'Drake & Josh' Still Going Strong Years After Being Canceled: 'Never Thought It’d Be So Simple'

Nearly two decades after the final episode aired, hit Nickelodeon show, "Drake & Josh" remains a beloved staple with endless nostalgia. With memorable quotes and catchphrases, timeless humor, and a feeling of home, the show continues to attract new viewers of all ages.

Drake Bell, one of the stars of "Drake & Josh," has acknowledged the show's lasting impact and shared with The Blast how things were in the early days of the show up until present day. He even shared that a new generation of fans, who are so young they weren't even born by the time the show was canceled, have been popping up and it makes him smile.

Bell told The Blast that when "Drake & Josh" premiered on Nickelodeon back in early 2004, the cast wasn't "famous or popular," but it certainly didn't stay that way for long.

"What's crazy is when we were making the show, we weren't even famous or popular, we were just on a kids' show. That era that we were on Nickelodeon, we were seen as oh you're on a kids' show, maybe one day you'll be on a real show. One day you'll be on 'That 70s Show,' but you're on a kids' show right now," Bell shared with The Blast exclusively.

"Now, people view it as oh, it's Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez and Zac Efron and oh these shows make stars and are real shows. They have a totally different perspective on the shows now."

He explained that back when they first started filming the show, they were "just kids" going back and forth from home to the set and not often getting recognized, but that didn't last for too long.

"Now, I can't walk two steps anywhere in the world without someone stopping and saying, 'I love your show,'" he said. "And it's wild, I don't know if it's the streaming."

At a recent show, Bell saw a young child in the front row singing along to every single one of his songs. It intrigued him.

"I had a show in Florida not too long ago, and this 9-year-old kid in the front row singing every single lyric to every single song and I'm like you weren't even alive when we were canceled," Bell told The Blast. "The show was already canceled and then you were born, and now you know every lyric to every song."

Bell said he was surprised to see a child that young singing along to his songs, so he just had to meet him. He invited the child and his mom go backstage after the show.

"And so he came back and he had like this hat on and he's like, 'Oh, I gotta show you something' and he takes off his hat and he shakes his hair and it goes in his face like mine on 'Drake & Josh' and then he does one of the flirt lines with the girl. He's like, 'If I wasn't here, you'd be the most attractive person in this room,'" he continued.

"And I was like, "Oh my God' and his mom said, 'Every day. He watches every day.' I was like, he wasn't even alive yet, it's crazy."

He continued by comparing "Drake & Josh" to "Friends" or "Seinfeld" and how people find those shows for the first time and become "obsessed."

"It's been really amazing to watch the evolution of the legacy that has become 'Drake & Josh,' he said.

When the conversation shifted to discuss "Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh," the series' holiday movie that came out a year after the show was canceled, there were smiles all around. The Blast reminisced about the fact that it's a household holiday favorite and Bell said, "I love it."

"That was a great movie to make because it was so fun. We get canceled and that's always like, your family, you've been working together for so many years, it's like the rug's pulled out from under you and your life is totally going to change, you don't see these people every day. It's high school but longer," he explained.

"So we were done with the show and the producer called me and was like, hey, we realized that we never made a Christmas episode of 'Drake & Josh' and this was like a year after we were already canceled. And I was like, yeah, we never did. He said it really bummed him out because every great sitcom has a Christmas episode and I'm so bummed we didn't do that."

Bell was then asked if he wanted to do a Christmas movie, and he immediately said, "Yes, dude!"

"I was like, 'Wait, like everyone get back together and go back to our characters and the sets? Yes, dude!'" he said. "It was like a year or two after being canceled and we all got back together and walking on the set like oh there's our bedroom and the living room and the Premiere Theater."

It was a throwback Thursday to remember at Easy's Cocktail Lounge inside ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas! Bell performed old hits and new tunes for over an hour to a packed house of excited diehard fans. The evening included music by Bell, some fun commentary, "Drake & Josh" themed drinks, and an overall feeling of nostalgic fun and excitement.

When asked about his gig at Easy's, Bell said the venue is "very classic, retro vibe that I love."

"Just being able to perform in Vegas is so awesome. The history here is incredible," he told The Blast exclusively. "Easy's is such an awesome venue. I'm nostalgic. I love anything that has that classic, classy, Rat Pack, that bygone era of Vegas and Easy's has that vibe. I feel like that's where you would've gone to see that 3 a.m. show of Dean Martin."

Before the show began at Easy's on Thursday night, Bell explained to The Blast that much of his life can be found in his lyrics.

"It’s interesting, when I write songs, it’s really like I don’t write in a journal or a diary, I write songs and so I’ll tell a lot of people, if you really want to know what’s going on in my life and in my world and what is happening in my relationships and my family, you can figure it all out if you listen to the records," he shared.

"But if you just read articles about me or read the press or the news or have some preconceived notion of me because of the character I played on the show, it’s gonna be a completely different narrative than the realty."

After the documentary, "Quiet on Set," came out, fans started to realize that Bell included a lot of what was going on in his life in his lyrics all along.

"You can go back to my first album, and fans, since the documentary came out last year, and all this new information about my past come out, they’ve gone back to my old albums and were like, ' Woah, now we get what he’s saying here and wow, he’s been talking about this from the beginning. Oh, we thought this was about this," he continued. "So now I always tell people if you really want to know, it’s all there, just go to some of the records.”