LOS ANGELES -- No one knew at the time, of course.
Three years ago, the Disney Channel approached a then-unknown boy band made up of three brothers named Joe, Kevin and Nick, to record the theme song for one of its new animated series.
A hot-selling music video, a TV movie, a reality series, a 3D concert movie and a Grammy nomination later, the brothers star in their very own sitcom, called Jonas.
Jonas makes its Canadian debut this Friday on the Family Channel, after bowing last month on the U.S. Disney Channel.
The brothers' core support group of barely pubescent girls greeted Jonas with paroxysms of joy, while the reviews ranged from Variety's "an inoffensive permutation . . . of the Frankie and Annette movies," to a TV.com contributor's, "shockingly, not THAT bad."
Billed by its Disney Channel minders as "The Monkees meets Flight of the Conchords," Jonas revolves around the day-to-day comedic adventures of fictional rock stars Joe, Kevin and Nick Lucas. The Lucas brothers have formed a band called Jonas, named for the street they live on. They live with their parents and little brother Frankie in a converted firehall in New Jersey, where they try to lead ordinary lives while navigating a steady parade of concert tours and throngs of adoring fans following their every move.
It was easy enough to draw a line between the Jonas Brothers' real lives and the fictional lives of their sitcom alter egos because doing a TV show is, like, you know, work.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
"We're so used to doing music," Joe Jonas explained earlier this year. "This gives us a great opportunity to act and have music as well.
"It's an easy transition for us in one way, because we're natural musicians. But acting is totally different for us. Going into it, we were pretty nervous. We weren't sure how we would do. We did Camp Rock, but doing a television series, we didn't know exactly how it would roll out. It's been a lot of fun, though."
Writing songs for the show also introduced them to a new concept: TV deadlines.
"They'll give us kind of like an outline of what they need for the episode," Nick said. "And then they'll say they need it, like -- tomorrow."
The fictionalized crises in the show are easier to write music to, though.
"We've been making the joke constantly that now we don't have to get our hearts broken to write a song about heartbreak," Nick said. "It's a (much) easier way to do it."
Joe waxed philosophical about the group's real-life following.
"We write about things that are real to us, the things we go through every day," Joe said. "We're the same age as a lot of the people who listen to our music, and they're going through the same things."
Young fans often ask the Jonas Brothers how they can also become musicians.
That's better than asking how to become famous, Nick said.
"A lot of our fans come up to me and say, 'I'm a songwriter. I want to be a musician one day.' That's what I love to hear, when somebody says, 'I want to be a musician,' 'I want to be an artist,' 'I want to be an actor.' As opposed to, 'I want to be famous.' I think when you're really wholehearted about it -- and I've always strived to be the best I can be -- the attitude just comes naturally."
Added Joe: "We always tell them, 'Live your dreams. It may not work out right away like you hope, but you'll get there eventually.' There are always tough times. We had them.
"We tell people to live to those dreams because if you stick to it and you really work hard, there will be a payoff at the end. It may not be what you expect, but it'll be there."
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