Kiss The Ratings Goodbye

In my opinion, one of the best moments in television was the line "I got off the plane," said by Jennifer Aniston in the 2004 series finale of Friends. In a similar fashion, Miley Cyrus and the Disney Channel closed the doors on the channel's most successful series, Hannah Montana. The finale brought no surprises and few tears, but a sweetness that only the perfectly orchestrated cast could bring. 

Strangely akin to Friends, Hannah Montana ended in an airport, with a pending long term trip to Paris. Of course, half of the people watching Hannah Montana have never even heard of Friends, but the comparison is worth noting. The ending lacked the emotion that many other HM episodes brought. It felt like the writers got tired and needed to come up with a quick fix to round out the show. Nonetheless, Hannah Montana Forever, marks the end of an era- for not only Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment, and the rest of the cast, but for the fans, and the network that made having a double identity using some bling and a blonde wig famous. 

The future of Demi Lovato and Sonny With a Chance is uncertain, and Wizards of Waverly Place is in it's last season, which means Disney is running out of comedic singing superstars. Good Luck Charlie and Shake It Up are fairly new shows to the Disney Channel, but the shows and their stars have not caused anywhere near the revolution Cyrus did in the entertainment world. Hannah Montana was unique, and many of its the themes are repeated in newer shows. The kid with a dream is a tired theme (yet one that seems to work) in children's television, but for some reason, adding a blonde wig to it equated with success. I don't doubt that Disney will have countless other hits, but Miley Cyrus, Mitchel Musso, Jason Earles, and Emily Osment have become icons in pop culture and changed the way we view children's television.    .