So here’s to the twins, the heiress, the candy girl, the lounge singer, and the most patient hotel manager in fiction. Long live the Tipton. And remember: "You’re not gonna get me to say, 'Yay me.'" ... Yay us, for getting to grow up there.

The show also had a surprising amount of heart. The single-mother dynamic between Carey and her sons was never a tragedy; it was a partnership. Carey trusted her boys (probably too much), and they loved her fiercely. Episodes like the one where they try to buy her a new coat or the Christmas episode where they befriend a lonely old man showcased a warmth that balanced the chaos. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody ran for three seasons (87 episodes) before evolving into The Suite Life on Deck , moving the action to a cruise ship. While On Deck was successful (and introduced audiences to a young Debby Ryan), it never quite captured the claustrophobic, treasure-hunt energy of the hotel.

But for fans, the Tipton remains a time capsule of the mid-2000s: low-rise jeans, flip phones, and a belief that if you just ran fast enough down a gold-carpeted hallway, you could get away with anything. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody succeeded because it understood something fundamental about kids: they want to see the world not as it is, but as it could be —a place where the lobby is a racetrack, the service elevator is a time machine, and the worst thing that can happen is getting a lecture from Mr. Moseby.