Most Disney Channel original series focus on the lives of their intended audience. Shows on Playhouse Disney often feature young protagonists learning to interact with the world. The plethora of Disney Channel’s tween and teen shows, the channel’s bread and butter, again usually focus on the lives and problems of its protagonists, whose ages usually match that of the channel’s target audience.
Refreshing, then, is the Disney’s Channel recent hit series “Good Luck Charlie.” Although the series’ main character is arguably Teddy Duncan, a 15-year-old girl, the show really revolves around the entire family.
The premise of the show is that Teddy is making a video diary of advice for her newborn baby sister Charlie (Charlotte) to view once Teddy leaves for college. But entire episodes are not taken up with Teddy’s recordings of her video advice. Instead, the real action comes from the everyday adventures of the Duncan clan.
After giving birth to their youngest daughter Charlie, Mom and Dad Duncan are so busy that they need to employ the help of their two teenage children, and even sometimes 10-year-old and former youngest Gabe, in taking care of the baby.
By dividing the action so well between the various members of the Duncan family, “Good Luck Charlie” creates a show that appeals to a much larger range of viewers, making it a great show for the whole family. And while I can’t actually verify whether or not entire families watch “Good Luck Charlie,” I can say that the show’s wider appeal has paid off.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the first season of “Good Luck Charlie” netted the number one spot amongst two of Disney’s target audiences: kids ages 6-11 and tweens from 9-14. It defeated the competition in its time period by triple digits. That’s impressive for a show that just debuted in April.
So of course the Disney Channel is responding to the massive success of “Good Luck Charlie.” Stitch Kingdom reports that execs have already ordered a second season, but that’s not all.
Despite only having one season, “Good Luck Charlie” gets to join the club of Disney Channel series that now get their own movie to air on the channel. The movie will be holiday-themed, so that makes it easy to guess when it will air, despite the fact that its air date has not yet been announced.
I’m past the demographic for most Disney Channel shows, so it’s safe to say that many of its series don’t really appeal to me anymore (though I can remember how much I loved my generation of Disney Channel original movies). But although “Good Luck Charlie” doesn’t fully resonate with me, I found its sweetness appealing.
I really liked how much the show focused on the family as a whole; Teddy is ostensibly the main character, but at least in the episodes I watched she was rarely the primary focus. I really liked how the show first centers on the individual members of the Duncan family, and then on them as a unit together. “Good Luck Charlie” certainly deserves its success.
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