On Feb. 20, Brandon Sosa posted a clip that revealed a montage of locations from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., which was used as the setting of Pacific Coast Academy, the fictional school featured in the series. Starring Jamie Lynn Spears, the comedy drama is set at a previously all-boys school that has just started accepting female students.
@brandonasosa going to school where Zoey 101 was filmed ##college ##fyp ##zoey101 ##foryou ##california
♬ zoey 101 - cali.crockett
Pepperdine University was used as the filming location for PCA in the first two seasons, before production moved to Santa Clarita in California in season 3. All the sets were perfectly re-created by Genius Production Designer Harry Matheu. Famous alumni of Pepperdine University include Tia Mowry-Hardrict (Sister, Sister, Instant Mom) and her twin sister, Tamera Mowry. (Sister, Sister).
Sosa’s montage shows scenic views of the university’s campus, along with a look at a recreation room. The TikTok user’s clip has since received over 415,000 likes and more than 2,000 comments.
“I swear everyone on tik tok lives in magical or famous places while I’m in PA watching the 20th amish kid ride by my window on a scooter,” one person joked.
“Pepperdine is literally the nicest school ever,” another person wrote.
Zoey 101 aired for four seasons, with its last episode airing on May 2, 2008. It was nominated for an Emmy in 2005 and won multiple Kids’ Choice Awards and Young Artist Awards during its run.
From J-14:
OMG All The Behind-the-Scenes Secrets You Need To Know About ‘Zoey 101’
This may come as a shock, but Zoey 101‘s final episode actually aired on Nickelodeon exactly 12 years ago. Yup! Time has really flown by, and we can’t believe that one of our absolute favorite series to ever hit the network ended over a decade ago.
Although it’s been a really long time since we got to watch our favorite characters navigate life at PCA, we remember it like it was yesterday. In fact, we’d still argue that Zoey and Chase are our OTP. And yeah, we were kind of obsessed with Logan and Quinn too.
But as much as we remember shipping some of the shows most adorable couples, we’ll never forget how sad it was when the series officially came to an end in May 2008. NGL, it was pretty traumatizing. Still, the fact that the show ended doesn’t take away from how good is truly was, and actually, there are several behind-the-scenes secrets you never even knew about the Nickelodeon series!
That’s right, you guys! The show’s been off the air for more than 10 years, and there are still several things you’ve yet to discover. Lucky for you, we’ve made a list of ’em all right here. You can thank us later!
Scroll through the [facts] for all the best behind-the-scenes secrets from Zoey 101.
Stacey was originally going to be a one-time character.
You may know Stacey as “cotton swab girl,” simply due to her passion for Q-Tips and her prominent lisp. What you may not know about the character, however, is that she was originally only intended to be in one single episode of the show. OMG.
Abby Wilde, the actress behind the iconic character, told MTV, “I did my episode, and I guess I did OK, because they told me they were bringing me back… Then I did 31 episodes.” Wow.
Matthew Underwood was offered the role of Troy Bolton in ‘High School Musical.’
Can you imagine how different High School Musical would’ve been without Zac Efron playing the role of Troy Bolton? Turns out, it could’ve been way different because the role was actually offered to Matthew Underwood originally. Say whaaat?! Ultimately, Matthew’s Zoey 101 contract prevented him from pursuing the opportunity, but that doesn’t mean we’re not shook AF by the fact that the role was offered to him first.
Austin Butler appeared in the series as two separate characters.
Diehard fans of the show probably remember that Austin Butler appeared in the final season of Zoey 101 for a few episodes. In those episodes, he played Zoey’s boyfriend James, but interestingly enough, that wasn’t the only part he played in the series. Huh?
In an earlier episode called “Quarantine,” Austin actually portrayed a different character — a boy named Danny — who was dating — wait for it — STACEY. How funny is that?!
Apple products were changed to pear products.
When the series first began, there’s a chance you may have noticed some Apple products in the background. As time went on, though, the show changed Apple to Pear, as you can see in the photo above. How interesting!
Chase’s hair was actually a wig near the end of the series.
Personally, we lived for Chase’s super curly and voluminous ‘do, but since his character was gone for much of the final season, the actor, Sean Flynn, actually chopped off all his locks! You may have never noticed, but when he returned to the show for a bit, his bushy hair was actually a wig. Who knew?!
Dana was supposed to end up dating Logan, but disappeared after Season 1.
Remember Dana from Season 1? TBH, your memories of her probably aren’t too great — especially considering her bad attitude. Still, she was a pretty funny character to have around, even though she didn’t stick around for long.
So where did she go? Turns out, the character of Dana was originally intended to wind up dating Logan, but producers ultimately decided the actress who played her was too old and cut her before Season 2. Savage.
The character of Quinn was created specifically for Erin Sanders.
We think we can all agree that Quinn was one of the quirkiest characters on TV at the time, and we loved her for it! But did you know that the character wasn’t originally written into the series? Well, it’s true!
When Erin Sanders went to audition for the show, she actually tried out for the role of Nicole. As we all know, she didn’t get the part. However, producers loved her so much that they added a character just for her. How amazing is that?!
Despite rumors, Jamie Lynn Spears was not pregnant during production of the final season.
Fans of the series were shook by the news that the series was officially coming to an end. But even more than that, they couldn’t believe that the star of the show, Jamie Lynn Spears, was pregnant at just 16 years old.
As you could imagine, rumors ran rampant that Jamie was pregnant during production of the final season, and that’s why it was forced to come to an end, but actually, that’s not true at all. Filming had already ended for the Season 4, so that rumor was just that — a rumor.
In January 2019, Jamie explained that the show ended simply because her contract had finished, and she wanted to go back to school.
“14 years later… still a jam. #itdidNOTendbecauseofpregnancy #contractwasfinished,” she wrote on Instagam, alongside a video of the iconic theme song.
When one fan commented, “Oh wow you didn’t quit because you were pregnant, you waited this long to tell us,” Jamie Lynn replied, “Nope… I went home to finish high school and was going to pursue movies.”
“Would the contract have been extended if not for pregnancy?” another fan asked. “No,” the former Nickelodeon star wrote.
Jamie Lynn Spears and Alexa Nikolas didn’t get along.
Considering how close their characters seemed on the show, it’s kind of surprising to learn that Jamie and Alexa Nikolas, who played the role of Nicole, didn’t get along off screen. Apparently, their fights got so bad that Jamie’s older sis, Britney Spears, had to get involved. Unfortunately, their fighting is also allegedly the reason that Alexa’s time on the show came to an end. Season 2 was her last, and after that, her character was sent to an all-girls school. Crazy!
In the final season, characters were seen on iCarly.com.
Dan Schneider is responsible for so many of our favorite Nickelodeon series. Therefore, it totally makes sense why he would promote his shows within other series whenever the opportunity arose. That said, you may have noticed that in Season 4, iCarly.com is pretty much visible on every computer screen. Hmm… we guess they were iCarly fans too!
The season finale wasn’t actually the season finale.
So here’s a doozy for you. The episode titled “Chasing Zoey” was intended to be the series finale, and in Canada, it was! And although the episode gave us a ton of closure and did a good job explaining where the characters were headed next, it actually wasn’t the last episode to air in the United States.
After “Chasing Zoey,” Nickelodeon aired “PCA Confidential.” The episode was supposed to be part of Season 3, but alas, the network held off and didn’t air it until the very end.
Filming took place at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Last, but certainly not least, you may be shocked to find out that Pacific Coast Academy is real — well, kind of. Even though the school isn’t technically legit, the show was filmed on the Pepperdine University campus in Malibu, CA, so if you want to visit, you know where to go!
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The cast will be reuniting in an upcoming episode of Nickelodeon's All That, which will see Jamie Lynn Spears with fellow Zoey 101 castmates Paul Butcher, Sean Flynn, Kristin Herrera, Chris Massey, Erin Sanders and Matthew Underwood in an all-new version of the sketch “Thelma Stump.”
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More Nick: Nickelodeon's 'All That' Reunites Jamie Lynn Spears with the Cast of 'Zoey 101' in All-New Version of “Thelma Stump”!
Originally published: Tuesday, March 03, 2020.
Original source: ITK; Additional source: Wikipedia.
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