This Is the Disney Channel Show That Premiered the Year You Were Born

In a departure from Disney's normal fare, The Secrets of Sulphur Springs took a moody approach to kids programming. Set in a fictional Louisiana town, a teen moves into a dilapidated hotel that was rumored to be haunted by a young girl who disappeared there decades before. spoOoOoOky.

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Ahhh, 2020. Did you spend most of that year cooped up with your family making sourdough bread and watching Tiger King? Same. While the exploits of Joe Exotic weren't appropriate for younger kids, the House of the Mouse came in clutch with Disney Fam Jam, a dance competition series that pitted families against each other to take home a $10,000 prize.

If there's one thing Disney does right, it's a classic coming-of-age series. Sydney To The Max truly embodied this formula with a nostalgic twist: Every episode featured a flashback to 1992, when Sydney's dad, Max, was her age. We're willing to bet he was probably watching...spoiler alert...The Secret of the Lost Creek in his spare time.

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In 1998, Disney released the docuseries Bug Juice, which followed a group of kids at summer camp—and the show spawned a generation of reality TV lovers. (If you could see me right now, I'm raising my hand.) 20 years later, the network decided to recreate the summer camp magic with another reality series following youngsters in the wild, wild West, otherwise known as sleepaway camp.

Oh snap! 14 years after the original series made its Disney debut, the network premiered a retooled take on the show, reuniting longtime besties Raven and Chelsea as they navigated raising their children post-divorce. The show (which is impressively still on the air!) features Raven's signature psychic visions and has a ton of Easter eggs and character cameos from the original. If there's one thing Disney Channel loves we love, it's a reboot!

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Stuck In The Middle starred a pre-Wednesday Jenna Ortega as the engineering prodigy and (you guessed it!) middle child in a family of seven who is constantly being overlooked by her siblings, even as she creates inventions that get them out of sticky situations.

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While this wasn't the show that gave us Zendaya (that would be Shake It Up, which debuted in 2010), it's special because it was the first time she got to be at the helm. In K.C. Undercover, she stars as a math genius who learns that her parents are spies after they recruit her. At the time, Zendaya said she hoped this show would "bring back the cool Disney Channel." Mission accomplished?

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Boy Meets World fans had been clamoring for a reboot for years, and they finally got their wish when Girl Meets World, a series focusing on Cory and Topanga's daughter, Riley, premiered in 2014. While fan favorites like the aforementioned couple starred in the series (and there are plenty of cameos and running gags from the OG show), the show also launched the careers of Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter.

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Dove Cameron put in WORK on this series, starring as both Liv and Maddie, twins who could not be any more different. Liv, a child actress who's been filming a series for the past four years, returns home and grapples with her ever-changing relationship with Maddie, as well as her return to high school life. Sibling rivalry at its finest.

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Just when you thought Disney had done everything, they went ahead and gave a dog...a blog? In the show's pilot, two families come together after their parents fall in love. By the end of the episode, they learn that their dog can not only talk, but pens a blog about the wacky goings-on at home. Okay, sure!

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After Debby Ryan graduated from her semester at sea on The Suite Life on Deck (we'll get there), she got a show of her own and headed to the Big Apple to star as Jessie Prescott, a nanny for a wealthy Upper West Side family. We didn't not watch.

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Okay, for the next decade, get ready for banger after banger. In Good Lucky Charlie, a group of teen siblings are thrown into flux when their mom announces she's pregnant...and what follows is a sweet depiction of family life as every member pitches in to raise Charlie. Every episode ended with footage of a video diary older sister Teddy is filming for her little sister. We're not crying, you are.

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I'm convinced that this show—in which a teen (Demi Lovato) gets the opportunity to move to Los Angeles to star in a variety show called So Random!—was developed for kids who longed to watch Saturday Night Live, but were deemed too young. There were some impressively produced sketches, tbh.

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Just when you thought you had seen the last of these troublesome twins, they were BACK—but this time, aboard a ship. While this retooled series brought back familiar faces, it also looped Debby Ryan into the Disney fold. Be honest, did you dream of spending a semester out at sea after watching this show? I 100% did.

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Imagine being a teen growing up in New York City, balancing shifts at your family's sub shop with wizard lessons in your family's hidden magic lair. The show, starring Disney darling Selena Gomez, delivered hilarious magical mishaps, a surprisingly deep network of fantastical creatures (vampires, werewolves, angels, and goblins, oh my!), and Alex Russo's ~funky junky~ (had to) outfits.

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Disney hit the jackpot with Hannah Montana, a show that (literally) gave us the best of both worlds by focusing on a pop star who becomes an ordinary girl when she removes her blonde wig. Although we loved Hannah's musical prowess, the best parts were truly when Miley was, well, just being Miley.

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2005 marked the dawn of the Disney-Sprouse twin dynasty. While the show revolved around the lives of Zack and Cody Martin, twins living at Boston's posh (but fictional!) Tipton Hotel, it was also full of colorful characters: a hilarious bellhop, the hotel's Paris Hilton-adjacent heiress, the candy shop worker, and Mr. Moseby, the curmudgeonly hotel manager. Who could forget "The Ghost of Suite 613" or Zac Efron's guest star stint that came complete with a shockingly steamy kiss? Not us. Never us.

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There's gotta be a correlation between sci-fi fans and people who loved this show. A time machine malfunction takes Phil and his family from the year 2100 into an early 2000s suburb, giving way to over-the-top antics as the family learns to navigate everyday life. I dare you to watch the series finale and not get a little choked up as Phil—spoiler alert!—heads back to the future after confessing his love for Keely, played by Aly Michalka.

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