The Disney Channel’s hilarious, Jewish take on IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE premiered on one of the network’s hit shows of the early 2000s. Courtesy of Disney+.Happy Hanukkah! It is my favorite time of the year and now the perfect opportunity to talk about my favorite show on the planet, EVEN STEVENS (2000-2003). Yes…my FAVORITE show. Ever. Yes, it’s no longer running. Yes, it was a Disney kids show. Yes, I’m 32 years old and will occasionally bring Disney+ up on my computer and put on an episode or two while I’m cleaning or cooking dinner. I have ZERO shame in admitting that. When I watch EVEN STEVENS, it’s like an actual time machine. I am lifted off the ground and transported back to the early 2000s when my pre-adolescent, acne-filled face used to sprint home with glee after school to catch the latest episode of this show. This series is nostalgic like none other in my life.
So, what’s so special about EVEN STEVENS? It’s just a really hilarious show. I don’t know any other reason, to be honest! It may be made for kids, but the writing is simply funny for all ages, featuring jokes and slapstick comedy galore that even I still chuckle at. Thanks to its perfect cast, including the pre-famous Shia LaBeouf (this show undoubtedly launched his career) and Saturday Night Fever’s Donna Pescow, EVEN STEVENS continues to make an impact 20 years later. Everyone my age, any time I reference the show, they know it. Even as a kid in school, I would always hear whispers about the show in class. It will forever, at least in my mind, remain a classic in Disney Channel history.
Now, before I get into the Jewish side of EVEN STEVENS, here’s a little synopsis. The Stevens are an affluent family living in Sacramento, CA. Steve Stevens (yes, that’s his name on the show…), played by Tom Virtue, is a lawyer, and his wife, Eileen (Pescow), a state senator. (She’s also Jewish, but we’ll get to that soon.) They have three wildly different kids. The eldest, Donnie (Nick Spano), is in high school and the star athlete. He’s also very dumb. Ren (Christy Carlson Romano), on the other hand, is in 8th grade and the smartest girl in her class. She is a control freak, for sure, going into catatonic shock, for example, in one episode where she receives a C in wood shop. Lastly, there’s the main protagonist of the show, Louis (LaBeouf), a 7th grader and the biggest troublemaker in school. He is quite literally insane, pulling pranks every second of every episode. He’s a good kid at heart, but he’s also lazy and was born to cause mischief.
The central focus of the show is on Louis, Ren, and their endless bickering. It’s the main gag of every episode how much they drive each other crazy, but EVEN STEVENS shows its sweet side in humanizing both of them. There are a ton of moments where the two fight, fight, fight but then make up and realize they still love each other. They’re siblings, after all. Siblings fight all the time. EVEN STEVENS takes that premise to the extreme, making for one truly outrageous kids show.
Why does EVEN STEVENS also stand out to me so much? The Stevens are Jewish! Half-Jewish, at least. I’ve written before about the lack of Jewish representation in so many children’s programs growing up as a millennial. We hear about the Passover and Hanukkah episodes of Rugrats (1991-2006). We know about The Prince of Egypt (1998). Some may even know about Full-Court Miracle (2003), a Disney Channel movie featuring all Jewish characters. Anything else? Not so much. EVEN STEVENS is another underrated, rarely mentioned addition to the small canon of kids film and TV shows of the late 90s/early 2000s featuring Jewish characters.
We learn the Stevens are Jewish a little near the end of season one in an episode titled “Heck of a Hanukkah.” This aired December 1, 2000, a period when positively every other Disney Channel show was debuting their Christmas-themed episodes. EVEN STEVENS took a chance on its audience by focusing on the “other” holiday that too few non-Jewish viewers got to see on national television. “Milestone” may be too strong a word to describe this feat, but this was absolutely a huge deal. The Disney Channel, the most popular kids network on the globe, has an episode about Hanukkah, an episode where latkes are cooked, a menorah is lit, a bubbe character is introduced, and a character even talks about the history of the holiday. Nothing Christmas-related whatsoever. Can you imagine?! Think about that for a moment. It’s truly wild.
Although this is the only “Jewish episode” of the series, it’s simply one of the best. It’s delightful and a charm to see a kids show tackle Judaism in an educational manner. Plus, it’s also just really funny. In “Heck of Hanukkah,” the Stevens prepare for the holiday while Louis sneaks around the house incognito looking for the Hanukkah presents. He finds them in the basement, brings them to his room, and, like the menace he is, opens every one. In a crazy moment, the gifts end up on his roof and fall off, smashing to pieces. Louis is grounded for the holiday, and then the episode becomes a Jewish take on It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).
That evening, Louis is visited in the night by the spirit of his great-great-great-great-grandmother, Bubbe Rose (also Pescow, having the time of her life doing a Yiddish accent).
“What are you doing here?!” Louis yells.
“That’s the way you speak to your Bubbe Rose?” she responds.
“My booby what?”
Bubbe Rose decides to show Louis what life would have been like if he was never born. He flies around the house with her and crashes into the yard. Everything looks the same, but this time, Steve and Eileen had a different son, Curtis (Christopher Marquette), and he is the meanest kid in the world. He’s the smartest kid in school, like Ren was, but a total creep. Ren and Donnie, on the other hand, are still there but totally different. In this alternate reality, Ren is now a bad girl with a biker boyfriend. Donnie is still dim, but he’s not athletic at all.
Louis eventually inserts himself into the family and learns from his mistakes. I wouldn’t say his character arc mirrors the story of Hanukkah at all. I don’t think that Curtis, for example, is supposed to represent the Syrian-Greek army and Louis Judah Maccabee. There is no symbolism because EVEN STEVENS was a show that always did the opposite of what you’d expect. That’s what makes it so memorable. Like I said, this is just a “Jewish It’s a Wonderful Life.” It’s sweet, silly, and impossible to not chortle at.
EVEN STEVENS is now available to stream on Disney+.