first off we needed to stop the show we knew it was time you chose to stop it yes my brother and i actually quit off disney shower as someone whose professional career initially spiked at 11 years old and whose face is now the cover of clickbait articles titled 10 shocking ways these child stars die it's alison stoner i'm brenda song i'm ashley tisdale i'm uh we quit one because [Applause] i'm disney royalty [Applause] [Music] hi i'm shelby and i'm jake welcome to deep dive where we dive into told and untold stories with extreme detail if it happened it's probably in a deep time today we are super excited to kick off our next series the disney channel and show just how some of these kids were thrust into the spotlight and made to work harder than most adults the goal of the series is to chronicle the transitional period between baby actor and for some cultural phenomenon we also want to take a moment to thank you all for a hundred thousand subscribers for real thank you all so much for believing in us and always being so supportive we truly couldn't be living our dream without you so grab a snack and patent down the hatches or whatever because this is about to get deep [Music] the disney channel is on the air [Music] in the spring of 1977 jim jamiro a visionary at the walt disney company went to his higher ups about an idea for a children's and family network called the disney channel a variety show of sorts that would entertain the masses unfortunately in the late 70s there were only about 1. 2 million cable subscribers nationwide and although disney executives liked the idea they essentially laughed in jim's face he is quoted saying back then we could have done it for 50 cents everybody liked the idea but the truth is nobody took it seriously their reaction was essentially jim go do your eight millimeter home movies we did the channel because we did a lot of research that uh showed that there are literally tens of millions of people across this country who really wanted uh a kind of wholesome or family uh programming that wasn't being offered bentley bull's advertising agency did a study fairly recently indicated that something like 33 percent of the people who don't subscribe to pay television with or without children don't do it because they don't want the r-rated pictures into their houses i'm not suggesting that there's not a tremendous market for that kind of material i'm just saying that we discovered that there was a gap in the marketplace but it would be jim jamiro who had the last laugh as the 80s brought great investments into the walt disney company the same year they built the billion dollar theme park epcot the walt disney company gave jim jamiro the green light on beginning what we know today as the most iconic children's network of all time the disney channel and that as they say is just the beginning in the months ahead you'll see more great movies for the whole family more new shows that are fun to watch easy on the eyes and packed with the things that you want to know the people at the disney channel want you to know that that's a promise a commitment to bringing you and your family the kind of quality television you'll be glad to welcome into home the disney channel has kick-started hundreds of careers but it hasn't been without consequence the rise to child stardom is a controversial one filled with predatory casting directors dangerous producers and in today's episode even convicted criminals so be prepared because we are going to be taking a look at one of the longest running disney channel shows of all time the suite life of zack and cody and chronicle just how one show not only launched the careers of some of the most influential people on the entire planet but also hired a dangerous criminal right out of jail stupid looking ears doesn't it no what do you mean no look the goof's got ears like an elephant say it no come on [Applause] twins dylan and cole sprouse were born on august 4th 1992 and just eight months later they were thrust into the spotlight we started basically our mom put us in the business when we were really really really little we were about eight months old when we started we did diaper commercial and then from then uh to five years old we did grace under fire however dylan and cole would be playing the same role you told me this morning you had a secret impression tell me a secret even though it's just yummy whisper whisper secret very lou's children's work restrictions were finally beginning to take form in california and hollywood studios needed to adapt accordingly one of these ways was through the hiring of twins according to california law child actors between the age of two to six are only allowed to work three hours a day and babies under two can only work two hours per day with a twin you can double that time and finish filming scenes faster and more efficiently so essentially hollywood production companies were hiring twins so they could drain them of more work hours these laws only got more stringent and by the time dylan and cole were off of grace under fire and on to their next project they had no trouble landing another role as twins were in very high demand they had done several small roles however their big break came in the late 90s when they start along adam sandler in the hit film big daddy that did most scenes no i did no i did mommy said i did did he start working with adam sandler he's pretty shy guy like you you wouldn't think that he's shy at first but he really does open up the great thing is he has a comedy for all ages this movie catapulted their careers to the mainstream however nothing could have prepared the twins for their disney channel debut as in the coming years dylan and cole sprouse would become household names zach lost her at school i i think he's angry how do you lose a woman [Music] you forget to cherish her in the early 2000s as disney channel was focusing less on animation and putting more funding into live-action children's programming we saw the rise of the hit original disney channel shows like fill of the future lizzie mcguire and the even stevens however this was only the beginning multiple shows would begin production during the golden era of disney channel including that so raven hannah montana and of course the suite life of zach and cody imagine living in a luxury hotel with unlimited room service unrestricted pool access and you had your underwear dry cleaned feels good the suite life of zach and cody disney channel's original comedy series when casting and writing the show disney saw dylan and cole sprouse as far more than just interchangeable twins they saw two different personalities that played off of each other and knew as one character they could shine but as twins they could be marketed to the masses when disney came to us with the offer the sweet life we were really grateful and you know that's that's just kept us from there and so when dylan and cole were just 11 years old executives at disney channel did just that the series would follow a pair of twins named zack and cody around a parody of the hilton hotel as they wreaked havoc on their family and friends using existing disney channel stars they built a dreamcast this march look who's coming to disney channel [Music] the sweet life of zach and cody a brand new disney channel original series coming to march on disney channel [Music] [Applause] [Music] no parody of the hilton hotel would be complete without an iconic era socialite so disney channel writers dreamed up london tipton an airhead who also happened to be the heir to the tipton fortune she was outwardly happy and had everything anyone could ever want but deep down she craved connection and missed her parents more than anything this wouldn't have to do more with your father not showing up for the father-daughter dance would it maybe i just thought he might actually show up this time london needed a frenemy and that came in the form of maddie fitzpatrick a studious teen girl london's age who worked at the tipton hotel candy counter to support her family however casting these characters would be no simple task maddie needed to be quick-witted snappy and smart while london needed to be pretentious likable but still three-dimensional the part of london tipton originally went to none other than ashley tisdale a teen broadway performer who previously had done voice acting work for a bug's life and the part of maddie fitzpatrick originally went to film of the future star brenda song brenda told w magazine it was ashley tisdale who tested for the role of london tipton they were going to go full true paris hilton parody and when we read for the roles they were like no actually you guys switched parts hollywood wasn't doing that then every audition was like a job to me i didn't get a lot of auditions it wasn't until i got into the disney family that they were so very open i got into this accident i was like four years old in the mall in northern california and they were doing like a big model search in the middle of the mall this school wasn't legit at all but i met a real agent through it and i and it was but i was lucky enough to meet a real agent i just love being on a set i love what i do we're really lucky that you know i mean at least for me i get to live out the dream that i had since i was like seven years old and you know every single day so i can't complain so i feel really proud of that because for me growing up i didn't see a lot of girls who looked like me on tv and it was a little disheartening because i was like i'm not jackie chan i'm not jet li how am i going to do this brenda even got accepted into harvard at just 16 years old when she officially landed the role however she went with her dreams of becoming an actress instead disney replaced her unveil of the future and thus transformed her into the iconic london tipton and ashley tisdale assumed her new role as maddie fitzpatrick with ease and showcased her versatility as an actress i'm so grateful for playing those roles like at that time in my life that was like what i wanted to do i was like i need to be on disney the twins needed a reason to live at the hotel different characters who worked in the hotel along with a parental figure the soap opera icon herself kim rhodes assumed the part of carrie martin a divorced mother of twins who lives and sings at the luxury hotel phil lewis would be cast as mr mosby the uptight hotel manager who acted as a father figure to london and was always at odds with zach and cody are you familiar with the gear shift you mean the pringle the what the prindle are you referring to the shift lever that says p-r-n-d-l about a child's mosby i know how to spell printal it is not something you spell it is a gear shift the letters stand for park reverse neutral driving now this making me nervous with all this technical talk oh i'm sorry why don't we just relax or turn on the radio would you like am or finn adrian romante would be cast as mr mosby's bellboy esteban julio ricardo montoya de la rosa ramirez brian stepnick became a fan favorite when he was cast as the scatter brains engineer arwen whose love for kerry martin was only rivaled by his love for creating disastrous inventions for the hotel and allison stoner a dance prodigy who gained major recognition at just 11 years old when the starring alongside missy elliott in the music video for workit was cast as the reoccurring character max a rough around the edges skater who befriends the twins at school but alison wasn't the only star to gain a huge boost from the suite life the show would also act as the testing ground for an entire new generation of child stars including but not limited to victoria justice nathan cress rainy rodriguez moises arias vanessa hutchins daniela monet drew sealy and global sensation selena gomez emma stone even played the voice of london tipton's dog ivana the musical guests were out of this world as well including jessie mccartney chris brown and disney's own cheetah girls this was the dream team of actors who brought the sweet life of zak and cody to life but behind the scenes lurked a few key individuals that would cause the suite life of zack and cody not to be so sweet the disney channel was building dylan and cole sprouse's show into an empire but underneath the shiny hotel sets millions in merchandise and dozens of breakout teen stars was a dark secret it is no secret that hollywood is full of but you would think there would be many safeguards put in place by child networks such as disney channel to protect the many children on set unfortunately that has not always been the case this can be demonstrated by when disney channel hired convicted defender brian peck to play the mirror voice on the suite life of zack and cody how do i look two words gorgeous did your mirror just talk yep it's something that daddy's scientist came up with now not only can i see how can i look i can hear about it too yay mirror let me try so how do i look well anyway what are you doing here mirror i'm here to take you on a little trip come on step into me okay i think you've been going a little glass cleaner trust me on this sweetie have i ever steered you wrong before you did tell me i looked good wearing a scrunchie it was the 90s they were in whatever i'm not stepping inside you is that a pimple oh yes where i don't see a pimple look closer closer brian peck has worked in hollywood since the 80s while he is still to this day a cult figure within the horror community for playing scuzz in the return of the living dead and wow i just discovered that an actor from one of my favorite movies return of living dead is what i want to know is how this never became common knowledge and how this guy continues to find work and makes a fortune appearing at conventions and still acting you know this day apparently he's well connected and friends with charlie sheen and other influential people he has also worked on many children shows through the years we draw drawings of each other brian is the famous artist and we always make fun of each other and portray each other in silly satirical ways leo's job on this set for some reason to make fun of me all day long leo as you know is the latest hottest hunkiest t-night all there is muscles look speaking of hunky huh brian peck would work with nickelodeon frequently appearing in keenan and kell good burger the amanda show and all that brian peck moved to nickelodeon and coached on almost all their shows really it was one of those shows where he befriended a pretty major child actor that child was by brian peck he came forward and filed criminal charges against brian peck on august 19 2003 brian peck was arrested for a nickelodeon child star lapd had put out a statement stating that detectives believed there were additional victims who had not come forward and considering peck had been working in the industry for 20 years at this point there is no way to know how many survivors of brian peck there truly are as many victims in hollywood are forced to stay silent to protect their careers brian peck almost immediately pled guilty um clearly he didn't want an investigation to continue or clearly the studio didn't want an investigation to continue the victim has chosen to remain anonymous all along in order to to continue to work it's unheard of that a child would be able to step forward at the time of when they're still a minor and continue to work afterward i can't think of a single example where that's happened so a kid that wants to speak out and say what happened to them beyond their family would truly have to give up their career it's very sad that that's the case but it's a reality brian peck was convicted in 2004 where he would only spend 16 months in prison his conviction of a nickelodeon child star would not prevent him from continuing his work in hollywood as just months after his release disney channel would hire him to play the mirror voice on the suite life of zach and cody either disney channel was unaware of brian peck's conviction which would mean they aren't taking the most basic precautions to protect their child stars such as background checks or disney channel did know they were hiring a convicted offender to work on one of their child shows and simply didn't care about the risk however brian peck was not the first convicted disney has hired filmmaker victor salva was convicted after pleading guilty to five felony counts in 1988. salva was sentenced to just three years but only ended up serving half of his sentence fast forward to 1995 a movie called powder was released by disney and produced by caravan pictures this movie was written and directed by none other than victor salva salva is even quoted saying powder contains many of his thoughts from his time in prison within the movie subtext the release of powder prompted nathan winters the victim to come forward publicly and protest disney hiring the convicted tim that's when powder came out [Music] and i was like at work one day and i got a call from my auntie and she said and victor wrote it directed it and it's got mary steen virgin and you know jeff goldblum so i'm at like i'm 20 years old and i'm at work and i'm just like just got hit in the gut you know i'm just like whoa you know and then she um tells me that it was produced by disney so i'm sitting there and i'm thinking it took about a half an hour and i just made a decision like well i can't allow this and literally as i'm like accepting this and making that decision i get a call from somebody from the associated press and it just was a powder keg it just blew up i mean laying it all out there for the world to see and to know what victor really is the protest caused a media stir where disney and caravan pictures had no choice but to respond and both shockingly defended their choice to hire victor salva the caravan picture spokesperson was quoted saying he paid for his crimes he paid his debt to society and the disney spokesperson said quote what happened eight years ago has nothing to do with this movie the opposition was i would say at that time it was about 60 40.
um 60 of the people were like supportive of me but you know there's the 40 that would call me all sorts of names and tell me i was doing it for all the wrong reasons and try to discredit me and um and then you got people like eisner down at disney going on record and saying that uh it was a one one time inappropriate between a grown man and a consenting minor this just shows that are not stopped from working in hollywood even after convictions and they certainly aren't prevented from working on family friendly films and tv shows paving the way for more and more to join this industry there would be one more that we know of tied to disney channel and the suite life of zach and cody joshua workman was the manager for colin dillon sprouse during their time on the sweet life he even helped co-produce the sprout twins movie the prince and the popper which did air on disney channel according to tmz in 2008 joshua workman planned no contest to one count of misdemeanor and one count sales of alcoholic beverages to a minor joshua's attorney gave a statement stating that joshua admitted he annoyed an individual who is a minor and provided them alcohol according to the superior court of california ventura county joshua workman's case today shows dismissed or expunged and joshua workman has since changed his name and moved to canada years later in 2012 a new california state law would be introduced and passed to help protect child stars from vendors brian peck was one of the many offenders who sparked the creation of this law the law ab-1660 requires those who work with child actors that may have unsupervised access to them such as publicists managers acting coaches and photographers to be fingerprinted and pass an fbi background check before they would be issued a child performer services permit while the law was a great start it had many loopholes if you were a fellow actor such as brian peck or a part of the show's crew you wouldn't necessarily be required to undergo these fbi background checks six years after the law was put into place deadline conducted an investigation to see if there has been any follow-through and they found only 292 valid permit holders within the state department's industrial relations database many industry professionals have not complied with the new law and have failed to register amongst those who have failed to comply would be publicists who represent child stars on many hit tv shows such as disney channels stuck in the middle and raven's home and while this is the darkest part of the industry that has impacted more child stars than we could ever know there are also so many other negative impacts to child actors within this industry so we shot a pilot the pilot was going to either be picked up or not picked up into a tv series order for three seasons because that's how disney did it you'll see that in a lot of different shows that they had in the late 90s and early 2000s disney channel seemingly implemented what the gamer has called the 65 episode rule just as its name implies the 65 episode rule was a pretty rigid programming scheme that rarely let disney channel original shows from exceeding 65 episodes total many great shows fell victim to this including even stevens and lizzie mcguire which were both cut off at exactly 65 episodes both of these shows were then given a disney channel original movie but were eventually phased out of the prime time disney channel programming but why would disney channel end extremely successful shows with an arbitrary number of episodes many have speculated over the years why this rule was put in place some theorizing that the stars of the shows along with their viewers aged out of the desired disney channel demographic but the website fandom suggests the rule may have had more to do with programming schedules rather than any personal feelings about a series on the part of studio executives before streaming services dvr and on-demand television network's programming was much more rigid as the networks were choosing which reruns to play with 65 episodes five episodes can be broadcast a week reaching the 65th episode at the end of the quarter this caused filming and promotional schedules for the child stars on disney to often be unmanageable and exhausting while some companies stay within the legal range of working hours for minors many do not regardless conditions are inappropriate and hazardous did you know that according to the us department of labor 17 states still don't have any regulations in place for child entertainment in 2021 yet all 50 have working child performers adding to this zero productions acknowledge that after their shoot i will go to another record an interview during my lunch break train for multiple hours skip dinner and meet for a late night rehearsal after all their responsibility is to deliver a product on time and in budget not to babysit meanwhile agents are encouraging me to look at early emancipation so i can work longer hours by the time sweet life of zach and cody was in production disney was already moving on to an even more strenuous programming schedule as the 65 episode rule was officially broken for good in 2004 by that so raven and successful shows were now running even longer than before are you guys working right now do you get a little holiday break we're uh we're off until january i think and then we're back what are the plans what are you gonna be doing uh i mean we want as much downtime as we can get because you know we are really busy when the show's going so we we don't really we're just trying to relax i guess yeah mainly that's our number one priority by its second season the suite life of zack and cody had reached its 65-episode lifespan yet like that so raven a few years prior executives still renewed the show for one last season however with the success of corey in the house after that so raven ended whispers of different zack and cody sequels began to spread the sweet life story was just getting started as disney had two concepts that would make it to filming one titled the sweet life on deck and another lesser-known sequel titled arwyn house broken the suite life on deck would be centered around the twins setting sail on the ss tipton seeing the world and attending boarding school with london and a slew of new characters the lesser known sequel housebroken would focus on fan favorite character arwen instead of having dylan and cole sprouse the series would have had brian stepanik reprise his role as arwen hawkhauser who was going to live with his sister to help her take care of her kids an entirely new cast of characters would have also starred in the show with the most notable being selena gomez you have no business going to a high school party i'm in high school what other parties am i gonna go to she has a point you stay out of this i'm her mother and i'll decide what's appropriate for her she has a point too it's all tied up while pilots of the suite life on deck and house broken were being conceptualized the third season of the suite life of zack and cody was in production and it would prove to be majorly problematic for starters ashley tisdale could only be in a select number of episodes due to her extremely packed filming schedule playing sharpay in high school musical but in november of 2007 this would prove to be the least of the concerns as many of you know three weeks ago the members of the writers guilds of america voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if we could not reach a fair and reasonable deal with the alliance motion picture and television producers studios made it clear that they would rather shut down this town than reach a fair and reasonable deal twelve thousand writers are on strike saying producers don't wanna pay them enough when their material gets reused on the internet their shows are streamed live online and they're not getting paid for it at the end of the day how much money do you think this will have cost everybody a billion dollars at least the writers guild strike of 2007 halted production on multiple disney channel shows and according to the senior vp of original programming for the disney channel the strike put a halt to the suite life and unfortunately proved to effectively kill off any chance of disney producing two sequels for the suite life the pilot episode of house broken was filmed however only the suite life on deck would make it to air house broken was eventually scrapped in favor of the hit disney channel series starring selena gomez wizards of waverly place which went on to be one of disney channel's biggest successes however house broken will always exist as the suite life spin-off with selena gomez that almost was well at least until 2011 but we'll get to that later in the video suite life of zack and cody was a cultural phenomenon and each of the core cast members were quickly becoming disney royalty brenda and ashley both got their own disney channel original movies and the ratings for the show during the final season just kept growing thus as networks often do when a popular show comes to an end it's still time to continue the story we're really happy that disney took us back again we're honored basically what happens is zach and cody now do school abroad their mom finally got enough money with their employee discount to put us on a ship the ss tipped him so now we're doing school there and basically we have to learn responsibility our young team name toys and london are off on a grand adventure where all the kids will be going to school on a luxury cruise liner you know we had a lot of fun doing the suite life and it's just going to be a lot more fun doing the show coming off the mega success of the suite life of zach and cody the suite life on deck was pretty much the same with a few minor changes instead of a hotel they would be traveling the world on the ss tipton and with the removal of ashley tisdale and kim rhodes from the main cast four new main characters were added doc shaw played marcus little a retired child rapper who shares a room with zach and attends seven seas high matthew timmons was cast as woody cody's roommate and aaron cardio played their teacher miss tuttweiler but the biggest addition to the sweet life sequel was the introduction of debbie ryan a child star who much like selena gomez and demi lovato got her start on barney the disney channel saw major potential in debbie not only as one of the front runners of their brand new show but as an asset to their brand to recruit more children for the network a full-fledged system has emerged it's expertly constructed and it's bolted in place by censoring the harm happening behind the scenes manicuring aspirational lifestyles and outcomes just four weeks ago i was an everyday teenager living in texas but i got the chance to live out my dream by being cast on disney channel's next big show the sweet life on death when we decided to move forward and do suite life on deck we needed another character and we were incredibly lucky to find the perfect person that we envisioned as bailey and her name is debbie ryan and she's just joined our sweet life family it's london's roommate so i found out that i booked sweet life on deck and i'm gonna be you know london's new roommate which i understood from you know the auditions the screencast that was a huge rule and i was like do you know how big the show is you don't think this is gonna be and she's like and we just we're still surprised so was it hard because you and your mom have had to move to l. a and your brother and your dad stayed behind it's really it's really hard i text my brother all the time the show debuted to 5.
