TV URBAN LEGEND: Hannah Montana was originally called "Alexis Texas" until Disney realized that that was the name of an adult film star.

Over the years, a very common type of legend is connecting wholesome family television shows to the adult film industry in some ways. Most of the time, like the legend about the late Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell on Leave it to Beaver) and his alleged adult film career, it is bogus, but every once in a while, there is an actual connection, like the actress who played the younger sister on Family Matters later pursuing a brief career in adult films. So it is quite typical for people to get a really big kick out of an alleged fact that the Disney Channel hit series, Hannah Montana (which launched Miley Cyrus into superstardom), about a teenaged singing star who maintains a secret identity as a regular teen, was originally titled Alexis Texas until Disney discovered that that name was used by an adult film star.

But is it true?

First off, there are two things that I automatically like to do with pretty much every interesting fact that I see that I'm a bit suspicious about whether it is actually true or not.

The first thing is, what's the source? You give me a citation, I will believe a lot of things that I was otherwise doubtful about. Well, in this case, surprisingly enough, despite "Alexis Texas" actually trending the other day on Twitter because someone tweeted out this fact, I see no actual citations for it. Even Buzzfeed, which is typically pretty darn good about this sort of thing for their lists (even if they're wrong, they at least cite something), just had this in a list about behind the scenes secrets of Hannah Montana, "Hannah Montana was originally named 'Alexis Texas,' but because a porn star shares the same name, they were afraid children would Google the name and find the porn star instead." It's not good if there are no citations for a fact like this.

Secondly, I like to use a variation of the "smell test." Basically, "Does this make any logical sense?" Most of the time, legends really DO make sense, which is why they persist AS legends, because they specifically DO make sense. But here, looking at that Buzzfeed article, we're supposed to believe that Disney was fully prepared to go ahead with naming the show Alexis Texas even though they KNEW that there was an adult film star by the same name, but then someone was, like, "But what if they google the name and find the adult film star instead?" and then they changed their minds? And that's supposed to be an actual scenario that occurred in real life? Doesn't sound too likely, right?

Similarly, versions of the story that choose instead to say, "Disney was going to name the show Alexis Texas until they discovered that that was the name of an adult film star" also fails the "Does this make any logical sense?" test, as under that scenario, someone got to the point of pitching the name of a TV show on the Disney Channel without ever just plugging the name into a search engine once? For serious?

However, in this case, we really don't even have to delve that deep into things, because the simple facts of the situation here demonstrates that the story is obviously bogus. You see, the pilot of Hannah Montana aired for the first time in March 2006 (and obviously filmed before then).

The adult film star known as Alexis Texas did not film her first adult film scene until October of 2006 (and her first scene was not released until after that).

Soooo...obviously, there was no way that there was any connection between the adult film star and the kids TV series before it debuted, so there could not have been a case where "Hannah Montana was originally named 'Alexis Texas,' but because a porn star shares the same name, they were afraid children would Google the name and find the porn star instead."

Now, is it possible that the television show, Hannah Montana, was nearly called Alexis Texas at some point, BEFORE the adult film star ever adopted that name? That's possible. I don't think it is likely, but it is possible. The first time that Hannah Montana was mentioned by name that I can see was in a Variety article about new Disney Channel show ideas. That came out in November 2004, well before Miley Cyrus was cast as the star of the show and in the article, it said:

Disney Channel is hooking up with the creators of its biggest franchises — “Lizzie McGuire” and “That’s So Raven” — to produce more series for its core tween audience.

Cabler has teamed with “Lizzie” creator-exec producers Terri Minsky and Stan Rogow for a half-hour “Lizzie” spinoff dubbed “Stevie Sanchez.” Series follows the ups and downs of Lizzie’s best friend’s sister, Stephanie “Stevie” Sanchez, and her Latino family.

Project reps the first TV offshoot of “Lizzie,” which halted production in December 2002 soon after which series star Hilary Duff deemed it so yesterday. While the skein still does solid ratings in repeats, “Stevie” would give Disney a fresh dose of “Lizzie”-related programming.

Meanwhile, Michael Poryes, who co-created “Raven” with Susan Sherman, is working on “Hannah Montana,” a half-hour revolving around a pint-sized pop star who has an alternate identity in order continue living life as a “normal kid.”

Pilots for both projects are set to begin production in January. Casting is under way, with both out to directors.

So if Hannah Montana was ever called Alexis Texas, it was waaaaaaaay early in the process. It's not an absurd idea that perhaps they did consider that as a name, but I haven't seen anything convincing saying that they ever did. It's worth noting that they DID change the name of the lead character on the series from Chloe Stewart to Miley Stewart to match their new lead actor.

Also, I would bet dollars to dollars that Alexis Texas actually specifically adopted HER stage name AS a play on Hannah Montana, so if anything, the influence went the OTHER way. I don't know the answer to that for sure, of course (and Alexis Texas IS from Texas), but the timing just seems a bit too coincidental. But that's neither here nor there.

The legend is...

STATUS: False

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