New 'Jonas' is in a class above most teen sitcoms

It's funny to say this about a group whose original guiding force is still only 16 years of age, but "Jonas," the Jonas Brothers sitcom that premieres Saturday, (7 p.m., Disney Channel) feels long in coming.

The way things usually work with Disney, the music career is erected on the back of the TV one, and the Jonases, already multiplatinum millionaire pop stars with a Rolling Stone cover in their pocket, would normally be in their third sitcom season by now.

As brought to term, "Jonas" is a classic high school comedy (with musical interludes), and, like fellow Disney teencoms "Hannah Montana" and "Sonny With a Chance" (featuring "Camp Rock" co-star Demi Lovato), it stars stars who play stars.

To ensure that no one mistakes this for a documentary, the Jonases have become the Lucases -- Jonas is now merely the name of their band. For balance, they've been given two comical female friends with whom there is no question of romance, one (Chelsea Staub as Stella) their teenage wardrobe mistress, and the other (Nicole Anderson as Macy) a full-time fan whose love for all Jonases/Lucases precludes her falling for any particular one.

There's nothing to complain about here, and much to like. Some may find the brothers' music a little too perfectly coiffed, a little too automatically urgent. But they are less manufactured than many young pop sensations and have absorbed the moves of generations of rock elders, which they recycle with enthusiasm.

The pop sounds notwithstanding, "Jonas" is less hysterical, in the behavioral sense, than most teen series, its tone whimsical and gently surreal. That the show -- whose various directors include Savage Steve Holland, of the great "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" and Roger S.H. Schulman, from "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" -- is shot single-camera gives it a little extra weight. And if, like the Jonases' music, it doesn't exactly break new ground, it covers the old ground with assurance.