Drake & Josh (partially found widescreen version of Nickelodeon sitcom episodes; 2004-2007)

A screenshot of "The Bet" in widescreen.

Status: Partially Found

Drake & Josh is a live-action sitcom made by Dan Schneider that first aired on Nickelodeon on January 11th, 2004, until its series finale on September 16th, 2007, with the additional Christmas TV movie Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh airing December 5th, 2008.

The series focuses on Drake Bell as Drake Parker and Josh Peck as Josh Nichols as they are stepbrothers and roommates, alongside Nancy Sullivan as Audrey Parker-Nichols, Jonathan Goldstein as Walter Nichols and Miranda Cosgrove as Megan Parker.

Availability

While Season 1 is shot in 4:3 full screen, the rest of the seasons are shot in 16:9 widescreen. But when the series first aired on Nickelodeon in 2004, the channel aired Seasons 2-4 in 4:3, which can be found on home video/digital releases of the show. This is common as TV wasn't switched from analog to digital until June 12th, 2009.^[1]

However, when the series re-ran on Nickelodeon (via the HD feed which started on March 9th, 2008^[2]) until December 18, 2014 and on TeenNick (via the HD feed which started in September 2016^{[citation needed]}) until January 16, 2022, both broadcasted some of the 16:9 versions of episodes from Season 4, and some of the broadcasts made their way onto the internet via users on MEGA, ShareMania, and Google Drive.

On January 9th, 2012, 7 of the widescreen episodes were released on iTunes and the Microsoft Store under the "Brotherly Bonding" bundle, which is still available to purchase as of March 2024.^[3]^[4] Interestingly, the three episodes that are described briefly in the package's description ("Really Big Shrimp", "Who's Got Game" and "Battle of Panthatar") are not included.

The widescreen version of the Season 4 intro naturally holds widescreen clips from other episodes like "The Great Doheny". Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider have also posted widescreen clips on their YouTube channels (excluding the NickRewind YouTube channel due to cropping the clips). Some footage has resurfaced through references shown in other Dan Schneider productions, including Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious, Sam and Cat, Henry Danger and Game Shakers.

Episodes like "Sheep Thrills" are allegedly left unaired due to production errors. And despite some lost episodes having once aired on the HD feed of Nickelodeon, they were not in true HD or widescreen as seen in footage elsewhere.

As of 2024, the rest of the widescreen episodes have yet to resurface.

Seasons 2 and 3

It's been speculated that although Seasons 2 and 3 were shot in widescreen, they may not have been edited into widescreen versions of the episodes. Only Season 4 has any kind of full cuts of the episodes in widescreen available (being directly before iCarly started, which was edited in 16:9 from the start) whilst widescreen footage of Seasons 2 and 3 primarily exists through the appearances of Drake and Josh in other Schneider productions. Through at least one example of the blooper footage of "Football" seen in the Sam & Cat episode "#BlooperEpisode", it's apparent that the widescreen footage does not line up with how the scene is shot in the 4:3 version to simply be cropped into 4:3 like iCarly and other shows were, but rather presumably always edited from the raw widescreen footage into analog 4:3 using pan and scan that notably shifts the 4:3 frame of the footage between shots. This may be further supported by the sloppy nature of the widescreen versions of Season 4 episodes that blatantly leave black bars of absent picture at the side of some shots, suggesting they were filmed in 16:9 but still shifted left or right to better fit being cropped into the 4:3 version. Thus it can be assumed that the appearances of 16:9 Seasons 2 and 3 in other shows are merely incomplete shot-by-shot edits from the original 16:9 footage made especially for those shows and that only the raw footage exists for those episodes as anything to be "found" unless Nickelodeon were to make a new widescreen remaster of the seasons, which seems doubtful.

Quinton Reviews' segment on the subject (31:16).

Widescreen Episode List

Season 4

Episode	Status
Josh Runs Into Oprah	Found
Vicious Tiberius	Lost
The Wedding	Found
Mindy Loves Josh	Lost
Who's Got Game?	Lost
The Great Doheny	Lost
I Love Sushi	Found
The Storm	Found
My Dinner with Bobo	Lost
Treehouse	Lost
Josh is Done	Found
Eric Punches Drake	Found
Megan's Revenge	Found
Steered Straight	Lost
Megan's First Kiss	Lost
Battle Of Panthatar	Lost
Really Big Shrimp	Partially Found
Helicopter	Lost
Dance Contest	Found

Gallery

Screenshots

Widescreen introduction from Season 4.
Screenshots from the widescreen version of "The Storm."
Screenshot from the widescreen version of "Battle of Panthatar" (1/2)
Screenshot from the widescreen version of "Battle of Panthatar" (2/2)
A still from the behind the scenes of "Really Big Shrimp" showing the shot in widescreen.