Hannah Montana/Trivia

• Acting for Two: In the final season, when Miley fights with herself (literally) about revealing her secret.
  • Also true when she played Miley Stewart's evil lookalike cousin, Lu Ann.
• Actor Allusion:
  • By proxy:

Lilly: Oh please! Next you're gonna be saying "She sees dead people!"

• • Another allusion once removed, when we find out Miley used to own a goldfish named Scaley Joel Osment.
  • Miley lives on Destiny Way. Miley Cyrus' birth name is Destiny Hope Cyrus.
  • Robbie Ray regularly makes Billy Ray Cyrus allusions, including an episode where he actually wears a mullet wig and calls himself Billy Ray Cyrus.

Robbie Ray: Oooh, my achy breaky back!

• The Danza:
  • Miley Stewart is played by Miley Cyrus. Averted at first, as the lead role was named Zoe Stewart, later changed to Chloe Stewart because Zoe was thought to be too similar to Zoey 101, and the character was established well before Cyrus came in. In fact, she originally auditioned (yes, auditioned) for the role of Lilly. It was changed to Miley as all of the aliases were becoming confusing to her in Real Life. Still an odd subversion because Miley wasn't her real first name—it's Destiny Hope Cyrus, and Miley was a nickname she got as a baby—but then she had her first name legally changed to Miley.
  • Played straight in the case of Heather Truscott, played by Heather Locklear.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Jason Earles, who plays Jackson, was a real-life example of Vague Age, his year of birth variably being reported as either 1977, 1985 or 1988, until it was finally confirmed to be 1977, making him almost 29 years old when the show premiered. Averted with the rest of the young characters, who are played by real teenagers.
  • Of special note: In the episode which teased a Lilly/Jackson pairing, Emily Osment was 16 and Jason Earles was 31, or almost twice her age.
  • Season 4's recurring guest character Siena, implied to be around Jackson's age, is played by 26-year old Tammin Sursok.
    • Actually her age was never mentioned. There's no reason she can't be 26.
• Defictionalization: Miley Cyrus' early music career consists entirely of songs from the show, including performances as Hannah Montana in real life. Arguably, this wasn't the original intention. Disney Consumer Products failed to produce any official Hannah Montana merchandise for the first holiday season following the show's initial airing in March 2006, indicating that they did not anticipate the popularity it would garner nor the demand it would generate.
• Executive Meddling: Possible: In some of the episodes, there's an underlying feeling that the plot and even the show could have been brilliantly satirical, but that the Disney sitcom formula, as well as the target demographic being little girls, puts a limit on the writers' storytelling potential.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Lilly is portrayed by Emily Osment, the lesser-known - and of late, arguably better-known - sister of Haley Joel Osment. Some people remember her as Gerti from Spy Kids.
  • Beau Billingslea plays the mayor of Miley's Tennessee hometown, in The Movie. Yes, that Beau Billingslea.
  • Tim Russ as the doctor charged with saving Hannah's singing voice.
  • Charles Shaughnessy as the Simon Cowell parody in "Judge Me Tender".
  • Wasn't Thor one of the guys present during the landing of the Autobots?
  • Vicki Lawrence as Jackson and Miley's grandmother.
  • David Koechner, who plays Todd Packer from The Office, as Uncle Earl.
  • Also from The Office, Melora Hardin as Lorelai, Robbie's love interest in The Movie.
  • Tiffany Thornton as the aforementioned Brainless Bodacious Becky.
  • Camryn Manheim as Margo, Mikayla's obnoxious, loud-mouthed pitbull of a manager.
  • Troy Evans, best-known for playing Frank on ER as Jerry, a junkyard worker.
  • "Saint" Sarah was Lulu in The Pacifier.
  • Ed Begley, Jr. as Sarah's dad.
  • Alan from Two and A Half Men as Lilly's dad.
  • Selena Gomez from Wizards of Waverly Place as Mikayla.
  • Carrie Ann Inaba as Tina, Hannah's choreographer.
  • Fred.
  • Ray Liotta as Principal Luger.
  • Christine Taylor as Lori the School Nurse.
  • Robert Costanzo as Al Blaine, the owner of the arcade where Lilly works.
  • Gildart Jackson as Quinn, Hannah's record producer.
  • Jenna Marshall as Jackson's girlfriend
• Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • Jason Griffith as a radio announcer.
  • In the Japanese dub: Hannah Montana is Hayate Ayasaki. Incidentally, her voice actress dubs Miley Cyrus in Japanese in almost every other movie or TV series she appears in.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor:
  • Moises Arias, who plays Rico, is not as selfish and rotten as his character. In fact he promoted penguin preservation with the Disney MMORPG, Club Penguin.
  • The girls who played Amber and Ashley aren't really mean in real life either.
    • Nor is Romi Dames, the actress who plays stuck-up socialite Traci Van Horn. Quite the opposite, in fact.
• Missing Episode: "No Sugar, Sugar", pulled for its Clueless Aesop regarding diabetes.^[1]
• Old Shame: Judging from his comments to GQ magazine, Billy Ray Cyrus has blamed the show for destroying his family.
  • He retracted the statement not long after.
• The Other Darrin: The role of Mr. Dontzig has alternated between twin-brothers Paul and Peter Vogt.
• Reality Subtext: The fourth season deals with themes such as whether Hannah's audience would accept the change and growth in her work, Miley and Lilly growing up and out of the tastes and fashions they had when they were younger, and whether her fans would stay with her even after Miley stops being Hannah Montana and appears in public as the real Miley. This seems to reflect Miley's image change into a more adult and more edgy/personalized/reflective image and music style in Real Life, which began before the fourth season was filmed.
• Real Life Relative: Miley Stewart's father Robbie Ray Stewart is played by Miley Cyrus' father, Billy Ray Cyrus (yes, that Billy Ray Cyrus).
• What Could Have Been: Taylor Momsen, Jojo, and American Juniors finalist Jordan Mccoy were all considered for the role. And lets not forget Miley originally auditioned for the role of Lilly Romero and the various names that both the main character (Zoe, Chloe) and her alter ego (Anna Cabana, Alexis Texas, Samantha York) went through before they settled on Miley and Hannah Montana.

1. ↑ ReTooled as "Uptight (Oliver's Alright)" and run at the end of the season rather than the beginning. Since Status Quo Is God, Oliver's diabetes was never mentioned again.