Drake & Josh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 24.176.201.67 (talk) at 02:27, 17 February 2007 (→‎Other characters). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Drake & Josh
File:Drake&joshs4.jpg
(Left to right) Drake Bell and Josh Peck
Created byDan Schneider
StarringDrake Bell
Josh Peck
Miranda Cosgrove
Nancy Sullivan
Jonathan Goldstein
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes56 (7 unaired) including the TV Movie:
Drake and Josh Go Hollywood
Production
Executive producerDan Schneider
Running time23 minutes
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon
ReleaseJanuary 11, 2004 –
Present

Drake & Josh is a Nickelodeon sitcom. The show stars Drake Bell as Drake Parker and Josh Peck as Josh Nichols. Both stars are from The Amanda Show, as is Nancy Sullivan, who plays Audrey Parker-Nichols. Miranda Cosgrove plays Megan Parker, Drake and Josh's sister. The show debuted on January 11, 2004.

Synopsis

Drake & Josh is about the antics of two teenage boys with contrasting personalities living in a suburb of San Diego, California who become stepbrothers when Josh's father, Walter Nichols, played by Jonathan Goldstein, marries Drake's mother, Audrey Parker, who is played by Nancy Sullivan.

The differences between the boys, and their difficulties in adjusting to each other, form the themes for many episodes. Drake is portrayed as popular in school (and with girls) and is often seen with his guitar. Josh is more of a responsible, studious character, who likes magic tricks and has a crush on Oprah Winfrey. The best Josh can do is be "almost cool". The show also features their sister, Megan Parker (Drake's birth sister) played by Miranda Cosgrove, who loves torturing her older brothers with her pranks.

All three kids refer to each other as "brother" or "sister" without the use of the prefix "step-" – a prefix they also exclude when referring to any other relative.

At Nickelodeon's 2006 Kids' Choice Awards, Drake & Josh beat American Idol to win the orange blimp-award for Favorite TV Show.

Drake Bell also won for Favorite TV Actor.

Theme song

The theme song for the show is "Found a Way", written by Drake Bell and Michael Corcoran and performed by Bell. A split-second shot of Bell singing the theme song from one episode in season one is seen in the opening sequence for seasons one and two, whilst another filmed version remains for season 3 and 4. The song can also be found on the show's official soundtrack, Drake & Josh: Songs from and inspired by the hit TV show, and on Drake Bell's album, Telegraph.

Characters

Main characters

Main article: Drake Parker

Drake's mother married Josh's dad. He is a popular teenager, gifted musically, but his ignorance is a running gag in the series.

Main article: Josh Nichols

Josh generally serves as the comedic foil to Drake and Megan. Though highly intelligent, he is less socially adept than Drake. While Drake is quite popular, the best Josh can do is be "almost cool."

Main article: Megan Parker

Megan is the boys' younger sister (Drake's biological sister) who enjoys tormenting them. It is indeed rare that her older brothers will get the better of her.

Audrey is Drake and Megan's birth mother. Her profession is never specified. She always treats Megan like a "little angel", unaware of her daughter's large–and growing–collection of espionage equipment and ability to fool her brothers. Audrey is known to give in to Drake's requests, though it is usually "somewhere between the fourteenth and seventeenth time" Drake has asked her. She apparently knows what today's girls like even though she is an adult because she helped Josh learn how to pick up girls resulting him to get 22 dates in one week.
Audrey is a lot more playful than Walter which could say something about Drake and Josh's attitudes.
Walter is Josh's birth father, and he is a weatherman at the local TV station. Walter had almost become the weatherman for Good Morning Today, however, he did not get the job; Drake and Josh, thinking that the senior producer of the program was having an affair with Walter, ended up throwing food on her, thus ending Walter's chance of becoming "the most watched weatherman in America". His rival is Bruce Windchill, whom both Megan and Audrey seem to have crushes on. Usually, he doesn't want anyone in the house to mention his name.
Walter thinks ships do not sink, as well as believing that the film Titanic was not based on a true story. He is allergic to cumin and seems to forget his wife's birthday. He is somewhat absentminded, but he eventually believes that Megan is evil with her mischiefs. The outside members of the family seen on the show, Grammy and Papa Nichols, are from his side of the family. He is extremely goofy and appears to have very bad coordination (this could explain Josh's). He does seem to have an aptitude for wrestling as he once showed Josh various wrestling moves on Drake (which was Josh's true intention). In Season 3, a new running gag for Walter is that his weather predictions are off. Usually, this means that he predicts that there will no rain and a torrential downpour ensues.

Recurring characters

Helen Dubuois was introduced in "Movie Job" as the manager at The Premiere, a movie theater where Josh has a job. Helen is known for her loud voice and orders for her employees, namely Josh. Whilst Helen is not particularly fond of Josh (though she does get him a birthday present – a nose hair clipper), she seems to adore Drake, even saying in one episode, "Drake Parker, I love you like the son I never wanted." Helen was once a child actress, as mentioned in the episode "Helen's Surgery," in the (fictional) show Happy Times. Primarily played by Yvette Nicole Brown, the character was briefly played by Frances Callier in the episode "Little Diva."
Mindy Crenshaw was introduced in season two as Josh's foremost "enemy"; she had beaten Josh at their school's Science Fair every year. However, in her next appearance ("Mindy's Back"), the couple realized that they actually liked each other. The two had been dating for a while before Josh finally met her parents. A dinner at Mindy's parents house was, all in all, a disaster, as was the majority of the dinner at Josh's house. Despite this, Mindy's parents have allowed her to continue dating Josh.
Finally, Mindy told Josh she loved him. Josh was utterly surprised and you can tell because he slammed the door into Mindy's face saying,"See you in chemistry!!!" After Drake talked to Josh in school, and seeing as the science fair was coming up, Josh foolishly believed that 'I love you' was just a tactic to make him feel the need to let her win. When the science competition actually came up, they both invented photon cannons, and Josh's outperformed Mindy's, so Josh won. Josh then confronted Mindy telling her he "knew" what she was trying to do by telling him she loved him. She then revealed the hidden power of her cannon which showed that she actually let Josh win and was sincere about what she said. Then the two agreed that they are inexperienced at dating and felt that they rushed things, so they agreed to see other people to see if they were truly the right people for each other, but are still friends.
Eric Blonnowitz and Craig Ramirez are two stereotypical 'nerdy' honor students that are always being exploited by Drake and Josh, mostly due to Drake's hare-brained schemes. The character of Eric was introduced before the character of Craig; Eric has made more appearances in the show than Craig. Eric is seen in the crowd at the fight, in the first ever episode of the series. Both characters have been mentioned as being Jewish. Even though Josh took advantage of them as much as Drake did, in the episode "Josh Runs into Oprah", Josh, Craig and Eric are seen as being good friends.(Despite Josh not being stated as "un-popular", anymore) Starting with the episode, The Demonator, Eric and Craig's appearances have been becoming more and more often (Eric appeared in 2 out of the last 3 episodes of the show's third season, Craig appeared in 1. Out of the 10 episodes aired so far in Season 4, Eric has appeared in 6 of them and Craig has appeared in 5.).
Mrs. Alice/Linda Hayfer was first seen in the episode "Mean Teacher" as Drake and Josh's English teacher. Mrs. Hayfer dislikes Drake because of his poor efforts in school and lack of responsibility. She displays this by reminding him that she hates him and counting all his answers wrong, even if they are based on his opinion or correct; an example of this is when Mrs. Hayfer asked Drake what his favorite 20th century novel was. When Drake replies, "Catcher in the Rye," she says, "Wrong." And also, when Mrs. Hayfer asked Drake in class "In which language was the Odyssey written?" Drake (correctly) answers that the Odyssey was written in Greek. To this, Mrs. Hayfer again snaps, "Wrong!" An instant later, another student was called on and also answered (again, correctly) "Greek," and Mrs. Hayfer counted that answer as "Correct!", even though Drake said the same thing.
Mrs. Hayfer always reminds Drake by saying, "I hate you", and Drake always replies "I know" but she seems to be fond of Josh because of his truthfulness (and probably his good grades and overall responsibility, all of which Drake lacks). Her husband, Gerald, works at the Little Sibling foundation. Drake once had dated Mrs. Hayfer's daughter, Kelly.
It is revealed in the episode "Vicious Tiberius" that Mrs. Hayfer is originally from New Jersey, and is a bad comedian (at the beginning of the episode she makes a pun about Mark Twain and, after nobody laughs, yells, "Why don't you people ever laugh at my jokes?" And it is also shown later in the episode that she was once on a comedy contest show called Search for the Stars (an intentional writer parody of Star Search) and she is just as noncomedic then as she is now). In that episode, Drake points out to Josh the framed picture he is holding of Miss New Jersey some time back in the day, saying: "Woah, this girl is seriously hot." Upon seeing the picture, Josh (with a grin on his face) points out to Drake that "That's Mrs. Hayfer."
  • Gavin (played by Jake Farrow)
Gavin is an employee at The Premiere movie theater. He has a mullet-like haircut and is always telling Josh to clean something unusual in the theater bathrooms. He then eventually cleans up the mess himself - his response (and catch-phrase) being "I got it". The so-called messes included a wig stuck in a toilet bowl, a diaper stuck on a wall, gum in his perm, rat traps in the basement, and a hippie washing his feet in a theater. He is quite a lazy employee, and has been known to take naps on the roof of the theater. During season 4, he changed his hair from a mullet to a "per-mullet" (a mullet with a perm). He has also developed a crush on Drake's mom, and continually asks Drake to measure her. Appears to enjoy salsa-dancing with Helen.
  • "Crazy" Steve (played Jerry Trainor)
"Crazy" Steve is an employee at The Premiere movie theater. He is hard working and pretty calm at times, until someone (namely Josh) critiques his work, that is when he goes crazy. He yells in a straining voice and many of the other employees are afraid of him including Helen. In the episode "The Storm", he visted Drake & Josh's house to attend a party and was unbelieveably polite to their mom while yelling at everybody else there. Strangly he seems to enjoy watching Dora the Explorer as he forced Craig to operate a hand-cranked TV so he could watch an episode of the show, and went crazy when anyone (except Drake and Josh's mom) attempted to change the channel or get in his way, but screamed orders to Dora in his normal straining voice.

Other characters

Dr. Jeff Glazer lives across the street from Drake and Josh. He is always called on whenever a serious emergency happens at their house. Although he seems kind during the medical procedure, he is always charging a high bill for his services. He charged $300 for inspecting Drake's rash in "The Bet", $500 for putting child star Ashley Blake to sleep in "Little Diva", and $100 for explaining how a lamb got in Drake and Josh's room in "Sheep Thrills" with a $50 extra to not tell their parents there was a sheep in their room. He also seems to like wheat squares (which is a parody of "Frosted Mini Wheats").
Grammy Nichols is Josh's grandmother and Walter's mother. In her first appearance ("Grammy"), Drake dislikes her at first, because she doesn't respect him fairly. However, by the end of the episode, he starts to be more respective of her for returning his money that he gave her earlier during a bet between the two. Grammy also has been known to send Josh various presents and gifts; on one occasion, she gave Josh a Gamesphere three months prior to its release in "The Bet" and a "Mono-Rocket" in "Tree House". She is also mentioned as having hormonal imbalances in the episode "Playing the Field", most notably a moustache - Drake makes fun of this, with Josh defending her. Although the character is mentioned frequently by both Drake and Josh, Grammy has only appeared once, in the aforementioned episode "Grammy". She also later appears in Season 4 in the episode "Tourney Blues".
  • Papa Nichols[played by Alex White]
Papa Nichols is Josh's great-grandfather, Walter's grandfather, and is the father-in-law of Grammy. He is 81 years old and had surgery before the events of "The Demonator" and was on heavy medication that made him relive World War II during the episode. He mistook Eric and Craig (who were looking after him at the time) for two Nazi soldiers referring to them as German nerds (managing to attack them both), mistook his bedroom slipper for a walkie-talkie, and thought Eric's cell phone was a weapon. He also punched his grandson at the end of the episode because the medication had not yet worn off, and then ran off saying, "I got you, you stinking German," and chants "USA! USA! USA!". He is also mentioned later in Season 4 in the episode "The Wedding".
  • Derek (played by Dan Mott)
Derek is the drummer for Drake's band starting in Season 4. So far, he has only appeared in "The Storm". He appeared to have to borrow his sister's blouse for Drake's concert because all of his clothes were dirty, but hen his sister comes in saying, "Derek! Give me my shirt back!", so he had to borrow a shirt with a panda on it from Megan, considering he likes pandas. His uncle appears to have a boat which he was going to use for Drake's concert's stage that was completely underwater because of the storm, but it is later revealed that his uncle sold the boat. He also called Josh's dad a nitwit with the stupid hair style for being wrong about sunny weather, but then Drake's mom says, "Hey! That nitwit happens to be my husband!" and he replies, "And that's my fault?". Also, in the beginning of the episode, he asks Drake for sunblock and Drake reacts by squirting sunblock in his face.
  • Rina (played by Molly Orr)
Rina is a member of Drake's band, and plays bass guitar. The character is played by Molly Orr, who was a member of The Amanda Show cast, appearing in the Moody's Point sketches as Misty Raines; Drake & Josh is a spin-off of The Amanda Show, which were both created by Dan Schneider. In the episode "Josh Runs into Oprah", Drake mentions that a guy named Julio plays bass guitar for his band.
  • Paul (played by Jeremy Ray Valdez)
Paul is a member of Drake's band, and plays rhythm guitar.
Scottie Wilson is the drummer for Drake's band and is shown to be unintelligent. He has one brother, Trevor, who seems to be as unintelligent as Scottie himself. In the episode "Megan's New Teacher", Drake mentions that he needs a new drummer to replace "Mitch" - Scottie is not mentioned in this episode, and only appeared during season one, like Drake's other two bandmates Paul and Rina. He apparently thought it was legal to photocopy tickets to a music concert (landing him, Drake, and their band into a lot of trouble with the police). In the episode "[[The Storm"], a guy named "Derek" is the drummer in Drake's band.
Trevor Wilson is one of Drake's friends and is Scottie's brother. He was also apart of the The Amanda Show cast. He appears to be as unintelligent as Homer Simpson, like his brother. He gave Drake and Josh a dune buggy, which he "fixed" himself. His parents make him take a head examination every month. He is often mentioned, but so far he has only appeared in "Dune Buggy". He also has a car made in 1979.

Notable guest stars

*Biggs guest starred in the episode "The Gary Grill", but died in May 2004 before it premiered. The episode was dedicated in his memory.

Crew

  • Dan Schneider - creator/executive producer/writer
  • Joe Catania - producer
  • Robin Weiner - producer
  • Virgil Fabian - occasional director

Episodes

Main article: List of Drake & Josh episodes

Later seasons

The fourth season, which contains 20 episodes, premiered on September 24, 2006 with the episode Josh Runs into Oprah.

Drake Bell was involved in a car accident in Los Angeles on a freeway exit on December 30, 2005; three episodes of the fourth season were filmed prior to the accident, and production of the rest of the episodes was postponed until Bell healed from his injuries. Production of the show resumed in March 2006 and continued into July. [1]


Merchandising

There is a soundtrack, Drake & Josh: Songs from and inspired by the hit TV show, that was released on March 8, 2005 on Nick Records.

Four episodes from season one have been released on a DVD titled Suddenly Brothers. A second volume, titled Suddenly Family was planned to be released on September 13, 2005 [2], but was withdrawn for unknown reasons. On January 31, 2006, Drake & Josh Go Hollywood was released on DVD, with two episodes from the beginning of the third season included as bonus material ("Helen's Surgery" and "Mindy's Back".) Also, the episode "We're Married" was included in the TEENick Picks DVD.

There are a series of Drake & Josh chapter books. The books are entitled Kid Trouble,Go Hollywood, Blues Brothers, and Sibling Rivalry. These books are based on (in part or full) episodes from the series.

THQ is releasing a Drake & Josh videogame on the Game Boy Advance.

Films

There are two Drake and Josh films:
1) Drake and Josh Go Hollywood (2006)
2) Drake & Josh in New York! (2007) (yet to be released)

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Drake & Josh.


Template:SNICK/TEENick

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drake_%26_Josh&oldid=108755065"