Shake it Up

Shake It Up is an American teen sitcom that was made by Chris Thompson and aired from November 7, 2010, to November 10, 2013, on Disney Channel.

Plot
Best pals Rocky and CeCe dream of dancing stardom. And they seem on the verge of realizing that goal when they win places as backup dancers on the local TV show "Shake It Up, Chicago." While they get to show off their moves, they find out they need to keep putting their best feet forward to keep up with the rest of the crew on the show.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The acting, while some of it is good, badly cringes at times.
 * 2) Most of the characters are very unlikable and annoying in their ways:
 * 3) Rocky Blue and CeCe Jones are very mean-spirited towards others, especially one incident where CeCe is a jerk to Logan after he fires her for not playing by the rules. To top it all off, she sabotages his date with Rocky. These actions proved to be so unforgivable that Logan can't stand being around CeCe anymore. Rocky and CeCe are even mean-spirited towards each other which makes you question why are they still friends. Coincidentally, Zendaya and Bella Thorne didn't like each other and it shows.
 * 4) Gunther and Tinka (The Hessenheffers) are blatant jerks most of the time, especially to CeCe. They are also just German stereotypes.
 * 5) CeCe's mother is the most unlikable character in the show. Not only does she lie unnecessarily to her daughter, but she gives unreasonable, sometimes unrealistic punishments.
 * 6) Rather cheesy and poor writing.
 * 7) The laugh track is overused, it plays almost after every sentence.
 * 8) While most songs are pretty good, some can be pretty bad, particularly in the episode "Funk It Up" which contains a horrible cover of the mh:greatestmovies:High School Musical song "Getcha Head in the Game."
 * 9) Deuce is the generic butt-monkey character that gets picked on for no apparent reason whatsoever.
 * 10) There are a lot of disgusting or inappropriate jokes:
 * 11) One infamous scene where CeCe flatulates in "Embarrass It Up".
 * 12) Another scene in the same episode where Rocky sneezes and her snot gets all over the interviewer and the cameraman.
 * 13) The scene in the opening with CeCe forcing milk into Rocky's mouth and then Rocky spitting it out with a disgusted look on her face.
 * 14) Incest jokes involving Gunther and Tinka, in a Disney sitcom, for children!
 * 15) Another scene in the opening with Flynn sneezing on Ty's face.
 * 16) The dance show concept doesn't have as much of a purpose in the show as it should have.
 * 17) Its running gags are also stale and repetitive such as Gunther and Tinka constantly introducing themselves.
 * 18) The show can have an absurd amount of filler. The biggest example of this is in the TV movie "Made in Japan" where the movie stops everything to have not one, but two pointless Blue Man Group performances.
 * 19) The theme song (while still catchy) is cut short in season 3.
 * 20) The crossover with mh:besttvshows:Good Luck Charlie, "Charlie Shakes It Up," is really bad. It involves Amy and Teddy going to Chicago and getting mistaken for the dancing duo, the Duncan sisters. Then, when the real Duncan sisters appear at the Shake it Up studio, they get left in the closet, and Amy and Teddy somehow get to perform on Shake It Up.
 * 21) It wastes the talents of Zendaya, Bella Thorne, and some others.
 * 22) A certain controversy involving an eating disorder joke: On December 23, 2011, a rebroadcast of the episode "Party It Up", in which a female character complimented Rocky and CeCe, with the line "I could just eat you guys up...you know, if I ate", aired on the channel that evening. Former Disney Channel star Demi Lovato, who left Sonny with a Chance in the fall of 2010 for counseling because of personal issues, commented on the episode, criticizing the channel through Twitter for normalizing eating disorders when they had struggled through the issue themself and as one of the reasons for leaving the company's fold. Disney Channel's public relations account responded to Lovato by stating that the episode would be pulled from the network's airing cycle and reviewed further. In 2012, the episode started airing again with the joke removed.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The theme song is passable since Selena Gomez (best known as Alex Russo from another Disney Channel show, Wizards of Waverly Place) did a great job singing it.
 * 2) The songs and dance numbers are at least decently choreographed like the theme song, including:
 * 3) "Roll the Dice"
 * 4) "Watch Me"
 * 5) "Breakout"
 * 6) "School's Out"
 * 7) "All Electric"
 * 8) "TTYLXOX"
 * 9) "Something to Dance For"
 * 10) "Up Up and Away"
 * 11) "Turn It On",
 * 12) "Bring the Fire"
 * 13) "Where's the Party"
 * 14) "I Can Do Better"
 * 15) "Fashion Is My Kryptonite".
 * 16) Flynn Jones, Deuce Martinez, and Ty Blue, along with a few other characters like Logan Hunter, are okay and tolerable characters.
 * 17) Season 3 is a slight improvement over the first two seasons.
 * 18) The show isn’t without a few good laughs every once in a while.
 * 19) Some episodes are tolerable.
 * 20) The series finale, "Remember Me" (also known as "Remember It Up"), was an amazing way to end the series.
 * 21) Sometimes the acting is decent.
 * 22) It can be so bad it's good to some others.
 * 23) The show was very popular when it came out and it had a cult following.
 * 24) Even though their talents were wasted, the show did launch the careers of Bella Thorne and Zendaya.

Reception
Shake It Up received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and audiences alike. It received a 4.8/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

 * Bella Thorne, the actress who played CeCe, appeared on an episode of MTV's Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2017 and stated that when she first started acting, she never wanted to be on Shake it Up or Disney Channel in general. She also mentioned that she had to be on the show to save her family from being homeless, as her family was facing severe financial troubles and were living off Stouffer's coupons.
 * In 2013, the show received an Indian adaptation of the same name.
 * The series is one of the three Disney Channel original series to feature a show-within-a-show, along with The Famous Jett Jackson and Sonny with a Chance.
 * Zendaya, the actress who played Rocky, later went on to portray K.C. Cooper in another Disney Channel show, mh:besttvshows:K.C. Undercover in 2015. Her former co-star Bella Thorne guest-starred in the show as Jodie in the Season 1 episode "Spy-anoia Will Destroy Ya."
 * Caroline Sunshine, the former actress who played Tinka, later served as a White House intern in 2018.
 * Bella Thorne and Zendaya later started together in the Disney Channel original film, mh:awfulmovies:Frenemies, at the time this show was still airing.
 * Tinka Hessenheffer appears in only 3 episodes of season 1 of this show until she becomes the main character in season 2.