Series / Liv and Maddie

Liv and Maddie is a Disney Channel sitcom created by John D. Beck and Ron Hart. A "special preview" of the pilot episode premiered July 19, 2013 after Teen Beach Movie; it officially premiered in September 15, 2013, and ran for four seasons before concluding on March 24, 2017.

Liv Rooney (Dove Cameron) returns home in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, after four years filming a successful TV show in Hollywood, Sing It Loud! She rejoins her parents, her two brothers and her identical twin sister Maddie (also played by Dove Cameron), who shaped up to have a very different personality from hers — Maddie is a tomboyish basketball player, while Liv is girly and peppy. Their parents are Karen (Kali Rocha), their school's psychologist (promoted to vice-principal in season two), and Pete (Benjamin King), the school's coach. Their brothers are the awkward Joey (Joey Bragg) and the mischievous Parker (Tenzing Norgay Trainor^note Yes, he is named after the sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary to the top of Mount Everest; he's his grandfather).

The Rooney boys Parker and Joey crossed over into Jessie with Jessie's Aloha Holidays With Parker and Joey which aired for the Christmas Holiday in 2014; the 2015 Halloween Episode "Haunt-A-Rooney" was a Crossover with Best Friends Whenever.

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Tropes-a-Rooney!

• Abhorrent Admirer: Maddie's friend Willow to Joey, she has had an unrelenting and desperate stalker-love for Joey since they met. She turned out successful though.
  • Liv has Artie, who is a creepy obsessed fanboy of hers because of her time on Sing It Loud!.
  • Liv thought Parker's friend Reggie was this to her until he revealed he actually has a crush on a fellow martial arts student. Though it is not because she finds Reggie repulsive or unlikable, she just knows that he is way too young for her.
• Accidental Hug: Parker and Val share one and both are noticeably embarrassed afterwards.
• Accidental Public Confession: Happens in "Sweet 16-A-Rooney" when Karen and Pete are testing the karaoke machine which turns on the moment Karen accidentally reveals Liv and Maddie were born on separate days.
• An Aesop:
  • The episode Rate-a-Rooney addresses how girls are not a number that defines their appearance.
  • In a similar vein to Rate-a-Rooney, Ask Her More-a-Rooney teaches a lesson about how girls and women are more than just their appearance.
  • Much like what was done in Jessie, the episodes "Flugelball-a-Rooney", "Triangle-a-Rooney", and "Scoop-a-Rooney" show that the type of perfect, happy ending-relationship that tends to get reinforced on Disney Channel don't always end as such, and can get derailed for legitimate reasons beyond a person's control. Even when two people are perfect for each other, circumstances might force them to drift apart anyway.
  • From "Kathy Kan-A-Rooney", boys do watch shows about girls and there's nothing shameful about it. This was likely done as a nod to the male audience who watches the show.
  • "Roll Model-A-Rooney" addresses that boys and girls should be equal and accepting of each other, and it shouldn't matter what speaks their mind when it comes to designing and racing.
• Alliterative List: The song One Second Chance from season 4 mentions a boy who stole "a backpack, a bike and a boat''".
• All Just a Dream: The events of "Helgaween-A-Rooney" turn out to be a hypnosis-induced dream that Maddie had.
• All Women Love Shoes: Surprisingly it is Maddie who had a bad case of this after being forced into a Girliness Upgrade by Liv.
  • Resident fashionistas Liv and Karen, naturally, have a case of this too.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Occurs in "Triangle-A-Rooney" when Liv and Holden are rehearsing a song, but Willow walks in on them, ruining the moment.
  • A Running Gag is when every time Maddie and Diggie are about to kiss, an oblivious Joey shows up an interrupts, assuming Diggie is his best friend and there to see Joey.
• And Starring: "with Kali Rocha and Benjamin King".
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: During Stephanie Einstein's Pep-Talk Song to Sasha in the first episode of Sing it Louder!!, she mentions a male student stole a backpack, a bike, and a boat for souvenirs, a female student ditched seventh grade to sell her mom's shoes, and a male student pierced the ears of his parrot.
• The Artifact: The Confession Cam segments are a holdover from when the show was originally envisioned as Bits and Pieces (see the Trivia Page for more details)
  • The series finale reveals that these segments really are part of Bits and Pieces, an in-universe reality show that airs in Luxembourg. Dump Truck was the only one to not notice that cameras have been following the family everywhere for 4 years. That would certainly explain why he never had a confessional.
• As Herself: Kristen Bell appears as herself in "Ask Her More-A-Rooney", as does Nancy O'Dell in "Scoop-A-Rooney."
• The Bad Guy Wins: At the end of "Move-A-Rooney," Joey's arch-nemesis, Artie, humiliates him in the hallway, and becomes king of rocket club forever. Thanks to Joey being victim to Poor Communication Kills, he let him win the race, thinking that his family was moving away. Artie also wins in "Dream-a-Rooney"; Joey and Artie are the ones competing in a game to raise money for the school's music program where the winner of a mystery prize (which they think in an electric skateboard) is one who can touching on the school's porcupine statue. Although Joey and Parker manage to trick Artie into breaking contact, and Joey wins... a lunch with Karen at the sponsors Beef McGravy. Meanwhile, Karen sells the electric transport (which she did have hidden) online, and Artie buys it.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Liv (who is also pretty smart herself), Joey, and Maddie (she is just as beautiful as Liv, but far more physically fit than her sister or Joey).
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Helgaween-A-Rooney," Liv and Maddie's attempts to get rid of their magically created triplet Helga result in Maddie using the pendant that created her (when she wished she wasn't a twin) to wish that she was a twin again. It works - but now she's Helga's twin and Liv no longer exists.
• Bedtime Brainwashing: The Twist Ending of "Helgaween-A-Rooney". It turns out the entire episode was just a dream Maddie was having when Karen hypnotized her into not worrying about her sprained foot.
• Berserk Button: Liv accidentally pushes Maddie's when she reveals she kissed Diggie in the "Froyo YOLO" video in "New Year's Eve-A-Rooney", until she reveals it wasn't what she thought.
• Big "NO!":
  • Liv in "Premiere-A-Rooney" when her hair gets caught in the meat grinder.
  • Parker and Evan in "Champ-A-Rooney" when the season finale of Linda and Heather ends on a cliffhanger.
  • Joey in SkyVolt-A-Rooney upon seeing SkyVolt's Heroic Sacrifice.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Maddie's catchphrase, "BAM! WHAT?!". There are situations where the catchphrase goes defensive or flat ("BAM! What have I done?"), but most of the time it is big.
  • Johnny Nimbus's "Helloooooooooo Stevens Point!"
  • Gemma's "Look at me! Closer!"
• Bland-Name Product: One episode has Joey trying to win a contest to get an obvious Batman parody into one of these (The Revengers 2: Rage of Fulton). Interestingly, as Disney is Marvel's distributor, they probably could have used the title of the actual movie without any problems, and even in a previous episode did they mention the Avengers movie. The same was also done with Custodians of The Cosmos 2 in Tiny House-A-Rooney. This is likely intentional, as it is Disney's way of stealthily promoting upcoming Marvel Movies.
• Blind Without 'Em: Maddie cannot see well without her glasses, meanwhile Liv inverts it by not seeing well with Maddie's glasses.
• Boarding School: Monahan Academy, the therapeutic school Stephanie Einstein attended on Sing it Loud!, and where Sasha attends in its sequel Sing it Louder!!.
• Bookends:
  • The series begins with the family having a welcome home party for Liv when she comes home, and ends with them having a going away party before they all go their separate ways.
  • The first season began with Liv's show Sing it Loud! airing its series finale. The final season had her start the show's spinoff, Sing it Louder!!, which ends here with its first season.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Everyone's catchphrase (except Liv's) is borrowed at least once: Maddie's "BAM! WHAT?!" by Reggie and Bernard, Joey's "What. Is. Happening?" by Liv, Karen's "Drop a butt-bomb of Mom" by Bree, Parker's "munch" by Evan.
• A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family: Played with. Liv and Maddie being twins fills the girl role, and they have two brothers: one in high school and one in elementary school.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The Guess that Food game is back, now with various Squickful variants.
• Break the Cutie: Liv, after her idiot skateboarding boyfriend dumped her in a text message in the episode "Skate-a-Rooney."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Every other scene or so a character will get a close up and talk to the audience about whatever is going on. Eventually subverted in the series finale, where it was revealed that the Rooneys were being filmed for a reality show the entire time.
• Brief Accent Imitation: In "Kang-A-Rooney", Liv speaks with an Australian accent while wearing her kangaroo costume.
• Bromance: As of "Howl-a-Rooney", Joey and Diggie seem to officially have this going on.
• Buffy Speak: Liv, being a Ditzy Genius, slips into this from time to time.
  Liv: And who went on to win top prize on in the school kick ball-y thing?
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Maddie's "BAM! WHAT?!"
  • Also, Joey's "What. Is. Happening?"
  • Karen used to have one, which is taken away by Bree: "Drop a butt-bomb of Mom"
  • Parker has a tendency to call others "munch", and is called so by Evan.
  • Gemma: "Look at me — closer!"
• Cannot Spit It Out: Liv cannot admit her feelings for Holden after Andie asks him out first, because she doesn't want to hurt her feelings.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: This was why Holden ended up breaking up with Andie in Triangle-A-Rooney—Nimbus grilled him about his feelings, and he couldn't lie on TV.
• Chekhov's Gag: Parker's extensive Tunnel Network is a Running Gag throughout the show. In the Season 3 finale, it causes the Rooney house to collapse.
• Chickification: Maddie gave herself this after Liv forced a Girliness Upgrade on her. Luckily Liv stopped her from this soon enough.
• Chocolate Baby: Downplayed with Parker. His actor is half-nepalese.
• Christmas Episode: "Fa-la-la-a-Rooney," Joy To-A-Rooney," and "Cali Christmas-A-Rooney."
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • Ocean wasn't seen after "Kang-a-Rooney", due to her actor being in Mighty Med.
  • Stains has been absent since "Pottery-A-Rooney" and some people think she was replaced by Lacey, minus the stains of course. Her locker however, does appear one more time at the end of Season 2, and she does come back in Season 3 as if nothing happened, and we find out what her real name is.
• Cliffhanger: The end of Season 2: Will Maddie catch Diggie in time to tell her how she feels? In show, who will Linda take to the International Space Station? Lampshaded, of course. Both those cliffhangers do get resolved. Although the latter is left hanging until season 4's "Linda And Heather-A-Rooney." Linda takes Heather - Liv does a guest shot on the show, and the episode is set on the space station.
• Colorblind Casting: Parker's actor is of half Nepalese although the Rooney family is supposed to be white.
• Connected All Along: A Sing it Louder!! segment in "Falcon-A-Rooney" reveals Sasha is Stephanie's long-lost sister.
• Continuity Nod: "New Year's Eve-A-Rooney" reveals that Diggie was in the robot costume in the "Froyo YOLO" music video from "Song-A-Rooney".
• Cool Big Sis: Maddie is this to her brother Parker. Liv tries her best to do so to Parker in "Sleep-A-Rooney" but has trouble being one (due to her being away from him since he was 6) and later succeeds.
• Continuity Snarl: In "SPARF-A-Rooney" Maddie complains that South Salamanca tried to steal her then boyfriend Diggie in "BFF-A-Rooney," even though the episode revolved about Maddie not wanting to admit publicly they were a couple, and the moment South realized Diggie was spoken for she instantly backed off... not to mention the rewriting of South, as suddenly both Maddie and Diggie think she's annoying despite her previous appearance having no indications of that.
• Cover Version: Liv covers Imagine Dragons' "On Top of the World" in the first episode.
• Creator Backlash: In-universe example in "Song-A-Rooney," when Liv (already not crazy about having to sing "FroyoYOLO," a song about frozen yogurt) is absolutely mortified by the accompanying video - as is the rest of the family - and doesn't want to sing it again. (Liv remains mortified when it comes up in "Video-A-Rooney.")
• Dangerous 16th Birthday: The episode "Sweet 16-A-Rooney" has the twins turning 16 and finding out they have separate birthdays^note Liv was born at 11:56 PM on the 5th; Maddie was born at 12:02 AM on the 6th.
• A Day in the Limelight: Quite a few:
  • "Detention-A-Rooney" is very much a Parker episode.
  • "Cowbell-A-Rooney" centers around Josh being introduced to Stevens Point customs.
  • "Friend-A-Rooney" is an Andie-centered episode regarding her relationship with Dump Truck.
  • "Ex-A-Rooney", despite the title referring to Maddie's and Josh's former relationship, centers more around Joey and how he feels about bringing in Maddie while Josh is around.
• Deuteragonist: An in-universe example. Liv's role of Stephanie Einstein in Sing it Loud! is the second focal of its spinoff, Sing it Louder!!, to Ruby's role Sasha.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the season finale of Voltage, Garrison holds a dying Tess in his arms as he becomes the new SkyVolt.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Karen Rooney grounding Joey, only because he turned the backyard into the campground…not to mention that that is one of the less strange things that have happened in that backyard.
  • Inverted in Continued-A-Rooney, where Joey DOESN'T get punished, even if he took Maddie with him. Joey Didn't See That Coming.
  • Again in "Voltage-A-Rooney" Karen tells Joey and Parker that they'll have to "pay off" using a gift card that the boys their parents for their anniversary SIX MONTHS AGO, that they both readily admit they had absolutely no intention of using themselves. To be fair, the punishment was also for the gift itself, considering that their gift is not quite proper for an anniversary. Plus, their punishment also involves treating them to a better dinner afterwards, which is her in-universe excuse that also makes them come off as comes off as ungrateful.
  • In "Frame-A-Rooney," Artie reacts to the idea that Maddie dumped Diggie by framing her for destroying the school's mascot and getting her suspended and thus unable to play in the big basketball playoffs. He's called on it when he asks why Diggie didn't tell the truth and Diggie replying "it's because you do stupid stuff like this!"
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Dove Cameron sings the opening credits song, "Better in Stereo".
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Joey and Artie's building of bigger rockets in "Move-A-Rooney".
  • When Maddie tells her Dad she no longer wants him as her partner for a tag-team tournament, it sounds like a girl breaking up with her boyfriend. She even says It's Not You, It's Me.
• Double In-Law Marriage: "Frame-a-Rooney" reveals that Artie wishes for this with him with Liv and his brother Diggie with Maddie. Unfortunately, Diggie and Maddie break up and Liv has no interest in Artie.
• Dull Surprise: The kindest description of Brandon Crawford's acting As Himself in "Home-Run-A-Rooney." Especially in The Stinger.
• Dumb Blonde: Both girls avert this trope, but Liv's character in Sing it Loud! played it straight, with the sarcastic name Stephanie Einstein. Liv herself is more of a Ditzy Genius, but she states herself she's no Einstein either. As for Maddie, she may have any academic strengths, but science is not one of them, as shown in "Tiny House-A-Rooney".
• End-of-Series Awareness: The Grand Finale finale is called "End-A-Rooney". Fittingly, since it's the end of the series. Joey also panics in the last confessional that he won't be able to talk to the camera anymore. The final Vanity Plate reads "Thank you for watching!" as a crew yells, "And cut!"
• Exact Words:
  • At one point, when Joey and Parker split their room into two halves, Parker gets to choose which. His choice is the bottom half, seemingly banning Joey from their room, since he can never be on the floor. However, Joey manages to exploit this loophole by building a supported tent with cables that lets him keep Parker from standing up, since he gets the upper half.
  • When trying to get rid of Helga in "Helgaween-A-Rooney", Maddie wishes, "I wish I was a twin again." The spell ends up keeping Helga while wiping Liv out of existence.
  • In the beginning of Season 3, Liv is asked to perform on Voltage but the set relocates to Stevens Point so she can stay with her sister "for her senior year". Once she graduates, the show has to move back to Los Angeles.
• Extended Disarming: A variation at the end of "Slumber Party-a-Rooney" when Maddie forces Parker to give up tunneling and hand over his shovels. He complies and, when pressed, produces one final shovel from inside Maddie's hood.
• Extreme Omnivore: Maddie's teammate Stains attempted a restaurant's challenge to eat an entire roast chicken in under an hour to win a t-shirt, and indeed she did eat the entire thing, bones and all.
  "When I commit, I commit, man."
• Face Doodling: In Upcycle-A-Rooney, after Andie gets a picture of Maddie's twin charm bracelet while she was asleep, Andie wants to draw a mustache on Maddie. However, Liv tells Andie off because that's not what they're there to do.
• Fan Boy: Being stereotypical nerds, Joey and Artie are also really obsessed with fictional, "geeky" science fiction stuff.
• The Fashionista: Liv. Maddie even directly called her that.
• Flat "What": Joey's catchphrase "What. Is. Happening?" There are situations the catchphrase is the prelude to a Heroic BSoD or Punctuated! For! Emphasis! ("WHAT? IS? HAPPENING?!"), but most of the case it is flat.
• The Film of the Book: In universe, Liv auditions for (and wins) the role of Tristan Lycanth (who was male in the source material) in the film version of "Space Werewolves", a graphic novel about werewolves in space.
• Foreshadowing:
  • There are several hints that the Confession Cam segments are a Show Within a Show:
    • While Diggie is in Tundrabania, his confessionals are done with shots of him through FaceTime over a laptop instead of actually in Tundrabania.
    • In "Helgaween-A-Rooney", during Helga's sudden confessional, she says, "Who are you people? Why are you staring at HELGA?"
    • One of the confessionals in "Flashback-A-Rooney" occurs in the past.
  • The cookbook at the end of "Ask-Her-More-A-Rooney" gets one final shot, and has a role much MUCH later.
• Former Child Star: Liv, but more like Semi-Retired Actress. Much of the show is based on her readjustment to non-star life. However, it just seems no matter what, Hollywood will never leave Liv (and indeed she returns there in the final season, mentoring her cousin, another aspiring child star).

• Friend-or-Idol Decision:
  • "SkyVolt-A-Rooney" has Liv torn between choosing acting and her sister when Voltage moves back to Los Angeles for Season 2; she chooses the latter.
  • In "Sing it Live!!!-A-Rooney", Liv is faced with the decision of performing on Sing it Live!!! and risk harming her vocal cords before her throat surgery, or letting her throat rest but risk the show being cancelled. She goes along with the former after Maddie voices her concerns, and manages to pull it off to the end without a hitch, but ends up hurting her throat so badly she is immediately sent to the hospital for her surgery.
• Gender Flip: An In-Universe example: a Myth Arc in Season 1 focuses on Liv getting a lead role in "Space Werewolves" as the hero Tristan Lycanth. Tristan is a boy, but the producers saw a certain episode of Liv's former show Sing It Loud! and loved it so much they changed the role of Tristan into a girl just for her.
• Genius Ditz: Liv shows off this vibe in "Brain-A-Rooney".

• Graduate from the Story:
  • The series finale of Liv's original show Sing it Loud! had Stephanie and her class graduate from Monahan Academy.
  • Season 3 ends with Liv and Maddie graduating from Ridgewood.
• Grand Finale: The series finale (appropriately titled "End-A-Rooney") ends with the whole family going their separate ways (Liv goes of to star in a broadway musical, Maddie enrolls in a grant to build tiny houses for the homeless, Parker joins a biodome expedition on Mars, Joey goes on a comedy tour) and having one last campfire together.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Liv toward Andie for asking out Holden right before she could.
• G-Rated Drug: Maddie's new shoes in "Shoe-A-Rooney."
• Halloween Episode: "Kang-A-Rooney", "Helgaween-A-Rooney," "Haunt-A-Rooney," and "Scare-A-Rooney."
• "Here's Johnny!" Homage: In "Haunt-A-Rooney", Johnny emerges as a zombie from the haunted port-a-potty and cries out, "Here's Johnny!"
• The Hero Dies: In Voltage, Tess dies in the season finale and her powers get transferred to Garrison, because Liv decided to leave the show to stay with Maddie.
• Hollywood Genetics:
  • The youngest son is clearly Asian.
  • Played for laughs in how everyone is amazed to learn Diggie and Artie are brothers. Naturally, Artie doesn't see the big deal, convinced the resemblance is obvious (and that he's actually more handsome than Diggie).
• Hollywood Economics: In the Season 3 premiere Maddie and Joey buy plane tickets, last minute to Los Angeles from Milwaukee which costs roughly at least $300, and then when in Los Angeles Maddie follows this by buying a ticket to Australia which costs at least $1,000. The show makes no attempt to explain how two unemployed 15-16 year olds could afford upwards of $1,600 in plane tickets.
  • Probably Liv is acting Aunt Pennybags behind the scenes. Her four-year stint in Hollywood earned her enough money to run her family on the current scale for a few years if not for life so as long as Liv is willing to support financially, one adventure or two would not be a problem. Also she finished filming a movie and released a few songs both as an individual and as part of a band by that time, those all add up. This is not however expressly explained, and Maddie still spent an extra thousand dollars on her own accord.
  • Hammerspace may be in effect, because the Rooneys, especially Joey and Parker, tend to obtain and have things they shouldn't logically have in their possession. The same might be true for Maddie as well. That's also not getting into how Parker was able to build a military-grade tunnel in Los Angeles, materials for with that are near-impossible for him to even acquire without a ton of money, or even salvage.
• Idiot Ball: When the show you are producing is dependent on two female leads and a female co-star, Zach should have known better then to write an episode that establishes male superiority in the mechanical design field. Doubly foolish since Liv is actually skilled at mechanical design thanks to her friendship with Andie.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Most episodes' names follow the pattern "keyword-A-Rooney" (including the pilot, called "Twin-A-Rooney").
  • This makes sense, since the show was created by two former writers from Shake it Up, which gave us the phrase "Rock-a-rooney, queen of the laser dweebs".
• Impostor Forgot One Detail: Quite a lot of details in fact in "Grandma-A-Rooney," which makes Maddie think "Grandma" is her twin sister/Great-Aunt Hilary, like treating "Grandma" not gushing over Maddie, Parker not getting $20...
• Injured Limb Episode: In the Season 1 finale, Maddie buckles her knee during a basketball game and undergoes knee surgery, and spends the first quarter of the following season in crutches and later a knee brace as she recovers.
• Innocuously Important Episode:
  • Liv's music video for "Froyo YOLO" in "Song-A-Rooney" plays a bigger part in "New Year's Eve-A-Rooney" as it reveals a huge connection with Diggie, but it's not what Maddie thinks.
  • "Ask Her-More-A-Rooney" was big on emphasizing that girls are more than their appearance, but ended up being important because it also revealed that the house is built on an unstable foundation, and the events of such unfold in the Season 3 finale.
  • "Falcon-A-Rooney" revolves around Joey's Falcon persona being revealed as false, but a brief dialogue between Liv and Ruby references the health problems which eventually lead to Liv's potentially career ending vocal surgery.
• Jerk Jock: Todd Stetson, full stop.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Pete and Joey, Pete was captain of the basketball team while in school and hopes his son will on day aspire to sports, while Joey's set against it.
• Killed Off for Real: In-universe. In the Season finale of Voltage, SkyVolt performs a Heroic Sacrifice on herself and transfers her powers to Garrison, due to Liv leaving the show.
• The Lad-ette: Maddie has her moments showing off the Ladette vibe, sans drinking and sex.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • After performing her one person play as both Romeo and Juliet, Liv says it challenges her to play two completely different characters.
  • Referenced again during the end of "Ex-A-Rooney" by having Liv point out how difficult it must have been for Joey to play two parts in his movie.
• Large Ham: Johnny Nimbus is always loud and drawn-out. Parker once imitated him when volunteering as an assistant announcer.
• Last Episode Theme Reprise: The final episode ends with the family and others singing an acoustic version of the theme song around a campfire.
• Lethal Chef: Maddie can be this in "Cook-A-Rooney".
• Logo Joke: No Disney Channel show loves this trope as much as this one does; it features the Beck & Hart productions logo in the style of the "Sisters by chance, friends by choice" picture with Beck and Hart replacing the twins, and holding a sun sandwich and pizza in place of their key objects.
  • In "Flashback-A-Rooney" Liv sees the picture of Liv and Maddie when they were younger on their bedroom wall come to life, with their real faces in place of the drawing; consequently the Beck & Hart Productions Vanity Plate after the end credits has the real faces of creators John D. Beck and Ron Hart superimposed on their drawn bodies.
  • "Helgaween-A-Rooney" has the Helga drawing in the logo, with Beck and Hart presenting offerings of pizza and sandwiches while Helga is heard shouting "KNEEL BEFORE HELGA!"
  • "Rate-A-Rooney" has Beck and Hart holding up sheets of paper with "10" on them, with Karen saying "What'cha doing, Honeybunch?"
  • "Cook-A-Rooney" has Beck and Hart holding up copies of the home ec teacher's self-published memoirs.
  • "Band-A-Rooney" replaces Beck and Hart with a picture of Crispy Kitty's album cover while Joey and Artie - i.e. Crispy Kitty - shout the band name in unison.
  • "Triangle-A-Rooney" leaves Beck and Hart alone - but has Johnny Nimbus standing next to them with Nimbus At Night's chicken puppet Janice squawking.
  • "Continued-A-Rooney" has two planes in the background - one with Diggie's face on it, the other following with the faces of Maddie and Joey on it.
  • "Co-Star-A-Rooney" has (real) Artie right in front of Beck and Hart while he shouts "END SCENE!"
  • "Voltage-A-Rooney" has (real) Liv as SkyVolt, the superhero alterego of her Voltage character Tess, zapping Beck and Hart.
  • "Cowbell-A-Rooney" replaces the drawing of Beck and Hart holding up food with a photograph of them on the back of a cow while Maddie shouts "YOU JUST GOT MILKED!"
  • "Grandma-A-Rooney" has the Beck & Hart Productions logo accompanied with Maddie saying "What a crazy pair!"
  • "Falcon-A-Rooney" replaces the picture with a memorial dedicated to Joey's "falcon" alter-ego after giving it up as of that episode.
  • The series finale "End-a-Rooney" has Beck and Hart holding signs saying "thank you for watching!"
• Long-Lost Relative: In Liv's new show Sing It Louder!!, the main protagonist Sasha discovers that Stephanie Einstein is her long lost sister.
• Looped Lyrics: The chorus of "You and Me and the Beat" from "New Year' Eve-a-Rooney" contains four straight repetitions of the phrase, "You and me, and the beat, go great together."
• Maintain the Lie: When Liv invites the cast and crew to Christmas dinner, she talks a lot of how Karen always makes a fantastic Christmas meal and thus, when a deli calls about an order, Liv tells them to forget it. It turns out that all these years, Karen has been using the deli for her "home-cooked meals" and now has to handle it herself. In desperation, she talks Liv into getting Artie to cook the meal and Liv agrees to keep it quiet so the rest of the family doesn't know the truth of Karen's "meals."
• Malicious Misnaming: In the final season, Parker's BOOMS classmates refer to him as "Pucker".
• The Mockbuster: An in-universe example. The high levels of publicity involved with Liv being cast in Space Werewolves inspired a rival movie studio to make a substandard imitation called Lunar Foxes. The studio then schedules their premiere for the same night as Space Werewolves and projects their movie on the surface of the moon, all as part of a plan to destroy their competition.
• Mooks: Artie's "minions", or the three nerds that follow him around.
• The Moving Experience: "Move-A-Rooney."
• Mundane Solution:
  • Averted in "Switch-A-Rooney," when the girls could have gotten away with it all, had they simply gotten a pair of Maddie's frames and put regular glass in them. Especially egregious when you consider that all of the Rooney kids are pretty cunning, and one of the boys would have suggested this for a scam long ago.
  • They try this again in "Champ-A-Rooney," proving that those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it (or repeat it again, since Maddie tried to impersonate Liv in "BFF-A-Rooney"). In "Champ-A-Rooney", they only get away with it this time because even after their mom finds out, she allows it due the cause being love. Liv actually pulls it off in "Ex-A-Rooney" with a Switch-A-Rooney proposed by Joey except the real Maddie unexpectedly arrives.
• Name and Name: Liv and Maddie.
• Nerdy Bully: Artie Smalls is an obnoxious nerd who constantly mocks and belittles Joey, and is always followed by a group of other nerdy students he calls his "minions".
• New Season, New Name: On August 19, 2016, showrunner John D. Beck announced on Twitter that the series' fourth and final season will premiere on September 23rd, and would be retitled Liv & Maddie: Cali Style, in reference to Willow and the Rooney family relocating to Aunt Dena's house in California.
• New Year Has Come: The episode "New Years Eve-A-Rooney".
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In "Falcon-A-Rooney" Artie shows Joey's schoolmates how dorky he really is in an aim to ruin Joey's life (again). Instead Joey comes clean, and he winds up just as beloved by the school as he was when he was Falcon.
• No Full Name Given: Grandma Janice, Great-Aunt Hillary, Aunt Dena and Ruby. Gemma also didn't have one until she married Johnny Nimbus.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Apparently Joey keeping a secret once resulted in 64 white mice ending up in Parker's bed. No further explanation of the event or what secret he was keeping was ever given.
  • It was mentioned in the first episode of Sing it Louder!! that Stephanie tagged and signed her name on the principal's car, resulting in her sent to Monahan Academy in the original show.
• Not What It Looks Like: The main conflict of "New Year's Eve-A-Rooney" has Maddie go berserk after learning Liv kissed Diggie in the music video for "Froyo YOLO"; this lasts until she admits the kiss was not what she thought, and Diggie was the robot in the video and she only kissed his mask.
• Official Couple:
  • Maddie and Diggie, until their breakup in "Flugelball-A-Rooney".
  • Liv almost formed one with Holden in "Prom-A-Rooney", but Andie does it first, making her jealous. They eventually break up in "Triangle-A-Rooney" and Holden becomes a couple with Liv, until they break up as well in "Scoop-A-Rooney".
  • Maddie and Josh in Season 3, until Diggie returned.
  • Johnny Nimbus and Gemma in Season 3, eventually leading them to be married.
• Oh, Crap!: Liv in "New Year's Eve-A-Rooney" when she realizes Maddie found out she kissed her boyfriend in the "Froyo YOLO" video and is destroying her shoes as payback, not knowing the kiss is Not What It Looks Like.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Liv was assumed to be a Dumb Blonde just like her character Stephanie Einstein in Sing it Loud!. Not to mention Joey and Parker destroying their home in Stevens Point.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Happy Carrot as the biggest carrot-based franchise in Wisconsin.
• Pep-Talk Song: The song "One Second Chance" in the first episode of Sing it Louder!! has Stephanie encourage Sasha she's not a bad kid and she'll get through Monahan Academy just fine.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Of the Tomboy and Girly Girl variety. And of course this is lampshaded when Patty Duke guest stars.
• Powers in the First Episode: In-Universe on Voltage; Liv’s character Tess receives her electricity powers in the show's first episode.
• Prank Date: In "Match-A-Rooney", this is what Joey was led to believe would happen after Emily the cheerleader asked him to the dance. Subverted when she revealed she was actually interested in him.
• Precocious Crush: Parker towards South in "BFF-A-Rooney".
  • Subverted with Reggie: He tells Liv about his crush and because of his description she assumes that he's talking about her. Turns out he was talking about a girl in his martial arts class all the time.
• Previously on…: In the Season 3 premiere, Joey sums up everything that happened up until then.
• Proscenium Reveal: The series finale reveals all the fourth-wall confessionals throughout the show were part of a reality show in Luxembourg called Bits & Pieces.
• Public Hater, Private Fan: Parker's friends relentlessly mock him for watching a girly comedy show, but while doing so, they use an obscure catchphrase that only a fan would be aware of. This immediately gives him the realisation that his friends also watch the show.
• Put on a Bus: Benjamin King confirmed he won't be returning for the final season, and was replaced by Lauren Lindsey-Donzis who plays Aunt Dena's daughter Ruby.
• Raised by Wolves: To improve her chances of getting a role in Space Werewolves, Liv enlists help from a girl who was literally raised by wolves.
• Relationship Upgrade: In "Band-A-Rooney", Andie ends up dating Holden after the prom much to Liv's jealousy, until he breaks up with her on Nimbus at Night and forming a relationship with Liv in "Triangle-A-Rooney", before they broke up in "Scoop-A-Rooney".
• The Reveal:
  • "Frame-A-Rooney" reveals Diggie is Artie's brother. Liv and Maddie knew all along, of course, but several other students were surprised.
  • In "Ask-Her-More-a-Rooney", Joey and Parker's tunnels under the house are revealed to have a support beam of househeld objects to keep the house upright; if it ever is removed, the house will collapse, which does happen in the season 3 finale.
  • In-Universe on Sing It Louder!!: One episode reveals Sasha (Ruby’s character) is Stephanie’s (Liv’s character) long-lost sister.
  • The Grand Finale reveals every Confession Cam held on the show was actually a Show Within a Show called Bits & Pieces, as noted by Dump Truck when he interrupts one of Joey’s and notices the cameras set up.
• Riddle for the Ages:
  • What is Parker's middle name?
  • Who did South Salamanca portray on Sing it Loud!?
  • What did Sasha do that got her sent to Monahan Academy in Sing it Louder!!?
• Running Gag: Whenever anyone mentions Sing It Loud! or Sing It Louder!! they sing the title. Except Joey. (And Liv herself in "Dodge-A-Rooney," when during her roadside cleanup duties she finds someone's thrown away a season 1 DVD.) Exaggerated in "BFF-A-Rooney," when Liv and South talk about doing the show and take turns singing the title louder. And longer. And louder. And longer. And LOUDER. And LONGER.
• Sadistic Choice: Both twins end up in a heart-wrenching one in Scoop-A-Rooney. The media stated that Liv (which was really Maddie without her glasses) was dating Josh. If Liv clears it up, it will put Maddie in a tough spot because Diggie will be devastated if he finds out Maddie is with another guy after their breakup. But if Liv doesn't clear it up, she'll have a hard time going out with Holden with the media hounding her. Likewise with Maddie, if she tells Diggie she moved on, he will be devastated, and if she doesn't, Liv will have problems with Holden. It bites them back in the worst way possible: Holden breaks up with Liv because he sees she has too much to worry about that she can't make time for him. For Maddie, Diggie figures out it's she and not Liv before Maddie can even contact him.
• Samus Is a Girl: In "Neighbors-A-Rooney'', a mysterious cloaked member within Artie's Intergalactic Council Meeting (a LARP-style club), wants to push forth a nomination for his character to make a cameo and when the member uncloaks, she reveals herself to be a girl named Aubrey, much to everyone's surprise.
• Second Year Protagonist: The twins are sophomores, presumably so freshman Joey can be their younger brother and still go to the same school (Bragg is younger than Cameron in real life but only by 5 months).
• Secret-Keeper: In Voltage, Garrison is this to Tess, in addition to being her love interest.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Joey and Parker respectively.
• Sequel Series: In-Universe, Sing It Loud! gets one called Sing It Louder!!
• Sexiness Score: "Rate-A-Rooney" has the girls getting into conflict with Jerkass Todd Stetson and his friends due to them starting rating all the girls in school, via a Hold Up Your Score as they pass the school hallway.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: "Roll Model-A-Rooney" is one for Maddie and Willow. True to the theme of defying gender stereotypes in the episode, Maddie and Willow try to win a Masochist's Meal challenge that had so far been only won by men. After their victory speech about how proud they are to be the first women to win, they are told that plenty of women have won before. Refusing to believe this, they read the names on the wall again, this time out loud: Max... Chris... Terry...
• She Cleans Up Nicely: The Tomboy Maddie can be just as stunning as, if not more than Liv. Granted as they share an actress.
• Sherlock Scan: In "Frame-A-Rooney", Maddie was able to accurately deduce how Parker and Reggie got themselves stuck on a chair, down to the last detail.
• Shipper on Deck: Liv to Miggie
• Shout-Out: The Z-Phones in "Steal-A-Rooney" are from A.N.T. Farm (and connect the show to the Disney Channel Live-Action Universe).
  • In "Fa-La La La La La-A-Rooney," the Griswolds are mentioned as being Christmas House decoration rivals.
  • Sing it Loud! to Glee and Shake it Up.
    • And to Hannah Montana (this is especially evident in the first episode)
  • The "Guess this Food" is back from Good Luck Charlie.
  • Nevell's Novelty Shop from "Switch-a-Rooney" could be a shout out to iCarly.
    • In the same episode, in said shop, when the camera switches to Joey and Parker you can see a box that says "Bites & Pieces." This is a shout-out to the show's in-development title, "Bits & Pieces."
  • The record label that releases Liv's song in "Song-A-Rooney" shares its name with one of the show's production companies, Oops Doughnuts Productions.
  • invokedThe Show Within a Show Linda and Heather, a favourite of Parker's and, it turns out, other boys in spite of it being for girls, is named after Linda Mathious and Heather MacGillvray, two of Liv and Maddie's writers.
  • The villain in Sing It Louder!!'s live episode "Sing It Live!" is called Peaslee - after the episode's writer John Peaslee. And the series is set at Monahan Academy (as in co-producer David Monahan, also co-writer of the Series Finale).
  • Parker was grounded for trying to turn the refrigerator into a time machine ^note the time machine in Back To The Future was going to be made from a refrigerator in the original script.
  • The origin story for Tess aka SkyVolt from Voltage is similar to The Flash.
  • In "Voltage-A-Rooney" Joey is wearing the Decadriver, albeit with too many stickers.
  • When invited to the Voltage Set, Andie calls the Engine Room to request "more power" and Willow screams "I'm giving her all she's got". They are referencing scenes from Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • The old black-and-white photo of young Grandma Janice and Great Aunt Hillary that Karen shows on the Confession Cam early on in "Grandma-A-Rooney" is really a photo still◊ from The Patty Duke Show of Patty and Cathy Lane. Also, when the real Grandma Janice arrives at the awards ceremony Liv is recieving an award at, and Janice and Great Aunt Hillary explain their Twin Switch to Liv and Maddie, Maddie exclaims, "What a crazy pair!", quoting from the Patty Duke Show's theme song.
  • The table behind Aunt Dena's couch in "Californi-A-Rooney" (the season 3 finale, ^note first run in June 2016, four months after Duke's death, and eight months after "Grandma-A-Rooney" first aired) holds a number of framed family pictures, the middle one of which is a photo of Patty Duke as Grandma Janice from "Grandma-A-Rooney". It really comes into focus in the background of several key scenes.
  • In "Tiny House-A Rooney", multiple posters for "Custodians of the Cosmos 2" can be seen in the background of the movie theater.
  • In "Muffler-A-Rooney", Maddie, Willow and Lacey strike a very familiar trio pose.
• Show Within a Show:
  • Sing It Loud!, the show Liv formerly starred in (and its Sequel Series Sing It Louder!!).
  • Raise The Roof, which Liv's friend South stars in (as mentioned in "BFF-A-Rooney" - Parker says that "Raise The Roof is about four lady carpenters who build houses by day and sing by night - but still find time to solve mysteries and compete in beauty pageants! I don't know how they do it!").
  • The in-universe Korean version of Sing It Loud! ("Kathy Kan-A-Rooney").
  • Linda and Heather, which Parker loves ("Kathy Kan-A-Rooney"). See also Shout-Out above.
  • Liv's new superhero show, Voltage.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Artie Smalls is always bossy and hot-headed, compared to his nice and laid-back brother Diggie.
• Smart People Build Robots: Joey's on the robotics team. So far, only mentioned in passing. Apparently Parker has somehow stolen Joey's robotics talent as it's mentioned nearly Once an Episode.
• Society-on-Edge Episode: An arc in Sing it Louder!! focuses on Sasha and Stephanie working to stop an evil CEO, Larabee Peasley, from destroying Monahan Academy and turning it into a mall.
• Spanner in the Works: Joey and Parker's scheme to prevent Liv from getting the role of Tristin Lycander for the film Space Werewolves is foiled when Liv and Maddie perform a "switch-a-rooney" without anyone knowing about it. Maddie manages to sway Artie and his gang to her side, and even Parker is convinced.
• Special Guest: Several, e.g. Laura Marano and Kel Mitchell in "Howl-A-Rooney," Garry Marshall in "Space Werewolves-A-Rooney," Kristen Bell in "Ask Her More-A-Rooney," Patty Duke in "Grandma-A-Rooney" (in her final television appearance), and Brandon Crawford of the San Francisco Giants in "Home Run-A-Rooney".
• Spiritual Successor:
  • A Disney Channel Sitcom about two polar opposite twins. Now where have we seen that before?
  • The show is one to Sister, Sister.
  • Additionally, the twins are played by the same actress, a la The Parent Trap.
  • Disney's direct successor to Good Luck Charlie as the resident Dom Com. Most of their other shows are of the Adults Are Useless variety with splashes of Disappeared Dad & Missing Mom.
  • Quite obviously, The Patty Duke Show which is openly lampshaded with Patty Duke herself guest-starring as the twins' grandmother and her look-alike sister in "Grandma-A-Rooney".
• Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: Willow's pursuit Joey, which is almost outright abuse and heavily played for laughs. If it had been the other way round, with Joey using the tactics Willow employed (Nets and assault and the like) it's very unlikely the show could have been kept on a kids channel.
• Standardized Sitcom Housing
• Stealth Pun: In "Co-Star-A-Rooney", Liv describes Holden as an ex-bandmate, ex-crush, and the ex-boyfriend of her friend, so it appears that she thinks of him in a triple-ex way.
• Stepping Out to React: In "Sing it Louder!!-A-Rooney", when Ruby is asked to audition for the lead character Sasha on Sing it Louder!!, she calmly excuses herself, goes inside the house and screams, "NO WAY, NO WAY! BEST DAY EVER!" She then comes back outside and accepts.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Happens to Diggie after he gets back from Tundrabania, his experiences have changed him, so Steven's Point no longer interests him the way it used to. Unfortunately this leads to him longing to leave again which leads to him and Maddie breaking up.
• Story Arc:
  • Most of Season 1 features Liv trying to get into and prepare for the main role in Space Werewolves. In Season 2, there's one about Maddie's break-up with Diggie.
  • The last two Season 3 episode feature the twins graduating, Liv's show Voltage reaching it's end, and the consequences of her decisions later on.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Splat, for Evan in one episode. Lacey for Stains. Season 4 has Val for Alex.
• Synchronized Morning Routine: The Title Sequence shows the family taking turns to get in front of the bathroom washbasin (with them filmed from the POV of a vanity mirror over the basin).
• Take Our Word for It: The events of the Linda and Heather show that Parker watches are never actually seen, and it isn't until the final season where we finally get to see what the show looks like.
• Talent Double: Maddie's breakdancing in "Howl-A-Rooney" is all-too-obviously not being done by Dove Cameron.
• Title Drop: "Switch-A-Rooney," when Liv and Maddie pull a... you know.
• Thanking the Viewer : The final Vanity Plate has Beck and Hart holding signs saying "Thank You For Watching!"
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Maddie and Liv, respectively. The actress portraying them is a mix of both types.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Maddie's usual hairstyle.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: All resident tomboys have this one way or another. Liv even believes every girl has a "sparkle", tomboy or not, and her statement is quite accurate: Stains have some pink PJs, Willow is boy crazy towards Joey, and Maddie has a Liv mode with a crazy fashion sense.
• Touched by Vorlons: Liv's character on Voltage. The 'lightning' that gave her powers was actually energy from a UFO.
• Trash the Set: In The Season 3 finale "Californi-a-Rooney", Joey switches Karen's cookbook from the tower that holds up the whole house with her yoga ball, but it pops and the tower is undone, causing the house to fall apart and the whole Rooney family moves in with Aunt Dena.
• Tunnel Network: Parker built a network of "Parker Tunnels" that go around the neighborhood and even to the high school. Parker's tunnel obsession became a serious problem in the Season 3 finale, because the house was on the brink of collapse. Thanks to Joey's blunder in closing the tunnels, it collapses.
• Twin Switch:
  • Quite obviously done although the only time the girls tried it on their parents, it backfired big-time. They did it again in the Season 2 Finale, but that one went better. Notably, when the girls' grandmother (Patty Duke!) came for a visit, Maddie thought something was wrong with her behavior. It turned out it was really her grandmother's own twin sister as the real grandmother couldn't make it from Africa in time and talked her daughter into helping cover.
  Maddie: (to her mom) Wait, you pulled a switch? You hate switches!
  • She agrees to keep it quiet for Liv's ceremony. Guess who suddenly shows up in the middle of the ceremony right off her flight from Africa...
• The Unfavorite: Joey sometimes feels this way, because he has a tendency to mess up and break things and his siblings constantly picking on him and keeping him from getting enough food.
• The Unreveal:
  • Parker's middle name. Even in the finale, he still refuses to reveal it.
  • In-Universe on Sing it Louder!!; whatever Ruby’s character Sasha did that got her sent to Monahan Academy. She refuses to tell everyone, even Stephanie (Liv’s character).
• Valley Girl: Liv picked up some of that vibe during her four-year stay in Hollywood.
• Very Special Episode: "Roll Model-A-Rooney" is focused on gender equality and gender-equal stereotypes, which Liv mentions throughout.
• Vocal Evolution: From the last quarter of Season 1 onward, Dove uses a high-pitched valley girl voice for Liv; yet she retains her normal voice as Maddie.
• Wham Line:
  • From "Sweet-16-A-Rooney":
    Pete: Honey, it's time to come clean. We've kept the secret for too long.
    Karen: No, Pete! I'm not telling them they were born on separate days!
  • From "Flugelball-A-Rooney":
    Diggie: Traveling really changed me, it's really different now. That's why I wanna be a foreign exchange student again.
  • In-Universe in Voltage from "SkyVolt-A-Rooney":
    Tess: I can't. You're SkyVolt now.
  • From "Californi-A-Rooney":
    Parker: You moved that?
  • From "Sing it Live!!!-A-Rooney":
    Liv: Something happened. It's bad.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Often, Liv believes that anything in her life can be handled just as it was on her TV show or movies. Naturally, her "help" backfires as she fails to realize real kids don't act that way.
  • When a pretty cheerleader asks him to a dance, Joey is convinced he's being set up as the butt of a major joke and arrives in a full "protective case" to gloat on how the trick won't work. Naturally, it turns out the cheerleader really was interested in him but is upset he didn't trust her.
• Xenafication: Liv gave her this in order to be the part of a werewolf. She commented that this makes her more like Maddie.
• X Meets Y: In-universe, Joey describes Space Werewolves as a result of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings having a child and that child being adopted by The Avengers.

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