Development

In 2002, Dan Schneider first had Jamie Lynn Spears audition for him at the age of 11 years old, after an executive at Nickelodeon asked if he would like to meet with Britney Spears' sister. At this time, All That had just revamped its cast, and he knew that casting Britney's younger sister "would bring a lot of attention to 'All That,' and it would be a good thing. [He] was just hoping she'd be good."^[6][7] On September 21, 2002, Jamie Spears, as she was originally credited, made her debut on Nickelodeon in the premiere of Season 8 of All That. Midway through Season 9, in late 2003, Schneider had a meeting with another executive at the network who wanted to know if Schneider had any ideas for a spin-off series that could be built around Spears, like how Kenan & Kel, The Amanda Show, and The Nick Cannon Show were built around their stars.^[6][8] According to Schneider, the show was completely "custom made" for Jamie Lynn, and her mother Lynne "had a lot of input."^[9]

In August 2003, Spears officially signed a development deal with Nickelodeon in which she would star as the protagonist in her own scripted television series that would air on the network. Spears stated that she can still vividly recall her first meeting to talk about this show, if only for the setting: Houston's in Santa Monica, her favorite at the time. "We had dinner, and we talked about what Zoey should be like," she says. "I just remember it being really important to me that Zoey had a tomboy side to her because that's who I was. I was 11 or 12 years old, so I didn't really have much opinion [on the business side] but I definitely wanted her to be very strong and confident. I do remember that."^[10][11]

Casting

As the show began casting, Paul Butcher was hired to play opposite Zoey as her younger brother Dustin Brooks. Actress Erin Sanders had auditioned for Nicole, the part of Zoey's best-friend and roommate, but the role was eventually offered to Alexa Nikolas. Keeping Sanders in mind, Schneider created the character of Quinn Pensky just for her.^[12] Sean Flynn was hired to play Zoey's will-they-won't-they love interest Chase Matthews. Rounding out the cast were Kristin Herrera as Dana Cruz, Christopher Massey as Michael Barret, and Matthew Underwood as Logan Reese.

Filming

Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, was used for the first and second seasons,^[13] causing the series to be Nickelodeon's most expensive show to ever produce.^[4]

The series began filming in the summer of 2004. According to Sally McIlwain, who oversaw filming and reservations in the Special Programs office of Pepperdine, the school made $350,000 to let the production film there. Two student lounges in the Rockwell Towers Building at Pepperdine were converted into the show's dormitories, a room larger than the average dorm room had to be used in order to fit all the production equipment. Joslyn Plaza, and the exterior of Elkins Auditorium, were both heavily utilized; additionally, the Howard A. White Center (HAWC) was also used for filming. Beyond the outside locations, some of the Lovernich apartments at the University were turned into makeshift production offices for Schneider's Bakery.^[14]

Once the summer semester began, production was limited to where they could film, only being permitted to use one lounge in Tower 6 of Rockwell, in addition to Alumni Park and the Hahn Fireside Room. The usage of the campus by production did draw some minor complaints from some students and staff of the University. Specifically, they were upset about the number of parking spaces being taken up by production, and the occasional reroute around campus they had to take to avoid filming. McIlwain revealed steps had been taken to ensure filming would be scheduled around the needs of the real students. Filming was limited around residential areas, and had to begin at 10 a.m., as opposed to the normal 7 a.m., to accommodate any sleeping students. Each day they had to finish filming by 10 p.m. To address the parking issue, production vehicles were moved away to other locations on campus so the students indisposed to the filming.^[14] Filming at Pepperdine for season one ended on September 17, with production moving off campus September 21.^[14]

The second season began filming at Pepperdine in early May 2005. During the summer, production had a harder time because Battle of the Network Reality Stars began filming there. Pepperdine was integral for Zoey 101, so they had to put up with sharing the space with Battle of the Network Reality Stars, which returned to the University because the original series, Battle of the Network Stars, had been filmed there in the 1970s and 1980s. The competition show filmed on campus from June 4 through June 9, causing a relatively short disruption.^[15] McIlwain estimated the University was paid $500,000 for the second season. The second season also included more involvement from Pepperdine students; some were able to join production as interns and receive college credit, while others were hired as background actors and extras. The success of the show's first season meant paparazzi would sneak onto campus trying to photograph Britney Spears when she visited set. Filming on campus for the second season finished on August 17, 2005.

Following the network renewing the series for a 26-episode third season, production had to look for a new filming location since it was not feasible to film at Pepperdine outside of the summer months, and it wasn't possible to film twenty-six episodes in the time they had.^[16] After searching up and down the coast, and not finding anything that could work as a stand-in for Pacific Coast Academy, the production team began to look inland. When Karen Fisher, the senior director of production for Nickelodeon, couldn't find anything that would work, she called on David Diamond, who pointed her towards the Mann Biomedical Park in the Santa Clarita Valley, which was built by Lockheed to resemble a college campus. "When we drove onto the property it was beautiful. We were surrounded by tall trees and because the structure was built around the same time as Pepperdine, there were enough similarities to make it work,” said Fisher. The Mann Biomedical Park also featured the same type of exterior walkway lighting as Pepperdine, which meant less work for production. The location had extensive warehouses which could be converted into makeshift soundstages, giving production ample space to recreate the interiors of Pepperdine with sets. The last obstacle came when it was time to recreate the beach, but the business park featured a parking lot on top of a hill. “It's really a beautiful space and what's interesting is that the parking lot is on an elevated spot looking into the skyline,” said Fisher. “You buy that there is ocean out there.” Mann Biomedical Park also featured a basketball court, and several tree lined walkways for production to use.^[17][18]

Departures

Kristin Herrera exited after the first season and was replaced by Victoria Justice for the rest of the series. Alexa Nikolas exited after the second season, following numerous fights and incidents with Jamie Lynn Spears, and her character Nicole was written out of the series. In August 2005, it was reported that Britney Spears confronted Nikolas about the feud.^[19] Sean Flynn exited after the third season and was replaced by Austin Butler for the rest of the series. Flynn stated in an interview that the reason for his departure was to focus on his education at the time.^[20]

Finale

The series officially ended production in August 2007 after the shooting of its final season, which began airing five months later in January 2008. Spears' pregnancy made this season controversial. However, the show was not cancelled due to her pregnancy. It was not until October 2007 — two months after the final season wrapped production — that the Zoey 101 staff learned about her pregnancy.^[21][22]

10th anniversary short

On September 18, 2015, the 10th anniversary of the airing of the season 2 episode "Time Capsule", TeenNick aired a short clip featuring Chase and Michael.^[23] In the clip, it becomes apparent that Zoey and Chase have broken up and he is now seeing someone else. When Chase proposes to his current girlfriend Alyssa (Jamie Snow), Michael storms in and informs him of what Zoey said on her DVD from "Time Capsule". The DVD reveals that Zoey suspected Chase's crush on her at the time, even before she went to England, and at some point even thought about getting together with him as she considered him her soulmate, but didn't act on it until after she went to England. This causes Chase, who is still in love with Zoey, to abandon Alyssa to find Zoey, with the clip ending on a cliffhanger.

Possible revival

After reuniting with many of her former cast mates on All That in late 2019, with the sketch later aired on July 11, 2020, Spears revealed during a podcast in May 2020, that she was interested in developing a possible revival and that discussions had already been underway, but nothing was official at the time as many details of the potential project had yet to be confirmed.^[24][25] In October 2020, the cast made a reunion on TikTok.^[26]

Sequel film

On January 12, 2023, Jamie Lynn Spears announced that production had begun on a sequel film entitled Zoey 102, set to premiere in 2023 on Paramount+, with original series cast members Spears, Sean Flynn, Christopher Massey, Erin Sanders, Matthew Underwood, Jack Salvatore Jr., and Abby Wilde reprising their roles. Production began in January 2023 in Wilmington, North Carolina.^[27] Nancy Hower is attached to direct, with Spears attached as executive producer.^[28][29][30] Principal photography wrapped in February 2023.^[31] In May 2023, actors Thomas Lennon, Owen Thiele, and Dean Geyer were cast in the film.^[32]

The film was released on July 27, 2023, on Paramount+.^[33][34]

Controversies

Awards and accolades

Soundtrack

Zoey 101: Music Mix
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released	March 7, 2006
Recorded	2004–2006
Genre	Pop rock
Label	Nick and Columbia

Zoey 101: Music Mix is the soundtrack album for the series. It was released on March 7, 2006. The album features music of the pop and rock genres. By June 2016, only tracks 2, 4, 9, and 10 were available on iTunes.^[77]

Video games

A video game titled Zoey 101 was released in March 2007 for Game Boy Advance.^[78] Another game called Zoey 101: Field Trip Fiasco was released on September 11, 2007 for Nintendo DS.^[79] Both video games were published by THQ and developed by Barking Lizards and received poor reception and negative reviews from sites such as IGN and Common Sense Media.

Zoey 101 is a mini-game collection. Players must successfully complete each mini-game, then a dare, and then a final challenge. Dares and challenges are randomly chosen from three games in the level. Players can choose to play mini-games freely in the main menu. GameZone awarded the game 4 out of 10, stating that the game was either "boring, frustrating, just plain unfun, or some combination of all three."^[80] Nintendo World Report rated the game 2 out of 10,^[81] while X-Play rated it one star out of five,^[82] with both reviews criticizing the mini-games, graphics and music.^[81][82]

Field Trip Fiasco is about Zoey and her friends taking a field trip to a park. The player controls Zoey by using the D-pad or touch screen to walk or run. The player runs around Pacific Coast Academy completing fetch quests. They involve delivering things to people or collecting objects scattered around the school before time runs out. After finishing a fetch quest, the player plays a mini-game involving hosing off cars or picking up Frisbees. Zoey walks around the national park, talks to the camping club about Native Americans, goes to the library to learn about the park and takes a quiz about a national park.

Jack DeVries of IGN gave the game a 3.5 out of 10 and criticized the game's boring gameplay, bland music and sound, and awkward controls.^[83] Mike David reviewed the game for GameZone and gave it a 2.8. It was criticized for its graphics and controls.^[84]