Does anyone remember Hanson?

Play it: Love Monkey Ep. 1.01 (Pilot)

Last night, CBS's Love Monkey premiered, and I found it to be quite funny, and has the potential to be a nice little series. Tom Cavanagh plays music snob A&R rep Tom Farrell, a similar character to the one he did on the NBC comedy Ed, which is quirky, funny and likeable. In fact, the show is like a cross between Ed and the film adaptation of Hornby's High Fidelity. His supporting players have been casted expertly, with Judy Greer (playing best friend) and a puffy Jason Priestly (brother-in-law) as highlights.

At a Goliath records meeting, Tom gives a (painfully) cliche-ridden speech stating the problems with the record industry ("we should be doing this for the music..." "does anyone remember Hanson?" "where's the Bob Dylans and Aretha Franklins?") which gets him fired (Eric Bogosian plays his boss, who signed Hanson, no less) so he decides to start his own label. With his (cliche) principals in mind he goes after a kid with a guitar named Wayne, who's played by Teddy Geiger. Realworld turn here...this John Mayer's-kid brother type is being heavily pushed buy Sony/Columbia and there's unfortunately a faint stench of big label promo buy-in throughout these scenes, undercutting the 'principal' stand a bit. It's unfortunate, but considering how funny the rest of the show is, hopefully it can be overlooked. But if this show becomes a major label vehicle for launching acts, I can see it turning ugly quick.

Outside of Teddy Gieger, though, the rest of the music on the show (and there's A LOT OF MUSIC ON THE SHOW) avoids the big labels entirely. One of the producers and consultants for the show is tastemaker and KCRW on-air host Nic Harcourt, and while his tastes can occasionally run a bit bland, it nearly guarantees that the Teddy Geigers won't dominate the show. With Harcourt helming, I hold out hope that indie rock isn't represented by The Killers and Franz Ferdinand only. Also, the first episode was directed by Tamra Davis, who's married to The Beastie Boys' Mike D and was Sonic Youth's director of choice for music videos ("Dirty boots," "100%," and "Bull in the Heather.")

But then again, she also directed Hanson's first two music videos ("Mmmbop" and "Where's the Love?")

Full tracklisting for the episode

tags: playlist, music, television, soundtrack, love monkey, teddy geiger, nic harcourt, tamra davis