Parker Plays

Parker Plays is an American television series featuring Parker Coppins, known by his YouTube channel name ParkerGames, playing various video games. It premiered on July 15, 2017 as part of Disney XD's inaugural video-game themed programming block D|XP.^[2][3][4] The second season premiered on October 15, 2018 and ran for six episodes.^[5] After the show was unofficially canceled by Disney, Coppins created a YouTube show named Parker’s Place!, inspired by Parker Plays and produced by the same people, but only had 4 episodes.^[6]

Parker Plays
Created by	Parker Coppins
Presented by	Parker Coppins
Theme music composer	George Gabriel
Composers	Dimitris Mann Chris LaRue Horton Jonathan Richmond George Gabriel
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	22
Production
Executive producers	Kevin Williams Clayton Cogswell
Producer	Woody Tondorf
Editors	Angela Juzswick Omar Najam Jeremy Sauder
Production companies	Disney Digital Network Digomind Productions^[1]
Release
Original network	Disney XD
Original release	July 15, 2017 (2017-07-15) – November 19, 2018 (2018-11-19)

Background

Coppins was born in Eden, North Carolina^[7] to Mark and Darla Coppins.^[8] At age four, the Coppins family moved to Harlingen, Texas where his father took on a job as a pastor.^[7][9] He was homeschooled when he was younger,^[7] and then attended Calvary Christian School and Harlingen High School.^[10] He was inspired to go into acting by Dr. Liebert, a local physician, and participated in school and church plays.^[7][8][10] He attended an acting convention in Dallas when he was in high school where he met fellow aspiring actor and producer Jonny Lopes.^[7] At age 16, he and his mother moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career, where he had some supporting roles including a Lifetime movie.^[8] He played video games such as Runescape and got involved in filming his gaming with Lopes and posting it on YouTube. They were looking for a game to play together and settled on Minecraft.^[7][11] After eight months in LA,^[10] he moved back to Texas for about two years, and then returned to LA.^[7] He established his YouTube channel "ParkerGames" in 2013 and also contributed to the MineplexOfficial channel.^[7][11] In 2014, ParkerGames reached 200,000 subscribers,^[7] and as of May 2019, his channel had over 536,000 subscribers.^[11] In 2016, he began to get involved as an entrepreneur.^[12]

Conception and development

In 2016, Maker Studios was bought by Disney, which planned to have YouTubers provide digital content. Coppins was approached by the Digomind production company to make a television pilot in which the theme was what he was already doing on his YouTube channel. They filmed the pilot in about two weeks and it was edited, as Coppins says, "basically, into YouTube videos. That’s kind of what that was, just with a bigger crew and production."^[13][11]

Seven months later, when the show was greenlit, Coppins was given about 1.5 months to make the show. In an interview with Monkeys Fighting Robots, Coppins said they filmed about 6-7 games for 90 minutes each daily,^[13] and in an interview with Tubefilter, he said they shot about 7–10 hours a day, three days a week.^[11] Coppins said that with the television format, the crew would handle the camera, lighting, and editing, which is something he would do himself for his YouTube videos.^[13]

Format and recurring segments

Parker tries out various video games. He also has other video game YouTubers visit,^[13] including Jimmy Wong, Shubble, Whitney Moore, and CaptainSparklez.^[5]

This is structured with various recurring segments.

• "Scare the Heck Out of Parker"^[14] – Parker plays horror games such as Tattletail,^{Ep. 1-1} Emily Wants to Play,^{Ep. 1-16} Wick,^{Ep. 1-8} Hello Neighbor,^{Ep. 1-6} and Among the Sleep.^{Ep. 2-3}
• "Parker Plays Sports Network" – Parker plays a sports-themed video game and also announces the game as the character Tag Chetson.^{[episode needed]}
• "Parker Vs the Fans" – Parker plays a game chosen by one of his fans.^{[episode needed]}
• "Mystery Tube" – A container delivered by pneumatic tube dubbed Mystery Tube by Parker will give him an item and a note telling him to play a specific game.^{[episode needed]}
• "Historian" - Parker has a British accent and wears a suit playing this character, who was mainly in the game that Parker played, "Reigns." Parker also uses this character's outfit and nonsense talk where he is a person at "Big Important TV Headquarters" where a skit is commonly used where Parker is screaming the background and he makes criticism.^{[episode needed]}
• "Jame" - Occasionally, Parker will play and/or comment on games as a character he created named Jame. Jame is extremely laid back and often says pure nonsense, and his personality is where he like skateboarding, as well.^[15][16]
• "Parker's Virtual Reality" – Parker plays a virtual reality game.^{[episode needed]}
• "Talking Parker" – An aftershow where Parker is interviewed by Jimmy Wong.^[17]
• ”Appy Fun Times” - Parker plays a mobile game, or app.^[16]
• “Skwad Goals” - Parker plays an online multiplayer and/or local multiplayer games with friends.^{[episode needed]}

Occasionally the show will cut to a scripted skit. Often this occurs after Parker makes a comment about the game he is playing, and the skit will be based on the comment. Joel Rubin writes the skits.^[13]

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	16		July 15, 2017 (2017-07-15)	September 18, 2017 (2017-09-18)
2	6		October 15, 2018 (2018-10-15)	November 19, 2018 (2018-11-19)

Works cited

• ^ "Ep." is shortened form for episode and refers to a season and episode number of the Parker Plays show.

References

1. Weiss, Geoff (June 15, 2017). "Disney XD Taps Maker's Jacksepticeye, ParkerGames, Strawburry17 For Summer TV Block". Tubefilter. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
2. Dickson, Jeremy (June 15, 2017). "Disney XD launches gaming-themed block". Kidscreen. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
3. Wiebe, Sheldon (June 14, 2017). "D-XP – Summer World of Gaming Programming Block To Premiere on Disney XD!". Eclipse Magazine. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
4. Cox, Lauren (August 10, 2017). "Parker Coppins: 5 Things To Know About The 'Parker Plays' Host". Hollywood Life. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
5. "Parker Plays". TV Guide.
6. "Parker's Place Homepage". It's Parker's Place.
7. ParkerGames (December 1, 2014). Draw My Life! ParkerGames 200k Subscriber Special. Retrieved March 26, 2021 – via YouTube.
8. Seiser, Lisa (August 5, 2017). "The many faces, talents of Disney star Parker Coppins". CineSol Film Festival. McAllen, Texas. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
9. Moreno, Gaby (October 24, 2020). "Disney XD star fundraising for the Gladys Porter Zoo". KVEO-TV. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
10. Seiser, Lisa (July 31, 2017). "The many faces, talents of Disney star Parker Coppins". Valley Morning Star. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
11. Hale, James. "Creators Going Pro: One YouTube Video Netted ParkerGames $50 In AdSense Revenue — Oh, And His Own Television Show". Tubefilter. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
12. "About Parker Coppins, Youth Inspirational Speaker". Parker Coppins.
13. Parker Coppins (August 8, 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: Parker Coppins Talks Disney Show 'Parker Plays'". Monkeys Fighting Robots (Interview). Interviewed by Jon Barr. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
14. "Scare the Heck Out of Parker Week! | Player Select | Disney XD" – via www.youtube.com.
15. Zuniga, Paul (August 30, 2017). "Parker Coppins gives the low-down on new Disney XD series, Parker Plays". Hidden Remote. Fansided. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
16. "Stickman Skatebattle | Parker Plays | Disney XD" – via www.youtube.com.
17. "Talking Parker | Parker Plays | Disney XD" – via www.youtube.com.