Best Friends Whenever

Best Friends Whenever
Genre	Comedy Science Friction
Created by	Jed Elinoff Scott Thomas
Starring	Landry Bender Lauren Taylor Gus Kamp Ricky Garcia Benjamin Cole Royer Matthew Lewis Royer
Opening theme	"Whenever" performed by Forever in Your Mind
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	11 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Scott Thomas Jed Elinoff Michael B. Kaplan
Producer	Julie Tsutsui
Camera setup	multi-camera
Running time	23 minutes
Production companies	Diphthong Productions Entertainment Force It's a Laugh Productions
Original release
Network	Disney Channel
Release	June 26, 2015 (2015-06-26) – present

Best Friends Whenever is an American science fictional multi-camera sitcom developed for Disney Channel, created by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas and executive produced by Jed Elinoff, Scott Thomas, and Michael B. Kaplan. The series stars Landry Bender as Cyd and Lauren Taylor as Shelby.

Plot

Set in Portland, Oregon, two girls named Cyd and Shelby are best friends living together while Cyd's parents are on an archaeological dig in Peru. After an accident in their neighbor Barry's science lab, they are given the ability to travel in time, provided they are thinking of the time they want to go and are together hugging or high fiving. Of course when it comes to their trips to the future, they briefly find themselves strapped to tables in a futuristic lab, and now they must figure out what this means while having various misadventures along the way.

Cast and characters

Main

The main characters. Matthew Royer as Chet, Gus Kamp as Barry, Landry Bender as Cyd, Lauren Taylor as Shelby, Ricky Garcia as Naldo and Benjamin Royer as Brett.

• Cyd Ripley (Landry Bender) is Shelby's best friend who is staying with Shelby's family while her parents are away in Peru. She owns a pet dog named Diesel.
• Shelby Marcus (Lauren Taylor) is Cyd's best friend.
• Barry Eisenberg (Gus Kamp) is an aspiring young scientist who lives in a Winnebago that is parked outside of Shelby's backyard that he also uses for his lab. One of his inventions gave Cyd and Shelby the ability to travel through time.
• Naldo Montoya (Ricky Garcia) is Barry's best friend and lab assistant. Barry calls him "Renaldo".
• Bret Marcus (Benjamin Cole Royer) is Shelby's brother who is the twin brother of Chet.
• Chet Marcus (Matthew Lewis Royer) is Shelby's brother who is the twin brother of Bret.

Recurring

• Astrid Marcus (Mary Passeri) is the mother of Shelby, Bret, and Chet.
• Norm Marcus (Kevin Symons) is the father of Shelby, Bret, and Chet. He works as an accountant at GloboDigiDyne and later gets promoted to the company's Pelican Ball Room.
• Marci (Madison Hu) is a weird friend of Cyd and Shelby who is always relaxed.
• Ms. Nesbit (Jocelyn Ayanna) is a woman who was first seen as Cyd and Shelby's strict history teacher at West Portland High School. Due to Cyd and Shelby's time-traveling, Ms. Nesbit now works as a police officer.
• Mr. Doyle (Larry Joe Campbell) is a gossip-loving teacher at West Portland High School who teaches science and driver's ed.
• Janet Smythe (Nora Dunn) is an entrepreneur and the CEO of GloboDigiDyne who has invented many things in her life starting with wireless objects.

Production

Best Friends Whenever was created by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, who have also created Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. Casting started January 2015. On March 6, 2015, Disney ordered Best Friends Whenever with production starting the same month. The series premiered on June 26, 2015, directly after Teen Beach 2.

Episodes

• Benjamin Cole Royer and Matthew Lewis Royer are both absent for five episodes.

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"A Time to Travel"	Shelley Jensen	Jed Elinoff Scott Thomas	June 26, 2015 (2015-06-26)	101	3.54
Two best friends, Shelby (Lauren Taylor) and Cyd (Landry Bender), mess around in their classmate Barry's lab and end up getting powers to time travel. They use the ability by thinking about what time they want to go to and hugging each other. The problem is that the two of them have to do it together. Guest stars: Madison Hu as Marci, Emery Kelly as Cameron
2	"A Time to Cheat"	Shelley Jensen	Jed Ellinoff Scott Thomas	July 12, 2015 (2015-07-12)	102	2.02
Shelby and Cyd try to avoid studying by time traveling to the day of the test because of the theory that if they time travel there they'll already know the stuff. Unfortunately, they don't know and try to go back, but get stuck in the time period without knowing what to do on the test. Guest star: Jocelyn Ayanna as Ms. Nesbit
3	"A Time to Say Thank You"	Shelley Jensen	Michael B. Kaplan	July 19, 2015 (2015-07-19)	103	1.96
Cyd tries to plan a thank you party for Shelby's family, but it doesn't go as planned after Shelby attempts to help. Guest stars: Mary Passeri as Astrid, Kevin Symons as Norm
4	"A Time to Jump and Jam"	Shelley Jensen	Debby Wolfe	July 26, 2015 (2015-07-26)	104	2.01
Shelby and Cyd's powers are broken when they try to travel back to Cyd's favorite junior high moment, and they have to find out why. It turns out Shelby was holding them back from time traveling to the event because she wanted to hide an embarrassing secret she had been keeping from Cyd. Guest stars: Eryn Pablico as Jen, Jocelyn Ayanna as Ms. Nesbit
5	"A Time to Rob and Slam"	Shelley Jensen	Jim Hope	August 9, 2015 (2015-08-09)	105	1.87
Shelby's science teacher Mr. Doyle pairs her up with a student called The Rob. The Rob is a jerk, and Cyd and Shelby soon travel back to see why. Guest stars: Larry Joe Campbell as Mr. Doyle, Randy J. Goodwin as Vance Carroway, Madison Hu as Marci, Brendan Meyer as The Rob Absent: Benjamin Cole Royer as Bret, Matthew Lewis Royer as Chet
6	"The Butterscotch Effect"	Shelley Jensen	Steve Jarczak Shawn Thomas	August 16, 2015 (2015-08-16)	106	1.67
Cyd and Shelby go back in time to help Barry meet his idol. When they make it so Barry does that, they return to find that Barry has started a rock band because his idol ridiculed his theories, causing Cyd and Shelby to correct it; however, when they return to the present again, they find that Barry is an evil genius, and they go back to see that this is because they caused something else that made Barry and Naldo not meet. Guest stars: Stephen Full as Ray, Kevin Symons as Norm, Mary Passeri as Astrid, Ernie Kamp as Young Barry
7	"Shake Your Booty"	Victor Gonzalez	Jed Elinoff Scott Thomas	August 23, 2015 (2015-08-23)	107	2.03
Cyd and Shelby go back to the 1970s and get caught in a feud between punk and disco kids, but start forgetting each other when they start fitting in with the time period on each of the opposing sides. Guest stars: Ben Giroux as Mr. Canavan, Mollee Gray as Roller Girl Absent: Benjamin Cole Royer as Bret, Matthew Lewis Royer as Chet
8	"Back to the Future Lab" "Jump to the Future Lab"	Shelley Jensen	Michael B. Kaplan	September 20, 2015 (2015-09-20)	108	2.09
Shelby and Cyd discover a strange logo all throughout Barry's lab that has a tie with their brief future experiences. Upon identifying the logo, they infiltrate the company GloboDigiDyne where Shelby's father supposedly works. Meanwhile, Bret and Chet think that Cyd and Shelby are detectives and follow them into GloboDigiDyne at the same time when the company's CEO, Janet Smythe, is testing the new robots. Special guest star: Nora Dunn as Janet Smythe Guest star: Kevin Symons as Norm
9	"Cyd and Shelby's Haunted Escape"	Victor Gonzalez	Jim Martin	October 4, 2015 (2015-10-04)	109	2.18
Barry creates a teleportation device, allowing Cyd and Shelby to travel to New York so they can attend the Halloween Spooktacular in New York. Special guest stars: Rowan Blanchard as Riley Matthews, Peyton Meyer as Lucas Friar Absent: Benjamin Cole Royer as Bret, Matthew Lewis Royer as Chet
10	"When Shelby Met Cyd"	Victor Gonzales	Jim Hope	October 25, 2015 (2015-10-25)	110	1.76
After Cyd and Shelby return from the trip to their kindergarten years, things start going wrong when they begin de-aging due to never having time traveled to when they were that young. Barry and Naldo must help them by getting them to drink a lot of milk. However, while it works on Shelby, it does not work on Cyd. It turns out that Cyd was scared of growing up. After a pep talk from Shelby, all ends well. Guest stars: Larry Joe Campbell as Mr. Doyle, Lauren Lindsey Donzis as 9yr old Cyd, Amiah Miller as 9yr old Shelby Absent: Benjamin Cole Royer as Bret, Matthew Lewis Royer as Chet
11	"Cyd and Shelby Strike Back"	Shannon Flynn Shelley Jensen	Steve Jarczak Shawn Thomas Jim Martin	November 27, 2015 (2015-11-27)	111	TBD
Cyd and Shelby discover that Janet Smythe is the one behind the future lab; with the help of Barry and Naldo, they also discover that on August 27, 1991, Janet was shocked by a lamp at her desk. Since then she vowed to turn everything into wireless technology. Cyd and Shelby jump back to the day, but activate a trap and jump back. They continue to activate traps and jump back each time, but start noticing that their power is glitching up. As the next time travel they have could be their last, which they need to go back home, they make their last attempt at breaking lamp count. They successfully break Janet's lamp, but severely mess up the future. Upon returning from their time travel jump, Cyd ends up in Peru with her parents and Shelby ends up in Alaska with her parents after her father, because GloboDigiDyne didn't exist, could not find a stable job in Portland. The girls make a plan to meet each other in Portland so they can time travel and make sure Shelby's dad gets a solid job in Portland. Shelby ends up going to her old house to wait for Cyd and discovers that Barry and Naldo hardly recognize her from when she used to live there. Things take a bad turn when it turns out that Janet is now living at Shelby's house; however, it appears as though she doesn't remember what happened back on August 27, 1991. Janet invites Shelby inside for cookies and Shelby texts Cyd that Janet isn't evil like she thought she was. However, when Shelby attempts to say thank you and leave and doesn't get a response, she decided to go up to her old room only to discover that Janet does indeed remember that girls. Janet then ties up Shelby and waits for Cyd to show up. When Shelby's phone beeps because Cyd sent her a text message, Janet grabs her phone and pretends to be Shelby, which Cyd falls for. When Cyd gets inside, she tells Janet she'd rather wait outside because that's where Shelby said they'd meet, but as Janet turns around to go back inside, Cyd receives a text from "Shelby", telling that there was a change of plans and to meet her inside. When Cyd gets upstairs, Janet ties her up as well. Shortly after, Barry, Naldo, and Marci come upstairs and discover what's going on and are then tied up themselves. Eventually, Janet tries to force Shelby into the molecular disrupter, but Cyd offers to go first because she can't watch that happen to her friend. Shelby manages to get free thanks to Diesel's spiky collar, but is too late to help Cyd, especially after repeatedly being hit by lasers. However, as Shelby begins losing hope, it turns out Cyd tricked Janet when she came out from behind the molecular disrupter and shocked Janet unconscious. Cyd and Shelby then jump back to August 27, 1991, again and make sure that the lamp shocks her. However, while they fix things, just like when they jumped back to the 1970s in Shake Your Booty, they leave particles behind, which Janet captures. While all this happens, Naldo is also helping Barry work up the courage to tell Marci he likes her. Eventually, they have a date, and despite working so hard to prove to Naldo that they don't like each other, Barry discovers he likes Marci and Marci likes him. Both of them then go in for a kiss, but as they're about to do it, the timeline resets from Cyd and Shelby breaking the lamp. Then in the timeline when GloboDigiDyne doesn't exist, Naldo is once again helping Barry work up the courage to tell Marci he likes her, and like before, it's discovered Marci likes Barry. However, also like before, when Cyd and Shelby go back to fix things after Cyd defeats Janet, the timeline resets, but before it does, Barry vows he won't forget that he likes Marci. Special guest star: Nora Dunn as Janet Smythe Guest stars: Kevin Symons as Norm, Madison Hu as Marci, Tamela D'Amico as Young Janet Absent: Benjamin Cole Royer as Bret, Matthew Lewis Royer as Chet
12	"The Girls of Christmas Past"	TBA	TBA	December 6, 2015 (2015-12-06)	114	TBD

Broadcast

Best Friends Whenever airs on Disney Channel in Canada and premiered on Disney Channel in Australia and New Zealand on October 16, 2015.

Critical reception

Brian Lowry, writing for Variety, thought the show's pilot episode was formulaic and did not take full advantages of the time travel premise. In particular, the show "appears more content to focus on the humdrum details of Shelby and Cyd’s frantic lives than, say, sending them back to meet Abraham Lincoln or ahead to a time of flying cars."

External links

• Best Friends Whenever at IMDb