The uniqueness of the suite life of zack & cody
There have been plenty of disney series over the years but none of them have quite managed to reach the comedic heights of the suite life. So how did this series come to fruition in the first place & how did it become the peak comedic brilliance it is today? Well, to answer that question, we’ll have to go all the way back to the 90’s. They were born August 14, 1992 (dylan was fifteen minutes earlier so he is technically older) & first appeared on tv a year later, sharing the role of patrick kelly in grace under fire.
Anyway, long story short, they went on to share a lot of roles together before eventually landing suite life in 2005. The series shot in hollywood in front of a studio audience & despite centering around the twins was referred to as an ensemble series by gary marsh, the president of disney channel. In addition to the martins, you had london, maddie & marion rounding out the cast with iconic recurring characters muriel, arwin & esteban.
& that’s part of what makes the series work: the fact that they actually let the supporting cast have their moments to shine. Whether it was esteban doing his spot-on impression moseby, arwin constantly trying to fix things only to exacerbate the situation, or muriel uttering her iconic line, “i’m not cleaning that up,” there was never a dull moment at the tipton hotel. By letting them all flex their acting muscles, it really helped the series reach its full potential.
& it’s this incredible dynamic that helped propel the show to immense success. In fact by season two, it has already become one of disney’s top-rated programs. Even when it finished out its run in the fall of ‘08, it was still immensely popular. So why did it end so unceremoniously then? Well, as many of you may be familiar with, the network had a 65-episode cap on all series. So once they reached that milestone, they thought it was the end of the road for them but as it happens, they got a renewal for one final season, becoming just the third DCOS in history to break the 65 rule (after that’s so raven & kim possible).
After finishing its run, it was unclear what came next. The network has been attempting to develop a spinoff entitled arwin which would feature the titular character headlining his own series (although plot details are quite scarce). Ultimately, it was not picked up but the suite life on deck was & the rest is history. We won’t be going into the sequel series too much as I think that deserves a retrospective of its own but like its predecessor, it was universally acclaimed.
The series ended up becoming so popular in fact that it inspired an Indian remake which also saw decent numbers and positive reviews. Unfortunately, things were not all rosy on set as the network attemtped to bully dylan into losing weight. Fortunately, his tv mom stepped in & defended him. But regardless the series’ popularity inspired numerous talks about a potential revival & there was in fact talk about that for a while.
Not much is known about it but reportedly the series would’ve featured the twins returning to the tipton in Boston only to become mentors to a boy who (much like them) lives with his dad in the hotel. But because they did not get the producer credit they wanted, they rejected the offer leaving the reboot dead in the water. But regardless of whether we ever see them go back to Boston again, I think we can all agree our childhoods were improved because we spent those formative years having the time of our lives at the tipton.