JGL Has Our (Short) Attention With 'HitRecord'

Ladies and germs, cats and kittens, Betties and Baldwins, step right up and witness the Joseph Gordon-Levitt Sexytime Indie Rock Cartoon Late Night Variety Hour! Or, as it’s more commonly known as Hit Record On TV . The upcoming variety show hosted by Robin/Don Jon/Cameron James is a mega-collaboration between Levitt and hundreds of thousands of fans and artists all around the world who have created original music, films, cartoons, and multi-media mash-ups through Levitt’s website, touring show and SXSW takeovers over the past three years.

By the looks of the trailer, the show has a lot to offer: a dreamy host in a slew of finely tailored suits, animation that would make Wes Anderson jealous, bands that are great to listen to but whom you should never want to date, and hold me closer... TONY DANZA!. Sorry, I had to. The show will air at 10 p.m. EST starting Jan. 18, 2014 on Pivot Television, a new cable network that launched this past August. It's an opportunistic, and albeit zeitgeisty place for Levitt to land as Pivot has dubbed itself a network for millenials. It feels like a match made in Internet heaven... that is actually happening on television.

Levitt in many regards is doing the opposite of how most viral content is created nowadays. Rather than taking whatever great sketch or moment happened on last night’s variety show and blogging about it, he’s taking short user-created content and putting it on TV. YouTube, Instagram, Kickstarter, Upworthy, Vine, and Buzzfeed made a baby and it just might be Hit Record On TV. He’s making sense of the short-term attention spans most people have for their entertainment consumption and using that to make a whole program. And it just may very well be brilliant.

The trend over the past few years has been cutting down material from broadcast and sharing the best bits online. When was the last time anyone shared an interview from Jay Leno? Nope, not recently. But we’ve all seen Benedict Cumberbatch doing an Alan Rickman impersonation and got down with Boy Dance Party. Late night and variety shows like Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan, and Saturday Night Live have capitalized on the way viewers share and consume media. Though, this could be a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg type situation, still, the fact of the matter is, we no longer have to watch the whole thing to get key-points for what the Seinfeld-era of television referred to as “Watercooler” talking points. (Have I just dated myself? I have). Clips and content are wrapped up and ready with the crusts cut off the next morning with a little love note from mom and dad inside.

So, it appears as if JGL is cutting out the middle-man here and doing the inverse. Short curated content for a variety show that spans lots of interests and mediums... and is made into longer content. Okay Joe, you have our full attention.

And JGL goes viral himself