"Drake & Josh": New Martin and Lewis?

LOS ANGELES — They may be the hottest young comedy team on television, but the stars of "Drake & Josh" are really old souls at heart — just old enough to hold up Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as role models.

"I would really like for us to try to emulate the Martin and Lewis kind of thing and bring it up to today," says Drake Bell, 20, the duo's Dean Martin-style straight man to 19-year-old Josh Peck's loud, rubber-faced comedian.

Peck can't understand why another duo like Martin and Lewis never came along. Then he ponders that maybe it has.

"I'm kind of known for physical comedy on the show. I'm always falling over something, and I think of Jerry Lewis every time I do it," Peck says. "And Drake, he's a total Dean: debonair and with charisma — and plus he sings."

At one point the duo had more a Laurel and Hardy look, before Peck, the heavyset foil to rock-star handsome, guitar-strumming Bell, dropped 100 pounds with the help of exercise and a diet that meant no longer "living off pizza."

Although he looked noticeably thinner in last season's episodes, the change in appearance was even more dramatic when the show launched its fourth season on the Nickelodeon cable network in September.

"It was about being happy in my own skin and having a healthier outlook on life," he says of the decision to lose weight.

Not that it was easy.

"Gyms have that smell of sweat and sanitary cleaning stuff that makes you want to run for the hills," he adds with a laugh.

Although they look more alike now, Peck's Josh remains firmly rooted as the loud, blustering stepbrother to Bell's smirking slacker, who in his efforts to woo girls and play gigs with his rock band is likely to leave their lives in a shambles.

It's been a fun run, the two say, adding they're proud of "Drake & Josh" and the fact they hear not only from teens but even college students and parents who enjoy the show.

But now they're ready to stretch a bit. Nickelodeon Movies recently announced it would star the two in a theatrical film they hope might be the next step in their Martin-and-Lewis evolution. They won't play their TV show characters this time, although Bell will still be the slacker who drags the reluctant Peck into ill-conceived comedic adventures.

They say they have become best friends. In April, at the Kids' Choice Awards, the duo collected trophies for favorite TV show and Bell won another for favorite TV actor.

"That was the best time ever, dude," he says. "Josh and I were walking off the stage and there was a golf cart waiting for us and you sit on the back. We were in our suits and stuff and had our awards. You see pictures of Martin and Lewis on the Paramount lot, and it was just like that."