High School Musical | 20
Show Notes:
Host Julia Washington and guest Julianna Coughlin discuss High School Musical.
High School musical was first released on January 20th, 2006 as a Disney Channel Original Movie and started the careers of performers like Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, there are three movies in total and even a TV show on Disney+.
Julianna is a podcaster, runner, Harry Potter nerd (she's a Hufflepuff), demisexiual, dietitian, “spondy” and dog mom. Julianna lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts with her pittie Myrtle. Her two podcasts, Puffcast (Your Harry Potter Happy Place) and Into the Fold (A Grishaverse Podcast), are independently produced by herself with her two best friends Mel and Geoff.
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The Show: Pop Culture Makes Me Jealous
The Host: Julia Washington
The Guest: Julianna Coughlin
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Transcript:
Julia: Hey friends, this is pop culture makes me jealous where we discuss pop culture through the lens of race or gender. And sometimes both. I'm your host, Julia Washington, and on today's show. My guest is Juliana coffin and we are discussing high school musical.
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Julia: High school musical first released on January 20th, 2006 as a Disney channel original movie, and started the careers of performers like Zach Efron and Vanessa Hutchins. There are three movies in total and even a TV show on Disney plus. But before we dive into our discussion, let me introduce you to my guest.
Julia: Juliana is a podcaster runner, Harry Potter nerd. She's a Hufflepuff asexual dietician. Spy and dog mom, Juliana lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts with her pity, Myrtle, her two podcasts podcast, your Harry Potter happy place and into the fold. A Grisha verse podcast podcast are independently produced by herself with two best friends, Mel and Jeff by day, she works as a dietician in a long term care with all of her adopted grandparents.
Julia: When she's not walking her dog podcasting or talking Potter, she can be found running. She has run two Boston marathons and will be running the Providence Rhode Island and Chicago marathons in 2022. She also has a chronic illness called you're gonna have to help me with that one. Agonizing spondylolysis.
Julia: Thank you and is currently on the journey, defining her best treatment plan to combat this condition. Welcome to the show, Juliana.
Julianna: Oh, well thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here, cuz I think we have a very fun topic to talk about. That is a lot more thought provoking and controversial, I would say.
Julianna: And interesting then people probably think it is on the surface level. I think as two people who went through this movement, it's a lot more prominent than maybe say the kids who are just kind of consuming the Disney plus show currently. Yeah, I wouldn't.
Julia: I would agree with you in that. I also wanted to know I'm jealous that you're gonna run the Chicago marathon.
Julia: My goal is I I've done, I've done halfs and I've done. Oh, nice. You know, like smaller versions, but like, I really wanna be, I really wanna get to a place where I can run a full
Julianna: yeah, you should, you, I, I always recommend that people start with a local marathon as their first one, especially when, if you have one that's like in your own town, because then you like, you know, the people, you know, the roads you can actually train like on the course too.
Julianna: Mm-hmm , which makes you feel a little bit better the
Julia: day of, yeah, actually. So the Modesto marathon happens in March every year and it's actually qualifier for one of the bigger ones. And I can't remember which one Boston, I think it might be Boston. Yeah. And we have this huge over overpass in, um, mm-hmm , it's like a freeway, um, on ramp.
Julia: That well, it's not a freeway on ramping. Connect's kind of, it's just a weird intersection, but it's a really weird angled slope. And where I live is very flat. That's part of the course oh gosh. So it's like, when I ran the half, I don't know how long ago I made it up the hill and I was just like, okay, can I get my medal now?
Julia: Because that was hard.
Julianna: I did it. I'm done. And they're like, it's only mile three. And you're like, you was
Julia: like, no, it's like, yeah, keep going. And because we're a rural C, we have a lot of, uh, farm farmland. You run through a lot of like two lane roads, past orchards and stuff. So it's like, oh nice. It's such a different experience than I would imagine.
Julia: Running in a city would be like,
Julianna: yeah, well, I mean, I've, I've run Boston twice. Like I said, like you said, um, and I've run the Cape Cod marathon and I've run a decent amount of half marathons just here, there, and everywhere. But like, it's, it's so different running in every place that you do. Cuz Boston is interesting too, because it's a point to point.
Julianna: So you start in one city and you like literally run through. 10 different cities. And it's just like constantly changing scenery. Whereas like on Cape Cod it's, you're in kind of those like little roads that you're talking about where like this all like little tiny roads that you're running on and just they block the roads.
Julianna: Yeah. For the most part. Yeah. Um, but there's still like stray cars coming and you're just like, please, please, Lord, please do not let a car come around this corner. Yeah. cause there are some, there's some I'm sure where you live. There are some corners that it's like real tight and the road is also just like
Julia: real tight and in our town, nobody like the, when I was helping my friend be the mild cheerleader this year, cuz it was near my house.
Julia: She got assigned near my house and there were people who would pull up and they're. This is so irritating. Why is the roadblocked? Well, I live in this neighborhood mean I'm I got a letter. You got a letter, like everyone got a letter, the rules gonna be blocked. Like, please don't try and run over these people.
Julianna: people are just like, they, they ignore every single single you send 'em. You put signs out, you send them letters, you put out like the town email or whatever town patch, account, whatever, everything. Yep. And then people are like, what is going on? I don't know. It's like. Do you have you not lived here like 20 years?
Julianna: Yeah. Do you not
Julia: understand? Yeah, exactly. Okay. Friends let's do a quick summary of high school musical just to refresh our memories. And this is a summary of the first movie, not two and three, because I feel like the first movie sets it up and you kind of get the gist when you move forward. And I'm gonna say full disclosure, I just pulled this off of Google.
Julia: Uh, I'm
Julianna: not going to judge you in any capacity, cuz I would've
Julia: done the same thing. Oh, this is why this is why we're kindred. Okay. Troy Bolton the star athlete at a small town high school falls for nerdy beauty, Gabriela Monte at a holiday karaoke party. When they returned to campus, Troy and Gabriela auditioned for the upcoming musical.
Julia: Meanwhile, the jealous Sharpe Evans conspires to squelch their chances. The two must struggle to make it to auditions while meeting their existing obligations to the basketball team and the. Academic decathlon.
Julianna: Wow. Well, that sounds very exciting. it sounds so epic. It sounds like actually a movie, especially as a middle schooler.
Julianna: I definitely would've been into just reading that discussion, but I, I feel like even with that description, it doesn't, it doesn't lead into what this movie actually ended up being. And I invested, I just remember, I, I just like imagine reading that byline and then like seeing the poster maybe because maybe somewhere maybe like at like a Claire's or like probably in like tiger beat or something.
Julianna: Yeah. Um, Because what's first
Julia: tiger. Beat referenced this season. Uh, you nice job. Good. Good on you.
Julianna: I've read. I've read so many tiger beat magazines. I was never a huge like tiger beat person. But my sister, Katie was cuz she, we knew the Jonas brothers. Yeah. Favorite colors, their favorite food, where they were born, their best friends name in first grade.
Julianna: Like we knew everything about the Jons brothers because she was like, so into them, but like, oh my God. Yeah. Cuz we have to remember too. This was a Disney channel movie. It didn't yeah, it was didn't come out in theaters. It literally just was one of those ones where it's like coming this Friday to Disney channel.
Julianna: Yes. You could tune in to see Troy and Gabriela sing together. And then we get the little mouse sing at the bottom. Yeah. And that was like it like maybe it was on the, the. Um, the pre not the pre-roll for one of the Disney movies out there. Probably not, honestly. I don't think it was. Yeah. I genuinely just remember seeing previews for it.
Julianna: Yeah. On Disney channel. Yeah. Like in the ad breaks between the shows.
Julia: Yeah. In my attempts to find critic reviews for our, like, from our normal sources, like I referenced the Hollywood reporter a lot, the New York times even variety. Um, I came up it like, there was nothing, there was like, that sounds about right.
Julia: Nothing, the sequel, however, had all the buzz. So I, there was a lot of critic review about the, um, about the sequel, but they also weren't super thrilled that a sequel was coming in 2006. I don't think anyone could have anticipated the impact of like. Just Disney, like the impact this movie would have other than maybe Disney having that, that anticipation.
Julia: So I wanna start where we always start. And normally we start with the context from critics and then we move into this part of the conversation. But since critics didn't talk about it, we're just gonna dive in. Did you love high school musical? And if so, why?
Julianna: I mean, I remember watching high school musical because, uh, actually we got it from my sister's friend.
Julianna: I vividly remember everyone at school had seen it. I actually didn't have cable. So I only got to watch Disney channel when I was over at my friend's house. And I remember seeing these ads for it. And then everyone was talking about it. Yeah. Like the buzz was real. And I was like, mom, we have to, we have to watch this.
Julianna: And everyone was watching it. And we were telling our mom, and then finally, my sister's friend, Julie recorded it on a Mt. VHS tape for us. Yes. And it, it was specifically, specifically the screening that they did with the. Dance along at the end. Mm-hmm specifically that one. So we got not only the movie, but we got the exclusive dance along for we're all in this together.
Julianna: Nice at the end. So I know the, all we're all in this together dance, because we specifically got that showing of it. And we, I don't think we ever returned that VHS to her. Cuz we, we literally must have played it like 30
Julia: times on our TV. It's worn out. She's like, I don't even want it back. You
Julianna: wore at the tape.
Julianna: Yeah. yeah. It, it was just, it was wild because I remember I was so anxious to see this cause everyone else had seen it and then I saw it and then it was just like clicked and it was just part of the zeitgeist and it was just like there and high school musical, like was existence. Mm-hmm like, that was my life.
Julia: And I don't know about you, but I was like, who's this cutie pitu Zack Efron. Zack Efron.
Julianna: Yeah. It's funny too, because I. Remember that when the first movie came out, everyone was like, he's not even doing his own vocals. and I was someone, I was like, I think he's singing. And it turns out he actually wasn't doing his own vocals because we found that out when they did the high school, because this kind of, as we're gonna talk about snowballed, this is something so big.
Julianna: They ended up doing a live tour for this movie that went around from city to city to city. I never got to see it, but it fully sold out in the venue. That's closest to where I live and they had the guy who actually did the vocals go and be Troy Bolton on the tour and not Zach Efron. Oh, I didn't know that.
Julianna: Oh yeah. Cause I remember seeing the posters and I was like, who's that guy and why is thateveryone not on this poster. Yeah. Yeah. And then we. Kind of all gathered that. Oh yeah. I mean, didn't exactly,
Julia: I guess you, yeah, I guess you can tell, but you wouldn't necessarily notice by how like intense he gets with the singing, right?
Julia: Yeah. Like he's really into it. You think he's feeling it, which I kind of love, but you know?
Julianna: Yeah. Well, I mean, they're all, they're all like lip syncing to their songs anyway,
Julia: so yeah. And it's such Disney's music too, right? Like Disney has a very specific sound on how they want their actors and actresses to sing and sometimes it's okay.
Julia: But watching it last night, I was like, oh, I think I've outgrown the Disney sound.
Julianna: yeah. It's kind of, uh, Very like overly dramatized a lot of the time
Julia: and the facial expressions, I pitched like Vanessa Hutchins voice. I don't know if it's her. I can't.
Julianna: Oh, she has a very
Julia: high voice. Yes. Yeah. And I was just like, I can't.
Julia: And then it's funny because with the advent of Instagram, when people sing on Instagram and you're just like, oh, I you're, you clearly are trying to get with Disney cuz of the way that you sound and cuz they only will hire for one type of vocal range or whatever. And I just, it's fine. But also I can't I'm too old
Julianna: now.
Julianna: I know. I, I would've, I would've murdered someone to be on a Disney movie as a child, like full on murdered multiple people. If I could have been in a singing Disney movie as a child, I, I tried to audition. I don't know if you know the, the TV show zoom that was on PBS. Yeah. I tried to audition for that, cuz I, cuz they filmed it in Boston.
Julianna: Oh, I didn't realize. Yeah. So they would have auditions every year. And I had like kids at my high school, like buzz who was um, on zoom. Yeah. He was two years above me in, in the school I went to and his mom was our health teacher. Oh. So funny. So like it was kind of like a local phenomenon kind of thing.
Julianna: Yeah. Oh yeah. My mom would never let me audition for she's like I'm not driving you into Boston to audition for. I was like what? Be on do
Julia: but my God, I would've
Julianna: loved to be on high SCO musical. It would've been
so
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Julia: If you're looking for that perfect gift for a birthday or have a special memory, you'd like to commemorate visit Hughes by Jules on Instagram that's Hughes, H U E S by Jules, J U L E S. In a 2019 article from Vox writer, Aja Romano notes that high school musical was an unexpected overnight sensation and offered this about the film quote.
Julia: Not only was it the rare Disney channel movie aimed at teens and tweens rather than kids, but it was one of the relative view at the time that boasted its own soundtrack. And it was a true musical. The songs were integrated into the story. Conceit meaning that rather the songs originated from the character's fictional world, like being played on someone's radio.
Julia: They they're instead performed by characters, expressing their feelings and intentions through song end quote later in the article Romano ads, until that point in its lifespan, Disney hadn't really gotten comfortable parroting its own brand. The brief meta jokes that distinguished animated films ALA in and the Amper groove from more selfer entries in the Disney cannon made them unique outliers rather than the evidence that the mouse was growing more open to affectionate self send up end quote.
Julia: Mm. And what I think is really interesting here, um, is that the concept of it's its first show where it's specifically targeting teens and tweens, like. It's never, that's not. And when I thought about it more, I was like, yeah, yeah, I guess Disney really wasn't like, no one was really focused on like that tween aspect because they're sophomores in high school.
Julia: I think. So you're naturally gonna capture mm-hmm that peer group, but then like, there's still an element of innocence to it that it's still appropriate for me to have like my fifth grader watch it as well. Mm-hmm yeah. So I want, so I'm curious. So I wanna talk about that. And then I also wanna talk about why you think the movie and the franchise exploded the way it did.
Julia: Yeah. I think
Julianna: that that's a super interesting take for sure. Because now that I'm thinking about it too, I feel like, like, if you think like classic Disney, like Disney that kind of came like pre the two thousands, it's very either like. A good old jolly family, fun adult time, or it's a, or it's like a goofy cartoon kids thing.
Julianna: Like there's no, there was no teen zone really. Yeah. For this. And I feel like at this point, I'm trying to think of what even came before high school. We just cause like Hannah Montana was after that like kind lemonade camp, camp Brock, Julie, I love camp Brock is my favorite. Like, we're just gonna put that down straight on any Disney channel movie camp Brock wins straight out the game for me.
Julianna: Yeah. Um, I will watch that any day of the week. It is just so ridiculous. It, the ridiculously of that movie is great. Like it's, but I.
Julia: Love it because it's like you have high school music and you've got your preppy, nerdy kids, and then here's camp rock, which is like, here's all the kids who aren't preppy and nerdy.
Julia: Walter take
Julianna: you two. And we got the Jonas brothers and they're like, they are not good actors in this movie at all. And it's great. They are terrible. They have Allison. Um, what's her last name? She's known as being a dancer. She's in there and there's the dancing scene, but Joe Jonas who can't dance to save his life is the dance teacher.
Julianna: And I'm like, what are you doing? Uh,
Julia: when it's on, you will watch it. Oh, it's
Julianna: great. I I'll listen to the soundtrack any day of the week. Um, but yeah, no, it's super interesting because there definitely, wasn't a really super specified audience, um, capturing piece of media from Disney that stood out, I guess that was for teens or tweens before this.
Julianna: And I, I think it's interesting too, that this. That Mr. Mano says that this is their first like actual like musical musical, which, yeah, that's interesting too, because you think the only musicals we really did have before that were the animated ones. Mm-hmm and we had some Mo some shows and movies and things that had like a theme, like one or two themed songs within them.
Julianna: But I mean, even, even the ones that like Aladin or Aladin's more of a musical musical and like little more of a musical musical. Yeah. But some of them, even the animated ones only have like one or two, like songs in them that are like actually sung by characters mm-hmm , which is interesting. Um, little more
Julia: reads, another one too, where it's they, they do have all the, um, But yeah, the, but it's back to you're right?
Julia: That's the animated. It was mostly focused on animated. Yeah. The only other thing I can think of would be like the parent trap remake in 98, but again, you know, Lindsay, LO's playing an 11 year old, so it's still kind of like a fine holiday family fun. It's still geared towards family. Um,
Julianna: and then Lindsay McGuire, I feel like was the only thing that kind of maybe like overstepped that line.
Julianna: Mm-hmm a little bit only because we had things like her, where she was talking about going through puberty. Like I very vividly remember the episode. She was like, I, what bra? And like that was like the whole episode very vividly. Remember that. Cause my mom was like, scandal, this I. Um, maybe not like this is just like a human thing that people do.
Julia: I
Julianna: feel like it's appropriate that she wants a bra. It's fine. Yeah. Like, I'd rather have a, like, if my boobs be flapping everywhere and I don't feel like I want, if I feel like I want to wear something to hold them, like, that's good. I mean, you can, you can go free bird if you want. But like, if I want something to hold my, like my boobs that's good.
Julianna: Yeah,
Julia: exactly. And, you know, Disney did sort of really capitalize and that was their bread and butter was like, what can we get families to watch together? Yeah. Whereas like high school music. When I, when I watched it last night, I was like, there's no way my mother would've sat through this movie. oh,
Julianna: no. It was very, very, very specifically, they had like a very specific audience in mind when they did this movie and they, they hit it like just right for whatever was like the, the combination of the music, the actors, Kenny Ortega who's career, like skyrocketed from here.
Julianna: Cause he did like every single Disney channel movie after this. Yeah. um, that we actually have a quote from him later. Oh, nice. Yeah. Cause this was like his like kind of claim to fame. And I remember even me as a teenager hearing like, oh, Kenny Ortega choreographed this new movie, I'd be like, that's so cool.
Julianna: Because I had learned the we're all in this together dance. And I was very fond of Kenny Ortega at that point, because he was on that recording and you know, we were best buds by that point. Yeah. Cause I had seen it like 30 times. Uh, so yeah, I remember that being kind of a, a, a pull for me because I was like, oh, I love the dancing so much from high school musical school.
Julianna: I'm sure I'm gonna love X, Y and Z movie in rock is actually lemonade. Male.
Julia: I'm gonna love lemonade mails. Yep.
Julianna: Yep. they're all choreographed by Kenny Ortega.
Julia: Yeah. The other thing that I really like that I, that I didn't, I forgot about and didn't really think about deeper. In 2006. So you have this cast in characters.
Julia: So Troy Bolton, Zach Efron, you know, he's your basic white boy from San Lu Obispo, which is pretty much what we expect from San Lu Obispo. Um, and you have Vanessa. Yeah. And you have Vanessa Hutchins and then you have, um, Troy's best friend Corbin blue. I forget his character name on the show.
Julianna: Oh God. And then
Julia: the, yeah.
Julia: And then the whole cast is just basically a sprinkling of diversity. It isn't just like, here's the one off black person. Yeah. Here's the one off Latina. And like, everybody else is white. It's like truly a diverse cast. And I was thinking about it this morning. I thought I don't. Think I recall anything for teens or just kids in general wear the cast.
Julia: I mean like shore Sesame street, but that's, you know yeah. But like actual teenager things, mm-hmm, where the cast is like a wide variety of people. It's usually like, here's your token black person. yeah, they have witty lines.
Julianna: he? Hey, Hey, they have a big personality. Look at them being sassy over there as a typical black person.
Julianna: Right's like,
Julia: and like, they didn't do that in high school musical. They were like, Hey, these are all the kids. And you all have very clear roles and yeah, they're not, they didn't feel caricature to me. Mm-hmm which I really appreciated. And then of course I had to struggle with like, is this the first time I saw something for teenagers that wasn't caricature
Julianna: Yeah, I think, I, I think I'm gonna agree with you and say that for me. Like, I mean, I, I obviously I am very white, um, but like. Stand behind every, I, I want more racial diversity cuz white people are boring as all hell. Like we don't need more white people. We really do. It's like, please like more, more people of more different diversities because like white people are boring.
Julianna: Um, so I, I really like this too, because we see people in different roles too. I'm trying to think of the guy's name, but their other best friend who's on the, on the basketball team who bakes one. That's always cooking. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, that is like, like if you were gonna like stereotype cast someone for that role, it definitely would not be a black person just like, based on super, like super terrible stereotypes.
Julianna: Right. But you get this kind of sensitive. What's his name? Like Z or I think his name is Z.
Julia: I gotta look it up. It's just like a
Julianna: Z. Um, but he's just like this kinda like super sensitive guy who likes to bake, but he's also on the basketball team and he also can sing really well.
Julia: Isn't he in love with sharp pay?
Julia: I feel like he's always trying to give sharp, pay
Julianna: the things. Yeah. He's yeah. At the end of the movie he comes in, he is like, I brownies for you at the first credit scene. That's right. Yeah. He's Chas after SHPE and it is, it's really cute. Like he's such a great character to have and just to have him play by a person of color is just so nice.
Julianna: Um, and it makes, honestly, I just wanna be friends with whoever that actor is.
Julia: Yeah. He was one of my favorites because he was just so delightful and just like, hi, here I am. I think it's Chris Warren. Okay. I think I'd have to double check cuz you know, all of his pictures, he looks much older on
IMDP.
Julianna: Yeah.
Julianna: It's been a hot minute since this movie came out,
Julia: but I think it's him I'll for sure. For sure. Confirm, um, yeah. And update, but yeah, I loved, I just, I loved him.
Julianna: I love it's nice. What made sharp pay? Oh my God. She's awful. Like I, Ashley Tinsdale it's funny too, because we kind of, we see Ashley Tinsdale like at the same time that she's filming these movies, she's doing the sweet life of Zach and Cody.
Julianna: That's
Julia: right. I was trying to remember if they overlapped and I freaking, yeah, they did left her on the sweet.
Julianna: Yeah. I hated like, as a character, I hated her in this movie, but like, oh, in the second movie, I feel like she hits her peak in the second movie and just becomes like, they play her up as such a caricature yeah.
Julianna: Of the character they created in the first movie. Like to a point where it's like, like, I mean, you get the, I want more song. And that literally is like a parody on the first it's a parody in itself. Yeah. Because she, uh, everything is pink. She's literally just. Creating a parody for herself. And it's great.
Julia: The, um, what really stuck out to me last night when I was watching it, that I was like, cuz I I'll die on this hill. I've said it multiple times on this show Uhhuh, the early odds fashion was just cruel. And those of us who were chill and young adults then would like to have a redo because it's not fair.
Julia: And so watching high school musical, it was like, this is a reminder of the crap fashion that we had to wear. Like Zach Efron, his like flared out boot wide jeans. But then also like, I don't know what the shirt was. And then Vanessa Hetchins had like a little tiny purse that still went over the shoulder, but it was like, oh my God.
Julia: In her armpit, I was like, why did we think that that was a good tool? Oh, she
Julianna: definitely got that at limited too. That is definitely a limited two purse. There's no doubt in my mind.
Julia: Or like when Sharpe had her like little half sweater that buttoned over her dress because she was wearing a strapless dress.
Julia: So she had like,
Julianna: I was like, she has like a jelly roll. Yes. I'm like, oh, wow. That's a flashback. If I've ever seen one in my life trauma,
Julia: I was like, this is just a reminder that we had terrible fashion in 2006. And like, Zach's hair was super fashionable then. Right. But now when you look back and look at pictures from the era, you're just like, yeah, that was prob that's probably 2004 to 2008.
Julia: oh my
Julianna: God. I love this. I, oh my God. I'm looking at some of the pictures. This is great. Oh, wow. Just like the bright colors. I mean, Beto Hodgens wearing like Cordy mm-hmm Cordy, bright blue jeans, or like a choice that someone made
Julia: the Lacey tank top where the lace was sticking out underneath, like the second layer tank top.
Julia: That was awful, but we thought it was so cute.
Julianna: We thought all the, all the layers I had so many, I remember when I was wearing tank tops over shirts, I had like a Lacey tank top and I wear like over a white t-shirt. Yeah. And it was like a pattern tank top. And then it had like little strap and we were like, whoa, right here.
Julianna: And I was like, wow. I'm like, just like the cutest bitch there ever did be. And was not, definitely was not
Julia: lone behold. We fast surprise all these years later. We're like, when was I wearing? This is awful.
Julianna: Oh, I love, I love it too. How they're all, because this is a high school thing. And I'm looking at some of the pictures now.
Julianna: I'm just realizing Sharpe's the only one who wears heels. Yeah. I feel which is very actually uncharacteristic of TV shows. Cause I feel like most of the time when you see female characters who are supposed to be, who are like main characters in a movie mm-hmm , you don't see the majority of them wearing flats unless
Julia: they're taller than their male COER
Julianna: Yeah. But they're like, they're literally all wearing flats, except for like, like ballet flats, specifically two thousands ballet flats. Thank you very much. Um,
Julia: I remember being like, I need a good ballet flat. We have to go
Julianna: shopping. Oh my God. I went to pay less and I bought so many ballet flats. What pay less.
Julianna: Cause they're sales. It's such great. Yeah. I could get, I mean, I, sometimes I get them for like $8 and I'd be like, wow, this then the American Eagle came out with that line. They did with pay less. And I was like, I here for it. Yes yeah. Yeah. This is traumatizing, but also wonderful.
Julia: But also at the same time, fond memories, fond
Julianna: middle school.
Julia: what? A time to be alive. Yeah, for me, I was, um, a little bit older than that, but still because I was 20 when it came out, they're still trying to like, I still think. They tap into nostalgia in a way. Oh yeah. Because like musical theater or whatever. And one of the things, one of the other things too, I was thinking this morning when I was walking the dog, I thought I actually love how Disney was like, Hey, we're gonna take this super jock basketball player.
Julia: Who's like the cutest boy in school. And like the dream guy, and we're gonna make him want more and like, show that it's okay. You don't have to be just a quote jock. Yeah. And I love, and I, I don't, I mean, whatever people could say that that doesn't matter. But I feel like if you're a guy who doesn't and like in my community, there's still really big on that whole, like you're dude, you can't have emotions
Julianna: or yeah.
Julianna: The whole like macho man
Julia: complex kind of thing. So if I was, you know, if you're watching this and you see Troy Bolton, who's the basketball star of everything. Think I enjoy singing and I'm gonna audition. It might be like, That little thing, we need to know that you're not weird. Yeah. It's okay to like singing
Julia: Yeah. And it be like a rockstar musician type. Like you can be a football player and still enjoy being in a musical.
Julianna: Yeah. I really like that because I feel like this is for me. And from what I remember from the Disney chosen channels and stuff, like all the stuff, this is kind of like their first, uh, tow dip and foray into sexual orientation, like, and like gender identity kind of mm-hmm because I feel like up until this point, it's pretty much been like, like you have like the weak guys, like, I don't even remember like Godo from.
Julianna: Lizzie McGuire. He's like the epitome of like the dorky weak guy. And all he does is dorky, dorky, dorky, dorky mm-hmm . And then you have the cool skidder kid who who's like, yeah, man. And then you have the rocker kid and then the really macho guy. And they had like those three or four, like stereotypes. And then, then they were all very like straight males.
Julianna: Mm-hmm very like straight male. And then we finally get this kind of a feminine jock in there. And then we get, which is very nice. But then at the same time they have Ryan there. Yes. Who is still clearly gay, but then they haven't fall in love with Kelsey. I'm like, I'm like my dude, like, come on. I mean, the, the storyline here was really between Corbin, blues, character and Ryan, like that was the gay storyline we needed.
Julianna: There's a whole song about it in the second movie. Yeah.
Julia: Like, but they were too scared to go there. I think
Julianna: mm-hmm yeah, they took it. I feel like they took it as far as they could. Yeah. In 20
Julia: in what year? This is the 2000. Did the second one come out in 2008?
Julianna: Maybe? Yeah. In 2000, I feel like that's, as far as they probably could have taken it without getting too much kickback 2007.
Julia: Yeah. But you're right, because we're still in a position in our, country's still in a position where, you know, states are fighting over gay marriage. Mm-hmm and it's still not an, you know, um, a nationwide thing and yeah, that's the representation of just any sort of LGBTQ theme is very much not Disney's comfort zone.
Julia: Yeah. So, you know, they're still, they're trying to figure out with, with their audience how far they can take it.
Julianna: Yeah. It is nice though. Cause I feel like they're the, for like. Tweens slash kids shows. I feel like they kind of started the movement in that direction specifically. I think with this movie, because we start, I mean, even when we get to.
Julianna: Like say camp rock. Like we get some more like a feminine guys, which is just like a nice thing to see. Um, and more like more like less stereotypically macho guys, which is just like a nice, a nice breath of fresh air, you know? Yeah, for sure.
Julia: Because that's the other thing that I think is really hard when it comes to representation.
Julia: And I know like a lot of what we talk about on this show is representation when it comes to like being female or being in the marginalized community. But one of the things that I think is really that we're seeing a lot in the world right now, is that like a lot of men, specifically, white men don't know how to exist if they're not the ones on top, we're not showing that.
Julia: And you know, I think that's part of, that's a huge part of the problem. Yeah. And why it's so easy for certain types of narratives to get, can be sucked into. Um, but if we can be like, Hey, here's Troy Bolton, who is, who is not, you know, he's. His dad's the basketball coach. Like he clearly lives in a nice house.
Julia: He clearly goes to a nice school. He's oh, they have a nice house. Yeah. like, he clearly is like on the path to being, you know, this great person, but also he's a white dude. Like it's okay to be like, you don't have to be in control. Like you can be allowed to do something else and you don't have to be angry about it.
Julianna: Yeah. And I mean, even though like the romantic relationship between Troy and Gabriela, isn't like perfect. Gabriela is the one who walks away, which is actually nice to see that. And she, she does that a bunch of times she does come back to him. I will say it's not an abusive relationship. So I'm okay with her coming back.
Julianna: Like he's. Usually it's just like a misunderstanding that happens. Yeah. Yeah, because of char pay, but it's not like
Julia: Prins everything. Oh my gosh. She's terrible. that actually like leads us into our next point, because at this point, everyone, like right now in our life, everyone knows Zach Efron, everyone knows Vanessa Hutchins.
Julia: Some people might struggle to think about Ashley Tisdale. Like I don't think anybody within that millennial generation would struggle. Um, but like my mom doesn't know who Ashley Tisdale is, but she totally knows who Z Efron is. Yeah. Um, so , so those two are in the center of the high school musical saga and they have this teenage 11 and happiness.
Julia: And so like four Disney as we're talking about. What do you think Troy and Gabriela's relationship throughout the franchise sort of taught you about dating in romance?
Julianna: Oh, I don't know. I, I, I think it just, I think it let me know kind of what we talked about earlier that, because obvi again, I was in middle school when this movie came.
Julianna: That you can kind of date across party lines, I guess. , you can date across clicks, you can date across other things. And it, it kind of, for me, just echoed something that I've just always felt in my soul. Like, since I was a kid, like, why can't we just all be friends? I like your point
Julia: though, about cross party lines, like, or just anything.
Julia: Right. Cause like coming from I'm a product of a biracial relationship and it's rare to see not so much nowadays, but it's, but I mean, 2006, I don't think we had a ton of representation of like, oh God, no, just interracial dating. No, no,
Julianna: no, no, no. Yeah. I feel like, I remember seeing, I'm trying to think of any major show that we had that had.
Julianna: Our interracial couple, that was like the center of attention. The first
Julia: one that ever I ever well for kids. No yeah, the Jefferson's was not for children. Um, cuz the Jefferson's had an interracial couple, but I think the husband was white and the wife was black. Um mm-hmm but still that was in the seventies.
Julia: So like there's a whole population of people who have no idea that that was on TV or even a thing. And then fast
Julianna: forward. I don't know. Yeah. I can't think of honestly, like I'm trying to like put my, I'd have to
Julia: do some research cuz there's a lot of TV shows that I've watched growing
Julianna: up and I don't remember them all.
Julianna: Well, cuz even like one that is like specifically black, like that's so Raven mm-hmm um, oh yeah. That's so Raven, she ends up dating people who are also black for the most part. I, yeah, I pretty and her best friend. Who's a guy. It's black, her best friend. Who's a girl. Who's white Chelsea mm-hmm mm-hmm um,
Julia: but I also think that, so even still falls into that nineties ideology, which is we have the predominant cast and then the one outlier friend does.
Julia: So we're we can say that we are have diversity
Julianna: yep. Oh yeah. Chelsea's like, it's like all, like, not that this is a bad thing, but it's like all black people and like one white person as opposed to like li McGuire. I don't remember any black people in li McGuire, honest and or Hannah
Julia: Montana. Was there anybody on Hannah Montana?
Julia: I can't remember.
Julianna: I don't think so. Yeah. Was it's a wavy place? I don't think there was anyone. I don't think so either. Um, yeah. It's well, they were loved that whole loved wizard. Actually, that whole family is Hispanic. What am I talking about? That's a whole Hispanic family. Like the dad's isn't I thought the dad was white.
Julianna: It's this? No, I I'm pretty sure he's Hispanic. I think they're all Hispanic. Cuz the all, all the, I know the mom is cause the mom for sure is, but the dad he's the mom from camp rock.
Julia: Yeah, the dad is, um, one of the DESE. Brothers because their dad's super famous. Um,
Julianna: oh, okay. So he's not, I know all the kids, I know all the kids that would actually be,
Julia: that might actually be the first interracial couple on Disney channel,
Julianna: like as Disney show TV show that came after high school.
Julianna: He was school though.
Julia: Yeah, it did. It did. Yeah. Yeah. Because my son was like old enough to watch it.
Julianna: Yeah. I was in like high school, I think at that point. Oh yeah. 2007
Julia: to 2012 is when wizards of Waverly place occurred.
Julianna: Yeah. Yeah. I was in high school. So that tracks mm-hmm yeah, yeah. Cuz that was, that
Julia: was oh, Selena Gomez.
Julia: That's where she got our start. Her start. Yeah. All these read
Julianna: darlings. It's so funny to see
Julia: David with Dee, he knew he was a Deese.
Julianna: Yeah. So he's he is not Hispanic. He's white. I feel like Delise
Julia: is Italian. Because his dad, his dad is Dom Delo. And so there's a joke. That's very Italian . Yeah. And then there's this joke in, um, sleepless in Seattle where Meg Ryan and Paul bill P Pullman are in, um, New York and he order he's ordering champagne cuz there's Dom Perion and he' like, I have a do Dee and then Meg w Ryan's like he's joking.
Julia: She means Don Marion. that's true. So that joke it's made a lot. Um, but I'm pretty sure he's Italian. Yeah. That either way though, Italians aren't don't necessarily, depending on who you talk to Andal Italians aren't aren't part of, you know yeah. Like can't don't claim being Hispanic or Latino. Yeah,
Julianna: yeah, yeah, no, I, I think you're right.
Julianna: I think that was probably one of the first interracial couples in as like one of the main couples of a Disney channel show at that point. Cause I can't think of any other ones that. That had that really? Yeah. Me either at all.
Julia: And that was such a great era of Disney channel, original content. You had wizards of wavery place.
Julia: You had the sweet life you had. Oh yeah. Um, what's the one with the baby girl.
Julianna: Oh, good luck, Charlie. Thank you.
Julia: Yep. Mm-hmm you had good luck, Charlie. You had, uh, Hannah Montana. Oh, I Jessie, shake it up. Zaya Z
Julianna: it's. So it's so crazy to see all of these actors where they started out. Mm-hmm and I mean, especially like, we're gonna talk, like we talked about too, like Zach Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, like they, this is the first major thing that they were ever a part of mm-hmm and like, if they had not been a part of this, their careers definitely would not be where they are right now.
Julianna: Yeah. Who knows.
Julia: Exactly. And even when you think about it too, like. When you think about all the people who played sort of a lead role in one of these Mo specifically high school musical, you know, mm-hmm um, or even just in that era period, Selena Gomez is still standing. Myy. Cyrus is still standing de
Julianna: Lovato.
Julianna: Demi Lovato
Julia: is still standing, you know, obviously Nick Efron, Nick Efron, Zach Efron, and Vanessa Hutchins. But I was trying to think about the other day, I was like, what is Corman blue even done? Like, nothing came immediately to mind. Like his career would be something I'd have to Google. Yeah. Um, and same with Ashley tisk.
Julia: Like, I don't know what she's done recently. Um, and same with the kid that plays her brother mm-hmm like, there's so many characters on this show or the composer, the girl that's the composer in high school. Have no clue what she's up
Julianna: to. it's funny too. It's funny too, though. Cuz if you see any of these people in any other movie or context, it's kind of like the phenomenon that has happened with the Harry Potter series too.
Julianna: Oh, you see it. Like if you see Daniel Ratcliffe anywhere, you're like, oh my God, it's Harry Potter. Yeah. You're not like, oh my God, it's Daniel Ratcliffe. You're like, oh my God, it's Harry Potter. You're like, and same with Zach Efron or like Vanessa Hutchins. Yeah. You're like, oh my that's Gabriel. It's Troy or even any, any of the other minor characters too.
Julianna: Cause I know I've seen some of the other minor characters in movies that came out like in the early two thousands. Yeah. On the late two thousands. And I'd be like, oh my God, it's Ryan from high school musical. And. You just see these people and you identify them as their character instead of identifying them as the person, because yeah.
Julianna: The role they played was just so iconic. Yeah. And which, which is funny too, cuz I think one of the things that has made it a little bit more iconic going, and this is kind of a little mini side tangent, um, more iconic going into the current place where we are right now is the fact that high school musical school is so memorable.
Julianna: There are so many me moments that can be taken from it. And I think that's one of the things that's kind of helped. It kind of go forward to where it is right now, where it's like a series on Disney channel, which I admittedly have not watched because it feels wrong in my soul, um, specifically, but it it's lived on to another generation.
Julianna: Yeah. Because it's such a big thing. And I, I just feel like that's one of the things too, like there are so many iconic people, iconic roles, iconic moments, memorable moments, all these things just kind of came together and we're this. Weird unexpected dancing, singing package. Yeah,
Julia: for sure. And with what I, what I thought was interesting was Zach Efron's career.
Julia: Cuz I love the movie 17 again. I, oh, he's so good in hairspray too. He is
Julianna: so good in hairspray.
Julia: I love it in hairspray, but what I feel like, like a hairspray was great. It was a re you know, it's a remake, it's an updated version, blah, blah, blah. But what I loved about 17 again, I feel like it was like a really clear like transition of like, I will give you one more movie where I play basketball.
Julia: Mm-hmm mm-hmm and then that's it. You have got to take me seriously. Yeah. That's what it felt like to me. Yeah. And he did such a great job. It was, I watch it on it's on TV. I watch it. I own the DVD. I watch, like I. I feel it's, it's the end of the year, like school year movie. For
Julianna: me, I feel like that's kind of the transition that a lot or most of these Disney actors went through where they had to just like make a stand and be like, I am not a Disney person anymore.
Julianna: Yeah. Obviously the roughest transition was Miley Cyrus. Like let's put that up. That was a, that was a why it, and I mean, I think just because her personality is one of that is one of unstability, which is fine. You can exist in the world as an unstable person. Mm-hmm , that's all good and well, but it just having, I feel bad for her having that play out on a big screen pretty much.
Julianna: Yeah. Yeah. It's just, that's really
Julia: rough. Yeah, for sure. Same with Demi Lovato too. It was just really hard to like, and just how cruel the internet can be towards women versus men when things like that happen. Even, um, one of the Sprouse twins came out and was like, the experiences we had is Disney. People and the experiences the girls had were very different and like, he kind of marked some very specific things and it's just like, that's gross.
Julia: Like the fact that you, like, it was even clear to you and you were a young child and it was clear to you that that's like, we should be ashamed as a society that, that exists. Oh
Julianna: yeah. I, I have no questions as to why these specifically like these ladies. Yeah. And female identifying people because Deva has such come out.
Julianna: I think she's bisexual now and think her she's, they I'm sorry. They them, I'm sorry. I keep saying she, I shouldn't say that they, them, um, they had that transition as well too, but people who at that time identified as female. I can validly see why they had so much trauma. It's awful. Yeah. Yeah. And that was the ever too of like skinny mini, like stick figure people.
Julianna: Cause I mean, even as like a regular middle schooler, I really felt that really hard. And that was the, the times where like right before being curvy kind of came into mm-hmm it. Era, I would
Julia: say, yeah, the era of low rise
Julianna: jeans. Oh my God. Like, yeah, we low was not, it was not. No, no, no, no, no. You had to be a
Julia: size zero and the, and straight as a board for that to work, it was not, I even, I got a, I do stitch fix sometimes and I got a pair of jeans that I loved.
Julia: And then I saw that they were midrise and I was like, that's why . Yeah, it did a little dip in the back because ma booty's too big for him. I was like, so I typed back. I was like, I need Highrise. Always. . Please mm-hmm oh my God.
Julianna: I just, I wanna be able to bend
Julia: down. Thank
Julianna: you. oh, I could never, because I, I am like, I, I do have the like boards shape, but I have like really thick thighs mm-hmm so like, I can't fit into like the skinny jeans, skinny jeans and the, but is always like a little bit too big.
Julianna: So it's and like the waist is just a really bizarre it like, honestly, like no waste ever fits the same. And you probably know this too. It's always such a bizarre fit. And I just like, the lower jeans were not a style for my body. Like I was, my, my body was like, no, thank you. Like, we need like a bell bottom or like,
Julia: Good luck finding those in 2006,
Julianna: I got some thick thighs that need to go into these babies.
Julianna: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
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Julia: The cost is only $15 a month. When you join, we'll even give you a shout out in one of our episodes. Don't wait, join us. Become a pop culture club member. So I wanna go back to the Vox article. Um, I referenced a little bit ago the integration of the music into the show, rather than it being background noise or layered over as a vehicle to enhance the emotion, the characters sing and dance as if they were, is if it were everyday life.
Julia: Kenneth Ortega, Kenny Ortega is the choreographer. And in 2016, when reflecting on the 10 year mark of high school, musical's release with entertainment weekly, he said, quote, I am really proud of it. We had a goal which was to entertain a very specific audience that we believed was that out there and would be ripe and ready.
Julia: For something like this and we found them and they sure as shit found them
Julianna: oh yeah, they
Julia: did. . So I wanna talk about the music and the performances of the movie, the elements that make this a musical, all that fun stuff. So how for you, how does high school musical rank in regards to the mu to musicals in general?
Julianna: I'd say that it it's a pretty like average musical. I, I did musical theater in high school and I'm pretty into watching musical theater. Um, and just theater in general, I'd say. It's it's pretty much on par with like your basic musical. Like if you were gonna go watch, um, oh gosh. What's I can see it like Fiddler on the roof probably has like the kind of it's it's not, there's nothing too like crazy about the music.
Julianna: Like there's no, it's not like a Steven Sonim number. Um, it's not like into the woods or like Sweeney Todd or anything like that, where the music is like very complex. Um, and there's no like huge big numbers. Um, like some of the, some of the musicals and there's no like huge spectacle, like the lion king on Broadway.
Julianna: That's like a spectacle. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever seen that. We
Julia: did. It came in. I forget what year it was touring and it came to San Francisco. So we hopped on a train and went and saw it. And it was, that was so good.
Julianna: Incredible. And before everyone dies listeners out there before you die, go see the lion king Broadway production, because it is well worth your time.
Julianna: Yeah. I've, I've seen a good amount of Broadway shows and that one is definitely like visuals wise is my favorite that I've ever seen.
Julia: It was, yeah, it was incredible. We didn't stay for the whole show. My son was little. He was probably, oh,
Julianna: you have to go back. It's so good.
Julia: I'm like, how old was he? And he is usually pretty, he was pretty good about sitting through stuff at the time, but I think because the combination of having to take a car and then a train, and then we had to walk, cuz there's a, a train, uh, station right outside of the orphan, which is where, where all the Broadway shows stopped to tour.
Julia: And so it was like, I think that combination of everything, um, so lot mentally
Julianna: on him. Mm-hmm yeah, I get that. Yeah.
Julia: I, I remember he might have been seven. He might've been seven. Yeah, maybe six, maybe
Julianna: six. Yeah. I, but I would say that the music here it's very. I would put it like in the average range. Yeah. Of like music.
Julianna: It definitely qualifies as, as musical music. There's that like, drama that comes with it. That's like, oh, I go chewing this to me. Kind of like factor happening. Yeah. Um, but, and the talk singing is there, which is a big factor in musical singing. And it, like we talked about, you talked about it is the storyline mm-hmm, like it's playing out the storyline throughout the song and moving the plot along.
Julianna: So I, I would say the music is like average. Yeah. There's nothing too exciting. But I think, I think there's not really any other musical at this point in time when this musical comes out, even like within the Broadway sphere of things, there's not a musical out there that's targeted at teens yet. Right.
Julianna: It just didn't exist. There were musicals for like elderly people and then of refined people in their like forties. And then. And then there were kind of like goofy ones that people in their twenties. And then there's like kids ones, key appropriate ones, like the lion king or like the little mermaid or Mary Poppins or things like that, which I don't even think Mary Poppins, the little mermaid were on Broadway yet, but that's, that's neither here nor there, but yeah, I, there wasn't anything cuz right now you have like dear Evan Hansen.
Julianna: Mm-hmm um, there are some other highschool prom. Um, gosh, what's the other one that I'm thinking like you're in town, you could kind of say that you're in, town's more of like a teen cuz it's like dirt. It's like dirt, like dirty, actual, like dirty like poop, pee humor kind of. And it definitely is like appropriate for like middle school and high school guys.
Julianna: They love it. Um, but things like that didn't exist yet. They just weren't things that were out there in the zeitgeist. But high school musical was really the first dip into. Musicals specifically targeting teen experiences. Mm-hmm
Julia: yeah. I mean the only other one I can think of, obviously, cuz Zach Efron was in it, um, in the screen version was hairspray, but even then hairspray still doesn't feel like
Julianna: it's still outdated.
Julianna: It's like it it's kind of like doesn't. It doesn't. Yeah. And it's not relatable to kids in 2006.
Julia: Yeah. And it's like, there's a lot of social commentary in it where I think that if I weren't, if I didn't live the life that I lived, which was being, having to be very aware of the racial divide, um, I don't know if I would've understood some of the songs and what was happening, like the concept of like, um, you know, on Saturday mornings they only had that's when they had the black audience, that was the only time they could have the black, um, people come in and do the music and the dancing and the performances.
Julia: And then the whitewashing of that for the rest of the week. Like those things, I think would've, if I hadn't grown up with that knowledge, it existed because of, uh, who my family was. Um, and I say that to friends at home because, because you know, I'm black , um, and my dad's obsessed with music. Um, but I think, and that was like a, a major conversation piece, a lot in our, in our family.
Julia: I don't know, like I have friends who. Are just now realizing things like that existed and you know, I'm 38. So it's like, how are you just now finding this out? Like I've known my whole life and then I have to remind myself, oh, I know that's,
Julianna: that's still not a good thing to be in your four. Isn't just learning about that.
Julianna: Like, yeah, I agree. That's the one person on this call. Yeah. I would like to say that that's not acceptable. Yeah, I
Julia: don't. I agree. And, but I think it's a lot of, I think it's just because too, this it's so easy. Especially 30 years ago to put blinders on and be like, I don't know what's happening in the world because we only, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah mm-hmm we only had Peter Jennings telling us what was happening on the news or whoever was the other.
Julia: Peter Jennings just happened to be my favorite in the nineties. Um, But it's, you know, but now it's like, you can't ignore it because the internet won't let you
oh,
Julianna: gosh, no, no, no. Well, I, so I, I think now just talking about this too, and like talking through like hairspray and even like grease, or you could kind of throw, uh, oh gosh, what was the other musical?
Julianna: I was just thinking of, um, like Fizzler on the roof or things like that. They, they all come with an underlying political agenda. Yes. Essentially. And this, I feel like high school musical is the first musical that is one written about teens. And two is like, just for fun. Like it literally. Yeah. It's like, there's no political agenda happening here.
Julianna: It literally is just like these two people fell in love. Yeah. There, there is a basketball game with east and west high, the most creative LA names for high schools that ever existed. And there. Just there it's a teen romance. It is strictly a teen romance. There is nothing else happening. It's not like there's no even Greece.
Julianna: Like these people are playing high schoolers, but they're clearly like the storyline they're playing is not a high school storyline. It's clearly a removed high school storyline that, and everyone, as someone who goes to school in the early, like as a middle schooler, when this was coming out, I can personally say I did not personally identify with Rizzo.
Julianna: Um, I did not personally identify with Sandy. That was not the experience I was going through. I, I apologize. Um, it's
Julia: well, considering Greece. Originally AR went on Broadway in the late fifties. It makes me think like, what the shit, like, what were you guys doing in the fifties? You, what,
Julianna: what, in these 20 year olds into your high
Julia: schools.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah. But the other to your point though, about it being strictly teen and nothing really layered underneath it, like even just the concept like, um, Zach and Vanessa being from different cultural backgrounds and that's not a thing. It, they can just exist. Yeah. It just, they can be hopelessly romantic about each other and confused teenagers about it.
Julia: And no one's telling Vanessa you can't date this white boy.
Julianna: And I, I really appreciate that too, cuz I mean, as someone who definitely was not as educated on racial inequalities and things in that sphere as a teenager, I genuinely did not even like second guess or question any of the racial interactions, anything that happened.
Julianna: And like, I, I did have some background cause I had seen like hairspray and saw all these other things and you know, I had some kind of context, but I just didn't like, it was fine. Like there was no issues happening and it wasn't, there's no like underlying agenda that's happening. Mm-hmm and they just, it just happens.
Julianna: It's just a thing that happens and it's fine. And there's no issues. Yeah. And it's just, I think the biggest thing is like, we're just here to have fun. Yeah. There's no, we're not here to send home a message. Really. We're just here to say these kids are in high school and it's okay to be yourself. Yeah. And have fun.
Julianna: Yeah. And that's really mostly it.
Julia: Yeah, which I love, I need, we need more of that. I was telling my friend, Nikki, the other day. Well, I tell we have the, she and I have this conversation actually pretty regularly. I can't do black trauma anymore. Like I, oh my God. You guys want to see, I want a romcom. Like I want a romcom starring.
Julia: I don't know. John David Washington, Laki Stanfield. I don't care. Like one of these beautiful men walking around the planet who was black to come in to have a meet cute with, I don't know somebody else like give me any romcom with Zaya. I don't care. Oh, that'd be fine. I don't care. Just gimme a romcom where the cast is black and we're not dealing with racism.
Julia: That's all I want.
Julianna: That's all I want. that reminds me. I have to go watch. One of my favorite comedians is Nicole Byer. Who's oh my God. I love her. So I will follow her to the ends of the, I listen to all her podcasts. I listen to, like, I was just watching a YouTube video if she is part of it, I want. Well, listen or watch it, watch it.
Julianna: I remember rom come with her. She, well, so she's actually has a show that I have to watch. It's called grand crew and I haven't seen it yet. Uhhuh it's the full black cast. Yeah. But I, I have to go watch it cuz I've heard. It's really good too. And I'm like, oh, I just haven't watched it yet, but oh, oh my God.
Julianna: If she, I I'm waiting because she on her podcast has been talking about this cuz she has one podcast, um, where they talk about things that she's never seen and then they watch them and then they talk about it. But what they're doing right now is the Marvel cinematic universe. Oh nice. And she's like manifested over and over and over again that she wants to be the goofy fat version of storm.
Julianna: Yeah. From the Xmen. And I'm like, I want this movie, like who. Who can I contact with who's in charge? Can I contacted Marvel? Who can make this a thing? Does hall Berry
Julia: have an E poll? Cause I think they're friends
Julianna: like, come on. Yeah. Bring, bring, bring Nicole bar. This movie will make you so much money. Yeah.
Julianna: And
Julia: she's so funny. We were just watching her on Z the other day. I don't know if you've seen that show on
Julianna: Showtime. I didn't know. She was, yeah. I didn't realize she had done a spot
Julia: on there. Yeah. And we were, I was
Julianna: dying. Oh, she's so I, I saw her in person, like right before the pandemic hit. Cause she came to a comedy club in Boston.
Julianna: Oh my God. And she's like, I actually, I went with my mom to that too, cuz I actually. The story is me and my ex-boyfriend had bought tickets to go see it. And then he broke up with me and I was like, I have the tickets. And so I ended up just taking my mom with me, but my mom was like, this is so scaredness.
Julianna: I was like, this is great. I love her so much. Oh my God. That's the best.
Julia: I love that. We just had a Nicole Byer moment. Um,
Julianna: if the planet could give me more Nicole by, or like give it, if she had like a live stream, I would just watch it all day. Yeah. Yeah. That's all
Julia: I want. I love that. Is there a favorite song or performance from the high school musical franchise?
Julia: Do you have one? Do you
Julianna: have a favorite? That's a good question. Because the, the song
Julia: so many, the first one kind of like splashed out of the water, like people, it was like the biggest
Julianna: mm-hmm . Yeah, that was kind of, I feel like, because that was the last song and it also had a dance that you could do with it, like a very specified dance that you could do with it kind of.
Julianna: Is this the advent of the, to dance? Is this where this started? Oh, like, like the dance that you can dance along. I don't remember there being movies before this where I was like, oh yeah, I do a dance to this song.
Julia: You know, what's interesting about that because the 1999 was the year of the musical number randomly in movies.
Julia: Mm-hmm , she's all that, uh, 10 things. I, oh, no, they didn't do a choreograph, 10 things. I, okay. She's all that had a choreograph number. Never been kissed, had one, but it was like, oh, okay. Maybe, but it wasn't choreographed shoot. Now I'm getting confused. But the point is, is the only one I can think of where they have like a choreographed dance number.
Julia: That my friends. And I did try to like, figure out how to learn was in she's all that, because usher was the DJ and he's like calling out all the things. Oh yeah. But I can't think of anything else. Cuz every movie took every movie in 1999 had prom yeah.
Julianna: They would were dancing there. They would dance that and then they'd be like, sometimes it'd be like a ballroom dance where they think like dirty dancing.
Julianna: Like that's not dancing that you can emulate.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah. No, totally. Would've gotten in trouble at school for that, which is hilarious because the other things that people were doing and whatever, anyway
Julianna: yeah. I say the dirty dancing, would've been pretty tame, but that's that's just me, but you know, yeah.
Julianna: Hey, what. But yeah, no, I I'm trying to think of what, like my favorite song. I mean, like we talked about before we start recording, the second movie is clearly it is full of bangers. It is just the best of the three by far. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think probably, I don't know. I like work this out from the second movie a lot.
Julianna: Mm-hmm I like, I really enjoy B to the top for some reason in the first one. It's just so I re I, I tried to learn that dance so hard. Uh, when I, we had the movie, for some reason that dance to me was better. I think, because in my head I was qualified to be, Sharp's like sibling as Ryan. Like, I didn't wanna be Sharpe, but I wanted to be Ryan.
Julianna: And I was like, I could be Ryan like, look at me here. I am. I, I could be the second in command. Yeah. Of this, this sassy army. But. I don't one of the, but one of the things that really stands out to me as like, kind of a like ridiculous moment, that is a song that really sticks with me is, um, oh gosh, what's the, from it's from the second movie, I'm not gonna stop
Julia: that.
Julia: Who I am. I'll
Julianna: give it all that God, that is I'll bet on it. That's what bet on it for, from Zach, his facial expressions and his, well, like, just like over the top campy. Yeah. Determination in that is just chef kiss. I could, I couldn't make it any anymore goofy if I tried and I love it. Yeah. Give me every second of it.
Julianna: Yeah.
Julia: I really wanna be embarrassed and not ever admit that I have, I do love Zach Efron and I think he's adorable and I will watch him. Oh, he's hot. He's really hot. Yeah. But I just, can't not, you know, I don't know what it's. Yeah. And I saw him on Ellen one time and when he was promoting Baywatch, Because of course, obviously I'm gonna watch Baywatch topless.
Julia: Yeah. Um, and he, they did like a life size, like wax model of him. And he like, it's like ripped this life size mold of him. And he's like, first of all, before we start, whatever you wanna start, Ellen, I need everyone to know that this is not realistic. Like, do not think that this is realistic pointing to the mold or whatever.
Julia: Cuz it had like 14 abs and like biceps for days. And he's like this isn't real. Please do not think that you can achieve this because this is not achievable. And I was like, I really appreciate you being mindful of people internalizing what this little wax thing is looking like. Yeah. Cause that's, you know, that's a lot of pressure to be like super fit and hot.
Julianna: Yeah. I, I feel like on the whole. The people that Disney hired for this movie and like some of the other movies and shows around this, like, they're just like genuinely good people and like even going forward, they've their careers have brought them to a spot where I'm like, yeah, like things have been hard for you, but I really admire what you've done.
Julianna: Like even me just thinking like, to like, Demy Lovato, like she's been through a lot, but she's such a great advocate for like mental health and everything. Mm-hmm , it's just such a, like it's a, she could have taken that a much different direction.
Julia: Yeah, absolutely. Jody sweeten. Um, just kidding. Um, poor Jody sweeten.
Julia: She has a full career on hallmark now, and we're very proud of you, Stephanie Tanner. Um, but she had a really dark period where you're just like, yeah, there was just not. It's hard Uhhuh and we're so like, society is so awful, like who was supporting her and what kind of family did she have around her and what kind of team did she have around her?
Julia: And I don't know. Anyway. Yeah.
Julianna: It's lonely to be at the top because then you have like, you have support system people, but they are, your work supports some people and the like, they're there to do work. They're not there to be your therapist
Julia: or your friend, or like situations like Lindsay Lowen, whose parents were just like, were her parents only in, in it for her money and her fame to try and get famous and money themselves or, yeah.
Julia: You know, and it's just, it's so sad. It's really sad, but we're not gonna end on a sad note cuz nobody wants that. No, when I was 22 high school musical first release. So it wasn't on my radar as I was, well, let's just call it domestically distracted. But when I did discover it a few years later, I think in 2007, because the third one that's when the second one came.
Julia: Yeah. So it must have been 2007. Cause I saw the second one and I was like, what is this magic that I love
Julianna: yeah. Well, and that one actually came out just as a sidebar too. That one actually, cuz the first one, like we talked about, came out on Disney channel. That one also came out on Disney channel specifically.
Julianna: There was a whole premier night. I remember me and my friends, we set up, we went to my friend's house and we had pizza and we had soda and we sat in front of her. Like what was it like a 14 by 14 inch TV that had the whole back section to it. And yeah, we watched this movie. Yeah. As of like a party of little teenagers and I love that it was, it was not a.
Julianna: Big screen release. But for us, this was like a huge moment.
Julia: You know what though Disney was really good at creating the energy around hosting something like that. Like we did that with the fitness and fur big movies. Every time they played Halloween town, we did something like we had some sort of something, there was some, um, when, um, gravity falls ended, we like did a whole, you know what I mean?
Julia: Like, so they were really good, especially in that period of time, 2006 to 12, really good at creating that energy for you to wanna come together with your people. So it's like you have a movie theater experience, but you don't, you get to do it from the comfort of your ho own home. And with people you actually like.
Julia: They were preparing us for 2020 clearly. honestly.
Julianna: Well, that was when they were also like in, in the ad breaks, they would bring in the actors who were gonna be in that coming Mo they'd start advertising like two or three months out. And they'd do like little vignettes with them and like little moments with them on set or they'd show you how to make, uh, specific drink or like a snack or something, or a craft that went along with it.
Julianna: And then you could go on the Disney channel.com website. Yeah. You could find all the, like the coloring pages and the printouts that went with everything and the decorations that you could print out and put everywhere with like the name tags and everything. And yeah. They made it, uh, a full event. Yeah.
Julianna: And just like a whole lead up. And they, I remember too, they would have like a countdown that would be going on with they, they show like the commercial four that's
Julia: right. The little ticker in the corner where it was
Julianna: like five days until the premier, the Disney year would be down in the bottom. Like kind of like semitransparent, it would be like high school musical, two, five days.
Julianna: Three minutes. Yeah. 57 seconds. And it was just me counting down the entire time. It's like, they were very good at building anticipation and making us like, want
Julia: this. Yeah. Gosh, what a time to have worked at Disney and to come up with all the ways to get people addicted to your shit.
Julianna: I mean, honestly, I don't know.
Julianna: I mean, you can probably speak to this more than I can cuz I'm not actively watching Disney channel anymore, but like, I don't think that that level of hype is there anymore. Like it would be really hard to match it. I honestly
Julia: could not tell you. So like my best friend's daughter is 10 years younger than my son mm-hmm and so some of the stuff she tells me that's happening on Disney channel now, I'm just like, that sounds like trash.
Julia: Like, I don't wanna be a part of that because I, because when he wanted to watch things like wizards of Waverly plays, Hannah Montana, um, lab rats, um, you know, any of these shows like any of those shows, it was like, I, I didn't. Turn my nose up and walk out. It wasn't like, this is garbage show like TV. I can't do this.
Julia: Like we're making our children dumb. And now some of the stuff that, you know, my friend talks about that she's that the is on Disney channel, the hype isn't there and the quality of TV does just doesn't feel the same. I really do think that that 2006 to like 2012 was it's like maybe even 2014 really feels like it's prime,
Julianna: prime, Disney channel.
Julianna: Mm-hmm I will say. And I would go on
Julia: Jesse. I loved watching Jesse. Like that one, Jesse, a fun one. Yeah.
Julianna: I was gonna say, I will go on record saying that Hannah Montana like actually is like a quality show. Like you watched it really is. You watched that and you're like, yeah, this is actually even as an adult, like, this is enjoyable.
Julianna: Plus they had like, like Dolly Parton used to come on mm-hmm and like some of the other bigger names during that time came on. I remember it was really big. Like when the Jonas brothers came on once in a while or all the, just like bigger, I remember, oh gosh, what's his name? Um, Nick cannon, not Nick cannon.
Julianna: Um, From Bax street, boys.
Julia: Uh, Nicholas Shane, Nick Carter. No, that's not Nick Carter. Nick Carter. Carter. I'm cliche is 90 degrees.
Julianna: yeah, but yeah, you get those people who are, who are big. They, they came onto these shows too, and it, it was wild. Yeah. And like Miley's dad was, who was real, her real dad came on Billy Ray Cyrus, like, yeah.
Julianna: And he was like a big name, especially for people who were adults during that timeframe too. Mm-hmm and it's just mm-hmm. why.
Julia: Yeah, they did a great, it was such a great era. I think, of the Disney channel. Um, I don't know if they're propelling people in the same way they are would anyway. That's, you know, we'll find out, we'll find out in 10 years, it'll
Julianna: be great.
Julianna: Maybe I could watch some Disney. I had Disney plus it's not the same thing because there's no commercial breaks with Disney ears, but you know, Maybe I'll go. I I'm probably not gonna go watch the high school musical show though. That that feels SAC religious to me, honestly. Yeah. I
Julia: don't know if I'm into it either.
Julia: Yeah. Juliana, thank you so much for being on the show and joining me today. Can you remind our friends at home where they can find you if they wanna keep up
Julianna: with you online? Yes. Uh, well, thank you for having me. This was really fun. And uh, I hope that this least strikes a chord of NA strikes a chord of nostalgia with at least one person out there.
Julianna: Yeah. Cause I think, I think people are gonna have more feelings and thoughts than they thought they did. Yeah. Once they start listening to this episode. So I'm intrigued to see if you get any feedback on this and what people say. For sure, for sure. Um, but yeah, if you liked the sounds of my Doce tones, um, you can find me on one of my other two podcasts.
Julianna: I am the host of podcast, which we have coined as your Harry Potter happy place. It is two Harry Potter, super fans who are Hufflepuffs, just talking everything Harry Potter. And our main goal is just to make sure you feel like you have a place that's friendly and you have friends that you can go back to.
Julianna: So, pretty much if you like Harry Potter and you wanna make some friends we're here for you over on podcast. Um, and then my other podcast is into the fold, which is a books club style, reading of the gr traverse, which if you have seen the Netflix show shadow and bone, that is the book series that that is based off of.
Julianna: And we're reading it chapter by chapter. And so if you've read it before or you haven't read it before, you can read it chapter by chapter with us and having like book club discussions, essentially. Um, and we love to get our listeners involved too. So it's cool. Yeah. If you're looking to pick up a new.
Julianna: Fantasy ye book, definitely go check out into the fold. We are having a really fun time and we're only like halfway through book too. Okay. And there are like how many books are there? There's like seven or eight books, so, oh my gosh. We're not that far into it. And the first three that we're reading are definitely like more why, so they're easy reads once we get to like the last two, those are definitely more like getting closer to the adult fiction section.
Julianna: Yeah. But the first three are very, very easy reads. So you're looking for a nice fun time. We're over there at, into the fold pod. Um, and you can always bother me over on Instagram at UN jelly, J E L L Y Anna a N a underscore runs. On Instagram. So, um, I love to send a voicemail. I love to send a voice message.
Julianna: So yeah, I, the text and everything, so hit me up.
Julia: So is voice that voice memo features pretty much my favorite thing in life now, God. Yeah. I, people
Julianna: have been like, oh my God, I'll use it on the podcast, Instagram too. And they're like, wow, I get a voice message from you. I'm like, yeah, because it's easier because it is
Julia: so much easier.
Julia: Like
Julianna: I, I'm not using this because like you're an exclusively fabulous person to talk to. I'm using it because I need to respond to you. And this is the easiest way to do it.
Julia: I'm cooking dinner. You're getting my voice and the crackling sounds of dinner. Mm-hmm oh, exactly.
Julianna: Yeah. All the background noise. My friends sometimes will be like, we couldn't hear you, but the birds behind you sound really nice.
Julianna: So I was like, Great love
Julia: to hear it. Love it. Pop culture makes me jealous is written, edited and produced by me, Julie Washington. And I am fueled by the incredible support system of women who allow me to run ideas, cry and melt down. When I feel overwhelmed, I also wanna do a big shout out to our Patreon community.
Julia: Thank you for your continued support. It brings me great joy to bring you quality content and our monthly get togethers. Thanks again to Juliana for joining us and thanks for tuning in y'all. We'll see. Uh, that's not how I end the show. Oh, it could be though. It could be. Thanks for tuning in. I know I'm like, sorry guys.
Julia: This is a new version of ASMR. It's fine. I am.
Julianna: Isn't that so relaxing, right?
Julia: Thanks for tuning in y'all until next time.
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