Welp, here we are! Kicking off the Top 15 is quite possibly the single most important and influential episode of any show ever in the history of the Disney Channel. This needs no introduction.

I tend to throw the word “iconic” around a lot on this blog. Sometimes I use it sarcastically, sometimes I’m serious… but this is one instance where it’s really, truly warranted. This one gets all of the iconic points… right down to the costuming! Everything is memorable here. For a “special” Even Stevens episode, this is pretty darn solid. As far as I’m concerned and from what I’ve observed online, this might actually be the most popular episode of the entire series. Does that automatically make it the greatest Even Stevens episode of all time? Not really. For an episode of a Disney Channel show in general, however, its importance cannot be overstated. Before High School Musical, Camp Rock and Descendants… there was this little thing called Influenza: The Musical.

I’ll always remember when Influenza premiered and Disney frequently re-airing it after. It was a big deal. Everyone was talking about it at school and I recorded it on a VHS tape so I could watch it incessantly. It was sort of a mini cultural phenomenon among its young audience. I clearly remember this short “making of” promo for it:

The episode was such a success, I always believed this marked the moment where Disney Channel thought “live action musicals could work on our network.” This changed everything moving forward. Would the DC have gone on to be the massive powerhouse it is today without this trial run so to speak? Sure. Disney is Disney, but what if they never ventured into live-action musical territory? Every single massive, international, record-breaking success the channel has churned out since has either been a musical (i.e. the HSM franchise) and/or featured music in a substantial way (i.e. Hannah Montana) – and this, my friends, is where it all started. KNOW YOUR HISTORY!!! In fact, there’s an incredible “oral history” article featuring nothing but accounts from the cast and crew. They dive deeper into Influenza and beyond. It’s a fantastic read. Seriously, go read it. I love it so much.

I’ve been sort of dreading writing this review ever since I started this blog, but tried not to think about it because “#15 is so far away!” and I honestly wasn’t even sure I’d make it this far into the project. But… we made it… and now I’m left with the task of breaking down an episode like this. I mean, how does one even begin to do that?! I have no idea, so I’m just gonna take this song by song because it really is a musical, you guys. Meaning, there’s hardly any spoken dialogue! Any dialogue is super brief and only serves to set the stage and smoothly transition from one song to the next. The musical numbers say it all and drive the entire thing. So, without further adieu, let’s stress out over 6th Period and be hit over the head repeatedly with what year we went to the moon! :)

The episode opens with Ren sick in bed with the flu. She’s super bummed because she desperately wants to make it to school so she can get her Perfect Attendance Award. Of course, Eileen insists that Ren stays in bed and suggests that she should watch some old musicals to pass the time. I feel like some people probably missed this bit! I did until a few years ago. Eileen pops in a tape of a seriously low-budget musical and it shows a cowboy singing “I’m riding the range, in 1869. I’m sittin’ on my best pal named Currrrrr-ly. I sing to my horse, there’s something wrong with that. I think it’s time to find myself a girrrrrrrr-ly!” – I just needed to share those lyrics because y’all already know what tune they’re set to. Ahhh! The cowboy is also definitely co-producer (and director of this episode) Sean McNamara making yet another sneaky appearance.

I love how Ren has Mr. Pookie with her. It’s adorable how they made sure he was present in all three seasons!

Louis tries to piggyback off of Ren’s sickness and fakes his own (”Phlucus”) to get out of Coach Tugnut’s physical endurance gym test. But Steve sees right through him and makes him get dressed for school. Louis emerges in this wonderful outfit:

Those orange cargo shorts and that camo-green Hawaiian shirt are seared into my brain as one of the most memorable Louis Stevens looks.

Ren decides to go to school anyway, which is a little inconsiderate don’t you think? haha. When she arrives, Principal Wexler begins the morning announcements…….. in sing-song. Yes! We’ve arrived at the first musical number! I’m gonna link to YouTube clips of each song because you need these songs in your life.

I used to not like this song when I was a kid, but it’s become one of my favorites these days! It kicks everything off and I can’t help but get pumped for the rest of the episode every time, haha. Wexler sings about the Lost & Found and Coach Tugnut’s test before wrapping it up with “That’s all for this morning, oh! Did I mention? There’s only one name on the list for detention. He’s never been accused of overachievin’, he’s that goofy little troublemaker – Louis Stevens” punctuated by a shot of Louis chillin’ on a lawn chair drinking a slushie. I’m not even gonna lie, this gives me chills.

What a fantastic character played by the man, myth, legend, and human meme himself. To this day, I still believe that Louis Stevens is possibly Shia’s truest and best role of his career to date. It’s his Emmy award winning role, in fact. Well deserved.

Ren is clearly very confused by the time Wexler is finished with his little announcement number. “That was interesting…” she mumbles while leaving his office before bumping into Louis, Twitty, and Tawny in the hallway. Louis mentions the fact that he’s totally gonna bomb the 6th-period gym test and guarantees that he’ll find a way out of it somehow. Which brings us tooooooo….

Can we talk about all of the looks they’re serving here though? We’ve got that classic Louis getup. Tawny is rocking that ~edgy~ “Miss Understood” pageant sash shirt that I’m pretty sure every girl (myself included) wanted in their own closet. And Ren is wearing that truly supreme pink, flowy, slit-arm shirt and purple pencil skirt. Like… yes. These outfits really are burned into my memory forever. Poor Twitty got the short end of the stick.



I love how Louis’ song is the only one that doesn’t stray at all from the identity of the show. Ya know? It’s totally rooted in that good ‘ol jazzy comedy music. So good. (The intro is actually the same motif used for transitional music/punctuation throughout the series occasionally.) It’s sort of like an offshoot of the show’s theme song. It’s also amazing that Shia actually sang. Obviously, he won’t be getting a golden ticket to Hollywood anytime soon… But, the fact that he can’t sing adds SO MUCH charm to this song. Does Louis Stevens really seem like the kind of guy who’s been holding back smooth Sinatra vocals this whole time? Nah. He’s a hot mess and that’s exactly what this is. The lyrics are pretty great, too. He’s just prancing around singing about what a fantastic liar he is and everyone else is backing him up and praising him for it.

Just wanted to include this gif of the gang doing a casual version of The Carlton.

This bit wraps up with Tugnut stuffed in Louis’ locker singing “…but not to-daaaay” letting Louis know that he will not be finding a way outta this one, lol.

This cuts to the outdoor cafeteria where Ren meets up with Ruby and Nelson and talks about what a weird day she’s been having. (“Weird” would be a serious understatement.) The conversation quickly shifts to their science presentations that are due 6th period and Ren is uncharacteristically completely unaware of this information! She hasn’t even started her project yet and bolts to the library to do research on the space program! This leaves Ruby and Nelson confused and wondering…

This might be my personal favorite of the six songs! It’s a bop and includes the fantastic line from Ruby: “Instead of knowing about space, she is spacing out! Ironically, Ren’s now a space cadetttttttt!” HAHA. This song also has a pretty sick rap breakdown by Larry. Jim Wise (a.k.a Coach Tugnut and chief songwriter for the episode) was originally against this because it seemed a little racist to have the main black kid bust out with a rap… which is totally understandable. But, in the end, it still worked really well. Not to brag or anything but I actually have the rap memorized and feel like Slim Shady slaying “Rap God” whenever I sing along. You can tell that Larry (Ty Hodges) has a really great voice, though. He holds some sweet notes here and there. Interestingly, the entire cast sang with their own voices except for Nelson (Gary LeRoi Gray) who had Jim do an impression of what he might sound like singing, omg. Jim did a pretty great job because I totally bought that it was Gary’s real voice prior to finding this out.

“And that’s what’s the matter, what’s the matter… with REEEEEENNNNNNN-AH!!!” (my favorite part!) I’d also like to point out that these background dancers appear during every single song because they’re clearly the pros (and possibly choreographers?) who are there to make everything look good. My only complaint is that they should’ve at least changed clothes for each number or something to make it seem like they’re different people. The constant presence of that chick with the floral pants and the dude on the right who sorta looks like a 30 year old Louis always distracted me as a kid, lol.



After what was once a commercial break, it returns with Louis and Ren in the school computer lab using fabulous Y2K PCs. Ren searches for information on the space program while Louis visits the creatively titled “excuses.com.”

One of my favorite parts of this whole episode is when Ren’s computer loads a website just long enough for her to read “Man first landed on the moon in 1969″ before it randomly says “Goodbye!” like the lady from The Weakest Link and shuts down! HAHAHAHAHA.

2002′s poor technology leaves Ren and Louis seriously stressing out in the wake of…

If there’s one song that gets stuck in my head the most, it’s probably this one. It feels the most like a song that could’ve been ripped out of a campy underground musical. I feel like everyone remembers Louis and Ren pressing the “return” key at their computers on-beat to “sixth period, sixth period, sixth peri-ooooood” like it was yesterday. I think this song feels extra musical-like because it’s so dramatic and all over the place! This number includes at least one line from nearly every major and minor character. We get Ren’s perspective, Louis’ perspective and even a bit with Steve and Eileen discovering that Ren isn’t home in bed – which immediately motivates them to quickly “hustle” to find her. Literally.

This show is genuinely incredible. Also this could definitely double as a little nod to Donna Pescow’s “Saturday Night Fever” past, no?

This bit is also a climax of sorts because it’s the penultimate song before the dreaded 6th period itself. It ends with everyone arriving at their respective horrific classes. We see Louis and Twitty experience 6th period’s wrath first.

Louis’ last minute idea to get out of the physical endurance test is his creation of the totally legit condition “green nose,” which is nothing but green paint on his nose that causes him to shout random phrases such as “Mommy, can I have my buttercup?” A pretty stupid moment, but still somehow so good. Obviously, Tugnut doesn’t fall for it and Louis is left to complete the obstacle course like everyone else. The whole course surprisingly seems like a piece of cake until you reach the last part where ya gotta survive 15 seconds in “the cage of doom” with an angry gorilla. Why is this so freaking funny?!?! I’m not sure I’ll ever come up with the correct word to describe this show’s humor, but it’s on another level.

This brings us to the start of…

If I haaaad to pick a low point of this episode, it’d have to be this. It’s probably my least favorite song of the bunch, mainly because its overall vibe is very… circusy? I don’t know. It still manages to get stuck in my head constantly of course. The boys are pretty much tortured by Tugnut until they decide to retaliate and become “MASTERS of the gym” by forcing Tugnut to complete the course himself. That’s it, really! (Next time you watch this, look closely at the treadmill… it’s not actually on! haha.)

“Master(s) of the gym” doesn’t really have a definitive ending. It just sort of ends with Tugnut in the cage of doom being smothered by the gorilla and cuts straight to Ren’s class. Does Tugnut die in there or what?!



We see that Larry’s science project is the actual miracle of turning a nasty chunk of liver into a delicious slab of chocolate with a laser. Yeah, if a 14-year-old could come up with and create a functioning machine like that… they wouldn’t be presenting it as their 8th Grade science project. They’d be working for NASA. And speeeeaking of NASA…

Clearly, whatever Ren came up with will never compare to Larry’s groundbreaking invention. But, it’s her turn now and she has no choice but to get up there and present the only thing she knows:

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! If you’re an 80s/90s baby who grew up watching Disney Channel and this song isn’t the entire reason why you remember what year the moon landing was to this very day… you’re a liar. This song is hands down the most memorable one and possibly the most hilarious due to its ridiculous lack of actual substance. Ren’s presentation is literally her acting out the struggle of trying to reach the required amount of words for an essay by filling it with complete and utter bs. It’s absolutely hysterical. My favorite line has gotta be “We went to the moon in 1969, not 1968, but the year affff-ter. And once they got there, the astronauts felt fine! They smiled at each other and there was laaaaugh-ter!” Excuse me, Ren… Were you THERE?! Is this a first-hand account? lol. That’s some Grade A embellishing right there. (”The rocket that flew had a really neat design. When it took off the engines made a roar,” is a close second though. Did a baby write this report?!) One of the greatest moments is when the song hits the super dramatic bridge and cuts to Ren, Ruby and Nelson in space reenacting the moon landing. The best part? Shia LaBeouf is the moon:

This show is a gift from the comedy gods.

Ren takes a bow as the song wraps up. She’s quite proud of herself and I gotta give it to her! The fact that she took “We went to the moon in 1969″ and stretched it into a 2:30 song is impressive. But, alas… She receives her first ever failing grade and Larry kicks off the “Ren got an F!” reprise. It’s so good. It’s such a small thing, but Larry tacks on the most impassioned “HA-HA!” (after singing the line “Ren got an F”) at one point and it kills me every time. Getting an F was the final straw for Ren and she starts screaming “STOP SINGING!!!!!” until she wakes herself up! Yep. The whole thing was a dream apparently. Or was it…?! She heads downstairs to the living room where the whole family starts SINGING A SECOND REPRISE!!! Ren is horrified and it’s amazing.

This time she screams so loud, she wakes herself up for real. So, yes. After a little bit of inception there… Turns out it was all a dream. Thank god. That is the ONLY way an episode that’s essentially titled “The Flu: The Musical” could be pulled off. When we dream, it hardly ever makes any logical sense whatsoever. Therefore, this entire thing totally seems like an accurate fever dream someone might have after watching a musical and falling asleep. This is why Influenza works so well and why an episode like In Ren We Trust doesn’t, unfortunately.

The very last scene is of Louis bringing Ren some chicken soup and announcing it (”I got hot soup, delicious chicken soup!”) to the tune of “We Went To The Moon,” which doesn’t really exist and Louis has never heard… so to hiiiim it’s actually to the tune of the original cowboy musical song “I’m Riding The Range,” haha. Ren screams “Nooooo!” at the sound of him singing and that’s that.

The episode returns with a short blooper reel of Shia totally ad-libbing the green nose scene! I would dieeee for more bloopers. I feel like 75% of what Shia did on this show was improvised and to see some of the takes that didn’t make the cut would be fascinating to me, tbh.

And that’s it!

What else can be said about this episode? It’s monumental. It premiered 16 years ago as of January 25th and its impact can still be felt today with the release of the newest DCOM “Zombies” that just dropped on Friday. (Which was directed by Paul Hoen who directed several episodes of Even Stevens! Crazy fun fact!) “We Went To The Moon” has a life of its own and is the sort of thing that kids will film an admirable remake of for a school project years after the fact. For a musical episode of a popular TV show, it’s pretty close to perfect. The production value is awesome and the plot is thoroughly engaging! Not to mention, the songs are just the right length and don’t go on forever until it’s insufferable. This episode doesn’t take itself seriously at ALL and that’s the way a zany musical episode should be! That’s what makes Influenza hilarious instead of cringy. It knows it’s ridiculous and it’s a beautiful thing.

Influenza was always #15 on my list. It’s the one episode I never switched around. Top 10 seemed too high for such a novelty episode and outside of the Top 20 felt too low. #15 felt like a cozy slot for it: A number that’s juuuust high enough to acknowledge its importance, influence, popularity, and hilarity – but juuuust low enough to leave room at the top for some stellar “regular” episodes that are more than deserving of a little extra attention.

This episode’s Redbubble design is a reproduction of Tawny’s “Miss Understood” shirt! I’m working on/brainstorming some others as well.

EDIT: For the anniversary of the moon landing, Christy has added these shirts to her Etsy store! So awesome!! You can snag one right here!

Thanks so much for reading! This one ended up being a blast (no pun intended) to write.

What are your memories of Influenza? Thoughts on this truly iconic episode? Chime in via Disqus below, please! <3

-Brittany

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Redbubble