Drake & Josh

Drake & Josh
"Hug me brotha!"
Genre: Sitcom Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: January 11, 2004 - September 16, 2007 Network(s): Nickelodeon Created by: Dan Schneider Distributed by: ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks Starring: Drake Bell Josh Peck Nancy Sullivan Jonathan Goldstein Miranda Cosgrove Seasons: 4 Episodes: 57

Drake & Josh is an American teen sitcom that ran on Nickelodeon from January 11, 2004 until September 16, 2007. The series, created by Dan Schneider, focuses on Drake and Josh, who hang out each other, after suddenly becoming stepbrothers, as Drake and his sister Megan's mother, and Josh's father get married.

Plot

Drake Parker and Josh Nichols couldn't be more different, and now that they've become stepbrothers and live in the same house, those differences are all the more obvious. With separate friends and aspirations in high school, the new siblings have unpredictable days and hilarious adventures while getting used to being family.

Why It Found a Way

1. Drake and Josh are a hilarious comedy duo.
2. Memorable and hilarious characters like Drake, Josh, Walter, Craig, Eric, and Crazy Steve.
3. On top of that, Crazy Steve is one of the best characters in the show. His quotes are also very entertaining and memorable.
4. Funny jokes and gags that created tons of memorable quotes...
   • "I'm pressing it!"
   • Josh repeating anything for emphasis.
   • "Drake where's the doorhole?".
5. Plenty of heartwarming moments, like the ending of the episode "Josh Is Done" when Josh doesn't want to deal with Drake anymore, Drake apologizes, and they become close again.
6. The theme song is very catchy.
7. Entertaining intro with Drake and Josh talking about their discussions.
8. The episode where they parody the Blues Brothers is awesome.
9. The finale of the show, "Really Big Shrimp", had memorable moments such as Josh finally getting promoted as a Gold Vest in the premiere, Drake's Remarkable "Makes Me Happy" Song, being played in the Daka Commercial, and the famous shrimp fight.
10. It created tons of memorable quotes, including "I'm pressing it!" and "Drake where's the doorhole?".
11. Its TV films, Go Hollywood and Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh, are fun and entertaining to watch.
12. Drake and Josh as their cartoon counterparts made a cameo appearance in one episode of The Adventures of Kid Danger.

Bad Qualities

1. Some jokes are too mean-spirited.
2. Unlikable characters like Helen Dubois, Alice Hayfer and Mindy Crenshaw.
3. Megan's constant pranks on Drake and Josh as well as her penchant of getting them in trouble just for fun while she almost always gets off scot-free can be undeniably irritating.
4. Audrey and Walter are no better than Megan since they often favor her and never listen to Drake and Josh.
5. There are some mediocre or bad episodes, such as...
   • "Little Diva" (perhaps the worst episode)
   • "Peruvian Puff Pepper"
   • "We're Married"
   • "Sheep Thrills"
   • "Theatre Thug"
   • "Dr Phyllis Show" Which is just a generic clip show episode that ended season 3 on a lackluster note.
   • "My dinner with Bobo" Due to how disturbing it was.

Trivia

• Drake Bell revealed that Brian Peck, who was his sexual abuser, auditioned to be the role of Walter. Thankfully, this did not happen and Brian Peck was arrested.
  • Josh Peck broke script when he kissed Drake Bell on the lips instead of on the cheek in "Josh Runs Into Oprah", but Drake didn't break character and the shot made it into the final cut.
• This is the first show in Dan Schneider's Schneider's Bakery line of sitcoms.
  • When this show started airing, it quickly became Nickelodeon's top dog in terms of live-action shows, and therefore, one of the network's most popular shows. The series' popularity resulted in it being run a lot by Nickelodeon, even after it ended in 2007, and lead way to more Schneider's Bakery shows on Nick.
    • Later, almost ten years after it ended, TeenNick seemed just as infatuated with this show as their parent channel once was. Had one turned on TeenNick any given hour of the day, chances were this show or Zoey 101 would be on. On October 28, 2012, it was taken off the schedule. The show returned to TeenNick's schedule that December, though only in the overnight hours, showing the network had moved on to milking other shows. In its final year on the network, it got much worse treatment, with reruns only being seen weekdays at 10:30 AM.
• Seasons 2-4 were filmed in HD and 16:9 widescreen, but these masters are very rare to find, due to the series being available on DVD, iTunes, Prime Video, Hulu and Paramount+ in 4:3 standard definition (at least in the United States). Even when Nick, Nicktoons and TeenNick all launched HD feeds, the series was still presented this way.
  • A few clips from select episodes in their original resolution and 16:9 ratio have been leaked online via select Nick-owned YouTube channels (e.g. DanWarp).
• The GC song "Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous", featured in the episode "Dune Buggy", has widely been criticized for its lack of originality, its commercial/derivative sound and its simplistic approach to the pop punk genre; it and the band were also frequently criticized in the early-to-mid 2000s for lacking depth when compared to other music that was popular at the time. Possibly due to this and to prevent legal issues, the song was removed from later releases of the episode.
• Drake Bell's car accident in December 2005 caused production of the fourth season to be postponed for three months, with three episodes shot beforehand.
• Drake Bell has acknowledged the "Oye, tranquilo viejo" meme from the Latin American dub.
• Some episodes of season 1 and 2 (specifically "Pilot", "Dune Buggy", "Believe Me, Brother", "Grammy", "Blues Brothers", "Driver's License", "Number One Fan" and "The Gary Grill") are nowhere to be found on Hulu, iTunes and Prime Video for unknown reasons, meaning that one will have to resort to finding them via old DVD compilations, Paramount+ or torrent sites.
• Several episodes from seasons 1 and 2 aren't included on Hulu or other streaming services, apparently due to vague "licensing issues" with material used in the episodes.
  • The reason why some episodes of the show are missing from Hulu and digital retailers like iTunes remains a mystery; this is allegedly due to clearance issues with music and celebrities being a cause, despite many of the missing episodes not having any of those issues whatsoever and episodes with alleged music issues having clips uploaded legally on Nickelodeon's YouTube channel. Thankfully, some, but not all, of the missing episodes were finally made available to stream when the series was added to Paramount+.
• In 2019 it was mentioned that Bell and Peck were in discussions to make a revival series. Given the former's legal issues in 2021 (as well as Peck's discomfort with Bell's actions), such a concept is assuredly never to see the light of day now.

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