Drake & Josh

Drake & Josh
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Dan Schneider
Starring	Drake Bell Josh Peck Nancy Sullivan Jonathan Goldstein Miranda Cosgrove
Theme music composer	Drake Bell Backhouse Mike
Opening theme	"Found a Way" performed by Drake Bell
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	57 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Dan Schneider
Producer(s)	Robin Weiner (Season 1; supervising producer, Seasons 2-4) Joe Catania (Season 1; associate producer; co-producer, Seasons 3-4) Bruce Rand Berman (Season 4)
Location(s)	Nickelodeon on Sunset, Hollywood, California Sunset Bronson Studios, Hollywood, California (Season 3 only)
Camera setup	Videotape; Multi-camera (used FilmLook processing in season 1, filmized appearance afterwards)
Running time	approx. 23 minutes
Production company(s)	Schneider's Bakery Nickelodeon Productions
Distributor	MTV Networks International[1]
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Picture format	SD: 480i/576i (Seasons 1–4) HD: 720p/1080i (Season 4 and some films)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	January 11, 2004 (2004-01-11) – September 16, 2007 (2007-09-16)
External links
Website

Drake & Josh is an American television sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series follows the lives of two teenage boys with opposite personalities, Drake Parker (Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols (Josh Peck), who become stepbrothers. Both actors previously appeared in The Amanda Show along with Nancy Sullivan, who plays Audrey, Drake and Megan's mother in the series. Miranda Cosgrove plays Megan, Drake's mischievous younger sister, and Jonathan Goldstein plays Walter, Josh's father. The series' opening theme song, "Found a Way", is written by Drake Bell and Backhouse Mike and performed by Bell. The series ran from January 11, 2004, to September 16, 2007, totaling 57 episodes in 4 seasons. It also had two TV films: Drake & Josh Go Hollywood and Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh.

Premise

The series is focused on a pair of stepbrothers who have opposite personalities. Drake Parker is a popular but immature aspiring musician idolized by his schoolmates and able to court a countless array of girls with ease, whereas Josh Nichols has trouble with dating and popularity. Drake and Josh live in San Diego, California, with Josh's awkward, unfortunate, geeky father, a weatherman named Walter; Drake's loving mother Audrey; and manipulative and conniving younger sister Megan. The boys are often involved in comedic misadventures and obstacles while also handling teenage situations such as school, dating, and popularity. Over the course of the series, character changes of both Josh and Drake, and their relationship, develop: Josh loses weight and becomes more popular, while Drake matures and becomes more caring towards other people, especially his stepbrother, whom he eventually calls his "brother" instead of "stepbrother."

A notable running joke on the series is the presence of parodies of various well-known brands, TV shows, Films, or people. Such parodies include Mountain Fizz, a parody of Mountain Dew, the GameSphere, a parody of the Nintendo GameCube and the Gary Coleman Grill, a parody of the George Foreman Grill.

Cast

Main cast

Recurring cast

Episodes

Finale

Spin City Records wants to sign Drake and his new song, "Makes Me Happy", for their label. He is on the road to fame and fortune, but a record producer named Alan Krim wants all the rights to the song and gives Josh a contract. Josh's inexperience as a manager leads him to sign the contract without reading it. Josh, having been drooling over the giant shrimp at the meeting, accidentally signs over creative rights for Drake's new song. Drake fires Josh and a series of bizarre events follow. Meanwhile, at The Premiere, Helen is getting married, so she gives Mindy the job as assistant manager, the job that Josh was after for a long time. Mindy became Josh's girlfriend in later episodes of the series. Eventually, Josh, after Drake tells him that "when people play dirty, sometimes, you have to play dirty back", sneaks into Spin City Records and switches the songs, which is against the law. This makes Drake a statewide star and his song gets played at Helen's wedding and at the Super Bowl. At the end of the series, the boys fight again for the shrimp in their room and later a flashback appears to a similar scene alluding to The Amanda Show.

The two-part episode aired on August 3, 2007. The episode premiere brought in 5.8 million viewers and received an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2][3]

Films

Drake & Josh Go Hollywood

The boys are left at home in San Diego, California after Audrey and Walter go on a ten-day cruise. Drake and Josh are told to take Megan to the airport so she can visit her friend in Denver, Colorado, but they accidentally send her on a flight to Los Angeles, California. Drake and Josh go to Hollywood to get Megan back, end up stopping a multibillion-dollar heist, and booking a guest-spot for Drake on TRL. The TV film aired on January 6, 2006; according to TV Guide, it was the highest rated program on all of cable during its opening week. It currently holds a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[4]

Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh

A new Drake & Josh TV film tentatively entitled "Drake & Josh: Best Christmas Ever" began production in July 2008, and premiered on December 5, 2008. The title was later changed to "Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh". Creator Dan Schneider returned as executive producer, with Marjorie Cohn and Lauren Levine co-executive producing. Michael Grossman directed the feature. The film centers around the boys who are working as Santa's helpers in a mall when Drake promises a little girl that her foster family will have "The Best Christmas Ever"—and then try to fulfill that promise while a grumpy policeman tries to stop them. While the boys are not enjoying their time, Audrey and Walter are feeling worse on their vacation because they have to stay in a hut while in a hurricane.^[5]

The TV film was broadcast in HD format, unlike the previous TV film Drake & Josh Go Hollywood. It also featured Henry Winkler and MMA fighter Kimbo Slice.

The premiere of Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh broke the record of most viewers for the premiere of a Nickelodeon film with 9.10 million viewers, a title previously held by iGo to Japan.

Despite the strong ratings, the film is the lowest-reviewed of the three Drake & Josh films, currently holding a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[6]

Broadcast history

U.S.

• TEENick (2004–09) / Nickelodeon (2004–14)
• The N (2008–09) / TeenNick (2010–present)
• Nicktoons (2011–16)
• MTV2 (2016)

UK

• Nickelodeon (2004–present)
• Nicktoons (2010–12)

Canada

• YTV (2004–10)
• Nickelodeon (2009–present)

Australia and New Zealand

• Nickelodeon (2004–14)

Latin America

• Nickelodeon (2004–present)

Brazil

• Nickelodeon (2004–15)

Africa

• Nickelodeon (2004–13)

DVD releases

Reception

During the series' run, it received generally positive reception from viewers and critics, holding a substantial 8.8/10 on TV.com, and a high 7.6/10 from reviews on IMDb.^[7] According to creator Dan Schneider, Drake & Josh had its highest ratings in its final season, and ended due to a collective decision from the creative forces behind the show. To this day, Drake & Josh has widely been considered one of Nickelodeon's best live-action shows, if not one of the best Nickelodeon shows of all time.^[8]

Other media

Music

Drake & Josh has had some singles and a soundtrack. The music releases are shown below.

Video games

Two video games based on Drake & Josh have been released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Both of them released in the same year.

Books

A book series based on Drake & Josh has been published by children's publisher Scholastic since 2006. The books are generally based upon content from the TV series and essentially novelize two episodes of material, with one being a novelization of TV film. The books are written by author Laurie McElroy.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Drake & Josh

• Official website
• Drake & Josh at the Internet Movie Database
• Drake & Josh at TV.com