# That's So Raven
**That's So Raven** is an American teen sitcom that aired on [Disney Channel](https://www.edgepedia.org/disney-channel) from January 17, 2003, to 2007, starring [Raven-Symoné](https://www.edgepedia.org/raven-symone) as Raven Baxter, a teenager with psychic visions of the near future that she usually misinterprets while trying to change or fulfill them.[1](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/thats-so-raven) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865) Created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman, the series ran for four seasons and 100 episodes and became a turning point in Disney Channel's approach to original live-action programming.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865) • [3](https://www.avclub.com/that-s-so-raven-changed-disney-channel-in-ways-no-one-c-1798247263)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Run | Premiered January 17, 2003, on Disney Channel; four seasons, 100 episodes, ending in 2007[1](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/thats-so-raven) • [3](https://www.avclub.com/that-s-so-raven-changed-disney-channel-in-ways-no-one-c-1798247263) |
| Creators | Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865) |
| Lead | Raven-Symoné as Raven Baxter, a teen who receives brief psychic glimpses of the future[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865) |
| Main cast | Orlando Brown (Eddie), Anneliese van der Pol (Chelsea), Kyle Massey (Cory), Rondell Sheridan, and T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh[4](https://shows.disney.com/thats-so-raven) |
| Channel milestones | Disney Channel's first original multi-camera show; first Disney Channel series to reach 100 episodes and a fourth season[5](https://time.com/4547877/raven-symone-disney-channel/) • [6](https://d23.com/icons-of-disney-storytelling-raven-symone/) |
| Awards | Two Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children's Program (2005 and 2007); NAACP Image Award winner[6](https://d23.com/icons-of-disney-storytelling-raven-symone/) • [1](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/thats-so-raven) |
| Spin-offs | *Cory in the House* and *Raven's Home* (premiered July 21, 2017)[7](https://d23.com/a-to-z/ravens-home-television/) |
## Premise and format
Each episode is built around a vision. Raven Baxter periodically receives brief psychic glimpses of the near future, and her interpretation of a vision becomes the catalyst for disorder: she tries to prevent what she saw, or to make it happen, and her interventions produce the comedic trouble the plot resolves.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865) • [8](https://cleojournal.com/2016/08/18/the-sassy-slapstick-of-raven-symone-in-thats-so-raven/) The visions are not presented as fixed predictions; Raven is often able to derail them by directly intervening, and her impulsive, sometimes self-centered personality drives the burlesque situations that follow.[3](https://www.avclub.com/that-s-so-raven-changed-disney-channel-in-ways-no-one-c-1798247263) • [8](https://cleojournal.com/2016/08/18/the-sassy-slapstick-of-raven-symone-in-thats-so-raven/)
The show never explains where Raven's powers come from. At no point does the character question the origin or a larger purpose of her ability, and no origin story is offered.[3](https://www.avclub.com/that-s-so-raven-changed-disney-channel-in-ways-no-one-c-1798247263) An early episode, "Test of Friendship," established the pattern: Raven sees her friend Eddie getting an F on his Spanish midterm, a grade that would disqualify him from the school basketball team, and must decide whether to help him cheat, already expressing ambivalence about her power.[3](https://www.avclub.com/that-s-so-raven-changed-disney-channel-in-ways-no-one-c-1798247263)
Raven is supported by her best friends Eddie ([Orlando Brown](https://www.edgepedia.org/orlando-brown-actor)) and Chelsea ([Anneliese van der Pol](https://www.edgepedia.org/anneliese-van-der-pol)), and by her younger brother Cory ([Kyle Massey](https://www.edgepedia.org/kyle-massey)), a precocious schemer who is both an annoyance and a resource to his sister.[4](https://shows.disney.com/thats-so-raven) Storylines center on friendship, jealousy, crushes, sibling rivalry, and parents, with typical teen themes of shopping, flirting, and dating.[1](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/thats-so-raven) The series is rated TV-G.[4](https://shows.disney.com/thats-so-raven)
## Production and channel milestones
**A first for the channel.** *That's So Raven* was Disney Channel's first original multi-camera sitcom, and Raven-Symoné became the first African-American woman to have her name in a comedy series title.[5](https://time.com/4547877/raven-symone-disney-channel/) Before the show, Disney Channel enforced a "65-episode rule" that almost invariably led to the cancellation of its original series, animated and live-action alike, because a 65-episode run of five weekly episodes filled 13 weeks of new programming and fit the channel's rigid quarterly scheduling. *That's So Raven* broke that limit, and the channel's success with the series led it to fundamentally rethink its approach to original programming.[3](https://www.avclub.com/that-s-so-raven-changed-disney-channel-in-ways-no-one-c-1798247263) It became the network's first series to cross the 100-episode mark and the first to reach a fourth season.[6](https://d23.com/icons-of-disney-storytelling-raven-symone/)
The series earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Children's Program, in 2005 and 2007, and won [NAACP Image Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/naacp-image-awards), including Outstanding Children's Program.[6](https://d23.com/icons-of-disney-storytelling-raven-symone/) • [9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865/awards/) One scholarly account claims the show captured 200 million viewers worldwide in 2008.[10](https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/E0/04/46/71/00001/OGLESBY_C.pdf) On IMDb, the series holds a 6.7/10 rating from about 23,000 users.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865/ratings/)
## Representation and themes
Although it was not the first Disney Channel show to feature a non-white lead, the series is one of the most cited programs in discussions of representation on the network.[12](https://www.whitman.edu/documents/academics/whitman-undergraduate-conference/REVISED-2013-WUC-program.pdf) • [17](https://www.nexttv.com/news/disney-channel-s-diversity-vision-160861) A 2018 sociology thesis by Keaton Hughes of New College of Florida, which compared four Disney Channel series of the early 2000s, found that *That's So Raven* and *The Proud Family*, the two shows centered on Black families, carried racialized cultural markers that the white-family shows in the sample did not, while also depicting the families as alike in many respects.[13](https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5528/) Kid and parent reviewers collected by Common Sense Media describe the show as tackling issues such as racism and body image alongside its comedy, and the series won a Genesis Award for children's programming for the episode "A Goat's Tale."
[1](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/thats-so-raven) • [9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865/awards/)
Raven-Symoné's physical comedy is central to the show's style. A retrospective in the journal *cléo* credits her performance, combining slapstick and a sassy persona, with convincing audiences of the character, and notes that the series was broadcast in France under the title *Phénomène Raven*.[8](https://cleojournal.com/2016/08/18/the-sassy-slapstick-of-raven-symone-in-thats-so-raven/) Later performers have cited the show as a formative influence; the actress Zendaya has said she grew up watching it and that it taught her about comedy.[14](https://www.cinemablend.com/television/zendaya-discuss-what-shes-learned-disney-channel-vet-raven-symone)
## Spin-offs and legacy
The series generated two spin-offs. *Cory in the House* followed the younger brother, and *Raven's Home*, which premiered on Disney Channel on July 21, 2017, reunited Raven-Symoné and Anneliese van der Pol as adult best friends and divorced mothers raising their children in one household; Raven's son Booker has inherited her psychic ability.[7](https://d23.com/a-to-z/ravens-home-television/) Raven-Symoné executive produced *Raven's Home*, returning to the role a decade after the original series ended.[5](https://time.com/4547877/raven-symone-disney-channel/) By 2021, the cast and crew of *Raven's Home* marked 100 episodes of that series and 200 episodes of Raven-Symoné playing Raven Baxter across both shows.[15](https://video.disney.com/watch/raven-s-home-cast-and-crew-celebrate-100-episodes-5eaca2700d9bcebd6b4f2a72)
Both series stream on Disney+, and the original remains one of the channel's defining early-2000s programs, part of the slate of sitcoms that consolidated Disney Channel's golden era before which the channel drew mainly on animation.[15](https://video.disney.com/watch/raven-s-home-cast-and-crew-celebrate-100-episodes-5eaca2700d9bcebd6b4f2a72) • [16](https://elpais.com/gente/2024-10-17/miley-cyrus-demi-lovato-raven-symone-y-el-lado-oscuro-de-la-epoca-dorada-de-disney-channel.html)
## References
1. [That's So Raven – Parents' Guide & TV Review, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/thats-so-raven)
2. [That's So Raven (TV Series 2003–2007), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865)
3. [That's So Raven changed Disney Channel in ways no one could have predicted, The A.V. Club](https://www.avclub.com/that-s-so-raven-changed-disney-channel-in-ways-no-one-c-1798247263)
4. [That's So Raven, Disney Shows](https://shows.disney.com/thats-so-raven)
5. [Raven-Symoné to Star in That's So Raven Spin-Off Coming to Disney Channel, Time](https://time.com/4547877/raven-symone-disney-channel/)
6. [Icons of Disney Storytelling: Raven-Symoné, D23](https://d23.com/icons-of-disney-storytelling-raven-symone/)
7. [Raven's Home (television), D23](https://d23.com/a-to-z/ravens-home-television/)
8. [The Sassy Slapstick of Raven-Symoné in That's So Raven, cléo](https://cleojournal.com/2016/08/18/the-sassy-slapstick-of-raven-symone-in-thats-so-raven/)
9. [That's So Raven – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865/awards/)
10. [Oglesby, thesis, University of Florida](https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/E0/04/46/71/00001/OGLESBY_C.pdf)
11. [That's So Raven – Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300865/ratings/)
12. [Television and Its Discontents, Whitman College](https://www.whitman.edu/documents/academics/whitman-undergraduate-conference/REVISED-2013-WUC-program.pdf)
13. [Hughes, Keaton, "Sanitized Diversity: Race and Family on Disney Channel in the Early 2000s," New College of Florida](https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5528/)
14. [Zendaya Discuss What She's Learned From Fellow Disney Channel Vet Raven-Symoné, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/television/zendaya-discuss-what-shes-learned-disney-channel-vet-raven-symone)
15. [Raven's Home Cast and Crew Celebrate 100 Episodes, Disney Video](https://video.disney.com/watch/raven-s-home-cast-and-crew-celebrate-100-episodes-5eaca2700d9bcebd6b4f2a72)
16. [Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Raven-Symoné y el lado oscuro de la época dorada de Disney Channel, El País](https://elpais.com/gente/2024-10-17/miley-cyrus-demi-lovato-raven-symone-y-el-lado-oscuro-de-la-epoca-dorada-de-disney-channel.html)
17. [Disney Channel’s Diversity Vision](https://www.nexttv.com/news/disney-channel-s-diversity-vision-160861)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy series › Family and household sitcoms › Contemporary family sitcoms*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license