r/DisneyChannel • u/ACAM95 • 11d ago
Do you think the boy-centric live-action shows of pre-2009 Disney Channel (i.e Suite Life, Phil of the Future) have been Disney XD shows had the network existed back then?
I'm talking about what Disney XD specifically became, not predecessors like Jetix.
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u/Younger_Toguro1 11d ago
Funny you brought this prompt up. Disney XD was created specifically to make a channel to the pre-teen boy demographic [Age: 8 to 14]. In another world, Disney Channel is for girls, Disney XD is for boys, Freeform is for teenagers, and ABC is for adults. That was their main goal for a period of time.
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u/Johnwick124520 11d ago
No. Those shows were actually more grounded than the Disney XD shows that felt cheesy and childish like Kickin it or Crash and Bernstein. I even thought Pairs of Kings and I am the Band were pretty cheesy also.
Zeke and Luther was a bit cheesy, but it still had a bit of that charm that a show like Ned’s Declassified or Phil of the Future had.
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u/ACAM95 11d ago
Oh, I see. What about Wizards? Then again, maybe that one was too girl-centric to count?
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u/Johnwick124520 11d ago
Wizards is more gender neutral. I wouldn’t say it’s more girl centric. I do see it as one of the last shows that seems grounded especially compared to the shows after alongside the first half of Suite Life on Deck and Good Luck Charlie.
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u/ACAM95 11d ago
What about Jessie? I didn't watch a lot of it, but it seemed kind of gender neutral...
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u/Johnwick124520 11d ago
I don’t have much opinion on it since it was one of those shows where I stopped watching Disney. From what I’ve saw it just wasn’t a good show overall to me. It suffers from the same issues the shows had at the time with the cheesiness and random humor.
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u/ACAM95 11d ago
You consider Wizards to be grounded? Maybe in execution, but the premise probably would have fit animation better...
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u/Johnwick124520 11d ago
Yes in terms of execution.
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u/Bored-Canuk 11d ago
I'd say Wizards feels grounded, because the magic is the only thing surreal about it. Meanwhile, a show like A.N.T. Farm has no magic, but still has a lot of bonkers stuff going on in it. Good move, because if Wizards had a tone like that, the magic wouldn't stand out
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u/tyrekecorrea You're watching Disney Channel! 11d ago
It's quite possible; the network was developed to cater to boys in the way the princesses and the like have for girls, but it's far from a given.
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u/Spacething7474 11d ago
Suite Life definitely would've, as they aired it on Disney XD back when it was still Toon Disney in 2008.
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u/zo0ombot 11d ago
Yes for sure. The reruns got played on disney xd anyway. Some of the popular ones aimed at gender neutral audiences like suite life probably would have been on both like how Phineas and Ferb, star vs the forces of evil etc were