Jonas L.A.

Jonas L.A. (previously titled Jonas) is a Disney Channel Original Series created by Michael Curtis and Roger Schulman, starring the Jonas Brothers. The pilot was filmed in September 2008,^[2] the series premiered on Disney Channel on May 2, 2009, and became available on demand starting on April 25, 2009;^[3] first-run episodes aired on.

Jonas is to date, the first Disney Channel Original Series since Phil of the Future not to be shot on videotape in a multi-camera format, be filmed before a live studio audience or use a laugh track.^[4] The series was the first on the network premiere on a Saturday night, part of a deliberate strategy by Disney to open up the night to original programming,.^[5]

On November 9, 2009, it was announced that Jonas was being picked up for a second season.^[6] On May 5, 2010, it was revealed that the name of the series was changed to Jonas L.A., reflecting the move to Los Angeles, making it the first Disney Channel sitcom to have the show's main setting change during the course of the series. The second season premiered on June 20, 2010 and ended on October 3, 2010. Disney Channel has confirmed that Jonas L.A. is cancelled and will no longer resume production. The program has not aired in rerun form since, likely due to the low number of episodes and difference in style between seasons.

The story

Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas are members of the band Jonas Brothers , which signed with Disney-owned Hollywood Records in 2007.^[7] Later that year, the Jonas Brothers debuted as actors on the Disney Channel as guest stars on the August 17, 2007 episode of Hannah Montana.^[8] Shortly after, development for a TV series and Disney Channel Original Movie called Camp Rock starring the Jonas Brothers began.

The potential TV series was entitled J.O.N.A.S., an acronym which stood for "Junior Operatives Networking as Spies". In the show, the band played concerts as a cover while working as government secret agents to save the world. At the same time, they tried to hide their double lives from their mother and Frankie.^[9] Meanwhile, Stella, ignorant of the Jonas' double lives, dated each of the famous brothers without informing the others and reported the details in her teen magazine column. Said Staub, "So pretty much the entire show, it's all of us lying to each other, and kind of everything backfiring, and us getting caught in awkward situations."^[10] She described the concept as, "like The Monkees and a little of bit of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. There's going to be fun action sequences and still be a sitcom".^[11]

The J.O.N.A.S. pilot was shot in 2007, but the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike impeded progress.^[12] However, Disney Channel Asia aired it during the Sneak Peak 2008. Instead, Disney Channel filmed a mini reality show, the 2008 Disney Channel Original Short Series Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream, which followed the Jonas Brothers on a concert tour and premiered May 16.^[13] A few weeks later on June 20, 2008, the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock, in which the brothers starred as the fictional, non-fraternal band "Connect Three", debuted.^[14] The Jonas Brothers also released Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, a Disney Digital 3-D concert film.^[15] "After this rush of releases, the Jonas Brothers became too popular to imagine them as anything but more dramatic versions of themselves," explained executive producer Michael Curtis.^[16] "The spy concept was very big and very ambitious and it started to not feel quite right. As the band got bigger and bigger, doing a show that captured more of their real lives and trying to turn that into a more grounded, real version of what they might be doing became more interesting to do and more fun to do.".^[17] “It is now about us being a band and balancing a normal life,” Nick Jonas told Access Hollywood.^[18] The title of the series changed from J.O.N.A.S. to JONAS, dropping the acronym but remaining in all capitals.^[19]

Producers have drawn connections between Jonas and productions by earlier bands. Show creator and producer Roger S. H. Schulman claims that "It's hard not to make parallel comparisons to The Beatles in 1962 and 1963 when you see the kind of response that the Jonas Brothers' fans have to them," and describes the 1964 A Hard Day's Night and 1965 Help! as "very much a template" for the series.^[17] Producers and critics have also compared the series to The Monkees, a popular but short-lived mid-1960s television comedy also following a real life band. At the Television Critics Association winter press tour in January 2009, Gary Marsh, entertainment president of Disney Channel Worldwide, described Jonas as a cross between The Monkees and Flight of the Conchords.^[17] The Chicago Sun-Times remarks that Joe Jonas parallels "goofy Micky Dolenz", Kevin Jonas "quirky Michael Nesmith", and Nick Jonas "dreamy Davy Jones".^[20] The Jonas Brothers reportedly watched episodes of The Partridge Family and The Monkees "for literally three days straight" for inspiration.^[18]

Cast

Cast members

Main characters

• Kevin Lucas (Kevin Jonas)^[21] – Kevin is the oldest of the brothers and is usually seen as wacky, wild, and goofy. Kevin is known to think outside of the box and always thinks of wacky animals, like an otter that can play the trumpet or a bear in a bikini. Kevin often comes up with plans that are insane or impossible but occasionally also has some good ideas. When he lies, his voice tends to be high pitched. He owns a full moving rack of guitars and likes woodland creature stuffed animals. He does back-up vocals, one-time lead vocals and Lead Guitar in the brother's band JONAS. He had a crush on a girl that he met in Scandinavia but then met a new girl from France after this romance did not work out. This suggests that he likes foreign girls. He takes risks, as the others don't.

• Joseph 'Joe' Lucas (Joe Jonas)^[21] – Joe is known as the teen heartthrob of the group. Joe will go to any length to get a girl to like him. He and Stella know that they like each other but decide not to go out because they don't want to ruin their friendship if they break up. But he still has feelings for her, and is always trying to spend time with her, unless his brothers annoy him to measures, to which Joe avoids Stella. Because of this, he often flirts with Stella as a result of falling in love with her. In the episode "Double Date", he and Stella kiss and soon become a couple. However, in 'House Party', Stella tells Joe that she just wants to be friends. He tends to be goofier than Nick but not quite as out there as Kevin. Joe likes stuffed animals that make noise. He sings lead vocals and plays keyboards and rhythm guitar for the brothers' band JONAS. He often has a hammerspace pocket or backpack, when looking for stuff. He always carries a blue panda pencil with him. In Season 2, he is seen hugging Vanessa Page causing Stella to only want to stay friends with him instead of having a relationship. The best overall image and hair-obsessed member of the band, Joe is using his summer to explore a career in acting and the film business. His flirtatious nature gets him in trouble, however, as he sorts out his relationship with Stella and decides to go out on a date with Vanessa Page, however, he breaks up with her after discovering that she dislikes Stella, and he still has feelings for Stella. He and Stella become a couple after discovering that they have feelings for each other.

• Nicholas 'Nick' Lucas (Nick Jonas)^[21] – Nick is the calm and collected member of the band. He is known to have many short-lived relationships, and his family has criticized him for falling in love too fast. Nick is the most serious of the group, sometimes losing patience with Kevin's antics. Nick likes stuffed animals that swim. Nick does the drums for JONAS. When he was a baby, according to his family, he never smiled. He claimed he was waiting for his teeth to come in (however, when asked by Joe what his excuse is now, he did not have a comment). Nick is also the mastermind of creative plans gone awry. He is also seen baking many times in the show and Kevin is unable to resist his blue cookies. In Season 2, he develops a relationship with Macy Misa, being smitten by her different and more relaxed attitude towards them. His moments with Macy tend to get interrupted by DZ. In "The Secret" Nick is forced to watch over Big Rob's niece; who happens to know that Macy and him are dating. In order for her to not tell everyone she makes Nick do a collaboration with her. He ends up telling the rest of the friends about his relationship through the song that he and Kiara made.

• Stella Malone (Chelsea Staub)^[21] – Stella is JONAS's stylist. She is best friends with Macy and is Joe, Nick and Kevin's childhood friend, she has known the boys since she was three. Stella and Joe know they like each other but they decide not to date because they don't want to mess up their friendship if they break up, but still considers a romance with him because she gets jealous if she sees Joe with another girl like when she thought Joe and Macy were dating . In a recent episode, Stella might have discarded her feelings for him when she pictures how their relationship might turn out. In the episode "Double Date", she and Joe kiss and soon become a couple. Stella created an automated outfit selector called the StellaVator and is constantly trying to adapt clothes to JONAS's hectic lifestyle. She gets annoyed when her outfits get ruined, which happens a lot more than she'd like. She is addicted to texting. Stella also helps Macy talk to JONAS without injuring them or fainting. Unlike her best friend who is wonderful at sports, Stella is horrible at them. She is, however, an excellent seamstress, one time creating a dozen girls' volleyball uniforms in a very short amount of time. In season 2, she sees Joe hugging Vanessa Page thinking they are going out, making her decide that she only wants to be friends with him instead of being in a relationship. Stella dates a boy named Ben and goes out with him, to Joe's disappointment. In the episode "America's Sweethearts," Stella is jealous when Joe's producer asks him to kiss Vanessa Page. Stella tells Joe that Vanessa doesn't like him back, so that Joe won't kiss her. Stella feels guilty, and admits that she lied. Stella had fallen into a lapse of liking Joe, but she snapped out of it so Joe and Vanessa, a.k.a. "Jonessa," could give it a chance, but later on, Joe breaks up with Vanesa, after he finds out that she hates Stella. Stella and Joe become a couple in the end.

• Macy Misa (Nicole Anderson)^[21] – Macy is JONAS's friend and the president of their fan club. In Season 1, whenever she would approach the members of JONAS, she tends to get incredibly nervous and either faint or accidentally injure them (often by stepping on their feet or hitting them in the heads with sports equipment). She often referred to each boy as "(first name) of JONAS." When she dated a boy (Randolph) who was not a JONAS, she tried to make him into a JONAS member, even calling the boy "Nick" as a "nickname." She is very athletic and plays on a number of sports teams. She also works in her mother's thrift store, called Misa's Pieces. Macy is revealed to be tone deaf (so much so that, according to Stella, they once called Animal Control under the belief that Macy's singing was an injured manatee at a softball game). Macy's obsessed fangirl attitude about JONAS changed into a real friendship with the boys because she stopped fainting or hurting the boys at all late in Season 1. In the episode "Frantic Romantic" she and Stella attended a Hollywood Private Party with the boys. In Season 2, she is shown to have greatly changed no longer being the crazy fan that she was in Season 1. This different attitude and the true appearance of her personality intrigues Nick who becomes smitten by her. Her moments with Nick tend to get interrupted by DZ. In the episode "The Secret" it officially shows that Macy and Nick are dating, but they want to keep their relationship a secret. It is revealed in a later episode that she has many brothers and they are a big golfing family. It is also revealed that her mother taught her to play golf and her family only gave handmade presents.

• Tom Lucas (John Ducey) - Joe, Nick, Kevin and Frankie's father and the manager of JONAS. He is sometimes the voice of reason when his boys have crushes on girls. In his downtime, he often plays hide and seek with Frankie. He is usually nervous when famous people interview the band. It is also shown that he likes woodland creature stuffed animals that can swim and make noises. In Season 2, he is not a main character, but he appears as a guest in one episode.

Recurring characters

Major-Recurring

• Frankie Lucas (Frankie Jonas) - He is their younger brother. He is constantly trying to get in the JONAS spotlight. Frankie hopes to get a chance to perform with the band, but his brothers don't think that is likely. Frankie can move very fast and is an expert at hide-and-seek, and getting his way. He was raised in New Jersey and enjoys playing ping-pong. He has a crush on Macy, and was briefly mad at Nick for dating her.
• Big Man (Robert "Big Rob" Feggans) - He is the bodyguard who escorts the band everywhere. He is seen to live with the boys in L.A. He has a niece.

Season 1

• Sandy Lucas (Rebecca Creskoff) - She is their mother and Tom's wife. She's down to earth and always proud of her sons, despite their mistakes. Mrs. Lucas just wants to have a regular family but has acknowledged that it may not be possible with famous children. She is mostly an off-screen character.
• Van Dyke Tosh (Chuck Hittinger) - He is Stella's occasional love interest, who habitually makes Joe jealous. Van Dyke asks Stella on a date in the episode "Double Date" which causes Joe to crash their date.
• Mrs. Snark (Tangelina Rouse) - The biology/drama teacher who loves Joe, Nick, and Kevin. Much to Joe's chagrin, she often gives them preferential treatment in school, sometimes causing tension between the boys and other students. Her niece is a huge JONAS fan.

Season 2

• Dennis Zimmer "DZ" (Adam Hicks) - A new friend who the band meets while in L.A. He is the son of a music producer who is very rich. He shows the band the hot spots in Los Angeles. He is very fun and outgoing. He is also a rapper who tries to get his father to listen to his songs but can never get the chance.
• Vanessa Paige (Abby Pivaronas) - A popular actress who co-stars with Joe in a big-time film "Forever April." She is also briefly his girlfriend on the show, until he breaks up with her, for greatly disliking Stella.
• Lisa Malone (Beth Crosby) - Stella's aunt who Stella and Macy stay with while residing in Los Angeles who also wants them not to date any rockstars. Also she made the mistake of dating rockstars twelve times. She appears in nearly all of the episodes in season 2 (often, when Joe is around Stella, or when Stella says something she doesn't like), despite not being a main character.
• Mona Klein (Debi Mazar) - The director of Forever April. In "Up in the Air" after Joe and Vanessa broke up Mona gave some advice to Joe saying "when you find something real never let it go".
• Kiara Tyshanna (China Anne McClain) - The niece of Big Rob, she was the first one to find out about Nick and Macy dating.

Production

The series was originally set in New Jersey, before the setting changed to Los Angeles for the second season and is shot at Hollywood Center Studios, which has also been the home to several other Disney Channel sitcoms over the years including The Suite Life on Deck and Wizards of Waverly Place.^[1][22] As of November 2010, Jonas L.A. was the only live-action Disney Channel Original Series, produced by It's a Laugh Productions, not filmed before a live studio audience.

Disney Channel has officially announced, in November 2010, that Jonas L.A. will not return. They mentioned that they will be working with the Jonas Brothers in the future.^[4]

Casting

Nicole Anderson also auditioned for the role of Stella, but actress Chelsea Staub ended up winning the part.^[11] According to Staub, her previous work with director Sean McNamara helped her land the role.^[10] After the series plot changed, producers decided to create a best friend for Stella and offered Anderson, Staub's real life best friend, the role of Macy.^[23]

Jonas was intended to star Kevin, Nick, and Joe Jonas, who lend their first names to their television counterparts. The role of Frankie Lucas was also created with Frankie Jonas in mind. In addition, Robert "Big Rob" Feggans, the Jonas Brothers real-life head of security, plays The Big Man, the JONAS bodyguard.^[17]

The Jonas Brothers' Camp Rock co-star and friend, Demi Lovato, auditioned for a role in the show, but didn't get the part.

Episodes

Reception

Critical reception

Jonas received mixed to negative reviews for its premiere. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly called the show "The Monkees for millennials" and enjoyed the featured Jonas Brothers music. Variety magazine reviewer Brian Lowry believed that Jonas Brothers' adorers would be pleased with the result, and that those who are not fans would still find an amiable charm within the series.^[24] Paige Wiser of the Chicago Sun-Times found the series better than Hannah Montana, but commented that Nick Jonas's reserved nature made him the weak link of the premiere episode and that the boys' amateur acting is "endearing until they play a scene opposite someone with real comedic timing – like John Ducey."^[20] The New York Times' John Carmanica was also disappointed with Nick's performance, particularly because, according to Carmanica, he gives off the savviest air in the band's off screen life. Carmanica also criticizes the series' script as blithe, unfunny, and "seeded with profound cynicism", but praised the believable fraternal interactions and Kevin Jonas's acting.^[25]

Viewer reception

The series was the first series on Disney Channel to premiere on a Saturday night, part of a deliberate strategy by Disney to open up the night to original programming and compete with Nickelodeon's traditional dominance of the evening.^[5] The show was paired with the established series Wizards of Waverly Place, which moved from a Sunday early evening timeslot, in the 8 p.m. (Eastern Time) slot. The series debuted on Disney Channel on May 2, 2009,^[3] and drew a solid 4.00 million viewers in the US,^[26] 73% of which was female. While this amounted to Disney Channel's best ratings in the time slot in eight months,^[5][27] it was also Disney Channel's second-lowest rated live-action series premiere in nearly four years.^[28] The Hollywood Reporter comments that "Jonas didn't do poorly, exactly. [...] It's just that one expects the premiere of a show by a heavily promoted major Disney brand like the Jonas Brothers to make a bigger splash."^[22]

Viewership for the series second episode the following week fell sharply to nearly half its premiere audience—2.2 million total U.S. viewers and beyond cable's Top 100, which E!: Entertainment Television notes "in the grand scheme of things, is still a very good showing - unless you're trying to live up to the media's expectations for a world famous act." E! credits the decline to the premiere of Nickelodeon's hour-long iCarly special, "iDate a Bad Boy", which earned 6.5 million viewers.^[29] Ratings improved over the following episodes, and the New York Times reported, "If “Jonas” can dent ratings for iCarly […] the brothers’ sitcom will be considered a big success internally.^[28] However, just weeks after its premiere Disney Channel moved Jonas and Wizards of Waverly Place to Sunday and Friday evenings, respectively, and began airing movies in its old timeslot.^[30] In its Sunday timeslot, Jonas has been doing well in key kids demographics and averaging 3.4 million viewers.^[31]

However, the move to Sundays and Fridays and declining ratings, along with the change in setting and ill-fated strategies in promoting the show would result in Disney's decision to pull the plug on "Jonas L.A." On November 8, 2010, It announced that the show will not return for a third season. In a statement from a Disney Channel spokesperson: "We've been fortunate to work with the enormously talented Jonas Brothers on several projects, including the Emmy-nominated series JONAS L.A.," adding that "We look forward to working with them on new projects in the future."^[32]

Awards

Media

DVDs

Season 1

Beginning August 23, September 6, September 20. Three volumes making up the entire first season of JONAS will be released on region 2 dvd in the United Kingdom and Region 4 in Australia. The volumes include new cover art, and different titles for both volumes released in the usa (previously "I Heart Jonas" & "Rockin' The House"). The three new titles being, "Rockstars In the House" "Ready To Rock" and "Keeping It Real" Episode listings are currently not available and it is unknown whether the first two volumes will be the same as those released on region 1.

Video game

Disney Interactive Studios released a video game based on the series for the Nintendo DS console system. It was released on November 10, 2009 in America.^[37] The game is based on many of the sets used in the TV show. The player can play as any of the brothers, play 6 concerts, and juggle school.^[38]

The game was not well received, mainly due to shoddy graphics and bad gameplay, as stated on IGN, garnering a 4.0 average score out of a 10.^[39]

Music

Season 1

Track listing

However:

• The full version of "Live to Party" was featured on Disney Channel Playlist, the video game "Jonas" and a UK bonus track for their third album, A Little Bit Longer.
• The full version of "Give Love a Try" was featured on Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 12.
• The full version of "Keep It Real" was featured on Lines, Vines, and Trying Times by the Jonas Brothers and the video game "Jonas".
• The full versions of "Why", "We Got to Work It Out", "Love Sick" and "Time Is On Our Side" were featured on the video game Jonas.

Also, the full versions of the six songs of the video game were posted on YouTube in January 2010.

"Rock and Roll All Night" (cover) "Love Me Do" (cover)

Season 2

Music videos

International release

References

External links

• Official website
• Jonas at the Internet Movie Database
• Jonas at TV.com
• Jonas L.A. at TV Guide