Disney Channel is known for being a child-friendly and wholesome brand
but even they get it wrong sometimes.
Here are Disney Channel's biggest scandals.
The Suite Life of Zach and Cody
follows the Martin twins in their incredible suite life.
In one episode from season one, Cody ends up using dyslexia as an excuse
to have more time on one of his exams.
He even asks his dyslexic classmate if
he can 'catch it'.
Adrian R'Mante, who played Esteban,
told Seventeen, that 'it's an episode the
audience almost never got to see because of the content.
They felt like it made fun of kids with dyslexia and it honestly only aired maybe twice.
I have dyslexia.
Can you catch it?
When you're dyslexic, you have problems the way your brain hears and sees things,
like, you know, like, letters and numbers they get mixed up in my head.
Bummer dude. But still, no time limit on your tests.
In season one of Shake It Up, a model jokes about eating disorders,
saying: 'I could just eat you up. Well, if i ate,'
and then laughs, which some found offensive, especially fellow Disney star
Demi Lovato, who sought treatment in 2010 for eating disorders.
The star tweeted in 2011: 'I find it really funny how a company can lose one
of their actresses from the pressures of an eating disorder
and yet still make jokes about that very disease.'
According to HuffPost, someone from the Disney Channel PR Twitter account wrote:
'We hear you and we are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible
and reevaluating them.'
The line has since been edited out of the episode.
You're adorable. I could just eat you guys up. You know, if I ate.
Hey, what's up? It's Hannah Montana. What would you like to give?
I'd like to give you singing lessons, just heard your new single. Ouch.
Well, I just heard yours and I thought it was fantastic.
Really?
Yeah, my brother ate some bad catfish,
so we played it for him to induce vomiting.
Whilst 15-year-old Miley Cyrus
played the wholesome character Hannah Montana on-screen,
she was indeed growing up behind the scenes and appeared on the cover of
Vanity Fair magazine.
Photographed by the one and only Annie Leibovitz,
Cyrus appears to be topless, only dressed
with a white satin sheet showing us her bare back.
Disney Channel weren't pleased with the shoot, as it contradicted the perfect image of
Hannah Montana. Both Cyrus and Leibovitz describe the
photoshoot as artistic but apologised later for the provocative
picture. Disney accused Vanity Fair of
manipulating the child actor, and the magazine has since removed the
photo from its website.
That's So Raven star, Raven-Symoné, faced backlash back in 2015
when she made some discriminatory comments on the talk show, The View.
In a segment of the show that explored discrimination based on
someone's name, the actress said: 'I'm not going to hire
you if your name is Watermelondrea. That's just not going to happen.
I'm not going to hire you.'
Symoné later apologised: 'My comments about
discrimination have spun out of control. I'd like to begin by saying that I was
not attacking a specific race but repeating a name that was said in a
viral video. My lack of empathy was uncalled for.'
Because in case you haven't noticed, people come in all shapes and sizes and
they're all beautiful.
Tell it girl! Speak the truth.
I just went up to her
and it was like a blur.
I turned around and Demi had punched her backup dancer
in the face.
Everyone was freaking out.
She walked right past me without acknowledging me.
I just remember going and sitting down.
Just this angry look on her face.
Texting my mum: 'I'm sorry'.
Demi Lovato comes from a long line of Disney stars who have played virtuous
characters on-screen, so fans were shocked when
she opened up about punching her backup dancer in her YouTube documentary,
Simply Complicated.
Lovato explained that she punched dancer Alex Welsh in the face,
after finding out that Alex had told Demi's parents about her drug use.
Shortly after the incident, Lovato went
to rehab and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Jake Paul is not only known for his rocky relationship with Tana Mongeau,
he is also recognised for being on the Disney Channel's
Bizaardvark, playing Dirk, a young man who cannot live without being involved in dares.
I want to cannonball myself from here to the Pacific Ocean.
Any short-term goals?
Buy a cannon.
It doesn't have to be about dares!
However, Disney later decided to remove Paul's character from the show
without much explanation.
I've gotten so much older in the past two years and
like, matured as a person and, like, my brand is evolving and becoming
more of an adult.
In a YouTube video, the actor thanked
Disney and the cast of the show for all that they've done
but he wants now 'to play more adult roles in acting
and grow in that sense'.
The channel, however, didn't disclose any more
information than: 'We've mutually agreed that Jake Paul
will leave his role on the Disney Channel series
Bizaardvark. We thank Jake for his good work on the TV series
and extend our best wishes to him.
Debbie Ryan hasn't always been a pageant contestant hungry for revenge like we've
seen on the Netflix's Insatiable.
Nothing can change who I am or what I've done.
Don't let the past drag you down.
We're leaving all the drama behind.
She started out acting as a young
nanny to four children in the Disney Channel show, Jessie.
And like Miley Cyrus, the channel disapproved of the actress' behaviour
outside of work, when Ryan was arrested for a DUI in 2016
after crashing into another car.
Did she just steal my car?
she's been through a lot.
The actress apologised on Twitter for her behaviour
writing: 'I wish I'd used better judgement. I recognise that I am a role model and
have always worked hard to set a good example for my millions of fans.
Okay, but what I don't get is why exactly are you friends with me?
What do you mean?
Well, it seems like all I do is get you
into trouble, it's not exactly BFF material.
No, no, no, no, you're missing the point, which makes me think we're making
progress here.
Look, you get us into a lot of messes but
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Pansexual actress Bella Thorne started
her career playing Cece Jones on Disney's Shake It Up
and is known for wearing quite revealing clothes.
However, in an interview with Under The Influence, Thorne admitted that Disney almost fired
her over a picture of her wearing a bikini
at the beach that she took when she was 14 years old.
A bikini that had been chosen by her mother and that she thought was
'sexy', yes, but also 'cute'.
Bella told Tom Ward: 'They said 'You're
lucky that Bella has such a fan base that we can't afford to fire her at this
moment in time. But if she does one more thing we will.'
Bella only stay with Disney until she was 15 years old
and has since cut ties with the channel.
Well, looks like Disney Channel has had
its shares of scandals. Stay in touch for new videos on PinkNews.