Kids are Lucky to Have ‘Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana’

By Germain Lussier on July 20th, 2009

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In the mind of a child, all of their favorite characters inhabit the same world. Luke Skywalker has coffee with the Transformers, SpongeBob SquarePants and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers go to the beach together and Hannah Montana sings in front her fellow Disney stars.

Adults know that these type of things would never happen because of legal red tape. But, to kids, that tape is transparent. Especially since they get to see those dreams play out in reality every once in a while. And I’m totally jealous.

This weekend, the big event on the kids calendar (besides “Harry Potter”) was Disney’s TV show “Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana.” It was a 90 minute blending of three popular Disney shows, “Wizards of Waverly Place,” “The Suite Life on Deck” and “Hannah Montana” into one long, semi-coherent story. The Waverly Place wizards won a contest to go on a teen cruise where Hannah Montana would perform, which just happened to be the same boat the the “Suite Life” kids live on.

According to TV Guide, the event was watched by 9.3 million people, making it the most watched scripted cable show of the year.

The show wasn’t particularly funny or inspired but, as a concept, it is totally brilliant. It was a literal representation of what all kids like to imagine; that all the stars of their favorite shows hang out. And thanks to Disney, who has exclusive rights to all of these shows and can brand them however they want, this is possible. It would have only been more perfect if the Jonas Brothers were on the same ship and one of them was dating Demi Lovato (each, too, has their own Disney show at the moment). And that might happen at some point. Disney has done the huge crossover event in the past with shows like “That’s So Raven” and “Cory in the House” with “Hannah” and “Suite Life.”

Jealousy factors in when I realize that adult orientated shows would never have this type of freedom. Tony Soprano of “The Sopranos” will never butt heads with Vic Mackey of “The Shield.” The mysteries of “Lost” will never interweave with the heroes on “Heroes.” And the judges on “American Idol” will never tell people if they think they can dance. You catch my drift. While some shows have done cross over episodes, usually it’s because they are on the same network (CBS blending the “C.S.I.’s”) or because they are on the same night (ABC mixing “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice.”)

Because kids have such a limited amount of appropriate entertainment available to them, it’s only logical that most of it comes from the same few sources and those sources know how to milk it with things such as “Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana.” Adults have way more available to us and, because of that, show producers and networks will never be able to come together. I’m afraid we’ll never see “How I Met The Office in 24?”

I guess we can just dream about it.