Disney Channel's "Wizards Of Waverly Place" Discussion (2007-2012)

[Batman1980]

[Show spoiler]Max is going to have a secret girlfriend, that should be hilarious, he's the worst possible choice on that show to keep a secret about anything.

[EricJ]

Thing is, are we in fact doing the next generation a disservice making them watch the same "Facts of Life" reruns we grew up with, just because they're the product of our OWN old-fogey 80's sitcom-screenwriter demons?
And here we thought we had the first Laughtrack-Free generation...

(The cultural saturation gets to the point that I've actually heard--no, really--Channel-fangirls say "I like Saved by the Bell, it's as cool and funny as a Disney Channel show!"

)

[Gabriel360]

I love Wizards. It's a wonderful show and the way Selena plays that "Alex attitude" is just so funny.

Nice to hear it's been picked up and that they're doing another movie. But I've been missing Wizards for the past month. Anyone know if there's a place online where I can watch those past episodes?

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Gabriel360

I love Wizards. It's a wonderful show and the way Selena plays that "Alex attitude" is just so funny.

Nice to hear it's been picked up and that they're doing another movie. But I've been missing Wizards for the past month. Anyone know if there's a place online where I can watch those past episodes?

I would try Hulu or just use IMDb to find out when those episodes re-run on Disney. Point in fact, I never saw Facts of Life.

[Gabriel360]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

I would try Hulu or just use IMDb to find out when those episodes re-run on Disney. Point in fact, I never saw Facts of Life.

Thanks.

[Batman1980]

Odd that tonight's episode is at 10:00 and not the usual 9:30, between that and next week's episode being on Saturday, it's a wonder WoWP continues to get good ratings. Doubt most of the target audience like the show enough to keep track of its airing time when it jumps around like a Mexican jumping bean.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

Point in fact, I never saw Facts of Life.

Likely, so did no one born after 1995. (Which would be most of the Channel's audience base.)

So, I take it the name "Steve Urkel" would similarly mean......nothing to you?
And what do you immediately picture when you hear something described as "punky"?

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Likely, so did no one born after 1995. (Which would be most of the Channel's audience base.)

So, I take it the name "Steve Urkel" would similarly mean......nothing to you?
And what do you immediately picture when you hear something described as "punky"?

I was born in 1980 and yes I remember Steve Urkel. Punky means...dorky to me.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

I was born in 1980 and yes I remember Steve Urkel. Punky means...dorky to me.

Yyyyyyah. Well, let me just turn your world around for a sec, Brandon--

Reason I made the Saved By the Bell joke is, it's exactly what happened when we were all annoyed when "High School Musical" first showed up--And an entire generation who'd lived longer than fifteen years were frustrated by tweens who, for ease and convenience, allowed all their cultural knowledge to be spoon-fed to them by ONE source. And, naturally, believed that Disney Channel had invented the concept of musical theater...It's like a cool music video, only it has a STORY!
We tried to kid them. We tried to snub their celebrations of blissful ignorance with crushing reality. We tried to open their eyes to what the outside world could produce on a bigger budget than basic-cable. Like the parent trying to disguise peas on the plate, we sometimes politely, more often facetious/sarcastically, joked, "Hey, there's this thing called 'Grease' that just showed up at the video store! "
What happened? We ended up telling the joke too many times. And ended up with a fangrrl generation that now watched Grease and HSM. ("My supercool Twitter fanpage to Danny Zucco & Troy!" )

It seems that we have not learned our lesson that Disney Channel fan-tweenies do not possess the requisite subtlety or awareness to RECOGNIZE that they are being insulted or kidded about their newborn unawareness of what culture came before them.
As noted, we seem to have made the joke about their fascination with 80's-giggletrack, one-diner-set, pink-spandexed, overbearingly-hammy, vaudevillle-charactered "Saved By the Bell Channel" too many times, and now "rescued" the once bane of our existence to a new generation, to a new audience who sees The Original as not a big-hair out of place: Gosh, you mean they had "Suite Life" back then, too?--Kewl!
("But its ratings are so popular!" Hey: I grew up with Tom & Jerry cartoons and Bewitched reruns on local stations when I came home from high school, and lemme tell you, you come home from six hours in the salt mines, and you will watch what's freakin' ON. Period. AND defend it with your life, as it is the one common anchor to the comfortable routine of M-Fri existence. And back then, we didn't have a choice; what's DC's excuse??)

Basically: It's one thing for the Young People to sneer at the music, TV or fashion their parents enjoyed when they were in high school--
But what do we do when a new generation falls in love with what their, like, really old parents spent most of their teenage high-school years TRYING TO GET RID OF??????

[detective392]

I find it funny how people call 5 and 6 year old's stupid for watching things like HSM, Hannah Montana or Wizards. I mean come on who gives a **** if a 6 year old enjoys these things and not like anything from the 80's or 90's. Do you really not have anything better to do with you're time or life that you have to call kid's stupid for liking something that was made for them and not you.

I find it pathetic when "adults" call the Disney or Nickelodeon fan base stupid when they are only 5-7 year old's.

[Batman1980]

I don't get why they keep doing alien language league even after real aliens landed and that fake language didn't work, guess they really bought that it was a publicity stunt.

[Gabriel360]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

I was born in 1980 and yes I remember Steve Urkel. Punky means...dorky to me.

I didn't think Punky Brewster was all that bad.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you again for your earlier advice. While Hulu didn't work out, I found an episode list and decided to look 'em up on YouTube.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by detective392

I find it funny how people call 5 and 6 year old's stupid for watching things like HSM, Hannah Montana or Wizards. I mean come on who gives a **** if a 6 year old enjoys these things and not like anything from the 80's or 90's. Do you really not have anything better to do with you're time or life that you have to call kid's stupid for liking something that was made for them and not you.

Well, the fact that it IS for kids makes it more of an issue:
The haters are basically saying "Look, we didn't like these shows any more back when they came out in 1987, so why watch a 2010 show that tries its hardest to look like it was MADE in 1987??....You'll just end up turning out like we did! "

(And we couldn't do anything about it back then either, it was the Reagan era--EVERY show looked like that!)

[Batman1980]

It may be a rehash of older stuff but at least to me it's consistently good. It usually makes me laugh, I actually believe the Russos are a family and Selena is pretty. Hope the second movie will be better than the first one, although the first one wasn't horrible.

[Gabriel360]

I thought the first movie was quite good. Very emotional at one point. Selena just about made me cry (I will never admit to crying).

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Gabriel360

I thought the first movie was quite good. Very emotional at one point. Selena just about made me cry (I will never admit to crying).

I did love her singular tactic during the battle against her brother of conjuring a mud hole for him to fall in and then magicking herself to the finish line.

[Chloenator]

I love Wizards of Waverly Place! I'm just a really big Selena Gomez fan in general.

[Gabriel360]

Originally Posted by GoPens78

I love Wizards of Waverly Place! I'm just a really big Selena Gomez fan in general.

Yeah, she's absolutely adorable.

Anyway, I just got caught up.

If anyone decides to watch episodes on YouTube, look for the ones posted by LovesWowp. Good quality.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Gabriel360

Yeah, she's absolutely adorable.

Anyway, I just got caught up.

If anyone decides to watch episodes on YouTube, look for the ones posted by LovesWowp. Good quality.

Yeah Selena is very pretty. I wish they hadn't

[Show spoiler]killed Stevie,

that character was starting to grow on me.

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

I wish they hadn't

[Show spoiler]killed Stevie,

that character was starting to grow on me.

I guess I don't have the same level of attachment to the character that you do. I don't think the Stevie character (played by Hayley Kiyoko) was ever intended to be a recurring one by the show's producer. She did a decent job during the four-episode arc, but an extended run would have undermined / diminished Alex's Machiavellian qualities.