Why ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ Thanksgiving Episode Is Still Relevant (Yet Slightly Problematic) Today

OK, so it’s not exactly a Thanksgiving episode. The “Boston Tea Party” episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, though, helps to tell the story of how America became a nation. Unfortunately, some parts of the Disney Channel-created episode didn’t exactly hold up. 

This season 2 episode tells the story of the Boston Tea Party 

Fans celebrated a few holidays with The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. There was a Christmas special, a haunted hotel room episode for Halloween, and to get fans in the Thanksgiving spirit, there was an episode about the founding of America. 

It’s all prompted by a tree that’s about to be cut down. Cody wants to write a strongly worded letter. However, inspired by a portrait of the colonists outside the hotel, Zack falls asleep and dreams of life as an American colonist under British rule. 

The Tipton Hotel transforms into the “Tipton Inn,” where all of the characters are now colonists. London is still super rich, but Maddy, Carey, Esteban, and the boys are tired of the British taxes on tea. They have to take action. 

Zack, Cody, and the other characters dress as Native Americans

Maddy comes up with the idea of dumping the tea into the Boston Harbor. The characters figure out how to sneak onto the ships — thanks to a suggestion from Esteban, they wear feathers, headdresses, and wigs. 

When they all head back to the Tipton Inn dressed as Native Americans, London screams, “Indian attack,” which prompts Mr. Moseby to scream and hide under the front desk. While somewhat controversial today, the colonists dressing as American Indians is historically accurate, according to bostonteapartyship.com.

The website states, “The disguise was mostly symbolic in nature; they knew they would be recognized as non-Indians. The act of wearing ‘Indian dress’ was to express to the world that the American colonists identified themselves as ‘Americans’ and no longer considered themselves British subjects.”

There’s another controversial episode of ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ unavailable Disney+

This wouldn’t be the only episode of this Disney Channel series receiving some criticism from viewers. During “Doin’ Time in Suite 2330,” London Tipton has a few celebrities star in her web-series. That includes The Cheetah Girls and Chris Brown.

Seventeen Magazine reported that the episode was removed from the air after assaulting his then-girlfriend, pop-star Rihanna. The episode only aired for a few times on the Disney Channel and was never seen on the network again after it was pulled. It is not currently available on Disney+, where a number of Suite Life episodes are available for streaming.

“Boston Tea Party” episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody is available on Disney’s subscription service. To learn more about Disney’s streaming platform, visit their website.