The "Even Stevens" Cast Addressed Their Thoughts On "Honey Boy" And Shared Behind-The-Scenes Stories In A Zoom Reunion

The cast and crew shared A LOT about their time on the show.

Can you believe it's been 20 years since Even Stevens first aired?! That's right, it's been two decades since the Stevens family made their mark on Disney Channel and taught every millennial kid the year the US went to the moon.

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On Wednesday, most the Even Stevens cast and crew (sans Shia LaBeouf and Donna Pescow, who played mom Eileen) reunited on Zoom to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary for a nearly two-hour chat. It was incredibly wholesome and they were all thrilled to see each other again.

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They all reminisced about their time on the show and shared some great behind-the-scenes stories. These are the highlights of their chat:

1. Christy Carlson Romano revealed that the show was originally titled Spivey's Kid Brother. The Stevens family's last name was supposed to be Spivey. Thankfully, the name was changed. Even Stevens has a much better ring to it, don't you think?

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2. Steven Anthony Lawrence, who played Beans, gave the cast the sweetest third season wrap party gift: an engraved star.

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Nick said his reads: "Nick: Castmates once; friends forever. Love Steven, AKA Beans." How adorable is that?!

3. Executive producer Dennis Rinsler shared Steven's audition story and revealed that Steven was the one who came up with Beans' iconic pirate joke that Louis never let him finish:

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"Steven came in without [any experience]. He maybe did a commercial – that's about it. And he came in to read for the part of Beans. We weren't sure and he said 'Wait a minute, can I tell you a joke? I still remember it Steve, the famous pirate joke," said Dennis.

Steven interjected, saying "The crazy thing is y'all wrote in in the damn script but you didn't book me yet! You could've at least booked me before you used my joke!"

Dennis assured him that he "came with the joke."

Steven then ended up revealing the full version of the joke, saying "So the joke was 'There was a pirate on a ship and the ship was rockin' and a rollin' and the pirate fell off the ship and he lost a leg and then a shark came and bit off his leg. And then he fell off the ship again and then a shark came and bit off his hook. And I go 'Oh, okay, but how did you get the eyepatch? Did you fall overboard and the shark ate [your eye] somehow?' And he goes 'No, no, no, I forgot about me hook and a bird came and pooped in me eye!'

4. Dennis, who wrote "Scrub Day," said that 200 cans of spicy chili were used for the chili vat scene.

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AJ Trauth also said that the actors wrapped themselves in Saran Wrap and had to wear diapers to dive into the chili.

5. The cast and crew revealed that Jim Wise, who played Coach Tugnut, wrote the songs for "Influenza: The Musical."

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You can thank Coach Tugnut for the absolutely iconic "We Went To The Moon (In 1969)."

6. The cast then attempted to sing "We Went To The Moon (In 1969)" but it unfortunately didn't work out well.

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Maybe it'll happen some other time!

7. AJ Trauth shared a story he was told about Shia. Turns out he was just as big of a troublemaker as his character, and introduced himself to all the other kids auditioning for the role of Louis saying "Hi, I'm Shia and I'm playing Louis Stevens."

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Exec producer David Brookwell confirmed this, saying he was alerted that Shia was telling people he had the part. "We had to pull him aside and say 'Dude, what are you doing?' and he was like 'I've got the part, don't I?'"

8. Creator Matt said he's never seen an actor get a part faster than Christy Carlson Romano.

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"She came in in a blue blazer and owned the room. Before she even got into the audition, you go 'That's her. That's her, that's it.' Everybody knew it," he said.

9. And finally, the cast discussed their thoughts on Honey Boy, which is partially based on Shia's time on the show:

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"A lot of fans obviously went and saw Honey Boy, and the takeaway from that [movie] was that it wasn't as great a set as I think all of us fondly remember it to be," said Nick.

"I think that it was a special time at Disney. It was a special time for all of us, and before we end this call, maybe you guys could share something about the show or being on the set. But I want to leave people with a different impression, because we all go through difficult times in our lives, and we all experience moments very different than other people do, but I think that working in show business as long as I had – and I'm sure many of you have worked in show business longer than I – there was nothing but a great sense of community and family on Even Stevens, and we actually all cared about each other."

Steven added, "It's absolutely true. To be real, honestly yeah I saw Honey Boy and it wasn't so much that everything else was so bad, it was that our set really was such a solitude and a home for so many people – cast and crew. We all took a great refuge in coming to work, because it wasn't work; it was coming to see our family."