Disney jonesing for Jonas Brothers

Alex Strachan, Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, January 16, 2009
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- The wildly popular Jonas Brothers don't have their own Secret Service security detail -- yet -- but they might just as well have. The trio were smuggled into the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City Hotel under tight security Friday, virtually under the noses of the throng of tourists lined up outside for the nearby Universal Studios theme park.

Boy-banders Kevin, Joe and Nick appeared briefly before reporters at a meeting of the Television Critics Association to promote their new TV comedy, JONAS, before flying to Washington, D.C. to perform at Sunday's pre-inauguration presidential gala.

JONAS is a Hannah Montana-style sitcom for the ABC-owned Disney Channel. The new series, which Disney Channel executives pitched Friday as "a fusion between a sitcom and a music video," stars the Jonas Brothers as teenage rock 'n' roll stars trying to balance their ordinary teen lives with concert tours, cool clothes and adoring fans. Veteran sitcom actor John Ducey plays the brothers' father, Tom, who doubles as their band manager and role model and emotional sounding board.


Upcoming kid-com JONAS stars the Jonas Brothers as rock 'n' roll stars trying to balance their ordinary teen lives with concert tours and adoring fans.
(Getty Images)

Email to a friend

Printer friendly
Font:****Although their characters have the same first names, the Jonas brothers are playing a fictional family called Lucas. JONAS will air in Canada on the Family Channel.

Making the show has "been really cool, but it's definitely a big change for us," Joe Jonas said. "We're pretty nervous, but we're happy with it so far."

Fourteen of 21 first-season episodes have already been filmed.

"This feels right," Nick Jonas, the de facto spokesman for the trio said. "It's been an amazing experience. That said, all we can do is try to do our best to make a good TV show, and hope that our fans will like it."

"It's high pressure, but it's been enjoyable, too," Kevin Jonas added.

Nick Jonas vowed that the brothers will never phone it in.

"We really are wholehearted about what we're doing as musicians," he said. "We're serious about what we're doing. We'll never take anything for granted."

Nick Jonas said the brothers recently met two of their biggest fans: President Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia. At first, Jonas said, Sasha and Malia didn't recognize them. They played Ping-Pong.

"And they beat me," Nick Jonas said, sheepishly.

"I just want to hang out at the White House," Joe Jonas blurted out.

The Family Channel will also air Disney's new series Aaron Stone, a live-action adventure series about the reluctant teenage hero of an online video game (newcomer Kelly Blatz), and Sonny with a Chance, about a naive teenager (Camp Rock's Demi Lovato) invited to join a popular TV sketch-comedy show after she posts her home videos online.

JONAS, Aaron Stone and Sonny with a Chance will premiere in late spring and early summer.

Joe Jonas insisted that, unlike most families, the brothers don't fight that much among themselves.

"I think we're trying to figure out why we don't fight," he said with a straight face. "Really, we have great respect for each other. We might as well do this and enjoy it and have fun at the same time."




© Canwest News Service 2009
http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainm ... id=1186116

 

Jonas Bros Serenade Obama Sisters

At the big Disney Channel Kids' Inaugural today, the Jonas Brothers say they plan to play a song just for Malia and Sasha Obama.

"We know that Sasha and Malia are fans of 'Burnin' Up,' which is probably what we'll be playing," Nick Jonas said at a press conference.

Kevin, Joe and Nick previously met the Obama girls on Ellen where the sisters whupped Nick notes at ping-pong.

About the Disney special, Nick adds, "We couldn't have been more thrilled than to have been asked. I've always talked about a future in the White House one day. It really is an honor. What we're doing is it's all for the children and families of the military."

President Jonas? Hey, stranger things have happened!
http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/ ... isters.php