Pivot – Everything Old is New Again

After days of listening to drum-dominated music often played at skull-threatening levels as networks emphasized te action-packed portions of upcoming series, it was downright refreshing to a watch clip of Pivot’s upcoming “HitRecord on TV” (18 Jan premiere). An excerpt at TCA consisted of creator Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tony Danza doing a traditional song-and-dance number in front a packed audience at LA’s Orpheum theatre. A twist, though, was that the duo’s final chorus was augmented by about 100 audience members on stage, performing choreography they’d learned online, per a request from HitRecord.

Such open-source collaboration “is much more charming than if we’d hired professionals,” Gordon-Levitt said. Pivot is hoping such collaborations will be among the charms of the  series. Gordon-Levitt and his brother started HitRecord in ’05 as a way to post Joseph’s “little films” and stories on the Internet. The collaboration bent started 5 years later. “It was pie-in-the-sky to do a TV show,” he said. That pie already has been renewed for a second season. 

For those who have yet to watch the first ep online, what can we expect beyond song and dance? Diversity. “What I like about [FX’s] “Louie” is how different each episode [of that series] is,” Gordon-Levitt said, adding he hopes to emulate that. Will Pivot’s targeted millennial demo respond to the traditional variety show format and music? “I never spent any time thinking, ‘What will the kids like?’ I just want to do a show that I think is great,” Gordon-Levitt said. Charming.

A further fleshing out of fledgling Pivot’s lineup, chief Evan Shapiro announced Meghan McCain will be co-hosting its nightly live show “TakePartLive” and running series “Veronica Mars” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” French-made “Bref” will make its U.S. debut on Pivot, joining original “Terracyle” (about a startup that turns refuse into useable products), “Welcome to Fairfax” (a reality series about “the new Silicon Valley of cool,” Shapiro says) and “Freestyle Love Supreme,” an improvised show done live at Joe’s Pub in NYC.