Disney 365: Shake it Up

I got to film another Disney 365 yesterday featuring Adam Irigoyen and Caroline Sunshine from "Shake It Up", and it was really fun to be a 13 year old burst of sunshine again.

We shot the episode on the Shake it Up set in downtown Los Angeles, and it was interesting for me to compare the actors' experience with "Shake it Up" with my experience with "Dance on Sunset." The two are very similar in that they are both about dance and target the young teen market. I began thinking about Disney and Nickelodeon, which are two networks competing for the same audience. I immediately thought of how much more marketing, and presumably money, Disney puts in to their projects than Nickelodeon does in to theirs. Not only is Shake it Up (only in its first season) promoted heavily on the Disney website, but it also is actively being advertised with a new Disney.com feature called "Create". Disney also chose to include it in Disney 365, which is like a mini news-blurb of Disney related products, shows, and upcoming events. Although I cannot confidently explain why "Dance on Sunset" was cancelled in 2008, I do wonder about the funding and effort that was put into the show. Maybe things would have been different if Disney had backed "Dance on Sunset" instead of Nickelodeon, but that is a hypothesis that will never be tested.

Caroline asked me how many episodes of Disney 365 I had done, and I honestly couldn't tell her off the top of my head. I think my relationship with Disney 365 is reaching its 1 year anniversary this September and I am proud to say I have done 5 episodes with the production group, M3 Creative so far:

1) Disney 365: Kingdom Keepers 3 -- September 2010 in Florida
2) Disney 365: Halloween Parks -- October 2010 in Florida
3) Disney 365: Dancing with the Stars -- 2011 in Los Angeles
4) Disney 365: Skating with the Stars -- 2011 in Los Angeles
5) Disney 365: Bibiddi Bobiddy Boutique/Royal Wedding -- April 2011 in Los Angeles

People joke a lot with me about how I look and how I act on the show, but hey, it's called acting. 


I'm not sure if any of the episodes are on youtube or on the Disney website, but they certainly do air on the network. Next time you're watching Disney and you see an over-excited and younger-than-normal looking Karen, it's probably me.