I'm in the Band

I'm in the Band is a live-action sitcom airing on Disney XD in the United States and on Family Channel in Canada. The first episode was taped on July 14, 2009, with a "sneak preview" airing on November 27, 2009; the show subsequently joined Disney XD's regular schedule on January 18, 2010, with the first episode being shown as a "sneak preview" in the United Kingdom on that same date. The show's January 18, 2010 premiere was watched by an estimated 860,000 viewers.

It was announced on April 26, 2010, that I'm in the Band has been renewed for a second season which premiered on January 17, 2011. On March 15, 2011, Caitlyn Taylor Love and Greg Baker announced on their official Twitter accounts that the second season would be the show's last. On April 28, 2011, Disney XD officially announced the show's cancellation, with the remaining season 2 episodes to air for the remainder of the year. The final produced episode, "Raiders of the Lost Dad," aired on December 9, 2011.

Premise
Fifteen-year-old Tripp Campbell who lives in Los Angeles, California dreams of showing off his guitar skills by being part of a rock band. When he wins a radio contest to have dinner with his favorite band, Iron Weasel, his dream comes true. He manages to impress them with his guitar playing and miraculously lands the lead guitarist role. Iron Weasel is made up of three middle-aged stooges – lead singer Derek Jupiter, bass player Burger Pitt, and drummer Ash Tyler. The band mates initially scoff at the idea of having a kid in the band, for fear of losing their cool, edgy appeal. But, tired of living in their cramped van, they succumb when Tripp offers the guest room at his mom's house.

Luckily, Tripp convinces his divorced mom, Beth, that the band members will be great role models for him. In their own wacky way, the band will try to mentor Tripp through his high school years with the goal of turning him into a bonafide rock star in the process. Along for the adventure is Tripp's best friend, Izzy Fuentes, an aspiring singer, who will try to keep him not grounded and out of trouble.

Tripp has high hopes for Iron Weasel and will do everything he can to help the band make an epic comeback, from booking concert tours, to getting a well-known music agent to listen to their music.

Unfortunately, the members of Iron Weasel always seem to find themselves in uncomfortable situations – from their nationwide concert tour which ends up being a three venue gig, to protesters boycotting their music because of a silly viral video that was intended to make them popular again. Regardless of their mishaps, Tripp and his band mates always find a way to come together to resolve their issues and do what they love best – play rock n' roll.

Main characters

 * Tripp Campbell (Logan Miller) is the teenage lead guitarist of Iron Weasel who has always dreamed of joining a rock band. Despite his age, Tripp is the most mature of all the members of Iron Weasel and is determined to help the band make a comeback. Tripp is only Iron Weasel member of the group that is still finishing school. He usually takes out his anger by playing the guitar, as seen in the episode "I Want to Punch Stuff". He has had a lot of dates and crushes and is allergic to nuts. Tripp is the one who usually solves the band's problems. Throughout the series, Principal Strickland in Season 1 and Principal Jenkins in Season 2 give him detention if does something by accident, mean, minor, etc.


 * Ash Tyler (Stephen Full) is the band's amiable drummer, who is often depicted as being the dumbest one out of the members of Iron Weasel. He used to have a pet fish named Sushi (and Sushi 2), which both got killed after Burger's shorted-out bass zapped it. It is shown that he knows random bits of trivia. In the episode "Slap Goes the Weasel", it is revealed that his real name is Ashley. If someone called him that (like Izzy in this episode), he would go into wild tantrums after someone calls him that, almost similar if someone would call Charles "Chucky." In the episode "Road Tripp" he reveals that he uses 4 kinds of hair gel. In the episode "What Happened", he reveals he has a great-great-grandfather that uses a pickle suit just like him wearing it in this episode. He seems to be slightly smarter in Season 2.


 * Burger Pitt (Greg Baker) is the food loving, slightly dim, bass player of Iron Weasel. He has a very electrified personality as a rock star, and is shown to have a lot of joy in physical acts, such as smashing his own bass or smashing his head into a wall. He is noticeably overweight and has disgusting habits, including eating worms. Burger is known to have a secret crush on Tripp's mom, Beth, and he often sports black nail polish on his fingers. He also won the first Weasel Prank in the episode "Prank Week".


 * Derek Jupiter (Steve Valentine) is the British, cocky, usually selfish but charming and handsome singer. He is known to be a very good magician as shown in episode "Magic Tripp" and is multilingual. He delivered a baby in the episode "What Happened?". Vic Blaylock claims that Derek causes all the problems in the band, though Tripp claims that Derek is the heart and soul of Iron Weasel. He is also the tallest of the guys (Tripp, Ash and Burger) and seems to be a little smarter than Ash and Burger. He admits to have his very own dungeon when Ash found a strange set of keys in "What Happened?". He can also play guitar as seen in "Slap Goes the Weasel", "Road Tripp", etc as well as key board, as seen in episode "Izzy Gonna Sing" and in several other episodes. He is afraid of snakes and on "Pain Games" he lost confidence in himself after Metal Wolf stole a gig from them. He also tells stupid and boring stories from his family that nobody cares about. He usually makes fun of Burger in "Iron Weasel: The Video Game". He tried to stand up to Derek, but failed.


 * Izzy Fuentes (Caitlyn Taylor Love) is one of Tripp's best friends and also a huge fan of Iron Weasel among other rock bands. She is also an aspiring singer and has attempted many times to become Iron Weasel's back-up singer. She apparently doesn't know what a prank is according to the episode "Prank Week". In the episode "Izzy Gonna Sing?", she temporarily becomes the band's lead singer when Derek loses his voice. She was in a band with Tripp called Booger Smack in the third grade as seen also in "Izzy Gonna Sing?". Despite being a main character, she appears almost as a recurring character due to her being absence from many episodes. She is also known to have a crush on Iron Weasel's old lead guitarist (Bleed) in the episode "Bleed Guitarist".

Recurring characters

 * Beth Campbell (Beth Littleford) is Tripp's loving and supporting mother. She is 41 years old in Season 1, and 42 years old in Season 2. She has custody of Tripp after divorcing her husband. She regrets having Iron Weasel living in her house. It is revealed in the episode "Weasels vs. Robots" that she is a dental hygienist and also has a large set of plastic teeth.


 * Principal Strickland (Reginald VelJohnson) is Tripp's hot-tempered principal who deals with a lot of shenanigans at the school, especially involving Iron Weasel, which he really loathes. He is featured in the first season but reappears as the Superintendent in the episode "Iron Weasel Gets Schooled". His name may be based on Principal Strickland from the Back to the Future.


 * Jared (Aaron Albert) is Tripp's nerdy, exceptionally smart, and odd friend and uses charts a lot. He is 15-years old. He screams like a girl when he gets freaked out. He also has been to a bird calling camp, has a crush on the lunch lady and has a father who builds robots.


 * Ernesto (Hollywood Yates) is Iron Weasel's former roadie who is now a mixed martial artist. He's gotten pantsed by Iron Weasel a numerous amount of times (including when he was proposing to his girlfriend at a concert and was even arrested for attempting to attack the band after they pantsed him). He eventually returns to get revenge on Iron Weasel for pantsing him, Ernesto and the band eventually makes up, but he gets arrested (and pantsed) again at the end, swearing revenge on the band once more.


 * Charles "Chucky" Albertson (Zayne Emory) is the 12-year-old (13 years old in Season 2) kid who got injured because of the Weasel Slap. He is Simon Craig's new stepson, who he loves very much, and is mean and disrespectful to only Iron Weasel, without his dad finding out. He hates being called Chucky because it rhymes with Sucky and even goes into wild tantrums after someone calls him that. He also once had a crush on Izzy. He first appears in the episode "Slap Goes the Weasel," and did not appear again until "Chucky's Revenge." He has since appeared in some season 2 episodes.


 * Simon Craig (Alan Thicke) is Iron Weasel's manager and Charles' stepfather introduced in Season 2.


 * Principal Jenkins (Mark Teich) is Tripp's principal who took the spot Cornelius Strickland had in the first season and dislikes Strickland becoming superintendent. He was introduced in the second season. He is easily agitated by Tripp's behavior and is bothered by Tripp flirting with daughter Gia.


 * Arlene Roca (Raini Rodriguez) is an annoying classmate at Tripp's school, who has a major, yet somewhat creepy crush on Tripp. She used to have a cat named Hip Hop and has a turtle named Jazz. She is of Spanish descent, as revealed in the episode "Annoying Arlene" when her rival Bianca Ortega saying that Spain sent Arlene back, which wasn't the case (because she moved from Spain due to inner ear infection). She appeared in the episodes "Annoying Arlene" and "Cat-Astrophe".


 * Barry Roca (Carlos Alazraqui) is Arlene's record producer father, who Iron Weasel has often attempted (but failed) to get a record deal with. He likes Iron Weasel despite their record deal loss.


 * Lana (Katelyn Pacitto, credited as Katie Belle) is Tripp's ditsy, materialistic girlfriend. She appeared in I Want to Punch Stuff and Money Bags and dumped him for Bryce Johnson in both episodes, but also dumped Bryce to fall in love in Tripp in both episodes. She is rich and pretty as well. Her catchprase is "I'm Lana!"


 * Martin (Grayson Russell) is a little red headed kid who lies most of the time. He is a neighbor of Tripp and he only appears in the episode "Birthdazed".


 * Bianca Ortega (Camilla Banus) is a Spanish exchange student that Tripp had a crush on.


 * Bryce Johnson (Spencer Boldman) is a rich, smart, and handsome jock. He stole Tripp's first crush in kindergarten and he stole Lana from Tripp twice. He really dislikes Tripp and made his first appearance in the episode "Money Bags".


 * Jack Campbell (James Patrick Stuart) is Tripp's father who Tripp hadn't seen for several years. His only appearnce is in the final episode, Raiders of the Lost Dad.

Critical reception
The series’ premiere earned mixed to negative reviews. Emily Ashby of DisneyFamily.com stated that “while it’s [the show] lighthearted, the show isn’t exactly realistic when it comes to portraying adult responsibility.” In addition she claimed that “there’s no shortage of laughs in I’m in the Band and “none of this is likely to be new to tweens familiar with the likes of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Brian Lowry of Variety described the series “the fertile premise evaporates amid bad puns, slapstick and fart jokes.” Also stated by Lowry, “content to blandly play the band as overgrown children turning Tripp into their unlikely babysitter.”

Viewership
The series premiered to an estimated 863,000 viewers proving to be the networks second highest-rated series premiere for a Disney XD Original Series, including the Toon Disney phase, until the premiere of Kickin' It that garnered 873,000 viewers.