Trivia / Jessie

• Ability over Appearance: The main reason that the Korean character Hiro was changed to Luke.
• Acting for Two:
  • In the Halloween episode, Debby plays both Jessie and the ghost of an Affably Evil nanny.
  • Debby again as Jessie and Future!Jessie in "The Jessie-nator: Grudgement Day", particularly notable as both Jessies end up on screen at the same time.
  • "Evil Times Two" - Agatha and her good twin Angela.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Peyton List is actually from neighboring Brooklyn. Skai Jackson was born and grew up in NYC as well.
  • Likewise, Debby grew up in Ft. Hood, TX just like Jessie. She even lived on the same base as Jessie, Fort Hood. However, she has moved around a lot more than Jessie has. One would assume that Jessie's family lives near Fort Hood or her father was stationed there towards the end of his term service, or both.
  • Jessie's father is in the military, as was Debby Ryan's father.
• Adored by the Network: It says something that the show still takes up a good chunk of Disney Channel's schedule a decade after its premiere.
• The Artifact: While much of Jessie's background is based on Debby's own autobiographical experiences, some of the show's and character's traits might've carried over when they were still mulling the show as yet another Suite Life spin-off based around Debby's character Bailey (including the fact that the show begins and takes place where Suite Life on Deck happened to end).
• Billing Displacement:
  • Kevin Chamberlin is listed second on the info for each episode. If it was alphabetical, excluding Debby Ryan, Cameron Boyce and Karan Brar would be the other two listed. Peyton List is the third name which makes sense as she is shown second during the opening credits, and should only be listed third behind one of the other kids. Mileage varies on which Ross child gets most the screen time or is the most or least relevant, but any one of them deserves to be listed above Bertram. It's probably a matter of experience with Kevin and Peyton, since they have done much more acting than the other Ross kids (though it makes one wonder why not an And Starring accreditation, which is traditional on the network anyway).
  • Averted in the opening credits where Peyton List is indeed listed second with Kevin Chamberlain up last while getting an And Starring credit.
• The Cast Showoff: Cameron Boyce, who was a professional dancer, got to show his skill constantly, especially in "Krumping and Crushing".
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: The episode summary for "Take the A-Train... I Think?" on some TV guides claims that the spider subplot involves Bertram and Ravi (actually Bertram and Luke).
• The Danza:
  • Christina Ross is played by Christina Moore.
  • The rare last name variety- Molly Shannon as Col. Beverly Shannon.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Subverted, with everybody playing more or less their ages (including 20-year-old Debby Ryan, which is what makes this particularly notable for the Disney Channel).
  • Played straight in that Karan Brar is older than Cameron Boyce (albeit by five months).
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • Kevin Chamberlin directed "Are You Cooler Than a 5th Grader?" and "Say Yes to the Messy Dress".
  • Debby Ryan herself actually helped co-create the series: she's officially an (uncredited) creative consultant for the first season, a credited co-producer for seasons two and three and a credited producer on the final season.
  • More directly, Debby directed the Season Three episode "Coffee Talk," impressively becoming the youngest female to ever call the shots on a Disney Channel show in the process. She also directed "Bye Bye Bertie," "Dance, Dance, Resolution" and "Identity Thieves" (all in season four).
• Dyeing for Your Art: Debby Ryan dyed her hair auburn for the part.
• Fake Texan: Debby puts on a very noticeable accent for the Jessie role (especially noticable if you catch her speaking in her normal voice or on other roles like Suite Life or her DCOMs). Also a Subversion since she's actually a Texan in real life, but just doesn't sound "Texan" enough for the role.
• Long-Runners: Jessie ran a full four years, and going by production codes for episode count, has the second-highest run of episodes behind Wizards of Waverly Place and the third-highest run of episodes overall behind Phineas and Ferb.
• Missing Episode:
  • After "The Whining" aired, a nanny in New York did kill 2 of her kids like the Ross children thought Jessie wanted to do. Disney has since pulled all reruns of the episode and also removed from all paid download sites (although it returned in 2014).
  • The episode "Quitting Cold Koala" was actually pulled just prior to airing and was retooled before its actual premiere after several parents (who viewed the episode in advance through Netflix and Disney Channel's own streaming service) complained about the episode's treatment of gluten allergies. Netflix did show in the past the uncut version of the episode (even after the edited version aired on Disney Channel), but now only shows the edited version.
    • The episode and the controversy surrounding it were also parodied on Chelsea Lately including a re-enactment of the specific controversy-causing scene (done due to get around Disney's copyrights). Due to the nature of the series, that episode itself is also an example of this trope.
  • The one-hour specials ("Jessie's Big Break," "G.I. Jessie" and "Jessie's Aloha-Holidays with Parker and Joey") and crossovers ("Nanny in Miami" and "Good Luck Jessie: NYC Christmas") are rarely aired in the rerun schedule due to Disney Channel's rerun schedule having limited accommodations for one-hour schedules. Doubly so for "Jessie's Aloha Holidays with Parker and Joey" and the crossovers which are all Holiday-themed and thus only seen around the appropriate holidays (likewise the Halloween-themed "Ghostbummers" and "The Whining" when that episode was finally un-banished). Oddly enough "The Runaway Bride of Frankenstein" is frequently shown off-season despite also being a Halloween-themed episode, because it's also part of a multi-episode story arc that the network seems to be in love with.
• The Other Darrin: In the Latin American dub, Valeria Gómez replaced Lucila Gómez as Mrs. Chesterfield since the third season due to the latter having to move to Los Angeles.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Stefanie Scott, mostly known as being Jerkass Alpha Bitch Lexi on A.N.T. Farm plays Emma's new ultra-naive and uncultured friend Maybelle in "Hoedown Showdown"
  • Likewise Meaghan Martin isn't exactly known for playing confused, lost girls (unless you count the Coppertop Flop shorts).
  • Double-likewise Jennifer Veal who usually plays a much nicer person, especially when she's playing herself in her most well-known role opposite Lucas Cruikshank.
• Playing Their Own Twin: Jennifer Veal plays Agatha and her twin sister Angela in "Evil Times Two".
• Promoted Fangirl:
  • Relates to how Debby Ryan got onto The Suite Life on Deck and ultimately getting her own show, Jessie.
  • Apparently Jennifer Veal was put on the show as Agatha because Debby happens to be a big fan of her web series Lucas and Jenny.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Peyton List and Christina Moore as very believable as mother and daughter.
• Series Hiatus: The series went on hiatus before its final five episodes throughout August, due to Bunk'd airing early.
• Similarly Named Works: Don't confuse it with Jesse, the short-lived NBC show starring Christina Applegate.
• Typecasting:
  • Karan Brar reprises his role in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Mr. Peabody & Sherman as the Indian Funny Foreigner child.
  • Katherine McNamara guest stars in "Kids Don't Wanna Be Shunned" as Bryn, a cruel Alpha Bitch type. This is her third appearance in such a role. (The previous two were in Girl vs. Monster and Kickin' It. Curiously enough, both those times she portrays a rival to Olivia Holt's character.)
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early promotional pictures for the series still shows Debby with her natural, "Bailey"-esque hair style. There are also hints that Jessie's surname was originally O'Keefe.
  • Even prior to that point, the show was originally considered as a second Suite Life spin-off with Debby Ryan reprising her Bailey Pickett character for the series' entire run. As The Suite Life on Deck concluded in New York City, it would've opened with Bailey running into a wealthy family in need of a nanny, just as in the eventual series but with key backstory changes. It's possible that such details as the New York locale and Jessie being such an Expy of Bailey are essentially The Artifact from this stage of the show's development.
  • Emma was originally named Anabel. She was renamed in honor of Debby's Real Life best friend.
  • Luke was originally a Korean named Hiro.
  • Ravi was originally a South American named Javier. Mr(s). Kipling was a capybara. A lot of early interviews and promotional material still refer to Mr(s). Kipling (then yet unnamed) as a capybara.
    • Mr(s). Kipling was then going to be a Komodo dragon - this was after the name Mr. Kipling and the "actor" (Frank the water monitor, who does indeed play Mr[s]. Kipling on the show) were already frozen. Someone discovered that there were too many differences between a Komodo dragon and a water monitor to be believable (particularly the size), so it was changed to Frank's actual species.
  • Christina was originally named Pandora. She was planned to be a photographer.
  • Jessie's Aloha Holidays With Parker and Joey may have originally been planned to be a larger-scale Crossover with Liv and Maddie including the inclusion of Liv and/or Maddie as crossing over characters. Early promotional material and other references can be found originally referring to the episode as "Crossover-a-Rooney" fitting into the episode naming scheme of Liv and Maddie. It's possible Dove Cameron was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with the Descendants DCOM and Maia Mitchell was invited to take her place reprising her "Jessie's Big Break" character (who like Liv Rooney is also an actress).
    • But this brings up a question about it- if Dove had scheduling conflicts with Descendants why does Cameron Boyce still show up in the special, despite also in the same movie?^note Though this is a good question, one may remember that while Dove Cameron played Mal, the main protagonist of Descendants, Cameron Boyce played Carlos, who is also another one of the protagonists, but the film focuses more on Mal. Hence, one could assume that filming Mal's scenes took a lot more time than filming Carlos' scenes.
  • Speaking of DCOMs there can be several references found to a possible JESSIE DCOM including statements by Debby and other cast members in interviews that can be found on YouTube. Even after Season 4 production had wrapped (and along with it, the show for good), Peyton List confirmed in an interview that the cast was told a JESSIE DCOM was forthcoming - and then quietly dropped to the cast's own confusion. As the cast themselves have been left in the dark, no word has ever been released as to why the DCOM was dropped or what plot details would've been involved (it's possible that the project never even got far enough for any specific plot details to be hammered out beyond the basic premised carried over from the show).
• Write Who You Know: Debby knows Jennifer Veal (Agatha) through Lucas Cruikshank. Yes, Fred.

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