Jonas

**Jonas** is a live-action television series created by Michael Curtis and Roger S. H. Schulman. The series premiered on May 2, 2009 and aired for two seasons until October 3, 2010. In Season 2, the name of the series was changed to **Jonas L.A.**.

It is the first Disney Channel original series since 2004 not to be shot on videotape in multi-camera format, be filmed before a live studio audience, or use a laugh track.

## Plot

Following the Jonas Brothers guest appearance on the Disney Channel Series Hannah Montana for an episode "Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas", they signed on to star in the Disney Channel Original Movie called Camp Rock. Shortly after, development for a TV series starring the band began.

The original concept for the TV series was about the band playing concerts as a cover while working as government secret agents to save the world and was entitled J.O.N.A.S. (an acronym which stood for "Junior Operatives Networking as Spies"). At the same time, they tried to hide their double lives from their mother and Frankie. 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." 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".

The Jonas pilot was shot in 2007, but the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike impeded progress. 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. A few weeks later on June 20, 2008, the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock, in which the brothers starred as the fictional band "Connect 3", debuted. The Jonas Brothers also released Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, a Disney Digital 3-D concert film. "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. "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.". "It is now about us being a band and balancing a normal life," Nick Jonas told Access Hollywood. The title of the series changed from J.O.N.A.S. to JONAS, dropping the acronym but remaining in all capitals.

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. 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. The Chicago Sun-Times remarks that Joe Jonas parallels "goofy Micky Dolenz", Kevin Jonas "quirky Michael Nesmith", and Nick Jonas "dreamy Davy Jones". The Jonas Brothers reportedly watched episodes of The Partridge Family and The Monkees "for literally three days straight" for inspiration.

## Episodes

See Also: List of Jonas Episodes

 2 | 13

## Cast and Characters

### Main

* Joe Jonas as Joseph "Joe" Lucas
* Kevin Jonas as Kevin Percy Lucas
* Nick Jonas as Nicholas "Nick" Lucas
* Chelsea Kane as Stella Malone
* Nicole Anderson as Macy Misa
* John Ducey as Thomas "Tom" Lucas (Season 1)

### Recurring

* Frankie Jonas as Frankie Lucas
* Robert "Big Rob" Feggans as Big Man
* Rebecca Creskoff as Sandy Lucas
* Chuck Hittinger as Van Dyke Tosh
* Tangelina Rouse as Mrs. Snark
* Adam Hiks as Dennis Zimmer "DZ"
* Abby Pivaronas as Vanessa Paige
* Beth Crosby as Lisa Malone
* Debi Mazar as Mona Klein
* China Anne McClain as Kiara Tyshanna

## Music

* Jonas
* Jonas L.A.

## Production

The series was 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. The series was originally set in New Jersey for the first season, with comedic storylines on the boys trying to lead "normal" lives while being famous. For the second season, the setting changed to Los Angeles, and shifted towards a more drama, serial-driven story line.

In November 2010, Disney Channel officially announced that Jonas L.A. would not return for a third season. The network did mention, however, that they would be working with the Jonas Brothers in the future. As of 2019, Jonas L.A. remains the only Disney Channel Original Series produced by It's a Laugh Productions to not be filmed before a live studio audience.

In their 2019 documentary Chasing Happiness, the brothers revealed that they regretted doing the series. All three agreed that the series was "not good" and felt that it negatively impacted their image. Nick also felt that the second season in particular limited their growth as a band.

### Casting

Nicole Anderson also auditioned for the role of Stella, but actress Chelsea Staub ended up winning the part. According to Staub, her previous work with director Sean McNamara helped her land the role. 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.

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.

## Release

The series originally premiered on May 2, 2009, on Disney Channel. It premiered on June 12, 2009, on Family Channel, on June 15, 2009, on Disney Channel (Australia and New Zealand) as well as on TV2 in New Zealand on April 17, 2010, on August 9, 2009, on Disney Channel (Southeast Asia), on September 11, 2009, on Disney Channel (UK and Ireland), on October 10, 2009, on Disney Channel (Europe, Middle East and Africa), an on November 30, 2009, on Disney Channel (India).

The second season originally premiered on June 20, 2010. It premiered on July 23, 2010, in Canada, on September 6, 2010, in Australia, on the same date in New Zealand and on May 31, 2012, on TV2, on October 23, 2010, in Southeast Asia, on August 13, 2010, in the UK and Ireland, and on September 18, 2010, in South Africa.

## Reception

### Critical Response

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. Paige Wiser of the Chicago Sun-Times found the series better than Hannah Montana, but commented that Nick Jonas' 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." 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' acting.

### Viewer Response

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. The show was paired with the established series Wizards of Waverly Place, which moved from a Sunday early evening timeslot, in the 8:00pm (Eastern Time) slot. The series debuted on Disney Channel on May 2, 2009, and drew a solid 4.00 million viewers in the U.S., 73% of which was female. While this amounted to Disney Channel's best ratings in the time slot in eight months, it was also Disney Channel's second-lowest rated live-action series premiere in nearly four years. 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."

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. 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. 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. In its Sunday timeslot, Jonas has been doing well in key kids demographics and averaging 3.4 million viewers.

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."

## Merchandise

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. 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.

The game was not well received, mainly due to shoddy graphics and bad gameplay, as stated on IGN, only earning an average score of 4.0 out of ten.