This Forgotten Spinoff Would Have Broken a 16-Year Disney Trend

The Disney Channel was massively popular from the early 2000s to around the mid-2010s. During that time, the channel aired several original films and series that defined pop culture with its audience. With films like Camp Rock, The Cheetah Girls, Lemonade Mouth, and The Descendants, as well as series like Hannah Montana, Austin and Ally, Shake it Up, and Violetta, it’s safe to say that the Disney Channel dominated the market when it came to teen musicals for kids.

By far the most successful musical franchise the channel launched was the High School Musical trilogy. The massive success of the trilogy eventually spawned a spin-off series in 2019 for Disney+, titled High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. However, many fans may not know that Disney had plans for a High School Musical spinoff several years earlier, titled Madison High. While many Disney Channel original series spawned original films, it was very rare for a successful Disney Channel film series to be spun off into a series. Madison High, had it been greenlit, would have broken that trend.

The Canceled High School Musical Spinoff

Madison High Was Not Given a Full-Season Greenlight

The Disney Channel did a fantastic job at incorporating music into its original programming, which surely created a goldmine. With films and series revolving around music, the Disney Channel was able to produce soundtracks, which sold in droves, and launch the leading actors into successful music careers that often outlasted the shows they began their start on. This can be seen with some of Disney’s biggest hits; Hannah Montana, which garnered millions of views with each episode premiere, leading to the theatrical film, Hannah Montana: The Movie, and multiple live concert tours for its star, Miley Cyrus. A few other Disney Channel properties saw similar success, with musicals like Camp Rock and Violetta both being successful enough to launch concert tours with their respective casts. High School Musical was easily the most successful, however, with its original soundtrack also launching a concert tour with its cast.

After High School Musical ended with its third and final film, (which saw a theatrical release), Disney had to come up with something new to keep the success of the trilogy going.

“We’ve done three movies. You have to understand, it’s been three years of our life that we’ve had the most amazing time. We’ve done so much together, and been through so much, that picking one memory is almost impossible. One really great thing for me was ‘We’re All in This Together.’ Because it was kind of where our magic really came into the picture, and we became this family, you know? And it was just a moment that was really special and really magical. And I remember, like, me and Monique were actually crying…And it was a really great moment for me.” – Vanessa Hudgens reflecting on her favorite
High School Musical
moment in 2008 (via
Radio Free Entertainment
)

Originally, a potential fourth High School Musical film was in development, with the third film setting up younger characters like Jimmie and Tiara as potential new leads. However, this fourth film never ended up happening. With the premiere and massive success of the teen-dramedy musical Glee in 2009, which also released several soundtracks and launched a live concert tour, Disney saw that the audience for a musical series set in high school was still very present, and began planning a High School Musical spinoff TV series, which was to be called Madison High.

Madison High Followed Ms. Darbus at a New School

The Series Would Follow a New Cast of Characters

Madison High was announced in early 2011, with production on the pilot beginning in March of that year. The series was announced as a spinoff to High School Musical, following drama teacher Ms. Darbus, (played by Alyson Reed in the High School Musical trilogy) who leaves East High to teach at another school that was hoping to launch a revolutionary theater program. The series was to be written by Lester Lewis, who was an executive producer of Jonas L.A., and the pilot was directed by Paul Hoen, who directed Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. Given these credentials, it is likely Disney was hoping for Madison High to be the next big thing, with the series being a single-camera musical comedy rather than the traditional sitcom style of other Disney Channel shows.

While very few details are known outside the general plot, the series was described as following the same musical format of High School Musical, with the show featuring four original songs, written by James Dean Hicks, Jamie Houston, Matthew Gerrard, and Robbie Nevil. The show was also said to feature songs by Disney Channel stars like Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, as well as from Cheryl Cole and The Black Eyed Peas, all of which would be made available on a soundtrack distributed by Disney’s music label, Hollywood Records. Interestingly, the series would have been the first time Disney Channel launched a series based on one of their original films, despite several of their beloved film properties having the potential for a long-running format. It’s evident that this would’ve been a very ambitious project for Disney, but given its success rate during this era, it almost certainly would’ve been a hit with its target audience. For reasons that remain unknown, Madison High was not given a full season renewal after its pilot, which has still not been publicly released.

The Madison High Pilot Featured Several Disney Channel Actors

Disney Channel Fans Might Recognize Some of the Madison High Cast

Like many Disney Channel films and series, Madison High was cast with a talented group of young actors, many of whom had appeared in other Disney Channel properties. The show was to be led by Luke Benward, who starred in Disney’s Minutemen, (2008) Girl vs. Monster. (2012) Benward played Devin Daniels, a Troy Bolton-like character, who was an athletic motocross racer who had a secret talent for music. His main co-star was Wednesday Malone, played by Genevieve Hannelius, who appeared in Disney properties like Sonny with a Chance, (2009) and Den Brother. (2010) Wednesday was described as an ambitious overachiever who dreamed of becoming an actor. Katherine McNamara, who appeared alongside Benward in Girl vs. Monster, was cast as the mean girl character, Cherry O’Keefe, a self-entitled socialite who ran a gossip blog that she would use to torment her classmates.

Other major cast members included Leah Lewis (The Half of It) as Peyton Hall, an indie-rock band member, Nolan Sotillo (Red Band Society) as Colby Baker, a comic-book lover, and Mark Indelicato (Ugly Betty) as Harvey Flynn, the drama club president. Indelicato had made his Disney Channel debut in a High School Musical-themed episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody alongside Ashley Tisdale, which made him a great candidate for the role. While Madison High never made it to air, most of the cast went on to star in other roles, with Benward going on to have a recurring role in Good Luck Charlie, and the 2014 film, Cloud 9, which featured a song on the soundtrack sung by Benward and Dove Cameron. Hannelius was given a lead role in the Disney show, Dog With A Blog, which ran for three seasons, while McNamara went on to star as Clary Fray in the Shadowhunters series.

High School Musical Finally Got a Spinoff in 2019

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Premiered on Disney+ in 2019

It’s unfortunate that Madison High never made it to air, with its connection to High School Musical, its cast full of experienced Disney Channel actors, and promising original songs, it surely would’ve been a moderate hit at the very least. After the cancelation of Madison High, High School Musical was shelved by Disney in favor of new properties (though none ever reached the popularity or success of High School Musical or Hannah Montana). However, when Disney launched their streaming service, Disney Plus, it had been just over ten years since the final High School Musical film, which meant that Disney could cash in on the nostalgia factor.

Disney+ premiered High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which followed a slightly similar plot to Madison High in that it featured a new drama teacher coming in to reinvent the school’s drama program. However, High School Musical: the Musical: the Series followed a more meta plot, taking place at the high school where the High School Musical movies were filmed, with the drama department putting on a stage production of the first High School Musical. High School Musical: the Musical: the Series was not the massive hit Disney might have expected in terms of popularity, but it certainly had good viewership and a dedicated fanbase. The four-season series featured covers of songs from High School Musical as well as some original music, which launched the massive music career of Olivia Rodrigo, who played Nini Salazar-Roberts.

Ms. Darbus Returned in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

The Drama Teacher Got Some Development With the In-Universe Movie

As High School Musical: The Musical: The Series took place in a universe where the High School Musical films existed, it was impossible to bring back Ms. Darbus in the way Madison High intended, instead featuring Miss Jenn, played by Kate Reinders as the drama teacher. However, the fourth season of the Disney Plus series managed to bring back Alyson Reed, and give Ms. Darbus some of the development Madison High would have given. In the series’ fourth season, the High School Musical franchise begins production on a fourth film following the original cast as well as a group of newcomers. While we never see Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, or Ashley Tisdale, Alyson Reed does return to play Ms. Darbus. The season features a great scene in which Alyson (in character as Ms. Darbus) tells her students that she is retiring, and Reed gives a pretty emotional monologue that serves as the perfect closure to the character of Ms. Darbus.

“It was sort of half practical and half emotional. So the practical side was that this streaming era is a very different era of TV, and I felt like the cast and the crew have put four years of their lives into this show. What I didn’t want to have happen is to start producing Season 4, end on a cliffhanger, the show doesn’t come back and it’s just all sort of a bummer. The emotional side was that the vibes on set were so strong in Season 4. It was such a return to the vibes of Season 1, from the acoustic music to the genuine joy and joking around. We got past the COVID season, we had this summer camp palette-cleansing season. And I felt like maybe the way to go out strong is to go out when everyone loves each other. So I took the cast out midway through the season for dinner and said, ‘You’re about to get an email with the final script and we’re going to do the table read tomorrow. It is not just the season finale, it is the series finale.’ We got to kind of own that together.” – Tim Federle on ending
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series
(via
Variety
)

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series was also notable for being the first live-action Disney property that spun off from a Disney Channel original movie, but as it premiered as a Disney+ Original rather than a Disney Channel Original, it didn’t manage to break the trend. If Madison High had been successful, it’s possible that other Disney Channel movies could’ve been given TV spinoffs, such as a Camp Rock TV series, or Lemonade Mouth, which is still looked back on fondly today by adults who had watched when it premiered.