Line #85 Series/SydneyToTheMax


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/p16265803_b_v12_ab.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"The more things change, the more they stay the same".]]
3
4	->''Like father, like daughter, we don't always agree,\
5	But looking at you is like looking at me,\
6	The more things change,\
7	The more they stay the same!\
8	Like father, like daughter, from different times,\
9	Taking all the best, from your decade and mine,\
10	The more things change,\
11	The more they stay the same!\
12	The more they stay the same!''
13	--> -- '''Opening theme''', performed by Ruth Righi and Dan Conklin
14
15	''Sydney to the Max'' is a Creator/DisneyChannel KidCom created by Mark Reisman, starring Creator/RuthRighi and Creator/IanReedKesler.
16
17	Set in the present day with flashbacks to 1992, the comedy revolves around middle schooler Sydney Reynolds who lives with her single dad Max in the house he grew up in, along with her progressive grandmother Judy - three generations under one roof.
18
19	Sydney navigates life in middle school along with her best friend Olive, often getting into comical situations. Max tries his best to understand and support her. Sydney's present-day antics mirror the situations 12-year old Max got himself into in 1992.
20
21	The series premiered on January 25th, 2019. It was renewed for a second season on May 23, 2019 which began with a Christmas episode on December 13, 2019, followed by the rest of the season starting March 23, 2020. A third season was commissioned on November 21, 2019 and started airing on March 19, 2021, eventually ending on November 26, 2021. Ruth Righi confirmed on January 1, 2022, that the show was cancelled and will not be returning for a fourth season, possibly due to moving on to focus on her role in the new Disney Junior show ''[[WesternAnimation/Eureka2022 Eureka!]]''.
22
23	----
24	!! ''Sydney to the Max'' contains examples of:
25	* TheNineties: The decade in which Max grew up in. The series often features flashbacks to the 1990s.
26	* AbsentAnimalCompanion: The end of "Who Let the Dogs In" has Sydney find Max's old pet turtle, Hawk, hiding in the walls, and he allows her to keep him. However, Hawk hasn't appeared since that episode.
27	* ActorAllusion:
28	** In one episode, Grandma Judy tells Sydney that someone she knows thinks all cats are witches, supposing that he watches too much television. Her actress Creator/CarolineRhea starred on ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' with a cat who once was a witch.
29	** In the HalloweenEpisode, she is not only dressed as a witch but jokes that she wishes she had a talking cat. When Max says cats don't talk, she says "They do in my world".
30	* AnAesop: Every episode has one, relating to the problem Sydney has throughout.
31	* AgeCut: Sometimes used on Max when the episode transitions to (and sometimes from) the flashbacks, combined with MatchCut.
32	* ArmorPiercingResponse: In "The Hunt for the Rad October", Sydney changes her mind about giving up trick-or-treating when a girl dressed as a strawberry gives her this mention:
33	-->'''Strawberry Girl:''' Thanks. I don't care what anyone says, Halloween's the best.
34	* AscendedExtra: A younger version of Sydney's late mother becomes a recurring character in Season 3 as part of the overarching arc where Max slowly gains the confidence to confess his love for her.
35	* BabyTalk: Maggie, the woman Max dates in "Can't Hardly Date", is a ''huge'' offender of this trope.
36	* BirthdayEpisode:
37	** "As Bad as She Gets" is set on Max's birthday.
38	** "Going the Green Mile" for Emmy.
39	** "Thirteen Candles" switches between Sydney and Max’s 13th birthday.
40	** "The Bat Mitzvah Planner" for Olive and Leo.
41	* BittersweetEnding: Shows up frequently.
42	** "Night Not at the Museum": Sydney chooses to accept her punishment, meaning she misses the Pop-Up Cake Museum and won't be able to see it again for probably a long time, but she's on better terms with Max.
43	** "Baby One More Rhyme": Sydney's song doesn't get picked, but Ricky says her song is only suitable for her, which inspires her to be a singer and songwriter.
44	* BottleEpisode: The A-plot of "I Know What You Did Last Sleepover" takes place completely inside the Reynolds house.
45	* BreakTheHaughty: Sydney has one hit her in "Night Not at the Museum" when she hears Max's voicemails and realizes he really does care about her, thus she gives up and accepts her punishment, meaning she misses the Pop-Up Cake Museum.
46	* CannotSpitItOut: In the 90s subplot of Season 3, Max finds confessing his feelings to Alisha totally difficult. One time he tried IM-ing his feelings to her over the computer, but he accidentally tells another random boy who had a FriendlessBackground, and makes him his best friend.
47	* TheChessmaster: Sophia's mother is this toward Max as well as a ControlFreak. She manipulates Max into supporting the phone ban when she brings up test scores dropping due to being distracted, and she's the reason why Sydney's attempts to get out of missing the Pop-Up Cake Museum fail.
48	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: The Season 2 finale "Thirteen Candles" reveals that Max and Alisha, Leo's cousin, met at his 13th birthday. Their friendship continues in Season 3, when Alisha (and her parents) move in temporarily with Leo and his family.
49	* ChristmasEpisode: "How The Syd Stole Christmas" in Season 2.
50	* ComedicUnderwearExposure: Max accidentally drops underwear with his name written on it in the hallway at school.
51	* CoolOldLady: Sydney's grandmother, Judy, is said to be hip and progressive. Max often has to rely on her in order to better understand Sydney.
52	* ControlFreak: Sophia's mother Angela has this attitude, usually toward Max.
53	* CousinOliver: In the middle of Season 3, Sydney's spunky 7-year-old cousin from Georgia, Lexi, moves in with the Reynolds for the summer.
54	* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Ruth Righi performs the theme song with Creator/DanConklin.
55	* DownerEnding: At the end of Season 3’s “Boy Story,” Sydney and Harry [[SecondActBreakup put a pause on their relationship]] when Sydney realizes that spending all her time with Harry is preventing him from making new friends.
56	* DropInCharacter: Olive, who constantly spends time at Sydney's house because of the chaos her four brothers cause.
57	* EarPiercingPlot: The episode "Never Been Pierced" deals with Sydney wanting to get her ears pierced like Sophia, but against Judy's wishes. She secretly gets them pierced while on an outing with Mrs. Harris, but when Judy decides to go along with it, Sydney freaks out and has the cashier pretend she's getting pierced for the first time so Judy doesn't suspect a thing. But then Mrs. Harris comes in and reveals Sydney already got pierced behind Judy's back, and Sydney was in for it.
58	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Sydney's hair changes partway into Season 3, having ditched her straight hair for a crimpy African bun to get more in touch with her Black side and wearing it naturally.
59	* FeudEpisode:
60	** "I Know What You Did Last Sleepover" for Sydney and Olive.
61	** "My Best Friend's Ending" for Emmy and Sophia.
62	* FinalSeasonCasting: Sydney's cousin Lexi from Georgia was introduced in the final episodes of the final season.
63	* FirstPeriodPanic: In Season 2, Sydney drops out of a concert because she’s afraid of having an accident and revealing to the rest of the school that she got her period. Fortunately she reconsiders when she finds out one of her friends has been hiding her period because of her embarrassment and she realizes it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
64	* FlashBack: The series features flashbacks to the '90s, when Max was a kid.
65	* FlashBackEcho: The show's flashbacks with Max parallel what's happening with Sydney in the present. For example, in "Can't Dye This", Sydney tries to rebel against Max and dye her hair, while in the flashback, Max tries to rebel against his mom and bleach his hair so he can join a skateboarding gang.
66	* ForegoneConclusion: In the 90s subplot, Max has to confess his feelings for Alisha and the two have to become a couple at some point later in the series, given that Sydney exists in the present day.
67	* FourGirlEnsemble: Sydney is the TeamMom, Olive is the smart but brash one, Emmy is TheDitz, and Sophia is the tomboy.
68	* GoodTimesMontage: One occurs in "Who Let The Dogs In" as young Max spends time with his pet turtle Hawk.
69	* GoneHorriblyRight: In "As Bad as She Gets", Leo considers moving back to Portland and setting up an office there, but his son LJ doesn't want to move as he will miss his friends back home. So Sydney and LJ steal bikes from the store to make them appear as bad influences in an attempt to cancel the move. Their plan works too well - not only does Leo call off the move, it nearly destroys his and Max's friendship.
70	* GreenAesop: The main lesson of "Going the Green Mile".
71	* HappyBirthdayToYou: In "Thirteen Candles", the young Alisha sings this at Max's thirteenth birthday.
72	* HalfArcSeason: The 90s subplots in Season 3 have a more serialized plot line which showed how Max fell in love with Alisha and slowly gained the confidence to confess his feelings for her.
73	* {{Hypocrite}}: In the first episode Judy called Max unreasonable for not letting Sydney dye her hair. The flashbacks show Judy not letting Max dye his hair when he was Sydney's age.
74	* [[LikeFatherLikeSon Like Father, Like Daughter]]: The main point of the series revolves around this trope, as it's meant to highlight just how similar Max's daughter is to him.
75	* LocalHangout: Reynolds Rides, the bike shop Max works at.
76	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Every episode title is a pun on a '90s movie or song.
77	* InformedJudaism: Olive was said to celebrate Hanukkah in the ChristmasEpisode, making her Jewish. Further revealed in "The Bat Mitzvah Planner".
78	* InvisibleParents: Olive's parents have yet to make appearances, aside from mentions. Same goes for Leo. Olive's mom appears in the episode "Rock the float".
79	* MeaningfulRename: Sydney's friendship circle was originally called the "Dream Team", but to Emmy's request, she renames them the "Four Amigas" so it sounds better.
80	* MissingMom: Sydney's mother Alisha passed away five years prior to the show.
81	* MultinationalTeam: Sydney (half-Black), Olive (Jewish), Emmy (half-Latina) and Sophia (American).
82	* MyHairCameOutGreen: In "Can't Dye This", Sydney tries to dye her hair and it comes out rainbow-colored. In the episode's flashback, Max tries to bleach his hair and it comes out red.
83	* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted with extreme prejudice in the episode "Girlz II Women", which is about Sydney having her first period, making it the second Disney show to so much as mention the topic since ''Series/BestFriendsWhenever''. What makes this so unprecedented is how this episode marks the first time periods are discussed in detail as opposed to a passing mention, and ends with a life lesson on how Sydney shouldn't be ashamed of it.
84	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: In "Can't Dye This", Max accidentally kisses a student instead of Sydney. Olive keeps reminding him of it by sending him [=GIFs=] of the incident.
85	* PlayingSick: In "Caved and Confused", Judy pretends Sydney is sick so she can cover for her as she watches ''Hot Shot Chef'' with Max.
86	* PlotHole: Sydney says in "Can't Hardly Date" it has been five years since her mother died, but the flashback to the last Christmas with her in the ChristmasEpisode and "Thirteen Candles" say she died ''four'' years ago, which could be impossible as she should already be dead by this time.
87	* PopCulturePunEpisodeTitle: Being a series that involves flashbacks to the '90s, there's a good amount of '90s references in the episode titles:
88	** "Can't Dye This" - [[Music/MCHammer "U Can't Touch This"]].
89	** "Who Let the Dogs In" - "Who Let The Dogs Out?"
90	** "The Parent Track" - ''Film/{{The Parent Trap\|1998}}''.
91	** "The Lyin' King" - ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''.
92	** "Caved and Confused" - ''Film/DazedAndConfused''.
93	** "Can't Hardly Date" - ''Film/CantHardlyWait''.
94	** "There's Something About Zach" - ''Film/TheresSomethingAboutMary''.
95	** "Nuthin' but a Dance Thang" - [[Music/DrDre "Nuthin' but a 'G 'Thang"]].
96	** "Never Been Pierced" - ''Film/NeverBeenKissed''.
97	** "Mo' Grandmas, Mo' Problems" - "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems".
98	** "I Know What You Did Last Sleepover" - ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer''.
99	** "Good Grade Hunting" - ''Film/GoodWillHunting''.
100	** "Adventures in Babe-sitting" - ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting''.
101	** "You've Got Female" - ''Film/YouveGotMail''.
102	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: According to the wiki site for the show, Sydney was intended to be a skateboarder like her father was when he was her age. However, this changed when the writers realized Ruth Righi (Sydney's actress) could play the bass guitar and couldn't ride on a skateboard.
103	* TheReveal: The season 2 finale reveals Leo and Alisha are actually cousins meaning Leo and Max are actually cousins in law
104	* ShipperOnDeck: Olive, Emmy and Sofia to Sydney and Harry. Also Judy to Max and Alisha in the past.
105	* ShoutOut: Multiple:
106	** Using PopCulturePunEpisodeTitle:
107	*** "Can't Dye This" - [[Music/MCHammer "U Can't Touch This"]].
108	*** "Who Let the Dogs In" - "Who Let The Dogs Out?"
109	*** "The Parent Track" - ''Film/{{The Parent Trap\|1998}}''.
110	*** "The Lyin' King" - ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''.
111	*** "Caved and Confused" - ''Film/DazedAndConfused''.
112	*** "Can't Hardly Date" - ''Film/CantHardlyWait''.
113	*** "There's Something About Zach" - ''Film/TheresSomethingAboutMary''.
114	*** "Nuthin' but a Dance Thang" - [[Music/DrDre "Nuthin' but a 'G 'Thang"]].
115	*** "Never Been Pierced" - ''Film/NeverBeenKissed''.
116	*** "Mo' Grandmas, Mo' Problems" - "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems".
117	*** "I Know What You Did Last Sleepover" - ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer''.
118	*** "Good Grade Hunting" - ''Film/GoodWillHunting''.
119	*** "Adventures in Babe-sitting" - ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting''.
120	*** "You've Got Female" - ''Film/YouveGotMail''.
121	** In "Can't Dye This", Young Max is shown wearing a Music/{{Nirvana}} shirt. And he says that his mom went to see ''Film/HomeAlone''.
122	* SickEpisode: "Little Shop of Reynolds" deals with Max catching the flu right before he is to host a sale at Reynolds Rides.
123	* SlumberParty: "I Know What You Did Last Sleepover" has Olive stay over at the Reynolds' house for a week while her parents are away. It quickly falls apart when both Sydney and Olive discover each others' odd differences in their family.
124	* SpitShake: Max and Leo do this after making a pact to remain best friends no matter what their futures may hold.
125	* StrictlyFormula: Every episode follows a similar plot: Sydney wants to do something but Max declines, but she proceeds to do so anyway behind his back. Flashbacks to Max’s childhood in 1992 show he had the same situations as Sydney did with similar results. When Max out Sydney disobeyed, he explains about the same problem from his childhood and the two make up with each other.
126	* TakeOurWordForIt: Every time the characters watch TV, we never actually see what they're watching. Examples would be the ''Doll of Death'' movie in "Adventures in Babe-Sitting", and the ''Hot Shot Chef'' show and Ricky Angelo musical ''Doo Wop Days'' in "Caved and Confused". A non-TV example would be the Sixteen Oranges concert in "The Parent Track".
127	* TalkingInYourSleep: One of Olive's bad habits. Sydney does not take this okay.
128	* TeamHandStack: The Four Amigas have one together whenever they agree on something or vow to do things right.
129	* TimeToMove: In "As Bad As She Gets", Max gets a visit from the adult Leo who announces he’s moving back to Portland to be with his friend more. However, Leo's son LJ doesn't want to move and enlists Sydney and Olive in sabotaging the plans; unfortunately, the results are too good.
130	* TinySchoolboy: Max is noticeably shorter than his 8th grade classmates at the start of Season 3.
131	* VerySpecialEpisode: To date, these have occurred OnceASeason.
132	** "You've Got Female" is one about women's rights.
133	** "Girlz II Women" centers around the women's menstrual cycle and the consequences of such.
134	** "Do the Write Thing" focuses on microaggressions.
135	* WhamLine: "Growing up we almost lost the house a few times, I didn't tell you because a kid shouldn't have to worry about that." Suddenly all the times it seemed like Judy was being unfair made sense.
136	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Leo has yet to appear as an adult in present day, but where he is now remains to be seen.
137	** In "As Bad As She Gets," it’s revealed that Leo runs a tech company, lives in San Francisco, and has a son around Sydney's age.
138	* YouAreGrounded:
139	** In the first episode, Max tells Sydney she's grounded after catching her dying her hair behind his back.
140	** The plot of "Night Not at the Museum" revolves around Sydney being grounded by Max for missing one too many curfews, leaving her unable to go to the Pop-Up Cake Museum which is for one night only.

Context Series / SydneyToTheMax