Disney Channel Preps For First Musical Series "Madison High"

**Alec** · 11-13-2010, 07:29 PM

Call it High School Musical: the series. Or Glee with original music. Disney Channel is fast-tracking what is described as its most ambitious series yet. Tentatively titled Madison High, the single-camera comedy is still in development but preliminary casting has already begun and a formal pilot order is expected to follow. Just like HSM, Madison High employs the break-into-song-and-dance format to tell the stories about 11-16 year-olds navigating the school social hierarchy. It is set at Madison High, which is trying to build a revolutionary theatre program, and follows a pool of students who, by the end of the year, will have produced an original piece based on their lives. The Office alum Lester Lewis, who worked with Disney Channel on another music-driven single-camera comedy, Jonas L.A., is writing Madison High, which he is executive producing with Paul Hoen. Hoen, who has directed about a dozen Disney Channel original movies, most recently Camp Rock 2, as well as episodes for that many series, is set to direct the pilot when it is greenlit. Disney Channel introduced the contemporary musical genre to a new generation of kids and tweens with the 2006 smash High School Musical, which spawned two sequels, one on TV and one on the big screen. HSM4 is in the works, and next year, spinoff Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure starring and executive produced by Ashley Tisdale, will premiere on the channel. Fox's Glee applied the break-into-song contemporary musical concept to the series format to huge success. Now Madison High is taking it one step further. Unlike Glee, which only features cover songs, it will stick to the HSM model with all-original music. The show will commission new songs while also featuring artists from Disney's music label. Disney Channel has already found success with music-themed comedies, including multi-camera hit Hannah Montana and the channel's promising new addition Shake It Up.

**JasonFox** · 11-13-2010, 07:56 PM

Heres a link if anyone cares to know.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/disn...usical-series/

I hope the Musical Television craze isn't coming in but I guess this will definitely be up Tweens ally.

**Peter Paltridge** · 11-13-2010, 09:07 PM

It's inevitable, and if the show keeps its momentum up for another season, expect more offspring. Networks are not above pulling the ol' "clone a hit show" scam, even though it almost never works. But Glee is just so weird I don't think it's the kind of thing that can be copied, at least not successfully. Every other musical series (Cop Rock, Viva Laughlin) has not only failed but outright bombed.

**li_mangaman** · 11-13-2010, 11:32 PM

Originally Posted by alec2011

...11-16 year-olds navigating the school social hierarchy.

Is this A.N.T. Farm with a different name?

**underdog** · 11-14-2010, 03:04 AM

Originally Posted by li_mangaman

Is this A.N.T. Farm with a different name?

No, they are entirely different projects.

**Mesousa** · 11-14-2010, 10:39 AM

Yeah, the channel is desperate.

**li_mangaman** · 11-14-2010, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by underdog

No, they are entirely different projects.

How can you confirm this to be true? 11 years old is a bit young for high school without using the same explanation as used in the press release of A.N.T. Farm.

**underdog** · 11-14-2010, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by li_mangaman

How can you confirm this to be true? 11 years old is a bit young for high school without using the same explanation as used in the press release of A.N.T. Farm.

Ugh

, you can easily google the two and read that they are two different projects. But I shall assist you.

To differentiate the two, I will use two separate articles that Deadline Hollywood reported this week about the two different projects for the network:

A.N.T. Farm was reported on Thursday November 11th. it's a starring vehicle for newcomer for China McClain; the pilot is written by Dan Signer (Stacked, Suite Life..) and is being directed Bob Koherr (Drew Carey Show, George Lopez, Wizards of Waverly Place).
http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/disn...arm-to-series/

The other one is Madison High, a full fledged single camera musical-comedy. It was reported on Friday. No one has been casted at all. It's being written by Lester Lewis (The Office, Caroline in the City, and most recently Jonas L.A.) and Paul Hoen being executive producer.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/disn...usical-series/

*to the moderator, it might be easier if you group all the network pilots for Disney Channel into one single thread and have the first posting listing the pilots currently in development. It might lessen the confusion, it would also help isolate similar themed criticisms all into one happy thread.

**li_mangaman** · 11-14-2010, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by underdog

...the pilot is written by Dan Signer (Stacked, Suite Life..) and is being directed Bob Koherr (Drew Carey Show, George Lopez, Wizards of Waverly Place)...
No one has been casted at all. It's being written by Lester Lewis (The Office, Caroline in the City, and most recently Jonas L.A.) and Paul Hoen being executive producer...

This was the information for which I was searching. There was no reason for me to comparatively read the two articles before bringing my question forward. Had the two articles lacked that information, no one could possibly question the possibility of the two series being the same series with two separate reports.

With that said, I will add that the two series, at this stage, sound much too similar. We will have to wait and see how the Disney Channel plans to market them to keep all of these series from running together.

**Alec** · 11-14-2010, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by li_mangaman

This was the information for which I was searching. There was no reason for me to comparatively read the two articles before bringing my question forward. Had the two articles lacked that information, no one could possibly question the possibility of the two series being the same series with two separate reports.

With that said, I will add that the two series, at this stage, sound much too similar. We will have to wait and see how the Disney Channel plans to market them to keep all of these series from running together.

Can I ask how they sound the same, one is about a middle schooler who skipped a couple of grades and is in High School and the other is about a musical school.

**NewcomerDC** · 11-14-2010, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by alec2011

Can I ask how they sound the same, one is about a middle schooler who skipped a couple of grades and is in High School and the other is about a musical school.

It's all because both shows involve kids singing and dancing in school. That's what I'm getting from the shows' plots.

**Alec** · 11-14-2010, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by NewcomerDC

It's all because both shows involve kids singing and dancing in school. That's what I'm getting from the shows' plots.

Scrach that, I read the Press Release wrong.

I wonder why Disney is heading in this direction.

I also like that in A.N.T. Farm will have a lead that was not in a DC show.

**NewcomerDC** · 11-14-2010, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by alec2011

I wonder why Disney is heading in this direction.

Music has been the main key to gaining momentum in popularity over the last few years minus Good Luck Charlie, the Suite Life series, and somewhat Sonny with a Chance.

**Alec** · 11-14-2010, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by NewcomerDC

Music has been the main key to gaining momentum in popularity over the last few years minus Good Luck Charlie, the Suite Life series, and somewhat Sonny with a Chance.

The problem is, you can only do so much with Music before it starts repeating itself. Minus that "Madison High" is a Glee for children.

**NewcomerDC** · 11-14-2010, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by alec2011

The problem is, you can only do so much with Music before it starts repeating itself. Minus that "Madison High" is a Glee for children.

I hope that Disney's Glee won't lead to controversial photos found in GQ Magazine. Disney's desperate yet it'll continue to make money no matter how it repeats a certain formula over and over.

**Shawn Hopkins** · 11-15-2010, 12:11 AM

Originally Posted by NewcomerDC

I hope that Disney's Glee won't lead to controversial photos found in GQ Magazine. Disney's desperate yet it'll continue to make money no matter how it repeats a certain formula over and over.

If Disney's Glee leads to published photos of its pre-teen stars like the actual men's magazine Glee photos, everyone involved but the kids will go to jail. So I really wouldn't worry about it.