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Hannah Montana is an American Emmy Award-nominated children's television series which debuted on March 24, 2006 on Disney Channel. The series focuses on Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus), who lives a double life as an average teenage girl at school during the day and a famous pop singer, Hannah Montana, at night, concealing her real identity from the public other than her close friends and family.
Character Information
Miley Stewart is an ordinary girl who lives a double-life as successful pop sensation Hannah Montana. She tries to keep it a secret so that she can live a normal life. She lives with her brother, Jackson (Jason Earles), and her father, Robby (Billy Ray Cyrus), who is also her manager and producer, and was a country singer at one time. Miley's mother died when she was young. Roxy (Frances Callier) is Hannah Montana's bodyguard who protects Miley, Jackson, and Robby, even when they don't want her to.
Miley is originally from Tennessee. It is unclear when exactly she moved to California, but it is known that she has been living in Malibu at least since she was in the 6th grade.
When Miley first arrives to Seaview Middle School she meets her best friends Lilly Truscott (Emily Osment) and Oliver Oken (Mitchel Musso), who eventually figure out her secret. In season 2 she is a high school freshman (9th grade). Due to her double life, Miley is often involved in awkward situations, but even in her normal life as Miley, she makes the same mistakes anyone would. Her problems continue when she moves on to the same high school her brother attends.
Miley's enemies are Amber Addison (Shanica Knowles) and Ashley Dewitt (Anna Maria Perez de Tagle), who are constantly mean to her and her friends, but happen to love Hannah Montana. Later she gets used to her school and meets a cute, famous teen actor named Jake Ryan (Cody Linley) who she has an on-off relationship with.
Miley has a signature phrase that she is known for saying whenever someone states the obvious: "Ya think?!" and "Sweet Nibletts" . The character's comical persona is also known for being extremely deadpan. She also has to contend with people liking Hannah Montana but disliking her as Miley and vice versa. This is shown when Miley/Hannah Montana has a rivalry with Mikayla but in the episode "That's What Friends Are For?" she must accept being friends with her.
Production
The show is co-created by Michael Poryes, who also co-created the hit Disney Channel Original Series That's So Raven and is produced by It's a Laugh Productions, Inc., in association with Disney. It is filmed at Tribune Studios in Hollywood, CA. The series premiere scored record ratings for Disney Channel: 5.4 million viewers, a response "beyond our wildest expectations," according to the president of Disney Channel Entertainment.
The original idea for this show was based on the That's So Raven episode "Goin' Hollywood" which was supposed to be the pilot episode for a sitcom called Better Days in which a child star of a popular TV show of the same name was to try her hand at going to a normal school. The episode New Kid in School has the basic premise as that aforementioned episode. Other names considered for the title were The Secret Life of Zoe Stewart (discarded as too similar to Zoey 101 on Nickelodeon), The Popstar Life!, and Alexis Texas. Former American Juniors finalist Jordan McCoy and Pop/R&B singer JoJo (who rejected the role) were considered for the role of Zoe Stewart. Miley Cyrus originally auditioned for the role of the "best friend" Lilly Romero, later changed to Lilly Truscott, but they thought she would be better for the main character, so she tried out for Zoe Stewart/Hannah Montana. Zoe Stewart was later changed to Chloe Stewart (due mainly to the release of Nickelodeon's new show Zoey 101), which was eventually changed to Miley when she got the part. The names of Hannah Montana were changed a few times. Three of the previous names were Anna Cabana, Samantha York, and Alexis Texas. Alexis Texas was almost used, but they thought that it would overrate Texas as a hillbilly state.
In December 2006, Disney announced plans to release Hannah Montana products including clothing, jewelery, apparel, and dolls at select stores. Play Along Toys will be releasing the Hannah and Miley dolls and other merchandise. Hannah Montana is signed for at least one more season according to Disney Channel. Filming for the second season started in December. The new season started in April, 2007, in which she is in high school.
Opening Sequence
The theme song for Hannah Montana is "The Best of Both Worlds" written by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil, produced by Gerrard and performed by Miley Cyrus (as Hannah Montana). John Carta, who also composes the music cues to signify scene changes and commercial breaks, composed the music for the song. The song's lyrics describe the basic premise of the television series.
The full-length version, which is 2 minutes, 54 seconds in length, was included on the show's soundtrack, released in October 2006. For the TV version of the theme, which lasts only 50 seconds, only stanzas one and two and stanzas seven and eight were used.
"Just Like You" and "The Other Side of Me" were originally tested for the opening theme song, before "Best of Both Worlds" was chosen as the theme. Stage and features episode clips of each cast member when each cast member's name appears. Each cast member's name is "wiped" on the screen in a marquee light style. The sequence then switches to full screen episode clips (most of the clips used in the season one version of the sequence were of the early produced episodes) with the creator's names appearing in the second-to-last clip. The show's title logo design appears at the beginning and again at the end of the sequence (the latter portion as with most other portions of the sequence on the "concert stage" feature Cyrus as her character Hannah Montana).
Lawsuit
On August 23rd, 2007 Buddy Sheffield, a comedy writer who wrote for The Smothers Brothers Show, The Dolly Parton Show and In Living Color, sued Disney over Hannah Montana alleging that he originally came up with the idea for Hannah Montana but was never compensated by Disney. The lawsuit claims breach of contract, breach of confidence, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. In the lawsuit, Sheffield claims that he pitched an idea for a TV series with the name of "Rock and Roland" to Disney Channel in 2001 with the plot of a junior high student who lived a secret double life as a rock star. The lawsuit claims that Disney Channel executives at first liked the idea but passed on the series. Sheffield claims that he deserves a share of the revenue generated by Hannah Montana.
Movie
Hannah Montana: The Movie has been confirmed by many of the stars from the show. It will not be a Disney Channel Original Movie but a feature length film, released in cinemas. Filming should take place sometime in Spring 2008, and should be released in late 2008 or early 2009. Oprah also confirmed on her show on November 21, 2007 that a film was in the works.
