Cory in the House is the third live action Disney Channel series, along with The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana, aimed at "tweens." A spin-off of That's So Raven, the show revolves around Cory Baxter (Kyle Massey) moving into the White House when his father, Victor (Rondell Sheridan), gets hired as the personal chef for President Richard Martinez (John D'Aquino). President Martinez has a young daughter named Sophie (Madison Pettis), who is usually the foil for Cory's money-making schemes.

I've found that this show isn't as terrible as The Suite Life but it's not as good as Hannah Montana. In most of the episodes that I've seen, Cory thinks up some scheme to make tons of money quickly before he's found out and punished by his father. However, most of the punishments end up as mere slaps on the wrist and do nothing to deter Cory from concocting yet another scheme. Meanwhile, Sophie may be cute but she is extremely spoiled. Nothing will turn me off faster than an obnoxious spoiled child in a series. So while I can sit through the show for a little while, the novelty of the "new kid in the White House" theme wears off quickly.

Thanks to her friends at school, my daughter has recently started watching Hannah Montana. For those of you without kids, Hannah Montana is a Disney Channel show about a girl that lives a dual life as a pop star and a normal teenager. During the day, she is brown-haired Miley Stewart who goes to school and hangs out with her friends. Fabulous secret powers were revealed to her the day she held aloft her mighty....OK, she doesn't transform into She-Ra. However, with the quick donning of a blonde wig, she does transform into teen pop sensation Hannah Montana. The only people that know her secret are her father/manager, her brother, her bodyguard and her two best friends.

I think most parents have an automatic inclination to dislike any television show that their kid likes. Especially if said kid is in preschool and leftover visions of Teletubbies are dancing in your head. There are some terrible shows in the afternoon/evening blocks on The Disney Channel. (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody? I'm looking right at you.) Hannah Montana isn't so bad. The show's father/daughter pair are played by real life father and daughter Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus. This leaves the door wide open to poke fun of Billy Ray's Achy Breaky days and the show takes full advantage of it. I found myself chuckling when Lily, Miley's best friend on the show, made a joke about Billy Ray's old mullet. Sure, the songs on the show are a bit cheesy but they all have a decent message behind them. Besides, I have to give the show props for giving Miley a wig to use to become Hannah. How many times have we, as an audience, been asked to believe that a pair of glasses or a fake mustache have the ability to make everyone around the main character suddenly think they are a completely different person?

I attempted to figure out when new episodes of the series are aired but came up with nothing. Reruns are shown daily in a variety of time slots. We generally watch it at 7PM. I think new episodes come out on Saturdays, though they also seem to come out on Fridays and Sundays. If you check your local listings for The Disney Channel, you are bound to come up with at least a couple of episodes. Give it a try. I bet you'll be finding yourself humming along to some Hannah songs in no time.