ain't he cute?

[harmony03]

You gotta admit - he's still hot! Oh, and a photo for Warsaw Dreams, too, from the Zuma Press web site.

[Classicshowsgurl15]

Great Pictures!!!

[Charmedsclub]

Awwww Brain! Hes such a cutie! Back in good old days(2003 lol) I would come on here and talk about how much I loved him lol

[warsaw dreams]

Thank you SOOO much! It took me awhile to get around to seeing that! I have to visit the boards more often!!

[harmony03]

My pleasure. Dan Schneider is cute, isn't he? And he seems smart and funny. Besides, I think it takes intelligent women to notice his appeal.

[warsaw dreams]

He sure is cute! In everything I've read about him, he does seem smart and funny and a heck of a nice guy. He's so...perfect!! (and you're right about the intelligent women thing!)

[harmony03]

This article just popped up online - it includes bits of an interview with Dan S. Thought you might be interested, if you haven't already seen it.

http://http://www.mcall.com/entertai...,6520544.story

[warsaw dreams]

I can't get that article to come up, but is it the one where he talks about how he loved Happy Days as a kid? I've seen that article and I love it when he talks about his childhood!

[harmony03]

April 19, 2006

Entertainment industry taps into 'tween power
By Peter Larsen
Of The Orange County Register

Nine-year-old Melissa Langley made sure to catch ''High School Musical'' when the made-for-TV movie debuted on the Disney Channel in January.

Since then, the fourth grader has watched it three or four more times, bought the soundtrack and taught herself a few of the dance numbers from the movie.


Lehigh Valley Local Links
''I just really like the songs,'' Melissa says. ''When I fall to sleep, sometimes I listen to the songs.''

''High School Musical'' is pretty much her favorite thing on TV and celebrate and everybody's, 'Woo hoo, the Oscar winners!''' says Drake Bell, who won Best Actor at the awards show. ''With this, everyone who knew who we were was in bed by 8 p.m.''

To understand the cultural phenomenon of 'tween TV — and increasingly, its spinoffs into music, the Internet and shopping — look to the early 1990s, when kid-oriented cable channels started to fill a niche abandoned by the broadcast networks.

''I think the networks used to try to program for kids and family,'' says Dan Schneider, who acted on one such show — ''Head of the Class'' — in the 1980s before going on to create 'tween programs such as ''The Amanda Show,'' ''Drake and Josh'' and ''Zoey 101.''

''Sometime in the early to mid-'90s, 8 p.m. television went away from family to being 'Friends' — and you really don't want your 10-year-old watching 'Friends,''' Schneider says.

Nickelodeon had many of the early 'tween shows — ''Clarissa Explains It All,'' Schneider's ''All That,'' and ''The Secret World of Alex Mack,'' from Tommy Lynch, like Schneider, a 'tween programming mogul.

What they discovered was that kids in that age range didn't want to watch shows for little kids and they didn't want to watch their parents' shows. Instead, they wanted to see themselves and their stories on TV.

''They love stories about themselves,'' says Lynch, whose other programs include ''Romeo!'' and ''Caitlin's Way.'' ''Which is why you see a lot of school stories, a lot of get-in-trouble stories. And funny is a big part of it — our audience loves funny.''

Schneider says his main goal is to create a world where kids are king — and queen, of course.

''I create a world where kids rule,'' he says. ''If you think about it, kids are always being told what to do, what to say, when to do it — they're very controlled. … I give them an escape, where the kids are in charge.''

He and others who create programs for 'tweens say the other common attribute of the shows is honesty — it has to feel real to the audience.

''You're telling a story that relatable, that's accessible, and particularly with 'High School Musical,' a story with some wish fulfillment attached,'' says Gary Marsh, the Disney Channel's president for entertainment.

''There's an adage out there — 'Tween is not an age, it's a stage,''' Marsh says. ''Kids are trapped between the cocoon and comfort of being a child, and the rebellion and independence they want as a teenager.

''So your goal is trying to satisfy all those needs that kids have.''

With ''High School Musical,'' Marsh notes, the Disney Channel did that and then some.

The story of kids from different cliques — the basketball star and the brainy girl — who fall for each other and decide to try out for the school musical has attracted more than 34 million different viewers over 10 showings since its debut on Jan. 20.

By the time a karaoke version aired a day later, 1.2 million fans downloaded lyrics from the Disney Web site to sing along. The soundtrack CD has sold more than 2 million copies and topped the charts in online sales at the iTunes store.

The strong iTunes sales points to what show creators say is the future, targeting tech-savvy 'tweens with original content online, like the behind-the-scenes podcasts Schneider does with ''Zoey 101'' cast.

[warsaw dreams]

I've seen that article, too. I 'Google' Dan and all sorts of neat things come up. The article I mentioned earlier was that he was talking about shooting behind the scences stuff for his shows Drake and Josh and Zoey 101. He said Happy Days was one of his favorite shows growing up and if he had heard behind the scenes commentary on it, he would have lost his mind. Now if they would just put out a Head of the Class DVD with commentary I could lose my mind!
(By the way, thanks for doing all this article searching!)

[harmony03]

What can I say? I regularly check to see if there's any HOTC news online. Came across the link to this last article on http://rss.topix.net/tv/head-of-the-class

[warsaw dreams]

Hmmm...I'll have to search that site!