Disney Channel Universe
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The Disney Channel Universe, also known as the Disney Channel Live-Action Universe (DCLAU), is an unofficial term for Disney Channel shows that exist in the same universe.
That's So Raven was Disney's most popular show since Lizzie McGuire. This directly led to the creation of more Standard—WITH A TWEEST! Disney Kid Coms, including The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (it and then-newcomer Hannah Montana would be the most renewed shows in all of Disney Channel History). As That's So Raven ended (and its spin-off Cory in The House, came onto the air), a gap was made in Disney's live-action entertainment and thus, with the popularity of High School Musical, further live-action Kid Coms were punched out.
The Verse in which the shows exist was first established with 2006's That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, followed by 2007's and 2009's Wish Gone Amiss Weekend and Wizards of Waverly Place On Deck with Hannah Montana, respectively. I'm in The Band episode "Weasels On Deck" placed it into the DCLAU, and showed that Disney XD shows could be in the DCLAU as well.
Not to be confused with the DC Animated Universe (DCAU).
Series confirmed to be in the Disney Channel Universe
The Disney Channel Live-Action Universe links
- Even Stevens
- Connected through the Show Within a Show Gotcha!
- That's So Raven
- A direct Crossover with The Suite Life of Zack and Cody in the episode "Checkin' Out".
- Cory in The House
- Being Spin-Off of That's So Raven and having several Crossovers with its parent show in the episodes "That's So in the House", "And the Weenie Is..." and "Uninvited Pest".
- An indirect Crossover with The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana, described above.
- The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
- A direct Crossover with both That's So Raven and Hannah Montana in the episode "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana".
- An indirect Crossover with Cory in The House and Hannah Montana in the episode "Super Twins", which takes place during the same time as the Cory in the House and Hannah Montana episodes "Gone Wishin'" and "When You Wish You Were the Star", where Zack and Cody, Cory, and Miley all wish on the same shooting star.
- The Suite Life On Deck
- Being Spin-Off of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and having several Crossovers with its parent show.
- A direct Crossover with Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana in the episode "Double-Crossed".
- Hannah Montana
- A direct Crossover with The Suite Life of Zack and Cody in the episode "On the Road Again?"
- A direct Crossover with Cory in The House in the episode "Take This Job and Love It".
- An indirect Crossover with both Cory in The House and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, described above.
- A direct Crossover with The Suite Life On Deck in the episode "Super(stitious) Girl".
- Wizards of Waverly Place
- A direct Crossover with The Suite Life On Deck and Hannah Montana in the episode "Cast-Away (To Another Show)".
- I'm in The Band
- A direct Crossover with The Suite Life On Deck in the episode "Weasels on Deck".
- Burger almost runs over Zeke and Luther in the episode "Road Tripp" and yells "Skateboard on the sidewalk, Zeke!"
- A.N.T. Farm
- Tears of Blood, a band from Wizards of Waverly Place, exists in A.N.T. Farm's universe.
- Mr. Hashimoto, who appeared in three episodes, was also in The Suite Life On Deck when they were in Japan.
Shows and films that are fictional in the Disney Channel Live-Action Universe but exist in Real Life
- High School Musical - Not in continuity, as it explicitly exists as a film series in the DCLAU.
- Madison High - confirmed to be set in the High School Musical universe.
Shows which may be in the Disney Channel Universe but are unconfirmed
- Good Luck Charlie (In the same universe as Shake It Up)
- Kickin It
- Lab Rats
- My Babysitter's a Vampire (in the same universe as Good Luck Charlie, as the Twilight Expy Dusk is in both series, thought it might be concidence as the show isn't a Disney show.)
- Shake It Up (In the same universe as Good Luck Charlie, may be in the same universe as Hannah Montana due to Teen Court existing in both shows)
Shows which are not in the Disney Channel Universe (aka Disney Channel independents)
- Aaron Stone - Disney XD's first original series, due to being an action series than a comedy.
- Austin and Ally - Dez mentions Selena Gomez (May be in the same universe as Good Luck Charlie due to the MyTab existing in both shows)
- Jonas - Despite its use of the Jonas Brothers, in the JONAS world, they are the Lucas Brothers and portray only Expies of their real-world selves. Contrast to their appearance on Hannah Montana, where they act as they would in real life.
- Also, David Henrie and Emily Osment appeared as themselves in "Boat Trip".
- Lizzie McGuire - The Spiritual Ancestor to the DCLAU, but it's not being referenced in current shows.
- Pair of Kings - In one episode, when Boomer was shocked to find out his brother was the masked bandit, he shouted "Sweet Selena Gomez". Selena Gomez doesn't exist in the DCLAU.
- Phil of the Future - Its Disconnection from any other series in the DCLAU puts it as such, though it does follow the formula.
- Jessie - Rovi mentions Selena Gomez.
- Sonny With a Chance - Likewise, Selena Gomez appeared on an episode of So Random and was explicitly stated to be in several Expies of Disney Channel series and movies.
- Also, in "Random Acts of Disrespect", in an old people sketch, several shows in the DCLAU are parodied as Wheezers Of Waverly Place, That's So Graven and Nana Montana.
- Also: "Yeah, well, Chad still believes that Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana are two different people."
- That was really the first actual line to put Sonny With A Chance outside of the DCLAU, and might've been a bit of a Retcon of a line Chad gave in 'Three's Not Company', an earlier episode, where Chad got rejected by Sonny and said that he knew someone would do it someday, but he expected it to be a "Tisdale" or "Montana". Maybe it was to make it so Gomez's guest starring episode would make sense, given that both Wizards Of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana are in the DCLAU. Plus, it freed them up to make all the Disney Channel jokes they wanted.
- And: "Vision? Who are you, Raven?"
- Also, it's defictionalized season, So Random
- It is generally agreed that any show in production before That's So Raven (aside from Even Stevens) is not in the DCLAU.
- It is also agreed that the DCOMs that aren't explicitly adaptations of DCLAU shows are not in the DCLAU, and may be in a universe of their own.
- Of course, all of the above are subject to change.
- Alternate History: Apparently, President Martinez takes the place of George W. Bush in the DCLAU, since by the Hannah Montana episode "Hannah Montana to the Principal's Office", Barack Obama is president.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done in kind of a weird manner in that often the characters will deliver a punch line and look directly at the camera while doing so, but not quite acknowledging that there is a fourth wall. It's just very weird.
- Canon Welding: The three main founding shows of the universe (That's So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana) were initially not connected at all. However, when Disney Channel got the idea for That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, the shows were connected to be in the same universe (which itself had then been immediately established). As of this writing, Disney Channel continues to use this tactic to connect more shows to the universe.
- Cash Cow Franchise: As the most popular shows on the channel, they get quite a lot of merchandise.
- Celebrity Paradox: Subverted. Alyson Stoner and Ashley Tisdale all coexist with their characters in the DCLAU.
- Played with as well. In The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Cody tells Max that she's a better dancer than the girl in the Missy Eliot video; both are portrayed by Alyson Stoner. Also in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Maddie believe that she looks exactly like Ashley Tisdale, to which everyone else replies with "I don't see it."
- Crossover: The series' in the DCLAU constantly crossover with each other, usually placing a new series into the DCLAU. "Take This Job and Love It!" was a crossover between Hannah Montana and Cory in The House and "Weasels On Deck" was a crossover between I'm in The Band and The Suite Life On Deck.
- Crisis Crossover: The specials That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana and Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana.
- Red Skies Crossover/Cross Through: The Wish Gone Amiss Weekend, in which, rather than interact, three shows were impacted by the same event.
- On July 25, 2011, Disney XD had a summer weather themed Red Skies Crossover, In which a heatwave hit Gilroy on "Zeke and Luther", Kinkow on "Pair of Kings", and The Bayview Mall on "Kickin It". The shows existing in the same was confirmed by Dale Davis appearing in all three shows. This could also imply that The Bayview Mall is not far away from Gilroy since Dale did a news report there.
- Common Crossover:
- The Sunshine Girls organization appeared in That's So Raven, Cory in The House and Hannah Montana.
- In the That's So Raven episode "Checkin' Out", Raven uses a device called a Secretech. The Secretech previously appeared in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode "Forever Plaid", where London used it in class to check her schedule.
- In the Hannah Montana episode "Would I Lie to You, Lilly?", Miley, Lilly and Oliver have a class trip to the White House, which uses the same sets from Cory in The House.
- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appeared As Himself in Hannah Montana, Cory in The House and Wizards of Waverly Place, further connecting the series'.
- In the I'm in The Band episode, "Road Tripp", after almost running him over, Burger yells, "Skateboard on the sidewalk, Zeke and Luther!"
- Jesse McCartney appeared in both The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana. It wouldn't have meant much if the shows hadn't crossed-over, but since they have, Jesse's appearance continues to connect The Verse.
- Continuity Overlap: The single episodes in each series' that are a part of the Crisis Crossovers usually have an impact on other episodes in the crossovers, so much that it becomes downright confusing if you miss part of a crossover. Examples of this are Raven missing her flight in "Checkin' Out", causing her to stay in Boston in "That's So Suite Life Of Hannah Montana", and Bailey and Alex cheating in the Hannah Montana tug-of-war challenge in "Cast-Away (To Another Show)", which leads to Bailey trying to find another way to get concert tickets in "Double-Crossed".
- Hot Mom: If there is a mother figure in a starring role, chances are she'll be just as hot, if not hotter than her onscreen daughter, if any.
- Loads and Loads of Characters
- Laugh Track
- Secret Identity: For the Wizards, Raven and Hannah.
- Secret Keepers: And the necessary supporters of those secrets.
- Sliding Scale of Beauty: (In-Universe). The most of Protagonists are considered Common beauty, because usually they are cute and losers.
- Studio Audience
- Our Presidents Are Different: President Martinez, to fit into the standard sitcom mold, is both a President Personable and a President Buffoon.
- He was butted out of office by an Expy of a certain black man.
- Recursive Canon: Guest appearances and shout outs confirm that every show in the DCLAU is a fictional show in Sonny With a Chance.
- Guest Appearances shouldn't mean anything. After all, Maddie Fitzpatrick and Ashley Tisdale apparently both exist in the DCLAU (and apparently, only Maddie herself ever noticed any resemblance between herself and the High School Musical star).
- You Look Familiar: Due to Disney's practice of rehiring actors, Gwen, Mikayla and Alex Russo were all played by Selena Gomez, and Larry and Justin Russo were both played by David Henrie. Amber and London Tipton were both played by Brenda Song, Rico and Max's conscience were both played by Moises Arias, Samantha Samuels and Liza the photographer were both played by Lisa Arch, Principal Stuckerman and Herman Spatz were both played by Steve Hytner, Olivia Cabot and Jenny Majorheely were both played by Gilland Jones, the director in "That's What Friends Are For?" and Ash Tyler were both played by Stephen Full, Mr. Corelli and Burger Pitt were both played by Greg Baker, Archie and Derek Jupiter were both played by Steve Valentine, Leah and the Cracker were both played by Jaelin Palmer, Betty Jane and Nia were both played by Giovonnie Samuels, Max and Ally Parker were both played by Alyson Stoner, and Carly and Agnes were both played by Allie Grant. I could go on, but you probably get the point.