Drake & Josh

***Drake & Josh*** is an American television sitcom created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series follows the lives of two teenage boys with opposite personalities, Drake Parker (Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols (Josh Peck), who become stepbrothers. Both actors previously appeared in *The Amanda Show* along with Nancy Sullivan, who plays Drake and Megan's mother in the series. Miranda Cosgrove plays Megan, Drake's mischievous younger sister, and Jonathan Goldstein plays Walter, Josh's father. The series' opening theme song, "Found a Way", is written by Drake Bell and Backhouse Mike and performed by Bell. The series ran from January 11, 2004, to September 16, 2007, totaling 56 episodes in 4 seasons. It also had two TV films: *Drake & Josh Go Hollywood* and *Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh*.

## Plot

The series is focused on a pair of stepbrothers who have opposite personalities. Drake Parker is a popular but immature aspiring musician idolized by his schoolmates and able to court a countless array of girls with ease, whereas Josh Nichols is smart and responsible, but has trouble with dating and popularity. Drake and Josh live in San Diego, California, with Josh's awkward father, Walter; Drake's loving mother Audrey; and manipulative and conniving younger sister Megan. The two boys are often involved in comedic misadventures and obstacles while also handling an array of teenage situations. Over the course of the series, both Josh and Drake change and their relationship develops: Josh loses weight and becomes more popular, while Drake matures and becomes more caring towards other people, especially his stepbrother, whom he eventually calls his "brother" instead of "stepbrother."

## Main Cast

* **Drake Parker** is depicted as a laid-back, charming, immature, and womanizing teenager. Although he often appears unintelligent, his under-achievement seems to be caused by apathy and he has been known not to think before he acts (getting straight D's in school). Drake has great interest in music, playing the electric guitar in a band throughout the series and liking all forms, his favorite being rock. He can also play several percussion instruments, shown in "Megan's New Teacher" when he tried to play drums and guitar at the same time and in "Josh Runs Into Oprah" where he played the bongos. He usually takes advantage of Josh to get what he wants. He has a lot of success with girls and much of the comedy is his effortless ability to get dates. Drake is also very unhygienic (not washing hands, eating food off the floor). Drake feels embarrassed about his new stepbrother at first, but grows to accept Josh. Despite his arrogance and selfishness, Drake still redeems himself by doing the right thing. He becomes more mature as the series progresses.

* **Josh Nichols** is Drake and Megan’s stepbrother. Unlike his stepbrother, Josh is smart, conscientious, sensible, and does well in school, although he is not often the socially stable one. In the pilot episode, he had a job for the school newspaper in which he wrote under the name Miss Nancy. In season two, he begins working for Helen at the fictional Premiere movie theatre. Unlike Drake, Josh often stresses over school a lot and uses his common sense, often repeating things for emphasis when anxious. Despite his good moral compass and punctuality, Josh is prone to bad luck, especially with girls. However, later, he begins to date Mindy Crenshaw, who is his academic rival. He has all sorts of hobbies, including cooking and performing magic tricks. Later in the series, Josh becomes more popular and gains better luck. He is obsessed with Oprah Winfrey and accidentally ran her over with his car in Josh Runs into Oprah.

* **Audrey Parker-Nichols** is Drake and Megan's mother, Josh's stepmother and Walter's wife. Her first name is never mentioned in the series, but is revealed in most scripts as "Audrey". She is usually telling the boys to try not to be so immature. She upsets her husband Walter because of her preference to Bruce Winchill, his rival weatherman. Because Walter is unable to discipline the boys, she usually has to punish the boys although these punishments are usually unfair because most are Megan's fault. As stepmother and stepson, Audrey and Josh have a very fond relationship, and he affectionately calls her "Mom" or "Mama". Her profession was never specified in the series, but it is generally assumed that she is a stay-at-home mom. She is a very generous and loving mother however a bit naive when it comes to her daughter Megan, especially when it is Megan's word against Drake and Josh.

* **Walter Nichols** is Josh's father and Drake and Megan's stepfather. He is a meteorologist for a local TV news program in San Diego, but he is often wrong about the weather. Walter is often clumsy, out of date, and seemingly empty-headed. As a result, he lacks the respect of his stepchildren, who refer to him by his first name. When Megan calls him by his first name, he always asks "When did she start calling me Walter?" and Audrey replies "I don't know." He is also clueless and skeptical in regards to Megan's pranks which have caused the boys a lot of punishments, although starting in the episode "The Demonator", Walter slowly begins to notice Megan's evil ways. A running gag involves a rivalry between him and Bruce Winchill, an unseen weatherman from another station. He hates that Winchill is so popular, as he is always right with his predictions, and even forbids the use of Winchill's name in the family home.

* **Megan Parker** is the younger sister of Drake and stepsister of Josh. Megan often references a best friend named Janie and often refers to her older brothers as "boobs." Although at times Megan helps her brothers, she is usually antagonistic and hostile to them. It has also been shown that she is very smart and quick-witted; she can pull off very extreme, cruel and sometimes complicated (or even potentially dangerous) pranks on her brothers all while ensuring that her parents think of her as being a "sweet little girl" (also believing her to be always innocent). However, in the episode, "The Affair", Megan calls Drake a "boob" and Josh "gross" in front of her mother, who does not react. Even when an incident has nothing to do with them she still manages to take their distrust from others as an advantage. This has even gone so far as to suggest that she might even possess genius-level intelligence, for example building a hidden computerized monitor in her room. Most of the time throughout the series, Megan is very conceited, rude, sassy, and mean to her brothers. However, despite her near-constant harassing them, Megan actually loves her brothers deep down and has shown them genuine love and gratefulness when they uncovered that her then-boyfriend had been cheating on her.

## Setting

The Drake and Josh bedroom is a setting of the Drake & Josh series. The bedroom was seen in mostly all episodes. It also has a high school full good but some of the strange people in it known as Belleview High School (it also has a middle school known as the lower school where Megan and her friends go to, as revealed in Megan's First Kiss.) and a Mall movie theather called *The Premiere*. The whole setting of the series is mostly based on San Diego, California.

## Films

### *Drake & Josh Go Hollywood* (2006)

*Main article: Drake & Josh Go Hollywood*
The boys are left at home in San Diego, California after Audrey and Walter go on a ten-day cruise. Drake and Josh are told to take Megan to the airport so she can visit her friend in Denver, Colorado, but they accidentally send her on a flight to Los Angeles, California. Drake and Josh go to Hollywood to get Megan back, end up stopping a multibillion-dollar heist, and booking a guest-spot for Drake on *TRL*. The TV film aired on January 6, 2006; according to *TV Guide*, it was the highest rated program on all of cable during its opening week. It currently holds a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes.

### *Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh* (2008)

*Main article: Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh*
A new *Drake & Josh* TV film tentatively entitled "Drake & Josh: Best Christmas Ever" began production in July 2008, and premiered on December 5, 2008. The title was later changed to "Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh". Creator Dan Schneider returned as executive producer, with Marjorie Cohn and Lauren Levine co-executive producing. Michael Grossman directed the feature. The film centers around the boys who are working as Santa's helpers in a mall when Drake promises a little girl that her foster family will have "The Best Christmas Ever"—and then try to fulfill that promise while a grumpy police officer interferes. While the boys are not enjoying their time, Audrey and Walter are feeling worse on their vacation because they have to stay in a hut while in a hurricane.

The TV film was broadcast in HD format, unlike the previous TV film *Drake & Josh Go Hollywood*. It also featured Henry Winkler and MMA fighter Kimbo Slice.

The premiere of *Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh* broke the record of most viewers for the premiere of a Nickelodeon film with 9.10 million viewers, a title previously held by *iGo to Japan*.

Despite the strong ratings, the film is the lower-reviewed of the two *Drake & Josh* films, currently holding a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.

## Other media

### Music

Drake & Josh has had some singles and a soundtrack of it's own.

### Videogames

Two video games based on Drake & Josh have been released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS known as it's videogame duplicate and Drake & Josh: Talent Showdown. Both of them were published by THQ and released in the same year.

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