The Naked Brothers Band (TV Series) - Development

Development

The series' title derived from an incident when the brothers were very young: they arose from the bathtub shouting, "We're 'the naked brothers band!" Although Nat revised the band's title to The Silver Boulders, Draper revived it as she felt it would be more suitable for the show.

Draper explains the events that preceded the show: "Nat kept putting signs on his door: I want to be a child actor! I said, 'No, it's too brutal.'" Early in 2007, Draper said, "Nat decided he wanted to film his own sitcom, so we did a film called Don’t Eat Off My Plate...I pretended to interview his friends and do a documentary." Nat recorded a compact disc single in the studio with Alex and their dad. Viewing the recording, Draper had the idea of making a mockumentary film about the band; she decided to introduce them as music icons like The Beatles. By 2007, Draper said, "What originally happened was that Nat and Alex had a band, and the idea involved based on that. Spinal Tap meets The Little Rascals was my concept...I wanted it to be very Beatle-ish, have that Help! or A Hard Day's Night kind of feeling." Filmed in mid-2004, The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie was originally independent.

In late 2005, Draper entered the film at the Hamptons International Film Festival, where it won the audience award for family feature film. Hecht was visible in the audience; he bought the film for the network. Nickelodeon urged the family to start a television series based on the film, and a reluctant Draper agreed. Tom Asheim, whose the executive vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon said, "At first, we were intrigued by the idea, but we weren't sure kids would get the vague tongue-and-cheek-of-it. Then a bunch of us took it home to our own children and they loved it." Draper recalled, "When Nickelodeon first asked us about doing a series, we said, 'How about a cartoon, so the kids could stay normal?' They said, 'No, we love your kids.'"

On July 31, 2006, when filming for the first season was about to begin, Marjorie Cohn, the executive vice president of development and original programming at Nickelodeon said, "Nickelodeon is incredibly excited to be working with Polly and her family on this uniquely different comedy series and are very proud to be able to showcase the talents and original music of the Wolff brothers. The Naked Brothers Band series is a show that will make you laugh, but is intimate and genuine in its approach to dealing with everyday kid issues through the larger-than-life story of kid rock stardom."