It’s been more than 20 years since The Suite Life of Zack & Cody premiered on the Disney Channel, but for Brenda Song, some of those years are a complete blur.
During a recent appearance on her former costar Dylan Sprouse’s Wildmen podcast, the actor, who played hotel heiress London Tipton, opened up about her experience working on the beloved sitcom and its spinoff, The Suite Life on Deck.
“I’ve been curious to ask you about this,” Brenda told Dylan. “I feel like there are parts of The Suite Life that are, like, black holes for me.”
“Like, I don’t remember years of my life,” she continued.
Podcast host Brendan Columbus chimed in to say that Phill Lewis, who played Mr. Moseby on the show, had recently expressed something similar. “Phill said he forgot directing episodes,” Brendan recalled. “They’re just gone. He’ll watch them again, just have no recollection.”
The conversation soon turned from forgotten memories to something the former child stars remember quite well: how much money they didn’t make. “I always say this about my time at Disney is like, I know everybody has their own journey,” Brenda said, adding, “I had a lovely time. I think the only thing that, like, was hard about that time was, I feel like we were underpaid and overworked.”
“But I look back on it, and I was like, oh my goodness, we did actually pay them to work!” Dylan chimed in to say, “It was not enough.”
“And the fact that we shot hundreds of episodes…our kids should, like, be set,” she said.
Dylan took this sentiment even further. “Here’s what I’ll say,” he began. “On any other channel — and this sounds snooty and snotty — but I’m just gonna, I’m just, I’m just gonna say this to say it — if our show existed on any other network television channel at that time, we would have seven generations of children that would not have to worry about what they do.”
“I was already gonna say, we’d have seven homes,” Brenda replied. “Yes, exactly,” said Dylan. “I’m just saying, the amount of income would be completely different.”
For context, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody aired from 2005 to 2008, followed by The Suite Life on Deck from 2008 to 2011.
This isn’t the first time Dylan has raised concerns about how the cast was compensated. During an earlier episode of Wildmen featuring Phill Lewis, Dylan claimed that the only residual check he’d ever gotten for The Suite Life was for a crossover episode with Hannah Montana…for five cents.
“I don’t ever think I’ve said this, like, out on an interview, but the only residual check I’ve ever received for The Suite Life at all was a crossover episode with Hannah Montana for five cents,” he said. “I’m not joking.”
Both Dylan and Brenda acknowledged that what made their Disney Channel years unusual was the network’s enormous global reach. “It was just a very different time in television,” Dylan said. “It was a phenomenon that doesn’t exist anymore,” Brenda agreed.
“Imagine being part of a show that defined an entire generation, and still not making a dime when people rewatch it 20 years later,” wrote one X user, calling it “actually insane.”
Another agreed, writing, “Disney made a fortune off that show, and the people who made it iconic are still talking about not getting their fair share.”
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