Wizards of Waverly Place (season 1)

Production

The series was created and as executive produced by Todd J. Greenwald, who began developing the show after working as a writer and consulting producer during the first season of Hannah Montana. The show is produced by It's a Laugh Productions and Disney Channel Original Productions. The theme song, "Everything Is Not What It Seems", written by John Adair and Steve Hampton, is of techno-pop style and is performed by Selena Gomez. The series is filmed at Hollywood Center Studios in Hollywood, California.

Premise

Set on Waverly Place in Manhattan, New York's Greenwich Village neighborhood, Wizards of Waverly Place centers on the Italian-Mexican Russo family, which includes Alex (Selena Gomez), her older brother Justin (David Henrie) and their younger brother Max (Jake T. Austin). The three Russo siblings are wizards in training and live with their Italian-American father Jerry (David DeLuise), a former wizard, and their Mexican-American mother Theresa, who is a mortal. Alex also has a mortal friend, Harper (Jennifer Stone), who at first does not know the Russos are wizards.

Theme Song

The theme song begins with Alex (Selena Gomez) waking up in the morning with her alarm clock going off. She uses a spell to make the time 6:30. She then goes into the bathroom where Justin (David Henrie) is looking at himself in the mirror and spitting out mouthwash when Alex pushes him to the side. He gets annoyed and then uses magic to trap her in the mirror. In the kitchen, Max (Jake T. Austin) has an orange which he turns into a vanilla cupcake. Meanwhile, Harper (Jennifer Stone) meets Alex at the front door and shows off her watermelon shirt. Back at the kitchen, Max is about to put his cupcake into his backpack when his mother, Theresa (Maria Canals Barrera), makes him turn it back into an orange. Alex is telling Max to hurry up. In the lair, Jerry (David DeLuise) is talking to someone when his spell book flies away. He then goes to retrieve it. In the sub shop, Alex opens her book bag, which the spell book goes into (meanwhile Harper was distracted not seeing anything). Jerry lectures her as the main title card appears. Then the four friends walk to school. Throughout the sequence, the furniture in the background seems to be moving around.

Release

The show debuted on Disney Channel on October 12, 2007 after the premiere of Twitches Too, gathering 5.9 million viewers. In February 2009, the episode "Helping Hand" broke the record for the largest audience in the 7:00 PM (Eastern Time) time period on the Disney Channel, with a total of 4.5 million viewers. In January 2010, "Wizards vs. Werewolves" one-hour special episode became the series' most-watched episode with 6.2 million viewers, surpassing the 6 million viewers of "Paint By Committee" episode In 2009, the series was the top scripted telecast for teens between the age of 9–14 (1.63 million/6.7 rating) and second in kids 6–11 (1.81 million/7.4 rating), which was only slightly behind "The Suite Life on Deck" (1.82 million/7.4 rating.)

Descriptions of the Russo children

Alex is the naughty one, always getting scolded for using magic without permission. She is so desperate to get the "no free-wheeling magic" rule lifted that she at one point gets her classmate, T.J. Taylor, also a wizard, to charm her parents into allowing it. However, this backfires and her parents don't care that they took a trip to Mars and Alex forgot her brother there. Throughout this series, Alex has one main love interest. She has a crush on her classmate, Riley, and at first humiliates herself once her brothers get revenge in front of him, but he puts that aside. Riley appears to return her feelings, as he asks her brother if she ever talks about him. She tells him she's his good luck charm as an attempt to impress him, and uses magic to make him believe her. They begin to date, but Riley soon breaks up with her when she's being paranoid about him looking at other girls. She animates a mannequin, Manny Kin, from a shop and makes Riley jealous, but Manny falls in love with her. She later gets a crush on Brad Sherwood, whose competing against her brother for their principal's attention. She continuously drops hints, but when he doesn't get it, she tries to give him a love potion. It backfires, however, and she drinks both halves, meaning she falls passionately in love with herself. After her brother wins over Brad, Brad asks her out, but Alex realizes she was only a backup, so she rejects him.

Justin is the smart one who always follows the rules, but is willing to accept an alternate approach now and then. He at first has a crush on Miranda (Lucy Hale), a classmate. With a lot of help from his sister, he finally gets his first kiss with her, but they break up soon enough for differences. He then gets a crush on another classmate, Kari Landsdorf, but cannot ask her out as she only dates baseball players. Justin uses magic to join the baseball team and then Kari notices him. When Justin asks her out, he realizes she only sees films about cats. After hearing this, Justin walks away, saying they can wait until a cat movie comes out. However, they never get around to it, as Kari never makes another appearance. When the Sub Station employs Millie, Justin gets a crush on her. When he asks her out, she misunderstands and he's stuck babysitting her cousin while she goes on their date with her boyfriend.

Max is the dimwitted odd one of the family. He has a different approach to things and doesn't understand most things.

Episodes