A sketch featuring Bell and Peck arguing over a piece of shrimp prompted network executives to cast the two actors in their own spin-off, Drake & Josh.

Drake & Josh was a ratings success, garnering 3.2 million viewers for its premiere, and it consistently ranked as one of the most watched series in its demographic during its run.

Other media include books, DVD and VHS releases, promotional singles, and video games based on the series.

Drake is cool and charismatic, having his own band and being popular with girls, yet can be narcissistic and absent-minded, while Josh is intellectual, clumsy, and awkward; yet very loving and caring.

Josh starts working at a local movie theater in the second season, which becomes a key set location for the rest of the series.

Despite their opposite personalities, Drake and Josh have shown multiple times throughout the series that they care deeply about each other and have each others' backs.

[2] Bell and Peck's differing personalities inspired Schneider to create a new show starring them as characters with traits similar to their own.

[3] An unaired pilot episode featured Stephen Furst as Walter Nichols, although he was busy with another project when Drake & Josh was picked up as a series, and Jonathan Goldstein was cast in the role instead.

[10] Production was suspended in late December 2005, after Bell's injury in a car crash,[11][12] prior to which he had filmed three episodes of the fourth season.

[19] As of 2006, Drake & Josh ranked consistently among the 10 most-watched cable shows of the week,[11] and was the top-rated live-action series among children aged 2 to 11 years old.

The boys are told to take Megan to the airport so she can visit her friend in Denver, but they accidentally send her on a flight to Los Angeles.

Beginning in December 2016, Bell and other cast members released a series of short online videos titled Where's Walter?

Bell, Sullivan, and Yvette Nicole Brown reprised their roles for the videos, which involve a search for Walter after he goes missing.

[43] In October 2021, it was reported that the original proposed revival had been cancelled, as a result of production delays and Bell's guilty plea to his recent criminal charges.