterface, or butthisface.
Annie, I swear you and I would have been best friends in middle school. I love your recaps on DWTS and have seriously considered getting a DNCEMSTR license plate just to impress you. And now you have blown my mind with your awesome Step by Step reference. Who didn’t belt out the theme song while drinking smoothies? I mean, seriously? What cool kid didn’t?