Know thy audience is one of the commandments of entertainment, and the Disney Channel certainly takes that to heart, as evidenced not solely by the recent smash success of High School Musical and its sequel, but by some of the original series they've been cranking out over the last several years. Releasing on DVD this week are compendiums of two such titles, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Cory in the House, the latter a spin-off of sorts of Raven Knows Best.



Excepting the fact that in college my best friend wrote and directed a vastly superior, similarly named stageplay, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody is a pleasant enough diversion for the moppet set. Real-life twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse — who've parlayed their starring gig opposite Adam Sandler in Big Daddy into a seeming decade's worth of Tiger Beat pin-up covers without (yet) going wild in typical adolescent Hollywood ways — star as the titular 12-year-old twins in this show, who live a charmed, shared, hijinks-filled life atop the swank Tipton Hotel in Boston with their mother Carey (Kim Rhoades), a lounge singer. Ashley Tisdale co-stars as Maddie, a down-to-Earth Tipton snack counter girl who moonlights as the pair's babysitter, while Brenda Song co-stars as London Tipton, the wealthy, show-off daughter of the hotel's owner.

Though the inclusion of such a winkingly named heiress would seem to set up the series for plenty of au curant social commentary, it's done more for purposes of contrast, obviously, as this shaggy, genial show has no particular axe to grind. It's more concerned, honestly, with setting up the Sprouse twins as a sort of two-headed Zack Morris for the "tween" set. Not constrained by notions of class, Zack and Cody blithely treat the hotel as their own personal playground, often times much to an exasperated Maddie's consternation. This DVD, sub-titled Sweet Suite Victory, collects three of the show's episodes, and finds the brothers running against one another for class president at school and Maddie competing for a Sweet 16 birthday party. Presented in 1.33:1 full screen with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, the disc comes with a brief gag reel of bloopers and outtakes, as well as an interactive trivia game where co-star Song tests audience familiarity through a series of questions about the show.

Pitched in the same sort of super-demonstrative style, but a bit less enamored with its own cuteness, Cory in the House centers around the entrepreneurial schemnig of Cory Baxter (Kyle Massey, above right), who finds himself rubbing elbows with the Washington D.C. elite when his father Victor (Rondell Sheridan, a ringer for NBC's affably gape-mouthed Ron Mott) becomes the personal chef to the president (John D'Aquino). Alongside his friends (Jason Dolley and Maiara Walsh, above left), Cory works up a few money-making schemes while also chatting up the president, who seems to have a lot of free time.

Co-created by Marc Warren and Dennis Rinsler, Cory in the House treats its setting with just the right blend of irreverence and oh-my-bad deference. It also has a nice anchor in the very personable Massey, who conveys confidence, sputtering enthusiasm and youthful gullibility all at once. This DVD includes "Air Force One Too Many" and "Just Desserts," along with two other commercial-free episodes. Likewise housed in a regular Amray plastic case, and presented in 1.33:1 full frame with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track, this DVD comes with two brief supplemental featurettes — a 150-second look at guest star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his time on set, and a four-minute-plus showcase for Raven Symone, who plays Cory's fashion design-inclined sister in an episode that centers around a makeover for the uniforms of the White House tour guides. To purchase the above The Suite Life of Zack & Cody title via Amazon, click here; to purchase the aforementioned Cory in the House title via Amazon, click here. C+/B- (Z&C/Cory) C+ (Discs)