Even Stevens

Last updated
Even Stevens
Evens Stevens (Disney television logo).png
Genre Comedy
Created by Matt Dearborn
Starring Shia LaBeouf
Christy Carlson Romano
Nick Spano
Tom Virtue
Donna Pescow
Theme music composer John Coda
ComposerJohn Coda
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes65 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers David Brookwell
Sean McNamara
(both; entire run)
Dennis Rinsler
Marc Warren
(both; episode 7+)
Matt Dearborn
(season 3)
CinematographyMark Doering-Powell
Camera setup Film; Single-camera
Running time22 minutes
Production company Brookwell McNamara Entertainment
Original release
Network Disney Channel
ReleaseJune 17, 2000 (2000-06-17) 
June 2, 2003 (2003-06-02)
Related

Even Stevens is an American comedy television series produced by Brookwell McNamara Entertainment that originally aired on Disney Channel from June 17, 2000, to June 2, 2003, airing a total of 65 episodes spanning three seasons. It follows the life of the Stevens, a family living in suburban Sacramento, California, mainly focusing on the clashing personalities of its two younger children, Ren and Louis.

Contents

The series was produced by Brookwell McNamara Entertainment. It is generally remembered for starring an adolescent Shia LaBeouf, before he achieved mainstream success as an actor. The show also features fast motion photography, which it employs in every episode.

The feature-length Disney Channel Original Movie based on the series, The Even Stevens Movie , premiered on June 13, 2003, and serves as the series finale. The show ended after reaching the 65-episode limit that Disney Channel had at the time.

Premise

The Stevens family live in Sacramento, California, where the two younger children in the family, Ren and Louis, who have opposing personalities, often clash.

Episodes

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1 21June 17, 2000 (2000-06-17)February 23, 2001 (2001-02-23)
2 22June 15, 2001 (2001-06-15)February 15, 2002 (2002-02-15)
3 22February 22, 2002 (2002-02-22)June 2, 2003 (2003-06-02)
TV film June 13, 2003 (2003-06-13)

Characters

Main

Recurring

Production

The show was originally produced as a show called Spivey's Kid Brother. [1] A pilot was filmed in July 1999, and was later picked up by Disney Channel as Even Stevens. In the episode "A Weak First Week" (where the original pilot was repurposed as flashback sequences), Disney had to dub out the name "Spivey" to "Stevens". In fact, in the gym class scene, a banner is visible in the background reading, "Home of Spivey and the Wild Wombats."

In the theme song of the show, clay animations of Louis and Ren turn their remote controls into lightsabers, alluding to Star Wars , several years before Disney would purchase the franchise. Prior to this, Ren reads a TV guide with live-action photos of Christy Carlson Romano and Shia LaBeouf on the cover.

Lawrence Junior High is apparently a standard three-grade junior high school. Although the show lasted three seasons, the timeline of the show is only two school years, with Louis and his friends remaining in the 7th grade until some point after the middle of the second season. In several third-season episodes there are subtle references to an advance in the timeline that puts Ren and her friends in the 9th grade and Louis in the 8th grade. Ren finally graduates in The Even Stevens Movie .

Shia LaBeouf and Christy Carlson Romano are the only two actors to appear in all 65 episodes of the series. [2]

In 2002, the musical episode "Influenza: The Musical" aired as part of the program's second season, which was viewed favourably by the audience and network executives. [3] Several cast members had backgrounds on Broadway as well as professional dance training. [3] McNamara had done musical theatre in high school and directed the episode, while Brookwell cited the "musical episode" as a television convention. [3] Brookwell stated that network executives were initially unsure that a musical episode would be successful and were uninterested in the subgenre, but the idea was ultimately approved. [3] The success of the musical format led to the idea being adopted on Brookwell and McNamara's other comedy series That's So Raven . [3] It also inspired the development of the television film High School Musical , which then-president of Disney Channels Worldwide Gary Marsh said would not have been possible if not for the success of the Even Stevens episode. [3]

The series was produced and distributed by Disney in North America, while Fireworks Entertainment distributes the series in all other territories. [4]

Broadcast

The series reran on Disney Channel from June 2, 2003 to September 4, 2006. On July 7, 2007, Disney Channel aired eight episodes as part of their "Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Louis" marathon, to coincide with the release of Shia LaBeouf's film Transformers . [5]

In 2006, Superstation WGN (now NewsNation) acquired the rights to Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire . [6] [7] It aired on the channel from September 18, 2006 to September 12, 2008, during the week originally airing after each other on weekday afternoons before moving to the late night hours, when both shows' target audiences were generally not awake, with Stevens airing Tuesdays and Thursdays and Lizzie airing the rest of the week.

In 2009, Even Stevens began airing on Disney XD; it was removed from the channel in January 2010.

From 2015 to 2016, Even Stevens aired on Freeform for two hours after midnight on Wednesdays as part of the That's So Throwback block. In the UK, on April 30, 2001, it was reported that the BBC had acquired terrestrial rights to air and re-air the show on CBBC with 21 episodes in 30 minute formats of the show being scheduled to first air later that same year, after having secured a deal with Fireworks Entertainment. [8] All episodes of the show were eventually aired before being re- broadcast on CBBC until December 20, 2008 at 15:00pm. [9] Sometime in 2009, CITV also acquired rights to the show and aired and re-aired the show until sometime in January 2013, taking it off schedule just one week before the rebrand of the channel that same year. The show currently is no longer airing on television.

The series released on November 12, 2019 with the launch of Disney+ in the United States. It is currently not available in all territories where the platform has launched due to different distribution rights in many countries.

Home media

The first season of Even Stevens was made available on DVD on Region 4 in Australia and New Zealand. To date, no further seasons have been released on Region 4. Region 1 has not released any season of the series, however, the television film, The Even Stevens Movie, was made available on DVD (Full Screen only) and VHS on June 28, 2005. In March 2020, the complete series was made available for purchase on iTunes. The series finale film is available on iTunes in non-cropped widescreen.

Awards and nominations

2002 – Best International Matt Dearborn, Sean McNamara & David Brookwell (Won)
2003 – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series Shia LaBeouf (Won)
2003 – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series Donna Pescow (Nominated)
2003 – Outstanding Children's Series (Nominated)
2002 – Outstanding Children's Series (Nominated)
2002 – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series Donna Pescow (Nominated)
2001 – Outstanding Children's Series (Nominated)
2001 – Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series Donna Pescow (Nominated)
2003 – Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs – Gregory Hobson for episode "Band On The Roof" (Nominated)
2002 – Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs – Sean McNamara for episode "Very Scary Story" (Nominated)
2001 – Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs Paul Hoen for episode "Take My Sister... Please" (Nominated)
2001 – Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs – Sean McNamara for episode "Easy Way" (Nominated)
2004 – Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama): Supporting Young ActressMargo Harshman (Nominated)
2003 – Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama): Supporting Young ActorSteven Anthony Lawrence (Won)
2003 – Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama): Supporting Young ActressLauren Frost (Nominated)
2002 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Leading Young ActressChristy Carlson Romano (Won)
2002 – Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama): Supporting Young Actress – Lauren Frost (Won)
2002 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Leading Young Actor -Shia LaBeouf (Nominated)
2002 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Leading Young ActorA.J. Trauth (Nominated)
2002 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Supporting Young Actor – Steven Anthony Lawrence (Nominated)
2001 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Leading Young Actress – Christy Carlson Romano (Won)
2001 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Leading Young Actor – Shia LaBeouf (Nominated)
2001 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Guest Starring Young Performer – Ty Hodges (Nominated)
2000 – Best Young Actor/Performance in a Comedy TV Series – Shia LaBeouf (Nominated)

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References

  1. Hogan, Mike (August 2007). "Landing in Hollywood". Vanity Fair . Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  2. "8 Things You Need to Know About Even Stevens ASAP". Teen.com. March 22, 2015. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schildhause, Chloe (May 13, 2016). "'We Went To The Moon In 1969': How The Even Stevens Musical Episode Changed The Disney Channel Forever". Uproxx . Warner Music Group. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  4. "Evens Stevens rides again on Disney".
  5. "Nick & More! Media". tvschedulearchive.com. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  6. "CMT Drops 'Foxworthy', Cuts 'Dukes' Airings; WGN Buys 'Lizzie McGuire' & 'Even Stevens' Reruns; TV Land June Changes". sitcomsonline.com.
  7. "Disney Channel Shows to WGN". multichannel.com. 17 April 2006.
  8. "BBC picks up Even Stevens from Fireworks". C21media. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  9. "CBBC - Even Stevens, Series 3, Snow Job". BBC. Retrieved 2023-12-16.