Let's hear it for the boys

"Hannah Montana" and "Sonny With a Chance" have made the Disney Channel a lure for young female viewers. But what about young males?

The company is looking to cable channel Disney XD, a revamped version of the Toon Disney cable channel, to reach boys 6 to 14. The channel's newest series, "Zeke and Luther," started this week. It joins live-action series "Aaron Stone" and "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," plus animated fare such as "Spider-man," "Iron Man" and "X-Men," in the quest to reach young male viewers.

"Zeke and Luther" follows two best friends who have decided they want to become world-famous skateboarders. Their quest means mastering complicated tricks, entering competitions and taking a road trip to the childhood home of their idol Tony Hawk.

An abandoned newspaper building in Torrance, Calif., is home base for the show, where the cast and crew recently worked on upcoming episodes, including a scene featuring a collision between a pair of skateboarders and a large bus.

"Cut! Great. That was really good, but I would like to do one more," says director and series co-creator Matt Dearborn to Hutch Dano and Adam Hicks as they rise from the pavement. The stars of "Zeke and Luther" smile and return to their prone position near the bus.

The bus scene is for the last episode for the show's first season. The cast and crew have been toiling away for months, not knowing whether the show will be a hit or a miss with the coveted young male audience.

The show's creators do have some sense of what works. Dearborn, along with Tom Burkhard, created the hit Disney series "Even Stevens."

"It is about putting funny kids in front of the camera."

They're putting those kids in front of cameras far away from the Hollywood hub. Many of the sets, along with the show's production offices, are in what was once the home for the city's Daily Breeze newspaper. It's been a perfect location because the building is large enough to house the production, plus the show has been able to shoot in various locations in the neighborhood.

More important than finding the location was picking just the right cast, especially for the characters of Zeke and Luther.

"Comedy aside, skating aside, stunts aside, it is a show about friendship. These guys will be on opposite sides of an issue, but in the end friendship will always come through," Burkhard says.

Before the cameras roll again, Dearborn discusses with Dano a last-minute change for the scene. This is Dano's first professional acting job, but he's well aware of how the business works. His grandfather, Royal Dano, was an actor. And his father, Rick Dano, a veteran actor, is playing the bus driver in the episode.

"It was about three or four auditions and then chemistry tests with Adam Hicks and other people going up for Luther," Dano says. "I got the call that I had booked it. Then we shot the pilot, they tested it and we finally got picked up. It was the greatest thing."

It helped that Dano brought some skateboarding skills to the role. The surfing enthusiasts like to skateboard when the waves aren't right. So, whenever the pair are seen on the street they are doing their stunts. When it comes to the more elaborate tricks -- any time the skateboard leaves the ground -- the insurance company prefers that stunt doubles are used.

Even with those limitations, the role is "the greatest job that has ever been created," Hicks says. "We come to work and do what we love to do: acting, skateboarding. We are never bored."

Unlike his co-star, Hicks has been acting for years including a role on the series "Titus." He was also in "The Shaggy Dog" and "How to Eat Fried Worms."