Wizards of Waverly Place
Wizards of Waverly Place is a live-action Disney original show. It’s about a family of Wizards who own a sandwich shop. However, the true essence of the series is the relationships between the three siblings. The series stars Selena Gomez, David Henrie and Jake T. Austin as the children. Their parents are played by David DeLuise and Maria Canals-Barrera.
The problem for these three Wizards is a tragic one. In every Wizard family only one sibling is allowed to keep the magic while the rest become mortal. Therefore, the three siblings have are on borrowed time with their magic and battle it out to be the victor.
Originally the show was The Amazing Hannigans then The Amazing O’Malleys, then Wizards of Waverly Place. However, it didn’t stay that way and was changed to Disney’s Wizards.
Finally, the title was settled on and they reverted it to Wizards of Waverly Place. Furthermore, Wizards of Waverly Place is the longest-running live-action show on the Disney Channel.
With it being the longest-running show, it’ll take a while to go through it. I recommend watching all of it but here are episodes with some great guest stars.
Season 1, Episode Two First Kiss features time travel and first kisses. The Wizard teenagers learn a spell that helps them rewind time. Alex uses it to help Justin with his first kiss as he continuously misses the signs and ruins it.
Meanwhile, her parents have the opportunity to sell a sandwich made by Max to the New York Mets. The guest star of the episode is Lucy Hale, currently seen in The CW’s Katy Keene.
Season 1, Episode 13 & 14 Wizard’s School are a two-parter. It features Alex and Justin being sent to a Wizard School during the Summer. As usual, Justin excels but Alex gets in trouble. However, Alex suspects there’s something wrong with the School and decides to investigate.
Meanwhile, Max and Jerry go camping on their terrace after Theresa questions their manhood. This two-part episode sees Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer guest star on the Disney series.
Season 2, Episode 15 Art Teacher sees Alex realizing her new Art Teacher is actually a teenager under a magic spell. Because of her, the School decides to cancel the Art class and it’s up to Alex to fix it. Max gets out of gym class by make-up a new disease.
Unfortunately for him, his ‘illness’ catches the likes of Dwayne Johnson who feels sympathy for him and wants to meet him. Misty May-Treanor, former professional volleyball player, also guest stars in the episode.
Season 2, Episode 30 Retest brings in Jerry’s siblings as they need to retake the Wizard test. The Wizard test is something they take in their teenage years to see which sibling keeps their powers.
His sister keeps a grudge on him and refuses to redo the test. The kids see themselves as their father, uncle, and aunt and worry about their future. This episode guest stars Jeff Garlin as Uncle Kelbo.
Season 3, Episode 4 Three Monsters sees Justin thinking there are three unregistered monsters where he lives. Forgetting about a special someone who lives close to him, he soon needs to fix his problem.
Max also needs to separate himself from his conscience who he sure wants to steal him from his mother. The guest star in this episode is connected to the previous. Wendi McLendon-Covey plays Dr. Ice who is Jeff Garlin’s on-screen wife in The Goldbergs.
Season 3, Episode 12 Dude Looks Like Shakira is the return of Jeff Garlin. However, the episode is about Uncle Kelbo revealing the truth behind a popular singer. He invented Shakira many years ago and has been using her as a means to gain fame and fortune.
Because of this, the real Shakira plays a version of herself on the show. The episode sees the teenagers trying to help him get rid of the permanent spell that makes him stay looking like Shakira.
Season 4, Episode 18 Justin’s Back In guest star is Tim Conway. He stars as a magic Historian who checks the exams for Justin’s class at WizTech. The episode is about Justin and his class finding out they’ve failed their final evaluation.
Alex, though, feels like something is wrong and decides to investigate. Jerry and Theresa come to realize they have no mementos of Max’s accomplishments as a child. Cue the hilarity of them trying to recreate them with the help of Harper.
Season 4, Episode 26 Harperella is the penultimate episode of Wizards of Waverly Place. Harper is reading a storybook to children but soon finds out it’s a magical story book. She’s transported into the world of fairytales and the only way for her to escape is to play through the story.
However, nothing is as straight forward as it seems. The special guest star of this episode is magician David Copperfield. He plays himself.
Wizards of Waverly Place also has several spin-off movies. The first one is only titled The Movie and centers on the family going on holiday. It’s a tale of being content with what you have. This stems from Alex accidentally wishing her parents away and having to fix her mistake before time catches up with her.
The second movie Alex Vs Alex sees the family attend a family reunion in Italy. To prove she’s not as irresponsible as she used to be, she conjures a spell to expel her negative side. Unfortunately, all she does is create two versions of herself: a good side and a bad side.
Now, good Alex needs to stop bad Alex before she puts her evil plan in motion. That is the final chapter in the Wizards of Waverly Place story.
