“Wizards of Waverly Place” ran four seasons and 106 episodes on Disney Channel, from October 12, 2007 to January 6, 2012. Todd J. Greenwald created it, and it made Selena Gomez a star.
Alex Russo Lives Above the Sandwich Shop
The premise is a family sitcom with a rule attached. Alex Russo (Gomez), her brother Justin (David Henrie) and their youngest brother Max (Jake T. Austin) are wizards in training, living in an apartment on Waverly Place in Greenwich Village. Their father Jerry (David DeLuise) is a former wizard who gives them daily lessons in a secret lair. Their mother Theresa (Maria Canals-Barrera) is a mortal. The parents run a sandwich shop built to look like a subway station on the ground floor.
The rule is the engine. Once training ends, the three siblings compete to keep the family’s powers, and the losers lose magic for good. Jerry won his own family’s competition as a teenager, then gave up his powers to marry Theresa; they passed to his younger brother Kelbo. That backstory does more work than any spell in the show. It says magic is a thing you can put down, and that putting it down costs something.
Gomez Plays Alex as a Jerk, on Purpose
Alex is the center of the series, and Gomez plays her as a wisecracking underachiever — dark, crass, a jerk. She uses magic irresponsibly and often. Gomez asked for the character to stay edgy to match her own style, and drew on Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green on “Friends” for mannerisms. She also sings the theme song, “Everything Is Not What It Seems.”
The show works because it does not punish her for it. Episodes are about keeping powers secret and handling the ordinary problems of being young, and the fantasy sits on top of that rather than replacing it.
Justin, Max and Harper Finkle
Justin is the nerd of the family, sarcastic and rule-bound; Greenwald set him against Alex’s “tough female character.” Henrie wrote two episodes, “Alex’s Logo” and “Meet the Werewolves.” Austin has said Max was unintelligent at first and got slightly smarter toward the end. In season four a spell turned Max into a younger girl, played by Bailee Madison, while Austin took a hiatus.
Jennifer Stone plays Harper Finkle, Alex’s best friend and the show’s comic relief. Harper does not know Alex is a wizard at first, which strains the friendship until Alex tells her in season two. The wider mortal world stays in the dark. Harper moves in with the Russos in season three.
Max Enters the Competition for Real
Season three raises the stakes: Max starts competing in earnest. The fourth season opens with Alex and Justin tricked into exposing wizards to government officials and reporters. The whole thing turns out to be a test inside their training, and both are demoted in the family competition. The series ended on January 6, 2012, to allow Gomez to move on to other work.
Why the Show Still Holds Up
Disney built this show to follow its 2000s comedy line — “Lizzie McGuire,” “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” “Hannah Montana” — and It’s a Laugh Productions made it. The formula was proven. What separates “Wizards of Waverly Place” is the competition. Most kids’ sitcoms reset every week; this one carries a clock. Every sibling is friendly and every sibling is a rival, and the audience knows only one of them keeps the powers.
The 2009 film “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie” won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program in 2010, the clearest sign the show outgrew its slot. The weakness is the middle seasons, where the magic-of-the-week plots blur together and the competition sits idle. The strength is Gomez, who never plays Alex as likable and never needs to.
This is a Disney Channel sitcom that trusted its young lead with a genuinely selfish character, and it holds up because of that.
The Numbers
- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 106
- First aired: October 12, 2007
- Last aired: January 6, 2012
- Network: Disney Channel
- Created by: Todd J. Greenwald
- TMDB audience score: 8.6/10 from 1,206 votes
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